Always (Bold As Love 4)

“But he's in his late forties. There's a big difference, Sweetness.”

“I don't care. And how can he basically ask for my approval after a single dinner, which I didn't even want to attend? He's going to marry her either way because I'm not going to object if he's happy so why does it matter if I like her or not? She'll be his wife, not mine. I won't even be around her that much since we're going to move. Oh, and I had to hear about that too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I didn't exactly tell him that I was going with you. I figured it would be obvious with Drake involved, so he might have found out at the dinner when Cherish asked me about something.”

“Emily, why didn't you talk to him yourself first?”

“I thought it was obvious!”

“It doesn't matter. You should of at least had the decency to actually tell him. You know he's probably going to find a way to blame that on me, don't you?” I add that last part because his words of calling our relationship toxic. About how I'm more harm than good for Emily.

“You're right. I should have told him instead of expecting him to figure it out. My fault and I'll be sure to tell him that.”

“Good.” I pause. “Well, what did you say when he told you he wanted to marry her?”

“You would be proud of me. I bit my tongue and told him that if she made him that happy, then he should. He's going to ask her once he gets back from his business trip. Ugh,” she says and I can imagine her shivering. “He started to give me details about how he's going to pop the question and I just found an excuse to get off the phone.”

Conversation comes to a stand still and as usual, Emily finds a way to interject before the dead air stays for too long.

“You should probably go to sleep. Big day tomorrow and all. I love you.”

“I love you. Always.”

33

Emily

I get to the house firs

t and start to assemble the boxes, placing them on the bar in the kitchen for now. There's a knock on the door and then Abella busts through with Hannah and Kyle following. I only texted Abella for her to tell Hannah. Not Kyle as well. Oh, well. I can't just ask him to leave.

“We're here!” Abella sings sitting at the bar across from me.

“I see that.”

“What the hell happened to you?” Hannah asks, taking a seat between Kyle and Abella.

“I might have fell down the stairs.”

“I bet that hurt,” Kyle says.

It's unavoidable. I make eye contact. “Yeah. Anyway,” I look between the girls. “We need to get to work. I've got to be back by six at the latest to pick up Jake's little brother.”

“Wait, just a second. Is that a ring?” Abella screeches, hopping out of her seat and coming around to grab my hand. “You didn't tell us you were engaged.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

“Congrats, Em,” Kyle smiles easily.

“Yeah, congrats,” the girls echo.

“Can we get started?”

Kicking into gear, we start in the living room. The only thing in there that is ours are some pictures and two blankets. Most of our things are in the bedroom and bathroom. With Kyle here, I'm uneasy about packing up things in there. All too soon, we're in the bedroom. Kyle is in the attached bathroom, putting everything in a box. I'm in my closet, taking things out. Hannah is working on the nightstand and Abella is taking clothes out of one of the dressers.

“Damn, Emily. I didn't know there was a sexy woman in you,” Abella exclaims. I turn and blush a bright red, I'm sure. She's holding up my red satin and lace lingerie piece in one hand and a white sheer halter babydoll piece in the other. Kyle pokes his head out of the bathroom to see what the commotion is about. I can't see his expression though because once he sees the lingerie, he returns to his task.