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They can’t be serious. Surely they don’t expect me to move in with Emmett. As if my life isn’t upside down enough right now, it somehow got worse.
Chapter Six
Emmett
I’m a gentleman. People don’t think I am, but I am. I was raised to be one. As much as I’m an asshole, I give a shit about people and their feelings.
Clearly, something is going on with Briar. She’s not giving me the attitude that she usually does. And I’m annoyed because I get off on her snarky comments.
Again, I love my family, but how can they seriously not have a clue why she doesn’t want to live with them? Why would she want to live with any couple who just got together?
So I don’t say a word about my dad’s decision. Because that’s what it is. He thinks his idea is brilliant—though when Gillian first announced that she’d sold the house, I thought about where Briar would go and how she could stay at my house. There are three empty bedrooms down the hall from mine. Not that I want her to live with me. Of course I don’t.
But now that my dad has decided it, it’s going to happen. We might all be fucking adults, but that doesn’t change the fact that when my dad wants something done, it’s easier to do it. Gillian must realize this too because she doesn’t fight him on his idea.
Briar goes to the bathroom after dinner, and I take the opportunity to go out on the porch with my dad. I need to figure out a way for him to think it’s his idea that Briar moving in with me won’t work.
“Dad,” I whisper. “I’m not sure Briar wants to live with me.”
“Why would that be?” He stares at the pond, watching the ducks flying low until they splash into the water.
“First off, she hates me. Like loathes me.” I really wish I knew why, but what do I care? It’s her problem.
“All the better then.”
I glance over my shoulder. Ben, Clayton, and Jude are doing the dishes while Gillian and Sadie gossip at the dining room table and set up the games. God help me. Briar must still be in the bathroom.
“Why would it be better that she hates me?” Sometimes I think my dad talks in code.
“She won’t be tempted to sleep with you.”
I scoff and draw back. “What?”
Dad looks at me. “You’re a younger version of me. Hard for women to resist. Plus, and don’t tell your brothers…” His eyes follow their laughter inside until he looks back at me. “You have my charm. But it seems like Briar needs her people right now. She needs family and to feel loved.”
“You should have your own show, Dr. Bruce.”
He shoots me a look that says cut the shit. “She’s back in Willowbrook because she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Why would you say that? Did she tell you that?”
Sometimes people do tell my dad a lot of shit they don’t tell others. Five years after Ben left, I woke up to find Gillian at our kitchen table in tears, talking to my dad. Sadie was just having coffee with him the other day, talking about becoming a new parent.
“I’ve seen a lot of people come back to town throughout my life. There are only a few reasons why they come back after leaving it in the first place. More often than not, they have nowhere else to go. It’s important we keep her on the ranch, make her feel like she’s a part of our family. She hasn’t had the easiest road.”
Neither have I, but I don’t say that. Sure, I lost my mom, but I had my dad and brothers, plus all my cousins, aunts, and uncles. From the little I know about Briar, which is practically nothing other than that she’s Gillian’s half sister, I don’t think she’s had much of a support system beyond her sister and brother.
“She might not last long. Doesn’t exactly seem to be comfortable here.” I stuff my hands in my pockets, watching Briar through the window. She sits down next to Gillian, who places her hand on Briar’s forearm.
Dad laughs. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Let’s go do game night.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” I ask before he can open the screen door.
He looks perplexed. “I’m sure the two of you can manage in that large house of yours without killing one another.”
“I’m not so sure,” I mumble.
He walks into the house, and I stare at the lake for a moment before joining them, which I regret immediately when I see the pair-ups.
