May the Best Man Win (27 page)

At that, Jase gave her hands a small squeeze and set them back in her lap.

“I told him to go talk to his wife.” Jase stood. “That if he kept listening to me, he'd end up alone and miserable with years of regret that he'd never be able to get back.”

Using the sleeve of her robe, Emily wiped at her last tear. Standing with Jase, she nodded. “Okay. You've got your chance.”

* * *

When Emily agreed, she didn't really know what a
chance
entailed. As it turned out, it started with Jase giving her a smile to melt her heart and a quick, firm kiss on the cheek, followed by the promise he'd be in touch.

The next afternoon, Emily was pushing through the revolving door to her office building after lunch with Lena, a hopeful flutter in her chest and belly.

“There's that smile we've been missing,” exclaimed Julia, the first-floor security guard.

Emily cocked her head and beamed. “And you're all smiles yourself.”

“Hard not to be with all the flowers coming through here this last hour. I've even got a vase for my desk.”

Emily's steps slowed as she caught sight of the bouquet of oriental lilies and spray roses prominently displayed on the front desk.

“Those are gorgeous,” she agreed, wistfully remembering the flowers Jase had brought her on their first date—the arrangement was almost identical.

Riding the elevator up to her floor, she heard a couple of girls from her office rattling on about the load after load of bouquets that had been delivered.

To her floor?

The elevator opened and she gaped. There were flowers
everywhere
. All the same arrangements.

Inside the glass doors, she stopped beside Avi, who could barely contain herself.

“They all came during lunch. Can you believe this? There are flowers for every woman in the office. I already put yours on your desk.”

Emily looked closer at the rolling cart still laden with vases. “They have cards?”

“Just with the names, but the message inside is all the same, ‘Have a beautiful day.'”

“Do you know who sent them?” Emily asked, already walking toward her office, Avi taking extra steps to keep up.

They couldn't be from Jase.

No way.

“Probably a client.” She held up a hand and whispered loudly, “But I'm guessing it isn't Basker Bourbon.”

No, probably not. Emily had barely been holding on to them after the Charlie Teller incident. She quickened her pace.

When she reached her office, she closed her door and turned to the bouquet positioned on top of her filing cabinet. It was exactly the same as all the others, except for the note.

Because I know the best way to get you to smile is to make sure all the people you care about have a reason to smile too.

Have a beautiful day.

~J

Emily's phone pinged with a text.
Jase?
she thought, fumbling for the phone in her bag.

No, Lena. Gushing about the flower delivery to her office.

Oh, he'd gotten her. Good.

Smiling like she hadn't in weeks, Emily checked her phone again. No message from Jase. And when she just happened to walk through the lobby again…no Jase there either.

She wasn't disappointed. Pulling out her phone, she thumbed a reply far too simple for the way she was feeling:
Thank you for the beautiful day.

What he'd done was perfect.

Almost as perfect as the surprise Emily got four days after that, when Charlie Teller's assistant phoned her office that he'd give her a meeting. The minute she hung up the phone, she texted Jase, asking if he knew anything about it.

The reply…

Because I know how much you love your job, and everyone just needs a chance sometimes. Good luck.

They talked that night, like they'd talked the two nights before. And it was so good, so easy, so right that a part of her just wanted to give in. To beg Jase to come over and hold her the way he used to. But deep down she knew she wasn't ready. She was still apprehensive about whether she was making another mistake.

To Jase's credit, he hadn't asked to see her.

For now, talking and texting were enough.

August

“So what's the deal with you and Jase?” Sally asked, bouncing gently from foot to foot while Gloria dozed against her shoulder.

Emily opened one cabinet and then another, finally hitting the jackpot on the third. “Pita chips!” she whispered triumphantly, holding up her bounty. She probably should have grabbed some breakfast, but when Sally had called inviting her to come over while Romeo hit the gym, she'd just pulled on a pair of leggings and a hoodie that had seen better days, whipped her hair into a ponytail, and headed over for some baby love.

Sally nodded from the living room. “Told you I had some. But back to Jase. So it's been three weeks now of taking it slow, huh?”

Three weeks. Of talking every night. Of Jase finding one way after another to show her that he knew her. That he cared about her priorities. And that he was willing to wait as long as it took for her to feel confident about where they were going.

Three weeks of being almost there.

Of feeling her toes wrapped around the edge of the diving board, but no matter how badly she wanted to swim, being too afraid to take that last step and
jump
.

“Yeah. But slow has been working for us. How about you guys?” Romeo had moved back in, and they'd started marriage counseling two weeks ago.

Sally's voice firmed. “Good. But about the slow thing. Aren't you starting to itch just a little to
speed things up
?”

Okay, so Sally wanted answers. Real ones.

No more dodging.

Emily folded herself into the wingback chair and looked up at her friend. “The slow thing is going good. Really good, I think. I mean, we still haven't
actually
seen each other since that night we agreed to give things another chance. But the talking… God, Sally, I missed talking to him.”

Her friend bit her lip, blinking fast. She got it.

How could she not after what had happened with the man she loved?

“It's like he knows me better than anyone. Like we could talk forever.”

And sometimes they almost did, not saying good-bye until late into the night or even early the next morning. It felt like he was her best friend.

“But…you still haven't seen each other.” Sally shifted Gloria to the other shoulder. “Why?”

The question Emily had been asking herself a hundred times a day…and answering the same each time.

“Because I'm afraid. What we're doing now? It's safe.” Like there was still a way out if she wanted it. “But if I see him…if I let him put his arms around me and hold me the way I've been aching for, I'm afraid there'll be no turning back. Sally, when I'm with him, I forget about protecting myself. I lose track of all the reasons to keep a few solid defenses in place.”

“You love him.”

Emily had been avoiding saying it, trying not to even think it. But just hearing the words was enough to make her heart thump in that slow, heavy, over-full way.

“I love him,” she answered helplessly.

Walking over to the counter where Gloria's little SnugRide was parked, Sally carefully tucked her in it. Glancing over her shoulder, she asked, “So Jase hasn't pushed at all to actually get together?”

“No. He said he would give me space, so he hasn't pushed at all.”

Tucking a blanket over Gloria, Sally said something in that quiet, singsong voice reserved for private conversations with her daughter. Only it sounded a lot like “Well, maybe someone should.”

The door buzzer sounded and Emily frowned. “Sally?”

Sally spun around, hands clutched under her chin, a half-guilty, half-delighted look on her face. “Romeo made me do it!”

Then dashing to the intercom she pressed the access button. “He just can't stand seeing Jase like this. The guy is lost without you.”

Emily was out of her chair in a blink, standing in the middle of Sally's living room, looking from the door to her friend and back again as panic spread through her like wildfire. “Wait, why do you have your jacket? You aren't
leaving
?”

Picking up the portable car carrier, Sally gave her the doe eyes Emily would never trust again. “Lena and I agreed it was probably best.”

“Sally!”

Sally turned back at the door and frowned a little. “You have some pita-chip crumbs down your hoodie. And”—she dabbed at her lips—“maybe add a little makeup or something?”

Emily's eyes bugged. “You didn't think to mention that before Jase was on his way up?”

“I didn't want to tip you off,” Sally said with an apologetic shrug. A knock sounded at the door, and she quickly shook her head. “Never mind. You look fine.”

Sally swung open the door and there he was. Jase, filling the frame with that big, strong body overriding the earth's gravitational force—because with that one glimpse, Emily already felt the pull.

“Hey there, big eyes,” he crooned, crouching in front of the carrier to stroke a knuckle over Gloria's plump little cheek. “Your favorite babysitter is here, princess. And I wore the T-shirt you like to hurk on.”

He hadn't seen Emily yet. Didn't know she was there.

Looking up at Sally, he grinned. “What's with the car seat? You girls just getting back?”

“So…it turns out,” Sally said meekly, “I don't need a babysitter this morning after all.”

And that's when it happened. He stood, a confused look on his face as his gaze shifted from Sally, tracking across the living room until—
bam!

Eye contact.

“Emily…” he started, but then whatever he'd thought to say was gone, and he just stared like he couldn't look away.

“You were supposed to babysit?” she asked, only half registering that Sally had just let herself out. Why did she suddenly feel so uncertain about what to say to the man she'd barely been able to force herself to hang up the phone with at three that morning?

“Romeo called an hour ago and asked if I was free.”

That made sense. “About when Sally was calling me to hang out.”

Maybe that onset of shyness was because the only words that seemed to come to mind were the ones she wasn't quite ready to voice. Words like “I miss you” and “I need you” and “God, I love you, but I'm terrified and all I want is for you to hold me and tell me this is going to be okay.”

His shoulders hunched forward as he shoved his hands deep into his jeans pockets, pushing them low on his hips. “So we've been set up. You mind?”

In those first seconds after Sally sprang it on her, she'd thought she did. But then she'd
seen
him, and just knowing he was that close… It was like all those little broken pieces inside her were falling back into place. Like this soul-deep bruise inside her was finally fading.

“I don't mind if you don't.”

“Me?” he asked, taking a step toward her, an incorrigible smile stretched across his face. “Hell, no. I've been going out of my mind not seeing you, but I was afraid if I did, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from doing something stupid like…” His eyes dipped to her mouth and lingered just long enough for her to almost be able to feel what he was thinking. “It doesn't matter. Check me out.” Pulling his hands from his pockets, he pantomimed ripping his T-shirt open, Superman-style. “Man of steely restraint, here.”

Yeah. She saw.

“Because you care more about me being sure than you do about getting my mouth under yours?” she asked, giving in to that pull she couldn't resist and taking the first step toward him.

Jase's smile retreated, his face turning serious as he watched her take another step. “I do.”

“Because you're willing to risk laying yourself bare, giving me everything you have”—another step and she was almost there—“on the chance we might work out?”

“For as long as it takes, Em. You're worth it, and, sweetheart,
I know
I can make you happy.”

And then she was finally in front of him, close enough that she had to tip her head back to see those storm-tossed blues staring back at her.

“You're worth the risk, Jase.” Pressing her hand over the center of his chest, she uncurled her toes from the diving board and
jumped
. “Because I love you too.”

One beat. Two beats. Three beats of his heart beneath her palm and then Jase's breath punched out on a curse as he reached for her, pulling her into that perfect fit, so good and right and strong it brought tears to her eyes. His arms were wrapped around her tight, his mouth next to her ear as he whispered her name again and again.

And then he was holding her face in his big hands, searching it like he couldn't believe she was real.

“Jesus, tell me you really want this, Em. That you're sure.”

“Kiss me, Jase. Please.”

A low growl rumbled from his chest, and his mouth met hers in a hard press that neither of them was in any hurry to relinquish.

Because it was right.

He kissed her again and again, each tasting like a promise or claim, until she couldn't tell where one ended and the next began. Until her hands were in his hair, her lips bruised as she pleaded for more. For him to hold her tighter, kiss her harder.

Until they were pulling at each other's clothes, and then swearing and laughing as they pulled them back on. Because they were still in Sally and Romeo's apartment. And friends didn't have hot, plaster-cracking, finding-their-forever sex at friends' apartments. It just wasn't cool.

But it didn't matter, because then they were on their way back to Jase's place.

He had one arm around her shoulder and was holding her hand while they walked and talked and laughed and stopped to kiss…and finally ran the last two blocks…

Because forever started now.