AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“If she gets out of my hands?” I laugh. She doesn’t. “No one gets my humor anymore.”
“Gill, I gotta go,” Ben calls from downstairs. “Emmett, come get the box. She’s acting like an armored truck driver protecting a million dollars.”
We walk down the stairs, and I head outside.
“I can stay and unpack,” Gillian says to Briar.
“I’ve got it. I’m going to unpack and probably go grocery shopping.”
“I can go with,” Gillian says.
Briar blows out a breath but smiles. “I’m a big girl.” She hugs her sister.
“Not a good look when the coach is late,” Ben says.
Gillian stands there, staring at both of us. I wink to tell her I have it handled, but she still looks like a creepy stalker.
“Go, Gill. I’ll call you.” Briar waves.
“Okay, yeah.” Gillian walks backward toward Ben’s truck.
“She’ll be about one hundred footsteps away.” I’m trying to give Gillian peace of mind, but she nibbles her bottom lip.
Ben gets out of the truck, picks Gillian up from behind, and takes her to the truck. Briar and I laugh.
“What are you doing?” Gillian says.
“Practicing for when we drop Clayton off at college,” Ben says, putting her in the passenger seat of the truck. “See you, guys.” He waves.
We watch him pull away, Gillian acting as if she just left her sister in Antarctica, waving with a terrified expression.
“Just you and me,” I say.
Briar reaches into the back seat of her car, but I place my hands on her hips to slide her over. Jesus, it’s as though her hips were made for my hands. I quickly remove my hands, shaking them out at my sides. Grabbing the box, I haul my ass to the house to get myself under control. It’s just lust, and I’m an adult and can control myself.
“Aunt Briar!” Clayton walks through the row of trees that separates my house from Ben’s.
I stop for a second to see her walk toward him before I go into the house and up to her bedroom. I’m about to drop the box on the floor when the bottom falls out of it. Spiral notebooks, yearbooks, and I think keepsakes tumble to the floor.
I squat down and fix the bottom of the box, then pile everything back in the box. Then I see scribbling in girl’s handwriting that says, Mrs. Emmett Noughton.
What the fuck?
I thumb through the notebook, and there’s so much more. I love Emmett. Briar and Emmett 4 ever. The doodles and scribbles are all over the notebooks, with hearts around my name.
Briar Adams had a crush on me in high school. Which makes me wonder—how did she go from liking me to hating me?
Chapter Twelve
Briar
Clayton walks over, his phone in his hands. “Mom said you might need some help.”
I shake my head. Does Gillian realize that at some point, I will be left alone with Emmett?
“No, I don’t. Emmett just took up the last box.” A box that holds all my high school keepsakes. A box I really would’ve preferred to carry myself. The thought of Emmett seeing all the notebooks and yearbooks with hearts over his picture… I’d rather die. “You can go home and do whatever you were doing.”
“Thanks. My girlfriend…”
