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She studied him for a moment. “And he doesn’t like me.”
“He doesn’tnotlike you,” Garrett assured her. “What he has a problem with is me.”
Emma blinked those impossibly long lashes at him. “I don’t understand.”
He tried to think of a better answer but was forced to settle for the truth.
“Fletcher has been trying to warn me away from you since the parking garage. He was convinced you’re going to sue us into oblivion.”
Garrett’s eyes lit up. “Which you are welcome to do. Just be sure to ask for a big-ass settlement. A couple of million dollars would cover your medical expenses, with or without insurance.”
Emma shook her head in despair. “Why areyou like this?”
Laughing, he tugged at her hands, coaxing her up from the bench. Overwhelmed, she let him bundle her up and take her back home.
Drained, she even let him put her to bed.
Garrett promised to have the issue resolved by lunch the next day. But thanks to his partner, it didn’t work out that way.
“What don’t you understand?” Fletcher threw up his hands. “Living with you is putting her coverage in jeopardy. The solution is simple. Find her a new place. Something that would normally be within her means.”
“She works minimum wage part-time in Southern California,” he ground out. “Her means equal a shack by the side of the road.”
“Then set her up in a nice two-bedroom with her cousin, preferably across town. You can subsidize their rent in a way the insurance investigator can’t object to—you know, the setup she had before you ruined it for her.”
A less stubborn son of a bitch would have crumpled under that direct hit. “Then there’s nothing I can do as her employer? Not even if I gave her a new job?”
“What job? Cat sitter?”
Garrett leaned back in his chair. Hell, that wasn’t a half-bad idea. If he could pay Emma to keep the little shit off his bed, then he could?—
Fletcher was incredulous. “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re thinking about it!”
Garrett irritated him further by shrugging. “It’s outside the box, but it’s not the worst idea I’ve heard. I hate that animal.”
“Unbelievable,” Fletcher muttered. “Why do you insist on making everything so damn hard? Any new insurance plan you find her will likely deny her because of pre-existing conditions. She has to keep hercurrentcoverage. Just find her a more modest place, so it doesn’t look like she has a sugar daddy too cheap to pay for her aspirin.”
Fletcher stalked out, leaving Garrett to come to the same conclusion. And he did… in a way.
Emma did not need a sugar daddy. She needed a husband.
Chapter Twenty-Six
EMMA
Emma kept replaying Garrett’s words of reassurance. He was going to find a solution, hopefully one that didn’t involve charity or breaking any laws.
“He will fix it,” Georgia had insisted over coffee earlier, a to-die-for Yemen blend Rainer had ordered from a roaster in Berkeley. “The thing is you have to let him.”
Emma sipped the coffee. “Don’t worry. I’m not about to shoot myself in the foot. This time, I will take the help.”
It was only fair. Garrett had gotten her into this mess. He could get her out of it.
She didn’t care what kind of job Garrett got her. Emma was prepared to scrub the toilets of this apartment if it meant keeping her insurance.
However, when Garrett got home, his expression told her things hadn’t gone well with his partner. “I guess Fletcher didn’t have good news.”
Garrett shook his head. “He excels at being the voice of doom and gloom. But there’s no cause for concern. I said I was going to take care of everything, and I will.”