Page 105 of Emmett

“He so much asbreathesnear Sophia in a way I don’t like…”

“I know.”

“Damn near puked when I realized it wasNashknockin’ your fucking socks off,” he grumbles.

The laugh that comes out of me while he calls over the bartender for another round of shots is nothing short of hysterical. I brace my forearm against the bar top and rest my head against it while I cackle.

“Happy birthday, you little shit,” he chuckles into his shot glass before throwing the drink back. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key fob, handing it to me.

“Davis,” I gape, staring at the wing logo embedded into the fob.

“Don’t you start with that shit, too. Sophia gives me enough of it on her own,” he tells me. His arms wrap tightly around my neck and he kisses the side of my head. “Go find your old man, he was lookin’ for you.”

Unspoken understanding passes between us as I drop a hand to his shoulder and offer him a grateful squeeze before scanning the crowd in search of my dad.

I find him near the area designated for collecting donations, with Rowan’s arms wrapped around his waist. “That’s a lot of zeroes,” I tease as I approach, peeking over his shoulder at the check in front of him.

With a smile, he folds the check and passes it to the attendant before turning to me. “We were just talking about game night,” he tells me as he pulls me into a hug.

“We had an idea,” Ro adds, looking at my dad with an all-too-innocent smile.

“If you’re up for it,” Dad adds. “I know your first day back, you might not—” Ro jabs him in the side with her index finger, loudly clearing her throat, and he sighs. “We’d like you to bring Nash with you.”

My chest warms and I have to fight back the smile that wants to crawl across my face. When my dad told me that he wasn’t sure things could be normal between us again, I worried that my relationship with Nash would be part of that. A small corner of my mind told me that while he can accept anyone else, a bisexual son wouldn’t be something that he could handle; I worried that I’d disappointed him, but that worry was misplaced.

The only thing that has shifted between us is how much he worries; he checks in with me four times a day, every day, and he’s stopped by every single afternoon at twelve fifteen on the dot while I’ve been out of work so that we can have lunch together. He won’t admit out loud that he trusted Nash to be there that first week, but he gave us space. He didn’t start dropping in until Nash had gone back home. We don’t talk about it, but…he’s told me, in his own way.

“We’ll be there,” I smile.

Pulling in a deep breath, he brings me in for one of his good old-fashioned bear hugs, and I let him. “I know I’ve said it a hundred times already, but—”

“I love you, too,” I tell him with a few claps to his back. Before he has the chance to ask me again, I add, “I’m okay. And yes, I took my meds.”

He offers a proud smile with a squeeze to my shoulder. “Monday evening, then,” he says. “Around seven thirty?”

“I’ll bring pizzas.”

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I shoot a quick text to Rowan.

Me:Is Mariah here?

Ro:No. She said she can’t make it.

When I meet her gaze and she offers me a sympathetic smile with a tilt of her head, I know exactly what she means. I guess I had to figure that not everyone would be able to be as forgiving for what I did. I’d hoped by now, she would have come around, but I get it. She tried to help me and I hurt her. She loved me and I used her.

I don’t think I’d be able to forgive me, either.

“Alright,” I say as I slip my phone back into place, “you crazy kids don’t get too wild tonight.”

I offer Dad another clap to the shoulder and wrap Rowan in a crushing hug before heading back toward the bar, where Nash now sits, anxiously tapping at a glass in front of him.

“Is your name Google?” I ask as I sidle up next to him. “Because you have everything I’ve been searching for.”

“What?” He cackles.

“Wait, I got more. Are you tired?” I ask, throwing on my most obnoxious ‘fuckboy’ smolder. “You’ve been running through my mindallday.”

“Are you drunk?” He laughs, looking at me as if I’ve completely lost my mind.