Page 38 of Hidden Dane
Emily’s face heated as she slumped on the other side of the bed, her legs facing the porthole in case she needed to jump up for cell service. “Umm, yeah I met him there.”
“But?” Sophie gave a long snort. “Emily, I can tell something’s wrong.”
Caught. She closed her eyes and tried to stop the impulse to tell her sister everything, but then Sophie would worry when she couldn’t help. It was best to wait. “Everything’s just been intense.”
“Intense?” Sophie repeated like she was their mom. Then she asked with her more normal, sister tone, “As in, you are fine and this is relationship stuff?”
“Kind of.” Emily opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder at sleeping Dane.
He honestly was a prince amongst men. He was sexier, stronger, buffer, sweeter, made her body sing with happiness, but the memory of waking up and him telling her goodbye, that he had to go, floated in and wouldn’t leave.
Emily could imagine her sister with her eyebrows up, giving her the We wear pink on Wednesdaysstare—Sophie saw the world in her own way. Sophie asked, “What does that mean?”
“It means I like Dane,” Emily admitted to her wide-eyed, optimistic, should-have-been-a-fairy-tale-princess, older sister.
Sophie didn’t yell but laughed. “Yeah, I remember you making googly eyes at him.”
“Sophie, I don’t make googly eyes.” Emily shook her head as her mind searched for some witty comeback.
“At Dane, you did,” Sophie said like it was a guaranteed win on a lottery ticket. “Where is he? I know Michael said he was doing fine on his own, and wanted to respect the distance, but it always bothered him that Dane never came back.”
Right. His father. Emily’s brother-in-law. This should be all sorts of wrong, but she looked at Dane, resting soundly, and the bandage on his arm from being shot while trying to return stolen jewels. He was nothing like she’d thought. He matched her and in more than just a physical way. He’d even worn the suit she’d bought him without complaint to please her. “Dane’s a professor at Harvard now.”
“A professor? Dane always struck me as an intellectual underneath that pain of his.” Sophie’s voice flittered off. Emily imagined her sister was probably swept away by some romantic gesture like Michael had given her flowers while she was on the phone. Her sister was a sucker for roses that die in vases because they’d been cut. Sophie returned her attention to the phone and said, “Well that’s good to hear, but you’re in France?”
Okay. They’d talk when she got back. Dane said he’d come home with her to see his father. “We flew out to Paris.”
“For a romance?” Sophie asked.
Her sister was always the romantic one. Emily never really sought out men or attention. She never trusted anyone, though Dane had snuck inside her heart and she cared for him. She stood and glanced out the porthole as they chugged along the choppy waters. “I don’t know.”
Sophie quickly stated her opinion. “Why? What don’t you know? You either like him or you don’t.”
Emily turned around again. The room was tiny, but she pressed her hand against her bra and knew the necklace he’d given her years ago was still there. She’d kept it and wore it because it was the only way to really feel like she belonged to him.
And then he’d just appeared like a vision back in her life, saving her, like he’d never left.
But he had.
The hole in her heart was still there.
She shook her head and tried to ignore her feelings. “It’s probably fine, but you know going fast doesn’t work out.”
Sophie countered, like she’d read her mind, “Going slow doesn’t either, so what speed are we talking here?”
“I’m just scared, Sophie,” Emily admitted. Maybe her sisters might get it. None of their fathers had shown up to their mom’s funeral, or for them.
Sophie asked, “Of?”
Then again, Sophie was the bright-eyed optimist who only ever saw the good in everyone.
Maybe she didn’t understand. Emily’s stomach was full of butterflies as she held her waist. “What if he leaves again?”
“What if he doesn’t?” Sophie asked so fast the words felt like she’d just spit them out on auto reply.
Trust was a good thing. Sophie had landed a man seriously in love with her because she’d trusted. Maybe Emily could channel a little of her sister’s optimistic princess behavior where cute woodland animals did her bidding.
Actually no, Emily wasn’t that sweet. She laughed at the imagery. “So you’re saying everything might work out?”
