Smiling just a little, he said, "I don't know, there might be some. That was the biggest skeleton. No other ones are really coming to mind."
"I do have a question of my own," she told him.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Why did Emma help you pick out a table?"
He looked like he suddenly remembered something, and then he said, "Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you about that, did I?"
"About what?" Julie asked.
"Flavor," he said. "It's another restaurant that I'm opening. Emma was helping me with some of the interior design stuff, because it's more… high-end, I guess, and she was inspired by this club she went to in New York." Shrugging, he added, "She may be evil, but she has a sense of style that I lack."
Smiling as she took in the sight of him in his suit, she said, "Forgive me if I disagree."
"With Emma being evil or the style thing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
That caused her to frown slightly. "I'm not sure… For all that Emma has seemed to be quite evil to me in the past, she was actually kind of nice to me today."
He matched her frown. "How so?"
"Well, just a minute ago she did defend you even though it made her sound kind of bad, and before that when you were dancing with Shannon and I went to hide in the bathroom so I didn't have to watch, she came in and yelled at me, told me to get my ass back out there and basically not let Shannon get her claws into you."
"Then she has an agenda," he said easily.
"Like what?" Julie asked, frowning. "I mean, it kind of seems like maybe… maybe she's just not being evil. Maybe there's a softer side of Emma. She said there were no hard feelings and that you deserved to be happy—what if she just has kind of a soft spot for you? She's kind of like the bully, and you're the only one that stands up to her?"
"No," he said dismissively, shaking his head. "Emma doesn't have soft spots. Soft is not… anywhere in her description. If she's pushing you to be with me, then she has decided that will in some way benefit her," he told Julie.
Julie mulled that over for a second, but Aaron seemed to be thinking quicker.
"Actually, it makes perfect sense," he said thoughtfully. "Emma knows about my jealousy issues, and she knows I'm more likely to be jealous where Matt is concerned, so if you were to develop feelings for me, that would actually work out very well for her. It would ensure you would have to stay away from her husband in order to appease me."
Nodding, Julie said, "I guess that does make more sense. Why didn't I think of that?"
Smiling slightly, he said, "Because you have a good heart, and you aren't selfish or manipulative enough to think that way."
"I'm going to have to work on that," she said with a nod.
"It's endearing," he told her. "You have this peculiar innocence that doesn't make any sense, but… it's an endearing quality."
Feeling pleased, she smiled. "Well, good. I need some of those."
"You have enough," he told her.
"Do I have enough to outnumber the reasons you have for keeping your distance?" she asked a little hopefully.
A half smile tugged at the corners of his mouth and he took a step closer to her. "You just might."
Julie smiled and took a step forward herself, meeting him halfway as he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her, not leaning in to kiss her, just gazing down at her.
"Now, I want you to be sure about this," he said.
"I am," she said eagerly.
"Really sure," he said, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, I'm not talking marriage or anything, but seeing as this isn't your typical boy-meets-girl situation and there is a pregnancy involved, I would like some kind of… firm belief that you want to be in a committed relationship with me."
"Is the baby going to be a problem?" she asked uncertainly.