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CHAPTER FOUR

Emory

Gray recently spent time at the lake. Often shirtless. I zoomed in on an Insta pic that showed him on the dock, dark blue lake water behind him, the sun so bright it nearly washed out his body in the image.

Which would be a real shame, because Gray was rocking even more tattoos than I’d noticed Saturday night. I traced a swirly line over the swell of his pec with a fingertip—then nearly jumped out of my skin when Dad spoke from my office doorway.

“Hey Emory, I need you to deal with these delinquent files.”

I stabbed the Escape button so hard my keyboard skidded away. I lunged for my mouse, clicking out of the window, heart racing.

“Dad, hey!” I laughed nervously. “You startled me.”

He chuckled. “I can tell. You’re not downloading porn on the work computer, are you? That’s a no-no.”

“What?” My face heated. “No!”

Social media stalking a guy to drool over his shirtless pics while at work was much better, right?

He grinned. “I’m just messing with you. Besides, I’m not the one you need to worry about if you’re looking at porn.” He dropped three file folders on my desk. “The ladies usually aren’t happy about it. Wouldn’t want it to get back to Allison, eh?”

I suppressed an eye roll. “If I was going to watch porn, it wouldn’t be at work, Dad.”

Case in point, I’d spent Sunday shut into my apartment binge-watching gay porn and imagining what might have happened if I’d asked Gray to drive me somewhere for a more thorough introduction to my bisexuality.

But my dad didn’t need to know that.

It was bad enough that I’d spilled the tea to Allison as soon as I returned to the gala. She’d cornered me, demanded to know why my lip was puffy, and dragged the whole story out of me.

Just the kiss with Gray since I didn’t want to share the whole sordid affair with Dallas. I’d lied and said I’d split my lip that way too. She thought Gray was a little wild, but that was better than the alternative.

She’d only get angry on my behalf, and there was nothing to be done about it. I couldn’t report Dallas without announcing why I was with him, and besides, he was the sheriff’s son. Nothing would come of it, anyway.

At least Gray had given me a good consolation prize out of the ordeal. My lips tingled. A very good prize.

Dad patted my shoulder. “Good to know you’re not too distracted to pick up some slack for me.”

“Not distracted…right.”

I was nothing but distracted and had been ever since the kiss that blew my mind. But at least I’d had the weekend to daydream and hide my busted lip from my family. I was mostly back to normal Emory.

Almost.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever be the Emory they all thought they knew and loved.

“Wait,” I said. “What do you mean, pick up some slack? I’ve got a full load today with the re-fi for Sue Rogers and a home equity application for Frank and Nora Young.”

Grandpa poked his head into the room, his silvery hair slicked back in an old-fashioned pompadour. “What’s that old geezer up to now?”

“Who, Frank? He wants to build a shop out on his land.”

Grandpa scoffed. “What, his garage wasn’t enough space for all his tinkering? That man and his knife-crafting. Odd hobby. Maybe he’s secretly a killer.”

My father sighed and shook his head. “You think everyone’s up to no good.”

“Because they usually are,” Grandpa said with a wink. “When you’re done harassing Emory, come find me. I can’t find the Wong file, and we’ve got a meeting about retirement planning in an hour.”

My father groaned. “Dad, I’ve shown you how the filing system works a hundred times.”

“Well, if you didn’t want to deal with me asking, you shouldn’t have changed it. It worked just fine for thirty dang years, but what do I know? I only ran this place when you were in diapers.”

He shuffled off with a harumph.

“It’s so much fun working for your dad, huh?” I joked.

“Tell me about it.” Dad blinked when he caught on to my sarcasm. “I see what you did there.”

I laughed. “Well, I better get back to this Young paperwork…”

Dad patted the stack of files he’d dropped on my desk. “Do these first.”

“But—”

“These are urgent,” he said sternly. “I’ve had something come up that’s going to occupy me all day, and these people deserve a chance to plan for what’s coming.”

Dread filled me. “What were these regarding again?”

“Delinquencies. One’s a home foreclosure. A couple others are business loans in arrears. I hate to say it, but we’re going to have to re-evaluate our extension policy. It’s just not changing the outcome for most folks.”

“Does it have to be today?” I asked.

“The initial calls, at least. We need to get them all scheduled for consultations. I doubt there’s much to be done in any of these cases, but I don’t want anyone saying we didn’t do our due diligence.”

“Okay,” I said glumly.

He sighed. “I know you don’t like this side of the business, but this is a business, not a charity.”

“I know.”

“We go the extra mile to help people. But sometimes it just doesn’t work out. We have to protect our investments.”

“Dad, I know. ”

“Then stop giving me kicked-puppy-dog eyes,” he snapped. “You know I don’t enjoy it either.”

His disapproval stung, and I dropped my gaze to the desktop. The damn file folders sat there taunting me, refusing to be ignored. I rubbed the back of my hot neck.

