Page 31 of Beautiful Crazy

“Who’s in bed with Emmett?” Graham asks having just walked through the door. He walks over to his wife and kisses the top of her head. “Hey Em. Hey Had. Didn’t know you were here.”

“Yeah.” Hadley puts her hands on her hips. “Apparently Emily here slept with Emmett last night after he talked to her dad about porn.”

Graham rounds and smiles at me like a kid in a candy store. “You finally did it? Oh, my God, I bet Emmett is on cloud fuckin’ nine right now! I’ll have to call him later.”

What?

Oh, my God.

What?

“NO! You can’t…no. Don’t do that.” My cheeks heat under all this pressure and I feverishly shake my head. “You guys we didn’t…you know. We didn’t do anything. We just slept. The roads were too bad to drive home last night so we spent the night and shared the bed in my old bedroom. It’s not a big deal. We’ve done it loads of times.”

“You’ve slept together loads of times?” Graham’s brows are perched near the top of his forehead.

I roll my eyes. “Not like you think, but yes. Emmett lets me snuggle next to him anytime I have a bad day or when I come home from a bad date. Stuff like that. Usually, we just fall asleep watching television.”

“Uh huh,” Graham says, crossing his arms. “And how often does Emmett come home from a bad date?”

“He…” He doesn’t come home from bad dates. In fact, I can’t honestly remember the last date he’s been on. It’s certainly been a while.

“Not very often. If I’m being honest, it’s been a long time.”

Lacey smirks. “And why do you think that is, Em?”

“You guys, why are you making it seem like Emmett and I are something we’re not? I’m not right for him. I’m trying to tell you…”

Hadley puts her arm around me. “Emily, we know what you’re trying to tell us, but you’re also denying a little bit of the truth here. He loves you and you totally love him.”

“I…” I step away from Hadley, frowning in confusion at her assumption.

I don’t even know what to say. Do I love him? I mean, I love him because he’s my best friend, and yeah there have been moments where I think he’s wanted to kiss me, but I just took those as momentarily lapses in judgement. Or maybe he’s just lonely so he’s given me an extra passing glance because I have a vagina, but I think that’s—

“Emily?”

I snap out of my trance and look at Hadley and Lacey. “Yeah?”

“You know you were saying all those words out loud, right?”

“I was?”

“You were.”

“Shit.”

“Em,” Graham says, laying his hands on each of my shoulders. “Let me ask you something.”

“Okay.”

“Why do you think you’re not right for my brother?”

I swallow the lump in my throat as a few nervous tears breach the edge of my eyes. “Graham, I’m just me.” I gesture to my entire self. “Look at me…and Emmett, he’s…” I shake my head. “He’s in a whole other league.”

Graham chuckles and squeezes my shoulders. “I think you’re giving Emmett a little too much credit. You want to know what I see?”

“It’s nothing I probably haven’t heard before so take your best shot.”

Graham frowns for a second and then says, “I see a beautiful queen who needs a little help fixing her crown.”

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