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“Because we were enemies,” she said. Or because she had been a poor barista and Garrett was a billionaire?
“I guess that part isn’t so surprising,” he mused. “In retrospect, it’s kind of obvious—all that bickering masking some sexual tension. At least on Garrett’s part. Am I right? Without the accident, none of this would have happened.”
Her blood iced over. “Actually, without the accident, we would have been together much longer.”
Fletcher raised a skeptical brow. “You think so?”
Speaking in a normal tone took serious effort. “I take it you don’t?”
“Well… no.” He lifted his hands when she scowled. “I mean, it’s a nice thought, but Emma, you don’t know the way you were. So ambitious and stuff.”
She was definitely starting to dislike this man.“And ambition is wrong?”
His head drew back. “Hey, no need to get offended. It’s not a criticism at all. It’s just ironic. Without the accident, you would be on Wall Street right now, kicking ass and taking names.”
He rolled his shoulders before his expression softened. “Instead, you’re here, happily married.”
“Becauseof the accident?” she repeated. The back of her neck was so tight she was starting to get nauseous.
Fletcher had the grace to wince. “I just mean that if it wasn’t for the accident, the two of you would never work. It would have been like Garrett marrying himself. This way he gets to spoil you and never has to worry you’ll take off for the greener pastures of some high-powered job. It’s like his wet dream come true.”
She didn’t need his significant glance at the door leading to the bedroom to get what he was ever so subtly implying.
Emma was Garrett’s fuck toy, the former enemy who had, through some twist of fate, become his trophy wife. And not a very shiny one at that.
She was going to be sick. Hell, she had even served herself up to him at his office, his place of business.
“It’s a good thing,” Fletcher insisted. “The accident was a blessing in disguise. Garrett gets the wife he’s always wanted. And you—it’s like you won the lottery. You don’t ever have to work. You just have to make him happy. And that’s easy for you because you’re the one he has been pining for. He loves you. Likereallyloves you.”
Emma blinked, taken aback by his sudden intensity.
She stared at him, half in disbelief that he’d said all this shit to her, but also not surprised. Because it made sense. Not about the accident being a blessing. Thatwas bullshit.
But what if she and Garrett did have a better shot with her this way? Emma, the broken doll, a cipher of her former self?
She was still reeling when Garrett came back. He and Fletcher spoke for a few minutes while she sat in protective numbness, waiting for him to be done with his important business.
Like a good little wife.
Chapter Forty-Nine
EMMA
She handed a pair of coffee frappes to the waiting teens with a brittle smile fixed on her face.
Emma had been fine covering the first part of Bethany’s shift at the waterfront kiosk when the other barista had called her late this morning.
Garrett had gone off to work quite early and she hadn’t been able to go back to sleep anyway, so she’d spent the early hours going over the papers she needed to apply to college.
Emma wasnotgoing to be a trophy wife. Yeah, she was a hot piece of ass, but she also had a brain. A broken one, but it still worked for the new stuff. Most of the time.
She was going to make the most of it. Finding the will to try was half the battle, wasn’t it?
But Emma didn’t kid herself. It was going to be a long war.
After a long deliberation, she had opted not to use her existing college credits or pre-accident coursework. Whatever degree she earned now had to be independent of that.
The decision had been a difficult one. She’d been so close to graduating. But Emma didn’t remember anything from her old classes. Using the existing credits would have been dishonest. Moreover, shecould very well be crippling herself, building a new career on knowledge and experiences she no longer had.