Page 15 of Falling For My Best Friend's Brother

You know I never liked Emma, I kept replaying the words over and over in my head. That couldn’t have possibly been true.Right?

Chapter 7

Kyle

Twoweeks.

I hadn’t seen or heard from Emma in two weeks.

I wasn’t sure why I thought I would. My number was the same one I had from college, but she hadn’t called it in the last seven years, and with the way we left things, I didn’t think she was going to start now.

I sat at my desk in my office, looking out the wall of windows behind my desk. I was at the top floor, the corner office, in this building full of important people. The building was newer, I’d been working out of New York previously, but I spent some time in the Cali office over the last couple of years.

But now, I wanted to be closer to my parents now that I’d adopted a slower pace of life since my last deal. So, I started staying in California more. I wasn’t slowing down too much, I couldn’t turn off the business side of my brain, but I didn’t feel like I had to prove myself anymore.

My family still lived in Red River and my office was only a half hour away in the bigger city of Stanley. I thought often about how close I was to Emma. I wondered if I’d run into her anywhere. I also tried to convince myself I hadn’t been sticking around for Emma.

The morning after Emma and I had slept together, she came downstairs from her room and told Krista she was missing Lily too much and wanted to go home. That was believable enough. Krista said she’d never spent the night away from her daughter before, but I knew better.

She wanted away from me.

It was clear from the way she looked at me, or didn’t look at me, as she apologized to Krista and told her she should stay. She was ending the trip two whole nights early, after all. But of course, Krista drove home with her. I offered my plane was told no by both of them. I couldn’t fathom the reasons either of them had for not letting me take care of them, what was the point of money if I couldn’t use it to help people, but they said the car service was enough help.

I knew I fucked up. I saw the look on Emma’s face the morning after when I basically kicked her out of my room to avoid Krista finding us. Emma didn’t know that I’d promised Krista I would leave her alone. She didn’t know that my feelings for her were overwhelming and that as much as I liked to act like I never was, I was scared.

It took me a long time to admit that to myself. Emma scared me. We weren’t casual. We never would be. And that was a hard pill to swallow.

So instead, we didn’t even speak.

But I knew she was thinking of me too.

I swiveled around in my chair to face my desk. My office was still barren— a desk, a couple of chairs, a mostly empty bookshelf, and a fully stocked bar cart. I didn’t even know what else I’d put in it anyway.

There were thirty seven unread emails in my inbox, even though I’d gone through all my messages when I came in that morning, and by the time I’d read and responded to four of them, I got twelve more. Just like I had been for the last two weeks when I was trying to work, my mind wandered to Emma.

What was she doing that very moment? Did she think of me when she touched herself like I thought of her when I did?

I’d been getting very familiar with my hand over the last two weeks and because Emma and I fucked like sex-crazed teens that night, she gave me plenty of material to get me off.

Focus, I told myself.Just answer some emails and do your job.

“Kyle?” Krista said, poking her head in my office. “Oh, thank goodness. I just interrupted, like, six other people in their offices looking for you.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “There is a directory hanging on the wall right outside the elevator. Plus, you could’ve called me.”

“Yeah, I could have, but this was more fun. I even made a friend. The woman at the opposite end of the hall has a kid at my school.”

I checked the clock. Krista must’ve come right from work. She was wearing her standard teacher uniform, a loose white blouse under a beige cardigan, a coral skirt that came to her ankles, and sensible shoes. She hardly looked like herself when she was at school, I teased her endlessly about this but, Krista being Krista, she gave it right back to me.

“How nice for you,” I told her. “So—” I closed my laptop, I wasn’t getting anything done anyway— “what brings you by today, darling sister?”

Krista plopped down in the black leather chair across from my desk. “I’m so glad you asked. I need a favor, but it will actually be a favor for you.”

“You can have a million dollars,” I told her, my tone dry.

Krista smirked. “No. That’s not it. I want—”

“Fine. You can have ten million. Twist my arm.” I raised my hands in mock surrender.

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