Best of Three (Counting on Love) (12 page)

“Please.” She said it quietly and let her sincerity seep into the words. Maybe he didn’t think she was serious. And she was. Oh, she was.

“No.” He cleared his throat. “Dammit, Emma.”

“We’re both grownups, we want each oth—”

“Stop it. I’m not doing this. And I’m certainly not doing it while my son is on the other side of the door, planning god-knows-what with his girlfriend tonight.”

How could she want to screw his brains out and strangle him to death at the same time? Emma huffed out a breath. “You’re killin’ me here.”

“I’ve got to think of Michael. As long as he’s here, I’m here—with my pants
on
.”

“Fine. But this conversation isn’t over.”

“Do conversations with you ever really end?” he asked, that soft amusement back in his voice.

“Not when I want something. You better remember that.”

But she realized that pushing him wasn’t going to work. Tempting him was kind of working, but Nate wasn’t falling in line like guys usually did—big shocker. She was going to have to give her strategy some more thought.

“Okay, get out of here,” she told him, a plan forming. “Go back to the truck. I’ll handle this.”

“How?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get them out of here.” She put her hand flat on his chest. “That’s what you want, right? That’s the objection to going at it like hot teenagers at a frat party—that your kid is outside?”

“Right.”

“Then I’ll get them out of here.”

“Fine.” He paused. “I’m still not taking you up against this door.”

He’d said it that way before. He hadn’t said,
I’m not doing you up against this door
or
I’m not going to fuck you up against this door
. It was
take you
. She wondered if the word choice meant anything. She also wondered why it made her panties so much wetter than the other ways of saying it.

“Fine. But there are a lot of doors in the world, Nate.”

He sighed. It was a familiar sound. “How about we get outside of this one? I think that would help a lot of things.”

Ha. He wasn’t immune. But she’d play this his way. For now.

Emma cracked the door and looked around, then stepped through, straightened her top and skirt and headed for the kitchen. She trusted that Nate would get out of the house without causing any trouble.

Stepping into the kitchen she worked on looking sick and put a hand over her stomach. “Hey, can you help me?” The guys standing beside the keg talking, turned. “I need to talk to Shannon. I don’t feel so good.”

One of the guys looked alarmed. “Girl, don’t you puke in here.” He steered her toward the sink.

“I need to talk to Shannon.”

The other guy in the kitchen yanked the back door open and yelled, “Shannon! Come here!”

“What do you want?” Emma heard Michael call back.

“She’s got a friend in here who’s about to hurl.”

There was a pause, then Shannon said, “I do?”

Emma almost grinned at that. Shannon was going to be shocked to see her.

“Come on!” the guy insisted. “Get her out of here. She’s had too much to drink or something.”

Emma groaned. “I think so too. I shouldn’t have done that last shot of tequila.”

The guy next to her handed her a glass of water. “You shouldn’t mix tequila and beer.”

Yep, that was a good life lesson right there. That she could have taught him five years ago.

Shannon came into the kitchen from the backyard. She stared at her mom’s best friend. “
Emma
?”

Emma gave her a barely-there shake of her head, then groaned again. “I don’t feel so good.”

Shannon was very bright and she and Emma were close. Shannon would trust her and play along without question. At least until she could get some answers about what was going on. “Yeah, you don’t look so good.”

Emma frowned at her when the guys weren’t looking. Shannon gave her a grin. Emma looked great and she knew it.

Shannon put an arm around Emma’s shoulders and steered her out of the kitchen. Michael had stepped into the house and of course, noticed Emma right away. But he didn’t say anything. Shannon gave him a wink and he shrugged and went for the fridge, pulling out a soda and leaning back against the counter, seemingly to make chit chat with the other guys in the room. Emma knew it was to keep an eye on Shannon and to see what was up.

Shannon led Emma through the hallway, past the closet where she and Nate had been minutes before and Emma’s whole body flushed just walking by the door. That guy had…something.

Something she wanted.

They finally stopped at a tiny bathroom and Shannon pushed her inside. “What are you doing here?” she asked as she shut the door.

Emma straightened from her my-stomach’s-killing-me position and looked in the mirror over the sink. She messed with her hair and noted that her lipstick was completely gone. It was on Nate, as a matter of fact. She blushed and turned away from the mirror, concentrating on Shannon. “Nate’s here and he’s pissed.”

“He’s
here
? What do you mean?”

“He’s outside.”

Shannon frowned. “He’s been calling all night.”

Emma nodded. “And if Michael had picked up, even once, his dad wouldn’t be outside casing the joint.”

Shannon crossed her arms. “That’s not normal, you know.”

Emma had to agree. And yet, she got where Nate was coming from. “Listen, he’s concerned and Michael’s not handling it well.”

“Isn’t it normal to want to go out with your girlfriend?”

“Of course. But the secrecy and avoiding the conversation isn’t helping Nate trust you guys.”

Shannon sighed. “I guess. It…hurts that he won’t give me a chance.”

Emma knew, deep down, that it wasn’t that Nate didn’t want to give Shannon a chance, but she wanted to slug Nate for making Shannon feel that way.

“Sneaking around and avoiding him isn’t going to do you any good.”

“But if we do things Nate’s way, I’ll never see Michael.”

Emma sighed. “We’ll work on it. We’ll figure something out. But you’ve had some fun tonight. Let’s go home.”

“You don’t understand.”

“What’s not to understand? You and Michael are in love and your whole world is all about that right now. Nate doesn’t want you to be in love because he wants Michael’s world to involve other things. It’s pretty easy to get, honey,” Emma said.

