Page 21 of Decoding Emma

“Did you talk to Emma?”Miles asked.No small talk.Get right to the point.

“I left her a voice mail, and she texted me she was home.”

“That’s all you did?”Lucas shook his head.“You’re an idiot.”

“What?”I took a long pull of my beer.

“Marcus and Miles told us what happened last night,” Josh said.

I should’ve known.Now the shit was going to come from all sides.

“And Lucas is right; you’re an idiot,” Dean commented.

So it begins…

“Now, wait a second.Why are you jumping in my face?I was only concerned for Emma’s safety.”

I looked each man in the eye.Okay, no sympathy here.

“Never tell an independent woman she can’t take care of herself,” Lucas said.“At least, don’t act like a—what did she call you—Neanderthal.”

And every one of the traitors raised their beer bottles in agreement.

“What do you know about it?”I took another long drink of my beer.

“I know women.”Lucas sat back in his chair, his expression a cross between a smirk and a grin.

I laughed.“We’ve all been out with multiple women.Emma is…” What?Different?Yes, but in a good way.She didn’t hesitate to put me in my place last night, and…what?It was more than her standing up to me.Something I couldn’t quite explain.

“Have you ever told any woman you work with or have dated what to do with her life, her personal life, this soon after meeting her?Have you even asked Emma out on a date?”Marcus leaned back.raised his arms and laced his fingers behind his head.“Well?”he prompted when I didn’t answer right away.“Have you?”

I sat back in the chair.Shit.I shook my head.Why had I reacted so strongly to Emma last night?Was it because I was attracted to her?Maybe, but I’d been attracted to other women and never told them what to do.

“What was even worse, if that’s possible,” Miles said, “she wanted to take the conversation private, and you refused.”

He was right.I had.Damn, damn, damn, what the hell was wrong with me?I knew better than to be confrontational with a woman, but I’d done it with Emma.Fear for what I saw as a lack of situational awareness had overridden my judgment.

“You were damn lucky Emma didn’t kick you in the nuts.She looked mad enough,” Marcus commented.

Wincing, I took another sip of my beer.“You saw her last night.”I looked from Marcus to Miles.“She was a thousand miles away in her thoughts.Anything could have happened to her.”

“We’ve all done that.When a solution to a problem pops into our head, we go for it, but you don’t know her well enough yet to know how locked in her mind might’ve been,” Josh said.

“We’re men,” I replied.

Groans floated around the patio.

“Like we can’t be attacked,” Dean said, looking around the table.“Should we throw him in the pool to wake him up?”

“What?It’s the truth.”I had no idea what their problem was.While I agreed men could be attacked, we were built to defend ourselves.

“Listen to yourself, Asher.”Marcus raised his hands to mimic air quotes.“We’re men.She’s a woman.She needs to be taken care of.She should do what I say.”

“When you say it like that…” Like what?Marcus was repeating everything I’d said almost verbatim.“That wasn’t what I meant.I want to protect Emma.”My instincts had been on high alert last night; I could see it now.

“Ah, there it is.The protective male,” Miles said.

I stared at Marcus.“You can’t tell me you don’t safeguard Cassie.”