Page 106 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

“You can’t ignore those things now,” she said, picking on him. “You’ve got three females in your house.”

“Don’t remind me,” he said. “And if any of them act like they might be, I get chocolate, ice cream, pizza, and ask if they need me to do anything.”

“Awww, you’re the perfect hero too, Roark.”

“Now you’re being a brat,” her brother said, flushing.

“It’s fun to see that reaction.”

Her phone rang in the other room. It was the ringtone for Warren so she jumped up to find it. Her brother’s face was comical since they all knew how much she pretended her phone didn’t exist.

“Hey there, hot stuff. Aren’t you lifting weights or something?”

Warren laughed on the other line and she walked back to see Roark cleaning up their lunch.

“I’m going into the locker room in a few minutes. I just wanted to know how things were going with you. I know you’ve got your live chat tonight.”

“I do,” she said. It was sweet that he remembered. “I’ve got everything set up I plan on saying, but I’m positive I’m going to get a lot of questions about you.”

“Sorry about that,” he said. “Will you answer them?”

“I’m going to start out talking about you for five minutes and then kindly ask everyone to focus on questions regarding my book. I’m pretty sure they will do it. If not I’ll ignore those questions. How about you? How many people are asking you about my sex scenes?”

She saw her brother roll his eyes. “No one,” he said. “And if they ask, I’ll tell them I don’t ask about their bedroom activities.”

“I love that answer,” she said. “It’s fun isn’t it?”

“If you say so,” he said.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

If he was struggling with the news of their relationship getting out, how much harder was it going to be when the world found out who her mother was?

“Yeah,” Warren said. “I’m fine. I’m more worried about you.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’ve got caves to live in.”

“Caves?” he asked.

“Yeah, my house, my parents’ house if I have to. Lots of places I can go.”

“My place,” he said. “You can come here.”

“Maybe I will,” she said. “We’ll see. But you’ll be out of town for the next two weekends.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I know we’ve gone that long without seeing each other before, but I’ll miss you.”

She got a pout on her face. “I’ll miss you too.”

“I’m being called,” he said. “I need to run. I’ll reach out later. Bye.”

“Bye,” she said and hung up. She looked at her brother. “What?”

“That’s gross.”

“What’s gross?” she asked with her hands on her hips.

“Watching you be human,” Roark said. “I guess I didn’t know if you had it in you to act and feel like someone in this world. Or this reality.”