Page 68 of Tender
Except…Miles had looked excited. He’d clearly tried to hold himself back, but Emmett knew how big this was for him. How long he’d waited for this. How desperately he’d needed this and what it must have cost him to agree to Cosimo’s offer.
He only wished he could speed up the process. Eight weeks was so fucking long, and no amount of money could bribe them into moving faster. He was tested, measured, fitted, and then given his pick-up date.
And that was that. It was oddly anticlimactic, and the only good part was that they’d been able to fix the shoddy wires in Miles’s current processor which meant it was no longer going in and out. He was walking with a little spring in his step, and Emmett swore he felt like he could float.
“Happy?” he asked as he took Miles’s hand in his.
The younger man spun and looked at him. “I don’t know how to thank you. Like…how can I ever repay you for this?”
“This was a gift. The only thing that matters is that you’re happy. I—” The rest of his words were cut off when his phone began to buzz. His heart sank down to his feet when he saw his daughter’s name on the screen.
The call went to voicemail, and a second later, it started ringing through again.
Miles frowned. “Do you need to get that?”
He knew he couldn’t ignore her forever. His gaze roamed a moment, then spotted a little Lebanese place on the corner he and Cosimo ordered from sometimes. “Do me a favor? Go over there,” he pointed to the green sign, “and grab us a table for lunch. I’ll be right there after I take this.”
Miles nodded and smiled, but just before he walked off, Emmett seized his wrist and tugged him in, giving him a thorough, slightly messy kiss. “Oh,” Miles said, blinking as he stepped back. “What was that for?”
“Because I—”Love you, he nearly said. The words tripped around the tip of his tongue, desperate to be spoken. But it was too soon. He still had no promises from Miles that this was going to last. “Because I wanted to, my sweet, perfect thing. Now go,” he said when his phone began to ring a third time. “I’ll be right there.”
He waited until Miles had crossed the street before he picked up the call. “We haven’t changed our minds about anything, so if you’re calling for that reason, you can forget it.” He knew that wasn’t the greeting she was expecting, but she didn’t care.
“He’s fucking living with you? What is wrong with you two?” Selene screeched. “You can’t just take him in. That’s so fucking weird. I mean, he doesn’t belong here. You know that, right? He’s a fucking poor orphan. Do you know how that makes you look? Do you know how that makesmelook?”
“The only person who looks bad is the one who abused him,” Emmett said.
Selene was quiet for a long, long moment. Then she burst into laughter. “Is that what he said?”
“That’s what we saw,” Emmett clarified.
She scoffed. “I never laid a hand on him.”
“You emotionally tormented him, made him feel worthless, made him feel like your personal servant…”
“Oh my god, don’t be so dramatic.”
“You cheated on him. Repeatedly. You wanted him around because you thought he was another one of those sycophants who do everything you say.”
“Hey, people like what they like,” she sneered.
Emmett pressed a hand to his forehead. “What do you want, Selene?”
“I want to know why you’re choosing some fucking nobody over your own daughter.”
“Because that nobody isn’t a monster. I don’t know where we went wrong—or if we went wrong at all—but your father and I are both done. If you can’t reflect for even a second on the way you’ve treated people, then there’s nothing more we can do for you.”
She was quiet a long, long moment. “You know he’d come back to me, right? If I showed up and gave him the apology he’s always been desperate for. He’d comerunning.”
Emmett sucked in a breath to tell her that Miles was stronger than that, but she ended the call. He stared down at the phone screen, fear threatening to burst to life in his chest.
He wouldn’t believe her. She was wrong. Miles knew his worth now. He knew he deserved so much more than she’d ever given him.
With a breath, he crossed the street and found Miles waiting for him at an outdoor table. The way Miles smiled settled something in his chest. He walked over and leaned down, kissing Miles as desperately as he had before he’d sent him away.
“Another one?” Miles asked.
Emmett shrugged and sat, keeping hold of his gaze. “Can’t help it. I want to kiss you every second I’m with you.”
