Page 42 of Marry Me…Maybe?
Her phone chose that moment to beep loudly and announce the arrival of a text message.
‘You’d better check that in case it’s someone congratulating you on hooking an earl for a husband,’ he said coldly, taking a step away from her and leaning against the wall behind them, his arms crossed defensively in front of him.
‘Funny,’ she muttered, fumbling in her bag to find her phone.
It was a relief to be given an excuse to look away from Theo’sangry gaze, and hopefully the distraction would give her a precious few seconds to figure out how to deal with this new, disastrous situation.
Flicking on the screen, she opened up the text.
It was from her brother.
She’d been ducking his calls and deleting his messages without listening to them for the last couple of days, assuming he was going through the motions of his yearly attempt to reconnect with her even though she’d made it perfectly clear she didn’t want to have anything to do with him any more.
They’d never got on as children. He was their father’s golden child and he’d never let her forget it.
‘This really isn’t a good time for a family reunion, Jake,’ she muttered under her breath, flicking her gaze down the text.
It wasn’t a request for a reunion.
Blood pounded through her head as she re-read the words on the screen, thinking she must have misinterpreted them.
After her third time of reading it, the message finally sank in, and she let out a long, shaky breath, all the air rushing painfully out of her lungs.
‘Emily? What’s wrong?’ Theo asked, his voice sounding muffled through the fog of her confusion.
‘It’s my mother,’ she whispered, barely able to get the words past her lips. ‘She’s dead.’
8
Theo stared at Emily in shock as she took a couple of shaky steps backwards, finding the wall with her hands so she could lean on it, the phone slipping through her trembling fingers and bouncing onto the carpet beside her. All the blood seemed to have drained from her face and her eyes looked glassy under the muted light in the cinema corridor.
‘Emily?’ He made a move towards her, but pulled himself back from touching her at the last second.
He didn’t know what to do. He felt he should attempt to comfort her somehow, but he had no idea how to go about it. Dealing with this kind of emotion really wasn’t his thing.
‘How?’ he asked instead, mentally kicking himself at how flippant the question sounded.
Emily didn’t seem to notice or care though, judging by the blank look on her face. ‘A massive heart attack and a bleed on the brain,’ she replied, her tone emotionless and flat.
She bent down and scooped her phone up off the floor, her grip so strong it turned her knuckles white. ‘The funeral’stomorrow in Guildford,’ she whispered, her voice catching on the last word.
Theo’s heart went out to her. She suddenly looked so vulnerable and lost – certainly nothing like the peacock-proud Emily he’d known for the last few weeks. He felt an overwhelming urge to draw her into a tight hug against his body, to soothe her, but he knew that would be a mistake. He couldn’t possibly give her what she needed.
‘Are you going to go?’ he asked quietly.
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘You should,’ he said, before he could stop himself.
It really wasn’t his business, but he had experience with funerals and grief, and if he could offer any advice, it would be to go through it now so she could put her mother to rest in her mind and not let it ruin her life later, in a slower, more painful way.
‘It could help, Emily – to get you some sort of closure.’
She stared at the floor for one long minute before nodding. ‘I guess I should say goodbye… even though she never extended the same courtesy to me.’ She drew in a sharp breath, almost like a hiccough of grief.
‘Are you okay?’ Theo asked, reflexively putting his hand on her arm and feeling her tremble under his touch.
She nodded, then shook her head, clearly unable to speak.
