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Emma winced as Bethany handed a mom with her two elementary school-age daughters a latte through the waterfront kiosk’s service window.
“Could you maybe not swear in front of the customers?” she murmured after the woman shot Bethany a dirty look. “Or at least do it more quietly? Hector will get pissed if you getDe Ollaanother bad Yelp review.”
Bethany popped the gum she was chewing as the woman and her kids moved on. “You’re such a Pollyanna.”
Emma frowned. Her internet dives had covered a lot of ground but there were still huge gaps. “Who is that?”
Her guess was a singer. It had that ring. Rihanna, Pollyanna…
Her coworker deflated her hopes with her usual diplomacy. “I forgot you have brain damage and no Disney channel subscription.”
“You’ve got me on the Disney stuff. I only have Pedro’s Netflix password.” Emma wiped the espresso machine’s steam wand with a hot towel. “But my brain is mostly recovered, thank you very much.”
“Not enough if you don’t remember tall, dark, and delicious,” Bethany pointed out, lowering herself on the upturned bucket they keptfor when they needed to sit out of sight of the customers. “Forgetting a snack like thatwouldrequire serious brain damage.”
Emma swallowed. This conversation was starting to give her a headache. “Can we stop talking about my brain? And Mr. Chapman?”
Bethany cocked a hip. “Let’s compromise. I’ll stop with the brain stuff, but we keep on dissecting thisMisterChapman thing.”
She cocked a hip, giving her a conspiratorial eyebrow waggle. “Does he make you call him that? Because if he does, it’s only a matter of time before you end up tied up in that guy’s sex dungeon.”
Emma threw up her hands. “That’s what I said!”
“To who?” Bethany was frowning. Then her eyes lit up. “Not to him!”
“Of course to him. I told him if he turned all Christian Grey on me, I’d stab him with a fork.”
They both laughed but Emma stopped first, subsiding with a sigh. “But it was a joke. I know he’s not interested in me that way.”
“Yeah, right.” Bethany smacked her lips. “The man tackles you one day and then boom! He’s moving you into his penthouse the next.”
“Only because nearly got my cousin evicted and then had Pedro kick me out,” Emma said darkly before frowning. “Or was it the landlady? I’m not sure how it went down.”
“Which just proves how badly he wants you in his clutches.” Bethany waved a finger to encompass her body. “He’s obviously into the T&A.”
Emma scowled and looked down at her size Ds. Bethany might have a point. Garretthadchecked her out in the towel. That didn’t mean much, of course.
Garrett was a red-blooded man under eighty. Most men looked. The few who did anything about it usually restricted themselves to gross comments. A handful tried to cop a feel. Or they rubbed up against her on the bus—one of the many reasons she preferred to walk home.
But a man as wealthy and good-looking as Garrett Chapman wasn’t going to go for someone like Emma. Not that she wanted him to beinterested. She could never be with someone who knew her before the accident.
“It’s not like that,” she repeated in a flat voice. “He…”
“Wants some of that booty?”
Emma held up a hand. “Let me finish. He feels guilty for accusing me of corporate espionage and going ballistic in the garage. He’s just trying to avoid a lawsuit.”
“If that were all it was, he could have gotten you a studio somewhere. He could certainly afford it. Hector says ours isn’t the only building he owns. Chapman has property all over the world. The dude is loaded.”
“And with that money comes a god complex,” she scoffed. “Garrett thinks he knows what’s best for everyone. Pedro and I weren’t perfect, but we were getting by. And then Garrett came in and blew that up. And you want to know why? It’s because he thinks I need supervision. More than Pedro can give because he’s a hoarder.”
Bethany stopped restocking. She turned around, making a face. “Heis?”
She rolled her shoulders uncomfortably. “Yes. Kind of.”
“Wow.” Bethany leaned against the side of the espresso machine. “I didn’t know that. Was it like gross? Like maggoty and stuff?”
“Not really. It was just very cluttered. He’s not as bad as the cases on those TV shows. Not yet.”