Page 29 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

“I did take it over before,” he said. Not that he always wanted to pay for that, but didn’t have a problem with it either.

“Okay,” she said. “Here goes. I’m not a bartender. I told you I was doing research.”

“You did just say that,” he said. “What do you do then?”

“Remember how we were talking about true crime and podcasts?” she asked.

“I do,” he said.

“I’m a writer,” she said. “My name is Emma French. You could search for me and find a lot of my books.”

“What do you write?” he asked, pulling his phone out. He was damn well going to do that right now.

“Romantic Suspense,” she said. “I know we talked about books, but never really who you read. I’m sure it’s not my books.”

“Are you popular?” he asked. “I’m not much into romance books. Sorry if that came out wrong.”

Her name popped up and he was scrolling.

He saw she was aNew York Timesbestselling author and had over a hundred books published.

Some of her covers were sexy as all hell and others were more like thriller covers.

He couldn’t figure out the difference, but guess they went to different series.

And there was her profile picture.

It was professionally done and looked almost nothing like her.

He glanced up and narrowed his eyes.

“You’re looking at my picture, aren’t you?” she asked, turning her head regally.

“Yep,” he said. “There it is. That angle right there.”

“The photographer told me that was my best side. Whatever,” she said. “I had too much makeup on for it in my eyes.”

“I like this look better,” he said. His hand was moving up and down in her direction.

“That’s good because this is the look I normally have if I leave my house.”

“If?” he asked.

“I don’t often,” she said. “You should know that. In polite terms, I’m a hermit. I was working when Hunter texted me. I hadn’t known because I tend to lose my phone and found it in my bathroom where I left it at four this morning after I woke up with an idea. I didn’t stop working until about two hours ago. I hadn’t showered or brushed my teeth yet either. I’d had several bad cups of coffee and some water, nothing else other than a protein bar I snagged when I walked out the door.” She burst out laughing. “You should see the horrified look on your face.”

“That is completely unhealthy,” he said.

“My mother lectures me on that all the time too. At thirty-three, I’m not likely to change much. So yeah, you should know that. I’m not always around, even if I am around. If that makes sense.”

“It does,” he said. “We need to get some dinner in you. Do you want to go to the restaurant? Or eat in or go somewhere else?”

“We can order room service,” she said. “I’ll do it soon.”

“I can handle it,” he said.

“We’ll get to why I’ll do it, if you don’t mind.”

She was smirking at him like Hunter had and he couldn’t figure out why.