“If you really can’t do it…” he started.

“No, I can.” I forced my voice to stay light. “I’ll get to it right away.”

“Sorry for dropping this on you last minute.”

“It’s all good, Dad.” I flashed a smile, even though my insides twisted and churned. “I just have a full plate, you know? I should focus.”

Thankfully, he took the hint and left me to my dirty work. God. It was stupid that I hated it this much. No one wanted to receive bad news, but it wasn’t my fault. I was just the messenger.

My gaze flitted around my desk, searching for an escape. My coffee cup was empty. I seized on the excuse to get up and refill it. Anything to put off making those calls for another minute or two.

The breakroom was just down the hall. I popped a Raspberry Chocolate Lava coffee pod into our single-cup coffeemaker—another new change that Grandpa wasn’t so thrilled with—and waited while it brewed.

While it did, I tried to give myself a pep talk.

The Riverton Community Bank did a lot of good for the community. It made charitable contributions to the Community Foundation, which gave out grants to worthy projects locally. It sponsored half a dozen events.

It helped folks qualify for home and business loans they’d never be able to get from a big chain. We gave them character equity—our trust that they were going to be responsible borrowers, even if they didn’t look perfect on paper—which just wasn’t possible in a large city. We lent money to our friends and neighbors.

And when we could say yes, it was great. We were well-liked. Loved, even. But when we had to say no…or sorry, but you’ve defaulted…

Well, suddenly, we were the bad guy—and I’d never been so good at being the bad guy. If I had, I wouldn’t have let Dallas threaten me, shove me around, knock me to my knees.

What might have happened if Gray hadn’t shown up when he did?

Bile climbed my throat, and I grabbed my fresh coffee and took a quick gulp to swallow it down. It was too hot, scalding my tongue, but at least it drove thoughts of Dallas from my mind.

The delicious raspberry-chocolate aroma translated to a sad imitation of the flavor once it was in my mouth. Why did it always smell so much better than it tasted? Maybe Grandpa was right to want his old-school coffeepot.

I took another swallow anyway and headed back to my office. My phone buzzed with a text just as I sat down, and I pulled it out, grateful to delay just a few seconds longer.

Allison:

I checked out your crush online. HOTTT.

She’d attached the same photo of Gray I’d been drooling over in my office. I grinned as flutters broke out at the memory of the kiss.

I typed back a quick response.

Emory:

You’re distracting me at work. I’m very busy and important.

Allison:

One is never too busy for some friendly stalking.

Emory:

You should put that on a greeting card.

Allison:

Obsess with me! You kissed a boy and you liked it!

Emory:

Okay, yes, I did! I liked it a lot! But I have so much work.

Allison:

Meet me for lunch. We’ll gush properly.

Emory:

And start up more gossip that we’re desperately in love?

Allison:

Screw it. Better yet, screw Gray and let people think what they want.

My heart lurched. I liked Gray. He was gorgeous, in an edgy, bad-boy sort of way. Though he’d most definitely been the good guy Saturday night. I’d felt safe with him. But screw him? Judging by my reaction to Dallas’s fondling, I was so not ready to jump into the deep end.

I needed to wade into my sexuality, adjust to the new temperature, before I tried to swim.

But…

I really, really would love to swim with Gray. Once I could take off my floaties and be a big boy, that was.

I confirmed lunch plans with Allison, then forced myself to open the first file folder and get to work.

The Morrisons were six payments behind on their business loan. My heart sank. The loan had allowed Jerkers, an old-school soda shop, to revive a closed-down business that had been a historic part of Riverton for decades.

No. We had to get them back on track. I dashed a quick note onto a Post-it. Historic grant, community foundation? Fundraiser opportunity? We need to save this place!

I set the folder aside and opened the next one. The foreclosure. Fuck. There was no saving this situation.

With a heavy heart, I picked up the phone and delivered the bad news. Marie Garza took it about as well as could be expected.

“We really tried,” she said. “Times have been so hard.”

“I’m really sorry it’s come to this. Our hands are tied on this one because of the underwriting.”

“Oh, honey, I know you all did what you could.” She sighed. “Jasper got laid off. We’ve reached out to a bankruptcy lawyer. He told us we might actually end up better off.” She gave a sad laugh. “Isn’t that just a sad state of affairs? I wanted to be responsible, keep paying, but with one step, we can be debt-free. It’s too late to save the house, of course, but my mama’s got space for us until we get on our feet. I sure didn’t want this to happen, but it’s almost a relief to be at the end of the road.”

Damn. She was so matter-of-fact about losing her home. It almost made me sadder that she accepted it so easily.

“Good luck. If we can do anything for you in the future…”

“Honey, my credit will be shit,” she said with a laugh.

“You’ll rebuild it,” I said as Allison stepped into the doorway. “We’ll do what we can to help you with that, