Her Way (8 page)

“Hey, Em, what’s up?”

“Returning this.” She held the purse up. “Jeannette left it at my place yesterday when she picked the girls up. And apparently she or Mark couldn’t be bothered to come get it themselves.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So you ran it on over.”

“Obviously. Why are you here?”

“Just going over some things with Mark for work.” He studied her for a moment. “Em, there’s nothing wrong with telling them no.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you start on me, too. I get enough of that from my friends. I know I can tell them no, but then they keep pushing. It’s just easier… Hell, I don’t know. I’m a wimp.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Saying no gets easier with practice.” He glanced at his watch. “I should get going. I’ll see you on Friday?”

She smiled. “Yeah.”

He gave her a quick hug and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Night, Em.”

She watched him leave, took a deep breath, and turned to head up the stairs. She took a right and went down the hall to the wing Mark and his family occupied, following the sound of her older brother’s voice to the open sitting area.

“Finally.” Her sister-in-law jumped up and took the purse. “Oh thanks, Emma,” she added like an afterthought

“Next time, don’t expect me to just drop everything and run over.” She stared at Mark.

“It was important,” Mark insisted.

“Maybe
I
was doing something important.”

“Playing house with your boyfriend?” Jeannette teased with a smirk. “Mark told me about him.”

“It’s not any of your business, either of you,” Emma ground out between clenched teeth.

“We haven’t heard anything about you dating and find a guy at your house—after obviously spending the night. I don’t like it and I don’t think Dad would like it either.” Mark crossed his arms across his chest.

“You mean you haven’t run and tattled on me yet?” She glared at him. “You don’t have to like it. I’m an adult, and who I see or have over at my house is
my
business. Mine and mine alone.”

“How long have you been seeing him?” he questioned.

“Again, none of your business.”

“We’re just worried about you, Emma. You don’t understand how some men are,” Jeannette interjected.

You condescending bitch.
“Enough!” Emma snapped.

“No, I don’t think it is. Do you know anything about this guy? About his family? Is he aware how much money you have?”

“So that’s it. A man cannot be interested in just me. That would be madness, right?” She shook her head. “Whatever. I’m going home now. I suppose I’ll see you on Friday. That is if you can stand being in the same house as the gold-digger I’m seeing.”

“Of course we’ll be there,” Jeannette rushed to say. “I’m assuming the kids are welcome?”

“Yeah,” Emma suddenly felt very tired. “Goodbye.”

She turned and left. At the bottom of the stairs, instead of walking out the door, she detoured toward her father’s ground floor suite. Knowing her father, she went straight for his den and knocked on the closed door.

“Come in,”

Emma pushed the door open wide. “Hi, Dad.”

“Emma, honey! Is something wrong?” Henry Lawrence stood quickly.

“Nope. Just ran something over for Jeannette.” She walked across the room to him and kissed his cheek. “I wanted to say hi before heading home.”

“Come, sit down.” He gestured to the matching chair opposite of the one he’d been sitting in. “How’s the new house?”

“Great.” She sank into the cushion with a sigh. “I bought my furniture today. It’ll be delivered tomorrow.”

“Good, good. Anything new happening with you? Are you seeing anyone?”

Emma narrowed her eyes at the pointed question. He knew. Damn Mark. “I see big brother did come home right away and snitch. Will is a nice guy, Dad, and I really, really like him.”

“Have you known him long?”

“No. I met him a few days ago, but he went to school with Lynn and Hannah. Please don’t worry about me. We’re taking things slow, getting to know each other.” She wasn’t sure if it was the truth or not, considering what happened in her driveway and her foyer. But her dad could do without that information.

“It’s my job to worry about you. Doesn’t matter how old you are.”

His words and smile pushed away some of the annoyance she’d felt since coming to the house. Deep down, she did realize her family cared about her, even if they did take it a bit too seriously sometimes.

“I suppose I should head home.”

They both stood and her father wrapped his arms around her.

“Call this week, and we’ll do lunch or supper,” he said with a quick squeeze.

“I will.” She bussed his cheek and headed to the door. “Night, Dad.”

“Night, honey. Drive carefully.”

* * * *

Emma dropped her keys on the bedside table and flopped on the bed. She reached for the phone and dialed. Listening to the ringing, she closed her eyes.

“Hello?”

“Hey. It’s me.”

“Hey, girl. So how was the date?” Lynn didn’t waste any time.

“Does furniture shopping and dinner count as a date?” She laughed. “It went fine.”

“Yes, it does. And it was just
fine
? That’s it? My opinion of Will Calonen has greatly diminished.”

Emma laughed. While close to her friend, she hesitated telling everything. She just wanted to savor the time she had with Will—keep it to herself for the time being.

“We bought furniture, had a fantastic supper and then went to buy some smaller things like a stereo, a TV for the living room, stuff like that. We came here but didn’t have a chance to talk or do much ‘cause I had to run something over to Mark and Jeannette.”

Lynn groaned. “You let them butt into your time with Will? Damn it, Em.”

“Don’t start. I really don’t need to get bitched out tonight, all right. And I suppose it was for the best. I want to take this slow—do it right. I really like him and don’t want to mess things up.”

“You won’t mess anything up,” Lynn protested. “Is he coming Friday to the party? Do you have any other plans this week?”

“Yeah, he said he’d come. He has to work most of the week so I probably won’t see him until then.”

“Bummer.”

“Yeah.” She yawned. “Hey I’m going to go to bed. I’ll call ya tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. Take it easy.”

