Page 12 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

Which I don’t mind. At all.

As cool as our employees across the whole country are, my attention has been fairly directedlately to a specific person. Trust me, I’m trying not to focus on her, but trying to ignore Emma is like trying to ignore the sun.

She’s there, and she shines. It’s in her smile, in her work, and in her spirit. I think she’s the only one in the office who has at least tried to get into the Christmas spirit by adding little accessoriesto her outfits like reindeer earrings and a scarf with Christmas trees on it.

If we weren’t so busy, I would be celebrating more.

“I guess I should go,” Emma sighs as she stands from the conference table and starts gathering her notes.

“I’ll put them on your desk,” Ryan says as he motions for her to slide them across the table to him.

Emma flashes him a grateful look before pushing the papers over to him. She then looks at me, not at all in a rush to leave just yet. “Are you sure that it’s okay that I skip out early? I don’t have to be right on time for dinner.”

“Your parents like punctuality,” I tell her. I doubt I have to remind her of that, though.

“They’ll be excited to see you,” Max adds before nodding to the door. “We’re pretty much finished up for the day anyway.”

Emma huffs a little before nodding and leaving the room. Something tells me she was wanting an excuse to stay. I know that her parents can be kind of pushy with her, but I know they’ve missed her like crazy since she’s been gone.

One little family dinner can’t be all that bad, right?

It’s certainly more than what I got growing up.

“She didn’t want to go,” Ryan comments once she leaves in the elevator. He tidies up her notes and carries them out of the room.

Max and I follow him and close the door behind us.

“It’ll be fine. Andrew and Ethan will stick up for her like always,” Max replies before sitting down at his desk and tidying up some pens and documents on it.

Her brothers have shown that they’re not to be messed with. Of course, they’d never be disrespectful to their parents, who pretty much worship the ground that they walk on, but they scared off plenty of kids back in the day who weren’t nice to Emma.

Hell, they might scare off boyfriends even now.

“Do you think she has a boyfriend?” I blurt out.

Max raises an eyebrow at me. “I don’t think so. Why?”

“Yeah, why, Josh?” Ryan questions me as he places her notes on her desk.

I lift my hands innocently. “Just a random thought. Can you imagine her trying to bring a boyfriend to dinner?”

Max chuckles, and even Ryan cracks an amused grin. “Ethan would get a background check on him.”

“Andrew would threaten to see him in the emergency room,” Ryan adds, our laughter echoing throughout the office.

They’re not even bad, violent guys. They’re just super protective over family.

Personally, I don’t understand that, but I admire their devotion. It actually makes me kind of jealous.

When I hear the elevator open, I turn around and grin at the sight of Max’s mom walking toward us with a red Christmas tin in her hands. “Hey, Mrs. Harper.”

Mrs. Harper smiles and hugs her son. “I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to bring these sugar cookies by.”

Max takes the tin of cookies from her and opens them, showing off the homemade treats that are decorated as snowmen and Christmas trees. “She means that she made them especially for us and went through the trouble of delivering them personally.”

Ryan steals the tin from Max and lets Mrs. Harper pull him in for a hug. “Thanks, Mrs. H.”

“You’re so welcome, dear. I know you love sweets,” Mrs. Harper tells him as she pats him on the cheek lovingly.