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“Emmett,” she says softly, leaning her head on my shoulder.
“I’m serious, Briar. Nightly feedings? Sign me up. Putting a crib together? I’m your guy. Diaper explosions? Well… you might have to take those.” She laughs, and I squeeze her tighter against me. “I love you and the baby. It’s scary that things are moving fast, I know, but I don’t think you can deny that what we have is different than anything we’ve ever had with anyone else.”
“I know,” she whispers.
I run my nose up and down her neck. “Repeat after me.”
“Emmett…”
“Emmett loves Briar.”
She shakes her head.
“Say it,” I urge her.
She swivels in my arms, bringing her hands up and around my neck. She stares into my eyes. “Briar loves Emmett.”
All the air in my lungs rushes out.
She giggles. “I love making you speechless.”
“Is that the truth?” I hold my breath, waiting for her answer.
She nods. “I love you, Emmett. As much as that scares me, along with all the unknowns in front of us, I love you, and you’re the man I want to share all of this with.”
“What’s around here?” a woman says.
Briar turns away from me, glancing over her shoulder.
“Hey, you two! Fancy meeting you here.” Parker walks toward us in a sundress and heels, her purse hanging off her arm. “Baby, come meet the guy from the video and his beautiful wife.”
“Wife?” Ben’s voice comes from behind me.
Pop. There goes our bubble.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Briar
I dislodge from Emmett’s hold, and the disappointment that flashes across his face is hard to witness.
“Parker? What are you doing here?” I ask the woman who was told not to come here today but decided to barge in anyway.
“I brought my hubby to see the place. I talked to um… a Scarlett, and she told me you had a family thing, but we had the babysitter booked already and wanted to take a little day trip, so I said let’s go see Plain Daisy Ranch. I could show him the lay of the land and the other businesses even if we couldn’t talk to anyone today.” She hooks her arm through her husband’s, and for the first time, I look at him.
I stumble back, grabbing Emmett’s arm, and my entire body goes numb.
Chad is dressed how I remember, though I never realized the stark difference between him and Emmett until now that they’re standing feet away from one another. His shirt is tucked into his slacks with a belt, and his head doesn’t hold one wayward hair. The loafers he’s wearing are what he considers casual Sunday wear.
I feel Emmett’s eyes on me, but I’m frozen in place. This cannot be happening right now.
Emmett takes over the conversation as I try to recover from my shock. “Yeah, Scarlett told us that you were coming later this week,” he says.
Parker waves. “Hubby can’t come next week.” Her gaze falls to Emmett then Ben. “This is the guy you think you can compete with.”
Parker laughs, and my eyes widen because she has no idea what she really just said.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I say, turning and running right into Ben.
