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Oh, fucking hell. I hate that pitying look.
“Shit.” Emmett rushes toward me in the kitchen. There’s fear in his eyes. His hand lands on my hip, and he shoves me aside.
I stumble, almost falling to the floor, but I catch myself on the edge of the counter. “Excuse me is a word.”
“Two actually,” he says, snatching the oven mitt off the counter and opening the oven.
A billow of smoke flows from the oven, and my mouth hangs open, watching Emmett take out a tray of burned garlic bread. He sets it next to the lasagna. The bread is black. Great, my first meal after my return, and I ruin the part of dinner I was in charge of.
“Oh no,” Gillian says.
A moment later, the smoke alarm rings and everyone scrambles into action. Emmett shuts the oven door, turning off the oven while Ben reaches up to press the button to get the alarm to stop. Gillian grabs a dishcloth and waves the smoke out the screen door while Bruce and Jude open every window that isn’t already open.
Sadie is reaching up to turn on the fan when Jude grabs her hips and pulls her away.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“The baby,” he says, turning the fan on himself. “Emmett should’ve done it.”
Emmett scoffs and shakes his head but says nothing.
Ben gets the smoke alarm to stop shrieking, and everyone calms down, but their brand-new house still has a haze of smoke through it.
“I’m so sorry,” I say past the lump in my throat.
“It’s fine. The excitement.” Gillian puts her arm around my shoulders.
“Yeah, ask Emmett about the time he almost burned down our entire house,” Jude says.
“I still remember Dad running down in his underwear, swearing and yelling. He picked up Emmett and threw him out of the house.” Ben laughs.
“I didn’t want him to catch on fire.” Bruce shakes his head.
“Sure. That’s the reason.” Jude and Ben laugh some more.
My gaze goes to Emmett, who isn’t laughing. His hands are shoved into his pockets, and he’s looking at the floor. The pit in my stomach grows uncomfortably bigger, and I hate that I feel sorry for him.
“You guys were the older brothers. He shouldn’t have been cooking anyway,” Sadie says.
The three of them banter, but Emmett says nothing.
“The poor guy was just trying to get some attention.” Jude swings his arm around Emmett’s neck and his knuckles go to his hair.
Emmett squirms out of his hold and pushes Jude away. “Fuck off.”
“Want me to go out and get some bread?” I ask, looking for any reason to get out of this uncomfortable situation.
“No, no. We don’t need the bread. Come on, guys. Let’s eat.” Gillian takes the plates over to their giant dining room table and sets them out.
Sadie follows her with the forks and knives.
“I was looking forward to this famous garlic bread.” Emmett eyes me, obviously recovered from his brothers’ razzing. “All the butter melting down my fingers, me licking it off.”
He runs his fingers over his bottom lip, and he gets to me because my mind is now on his fingers. His hands are so big compared to mine, and his fingers are long and thick, and damn it, I wonder what they’d feel like inside me before he licked my juices off them.
“Is everything related to sex for you?” I grab the salad bowl and slide past him.
“I’m not the one who keeps bringing up sex. That’s on you.” He taps my nose with his finger, then winks again.