“I thought you’d be on my side.”

Emma frowned. “I always have your back. Why else do you think I would willingly spend the entire evening with a guy who makes me nuts?” Of course, now that she’d kissed him and made him laugh and seen the overreacting-protective-dad side of him, she wasn’t quite as opposed to spending time with him.

“You’ve been with him all evening?”

“Yes, trying to slow him down and distract him. We were at the Washburn.”

“Nate Sullivan went to the Washburn?” Shannon asked, clearly stunned.

“Yes. He wanted to know what Michael was sneaking around to do.”

“And you went with him?” Shannon asked.

Shannon and Dena had heard plenty of Emma’s complaining about Nate and the way he made sure to come to at least one of her rehab sessions a day and hassle her.

“I was making sure he didn’t do anything stupid,” Emma said. “Protecting
your
butt.”

“Then you brought him
here
.”

“I didn’t have a choice. But I can keep him from coming in here, if you cooperate. Have Michael take you home.”

“I haven’t given it to him yet,” Shannon said, her eyes filling instantly. “I haven’t had a chance. It’s almost like he’s avoiding being alone with me.”

She didn’t have time for teenage drama, Emma thought. Normally she thrived on drama but Nate Sullivan was right outside. He was more than enough for her to handle in one night.

Shannon had planned to give Michael a special leather bracelet she’d had made for him. She had a matching one. The word
Forever
was stamped on the outside of the bracelet and their names were carved into the inside surface.

Forever
seemed like a bold statement, but what did Emma know about it? She’d never wanted to give anyone anything that would mark them or demonstrate to the world that they were together. She didn’t know how it felt to want everyone to know someone belonged to her.

Her thoughts skittered to Nate.

And she quickly tried to turn them in another direction.

But it didn’t work.

Nate wasn’t the type of guy to belong
to
someone. He was very much his own man. She couldn’t imagine him tattooing a woman’s name on his body or even allowing a woman to tell another woman to back off. And even if he was the type to wear a wedding ring or something, he wasn’t about to wear
Emma’s
ring.

Strangely, Nate’s son was a romantic. He was a computer guru, but he also had an artistic side. He’d drawn things for Shannon that were amazing. He’d written her a poem. He’d written her love notes. Emma wouldn’t have put a proposal and elopement out of the question. Which scared the hell out of her.

She liked Michael. She wanted Shannon to be happy. But they were
eighteen
.

Dena, on the other hand, thought it was not only romantic to think of them running off together, but she would probably pay for the gaudy pink Vegas wedding chapel and the Elvis-impersonator minister.

Emma sighed. Sometimes it was like having two teenage girls who needed her guidance.

“Maybe you should do it another time—” Emma started to suggest.

“No. It has to be now. His dad is pushing him to make all these big decisions about his future and I want him to know that I want to be there, no matter what.”

Emma looked into those big brown eyes and caved. Shannon had gotten purple sparkly roller skates out of her at age six and had gotten her hair colored with pink streaks at age fourteen thanks to that same look in her eyes. “Fine. You guys get out of here. I’ll try to stall him so you have some time once you get home, but you better get it done. It’s almost pumpkin time, Cinderella.”

Shannon grabbed her into a hug. “Thank you, Em. We’ll leave right now.”

Emma went with Shannon to retrieve Michael and explain that they needed to head home. He started to get belligerent, but Shannon whispered something in his ear and he calmed down.

Emma did
not
need to know what Shannon had said.

They decided to go out back again and then slip around the side of the house and get into the car. Emma was fairly certain Nate had gone back to the truck, but she couldn’t guarantee it and Michael didn’t want to run into Nate on the front steps or sidewalk.

When they were out the door, Emma made her way to the truck. She took her time, mostly sure that Nate wouldn’t drive off and leave her here. She could buy the kids a few minutes that way. But she needed a bigger diversion for Nate.

The perfect idea came to her right away.

She almost rubbed her hands together. She knew exactly what she wanted to do.

And now she had the perfect excuse.

She stopped on the sidewalk beside the truck.

She rolled her head and shoulders, trying to loosen up. She needed to keep him busy, distracted, and from going after Michael and Shannon. She
should
be able to distract Nate. Dammit. That was what had always bugged her. She wasn’t
sure
she could
distract Nate.

But she’d never given it her all.

She started to reach for the truck door, but it swung open before she touched it.

“Get in here.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Such a gentleman.” She slid into the front seat next to him.

“They’re on their way home?” he asked, putting the truck into drive.

He pulled away from the curb and Emma realized she was going to have to work fast. She wanted Nate to take the long way home. She wanted Nate to
want
to take the long way home.

“There is definitely some major sexual tension between us,” she said, pivoting on the seat to face him.

He didn’t look surprised at her words. He looked tired.

Awesome. That was a great reaction.

“Yes, there is.”

“I think we should do something about it. Get it out of our systems. Because, frankly, it’s a pain in the ass and annoying.” Sleeping restlessly because of dirty dreams about Nate was definitely annoying.

“You don’t have to act on every urge, Emma. Just because something would feel good doesn’t make it a good idea.”

“Why does it have to be a good or a bad idea? Why can’t it be neutral? Why does it need that much thought?” she asked, crossing one leg over the other and letting her skirt pull higher on her thighs. “We do it, then it’s over. It doesn’t need analyzing, does it?”

He glanced over and frowned. “Stop it.”

She couldn’t help smiling. That was his you’re-getting-to-me voice. At least in her mind that’s what it was. “I love that voice.”