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“Your disappointment is clear as day. If Emma sees it?—”
“She won’t,” Garrett interrupted.
“Make sure she doesn’t.”
Rainer’s expression softened. “Look, I know how hard it must be. In your shoes, I’d be invested in my partner remembering her past too. But you’ve already salvaged the most important parts of it,” he added with a significant look at Stella.
Rainer was right, of course. “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “I did. I won’t forget that.”
They sat in silence, watching George and Stella play for a while longer.
Rainer was right.HavingStella and Emma with him was more than enough. They were his future, one he didn’t fully deserve. But he would sure as hell try.
“Hey, what is up with your partner?” Rainer asked after he’d finished his coffee.
Garrett raised a brow. “Emma is out shopping. I told you that.”
Rainer rose, heading to the bar to pour himself a glass of water. “I meant the far less cute one—Fletcher. He hasn’t been around much.”
Garrett followed him, taking his mug to the sink. “He’s fine. Probably tired as hell and resenting me a bit. He offered to hold down the fort for me at work so I could have this time with Stella and Emma. I’m grateful to him.”
Rainer grabbed the mug, washing it so his cleaning woman didn’t have to. “He’s handling your current deals on his own?”
Leaning against the bar, he nodded. “He wants to help. He knows it’s a crucial time for Stella.”
“Forgive me for saying it, but Fletcher is not usually that selfless.” Rainer sniffed. “Although, I suppose it makes sense—in this case. Otherwise, he’d be here, trying to be in the thick of things in that thirsty way of his.”
“In this case?” he echoed.
“No doubt he’s feeling a little shitty about what he said to Emma.” Rainer set the clean mug on the rack hidden on the top of the bar.
Garrett’s pulse picked up. “What the hell did he say to her?”
Rainer raised his brows. “She didn’t tell you?”
“No. She didn’t tell me anything.”
“Ah.” Rainer scratched his head. “Well, try and not go all agro on Fletcher. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he realized he was being an asshole. I’m sure Emma would like to forget it too. It hurt her feelings, but she got over it.”
He was going to have to strangle his best friend. “Tell me what he said.”
Rainer grumbled something unintelligible underhis breath.
“Keep in mind I heard this secondhand.”
Rainer raised his head, checking that George and Stella were still occupied. “Fletcher came by to talk to you about something and found Emma in your seat, waiting for you. He stuck his foot in his mouth the way he does, implying that her accident was a blessing in disguise.”
“How the fuck was it a blessing?” He’d lost the love of his lifeandhis child for five fucking years.
Rainer wiped his hands on the towel. “He thinks that you two wouldn’t have made it as a couple without the accident, because of Emma’s ambition. She was gunning for Wall Street before the head injury, right?”
“And? I would have been right there with her.”
“I know that. But Fletcher suggested that both of you in high-powered positions would have been too stressful.”
“So, we would have broken up? That’s total bullshit.”
“It probably is,” Rainer agreed. But he heard the hint of doubt.