“Fine, I’ll order my own pizza, so you can get your own shoes.” He jabs a tan finger at Emmet before turning to me. “Ivy, what size shoe?”
“Seven.”
With one last pointed look at Emmet, he heads down towards the cafe. Emmet lets out a soft laugh, his lazy gaze moving to me. “I do love to rile him up, makes him all hot and flustered.” I raise a brow at that but he only stands and runs a hand over his clothes. “I’ll be right back.”
He heads down to the shoe desk.
I turn my attention to Nathan. “Do they always act like this?” I ask as I join him at the monitor.
Nathan laughs, looking at me. Those familiar crow’s feet make an appearance. “All the time. It’s all in good fun though.” His face turns a little more serious. “Chase is protective of him, though it isn’t as obvious as it used to be, so when he’s giving him a hard time it’s all out of love. For a long time, after he moved in with us I thought maybe Emmet had a thing for Chase, but…” He shrugs. “I think it’s just the way they are with each other.” His words don’t sound completely convincing though.
“Hmm, I haven’t sensed a crush from him, but maybe I’m not around them together enough.” But then again, I have noticed little things like the way the two seem to gravitate toward each other any time they’re in the same room. Then there’s the times that Emmet has caught Chase and I fooling around and he was visibly turned on… Could it have been from more than just me?
I push the thoughts away, deciding to come back to it at a later time. I watch as Nathan types my name into the monitor. I can’t help but to ask, “Why is Chase protective of him?”
“Ehh…” Nathan looks in the direction of where the two men have disappeared to and he seems hesitant. “I don’t really want to tell too much of Emmet’s story, but you already know about Chase arresting him and why, so, you know he was on hard drugs when we met him.” He purses his lips as he debates whether or not to continue. “Well, Chase helped him get clean. He still smokes weed and indulges in cigarettes, but when we met him, he was strung out bad. It was why I was hesitant to let him move in with us, but Chase was determined and set on taking him in.”
I’m shocked and it makes me realize there’s so much that I still don’t know about the guys, despite having serious feelings for all of them. Emmet, especially feels like an enigma at times. I know about both Nathan and Chase’s families, but I know nothing about Emmet’s and I find it unsettling.
I want to know as much about him as I know about the others.
“Oh,” I say softly. “I understand getting clean.” I rub my arm. “I don’t think I know as much about Emmet as I know about you and Chase.” I know how much he loves Charlie and how he spoils her. I know that like me he’s an artist. He’s always seemed to be laid back, a free spirit, if I had to pick words to describe him, but I don’t know anything deeper than that. Yet, I like him a lot.
How would I feel if I really got to know him?
“Maybe you should fix that,” Nathan encourages. “He’s a really good guy and there’s a lot of things about him that you won’t know until you start to peel back all his layers.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to fix it,” I agree.
We drop the subject of Emmet and I know it’s because Nathan isn’t comfortable telling too much of the man’s story without his permission or without him being here, so I let it go.
Emmet returns before Chase and I smile when I see that he’s grabbed a pair of bowling shoes for me, though I have a feeling it’s just to annoy Chase.
“Thank you.” I accept the shoes from him and strip out of my boots, pulling the ugly bowling shoes on.
Chase returns with three pairs of shoes and he tosses a set to Nathan before looking at me. When his eyes stop at my feet, he turns to glare at Emmet who tries to portray innocence but completely fails.
Chase mutters a curse under his breath before returning the shoes to the desk.
“Okay, the game is all ready, Ivy, you’re up first,” Nathan says, gesturing for me to go to the lane.
I grab one of the balls from the rack before realizing it’s way too big and after a couple of tries, I find a perfect one. I walk up to the lane and vow that I’ll give it a real try, no matter how much I know I suck at it.
Taking a deep breath, I focus on the pin in the middle. With as much force as I can manage I send the ball rolling… right into the gutter.
I hear Chase laugh and turn to glare at him. He holds his hands up in surrender but there’s a smirk on his face. “No worries, sweetheart, things are going just according to my plan.”
“It’s okay, Ivy, give it another try,” Nathan encourages and Emmet shoots me a thumbs up.
I grab the ball from the rack and give it another try with just as much success. At least this time it hits the gutter further down the lane.
I plop down, defeated, in the seat next to Emmet as Nathan moves to the rack and picks out a ball. His demeanor is confident as he walks up to the lane and I watch in shock as he bowls a strike on the first try. He calmly walks back over and sits across from us, a small smile on his face.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter.
Emmet turns to look down at me and a smile stretches across his plump lips. “Yeah, he’s just one of those annoyingly, athletically gifted people.” He looks over at Chase who’s picking out a ball. “I’m pretty sure Chase will turn this into a competition, because his ego is the size of the moon.”
“Yeah, I hadn’t noticed,” I say sarcastically, finding myself leaning closer to him.