Page 56 of One Night Only
“What’s up?”
He smirks, quirking a brow. “HastheDallas Shaw finally decided to settle down?”
Shit. Pushing my hair back from my forehead, I decide toplay it off with a casual shrug and a laugh. “Sometimes you just gotta tell your momma what she wants to hear…”
Jace narrows one eye, and I’m not sure if he believes me, but before he can grill me anymore, I turn and hurry out of the therapy room. Endless squats and lateral lunges with a bad groin will be much less excruciating than actually having to explain myself.
CHAPTER 23
EMILY
Iturn, getting a good look at myself in the full-length mirror in the corner of my bedroom. I hate my outfit. I’ve always been ajeans and a nice topkind of millennial, but as I look at myself, I can’t help but feel like I should be in line at some school drop-off somewhere. With a huff, I tug the black off-the-shoulder top over my head and toss it into the corner with the pile of clothes I’ve already rejected.
My bedroom door opens, and I scream because I’m home alone. Clutching my hands to my chest, I spin around to see Tess standing in the doorway, and my shoulders sag on a relieved sigh.
“Jesus Christ, I thought you were an intruder!” I place a hand over my heaving chest.
A know-it-all smile lights up my sister’s face as she looks me up and down. “And where do you think you’re going?”
I roll my eyes, moving back to search the remains of my closet. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m going out.”
“Adate?” Tess gasps, inviting herself in and flopping down on the bed.
I turn, clamping my bottom lip between my teeth, nodding.
She squeals, falling backwards and kicking her feet in the air.
Again, I roll my eyes, turning back to the closet.
“You can’t wear jeans on a date.”
“Why not?” I scoff.
“Because… it’s adate,” she says as if that’s that. “You need to look sexy!”
I stare at myself in the mirror wearing jeans and a bra, and suddenly I’m hit with the kind of overwhelming anxiety I certainly wasn’t prepared for. Tess is right. Burying my face in my hands, I groan. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Tess is suddenly behind me, her hands resting on my shoulders, face right there as our eyes meet in the mirror. “It’s a date, Em… hardly rocket science.”
I heave another sigh, tentatively meeting her eyes as I confess with a whisper, “I really like him.”
Tess’s face lights up. I swear, you’d think I just told her I was marrying the guy. She squeals again, wrapping her arms around me from behind, squeezing me so tight I can barely breathe.
“Bronny!” Tess shouts.
Bron suddenly appears, her head poking tentatively through the doorway. “What’s up?”
“Crack open a bottle of Veuve,” Tess says with a beaming smile, chest shimmying. “Our Emmy’s caught the feels!”
I roll my eyes yet again, but I can’t stop my smile because Tess’s excitement is infectious. And she’s right. I have caught the feels. I just don’t know what to do with the feels because the feels are foreign to me. I’ve never felt these feels before. Not even with Luke. And I was going to marry him.
“Tell me everything!” Tess pulls me to sit on the bed with her.
“I don’t know where to start.” I shrug.
“What happened last night?” she presses, bouncing up and down excitedly.
Reluctantly, I tell Tess what happened at the event, and how I felt jealous so I left, and how Dallas came running after me. She swoons, of course.