“You too. Night, Lynn.”

She set the phone next to her on the bed. Closing her eyes, she thought of Will. What she’d said to Lynn was true—she didn’t want to mess this up. But everything in her protested taking things slow. She knew if Mark hadn’t called, she and Will would have had sex. Damn her brother for that. Was it for the best? Maybe. Was it what she wanted? Nope. She’d much prefer to be basking in post-coital bliss right about now.

The phone rang and startled her. She chuckled. Lynn probably forgot to tell her something.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Emma.”

Twitch, twitch.
Oh, well, it certainly didn’t take much to start her system humming again when it came to Will Calonen.

“Hi.”

“Did I wake you again?” Amusement colored Will’s voice.

“Nope. I just got home. Speaking of, I’m really sorry my brother interrupted…you know.” Her cheeks heated and she rolled her eyes at her stammering.

“I told you before not to worry. I meant it. There’ll be more time for that,” he murmured. “Plenty of time to shut the world out and just enjoy each other.”

Emma’s eyes slid shut as her stomach did a little flip.
You’d think after the rip roaring orgasm he treated you to, you could stop,
she scolded her body.

“I’m glad you called. I was just thinking of you,” she said in a rush.

“Hmmmm, I’ve been thinking of you too. I wish I could take some time off before Friday, but there’s just no way.”

She smiled at his apologetic tone. “I understand. You can call me at night when you get off work…if you want to, that is.”

He chuckled. “Sounds like a plan. You sound tired, go get some sleep.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Night, Will.”

“Night. Sleep well, sweetheart.”

She hung up the phone and stared at the ceiling. Sleep well? Unlikely with him on her mind.

Chapter Five

“Quit messing with that and go see your guests. I’ve got it.”

Emma made a face at Ana. “I don’t know why you guys felt the need to invite all these people. A small get together would have been just fine. This big thing is just too much. And,” she smoothed the front of her blouse down, “I hate making small talk, you know that.”

Her friend smiled as she arranged
hors d’oeuvres
on a platter. “He’ll be here, Emma. He said he would be, so he will.”

Leave it to Ana to know exactly what she was fretting about. “I wasn’t even thinking about Will,” she lied. “Though he’s an hour late and hasn’t called. Maybe he changed his mind. Maybe this is his way of telling me he doesn’t want to see me again, ya know? Letting me down easy?”

Ana turned away from the food and grabbed both Emma’s hands. “Calm down. He could have had something come up at work or with family. From what you’ve told me and the information I’ve gotten from Hannah and Lynn, he wouldn’t just stand you up and never call again. Now…stop obsessing and go mingle. It’ll take your mind off Mr. Tall Dark and Hung.” She winked.

Emma snorted, grabbed her glass of wine and walked to the door. “I never said that.”

“No, but the blush on your face tells me aaaaaaall I need to know.”

She laughed and made her way into the living room, where most of the guests were congregated. Her friends had invited her family, more friends, even her neighbors. It was nice and she’d probably enjoy visiting and getting to know those in her neighborhood, if she wasn’t obsessing. She really had to stop doing that.

“Em.” Hannah approached with a petite, blonde woman. “This is Sally Wethman. She lives a few houses down. You know the big, blue house on the corner?”

Emma held her hand out. “Nice to meet you, Sally. I love your yard. It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you. I enjoyed doing it.”

“Sally and her brother own a landscaping company. She has some ideas for your yard.”

The woman blushed. “I don’t want to be pushy. Hannah and I just got to talking about some things…”

“I’d love to hear about them. I’ve been at a loss of what to do with this huge yard. I know nothing about plants or anything. Why don’t we go outside? It’ll be quieter and we can talk?”

The two walked outside and sat on the porch swing. After a few awkward moments, Sally began talking enthusiastically about what she’d do with the space surrounding Emma’s house.

“Honestly that sounds great, but I would have no clue where to start with that. Maybe you could draw something up and get me an estimate?”

“Oh, I didn’t come here to solicit!” Sally’s cheeks flamed red.

Emma laughed. “I know, but you obviously know what you’re doing. I’d really appreciate if you’d do it—if you have the time.”

“Of course I will if you want. I’ll get it to you by the end of the week. I’ll come in a day or two to take some measurements and look around?”

“Sounds great. I look forward to…” She trailed off as she watched a dark truck pull up in front of the house. Will got out and started up the stone path.

Sally followed her gaze. “Well, that’s a fine-looking man. He seems to have eyes just for you,” she glanced at Emma, “and vice versa, I see. I’ll just head in now.”

Emma was jerked from her ogling when the woman walked in front of her to go to the door. “Oh Sally, um, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Yup. Later.”

Her gaze was drawn back to Will as he came up the steps and crossed to her.

“Hello, Miss Emma.”

“Hi.” She set her wine glass down next to the swing and stood.

He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. “Sorry I’m late.” With that, his mouth was on hers.

Oh. My. God
. Not a simple close-mouthed kiss this night. No, it was a plundering. Aggressive and demanding. And Emma simply opened herself to it. God, he tasted so damned good. So right. Heat swept through her and the
twitch, twitch
started. Oh who was she fooling? The twitching had begun the second she’d seen the truck pull up.

With a sigh, he pulled away, swept a hand down her hair. “I missed you, sweetheart. It’s been a helluva long week.”

“I’m glad you’re here. Do you want to sit out here or should we go in?”

“Well, it’s your party. I shouldn’t monopolize your time. But promise me some swing time afterwards.” His mouth widened into a grin.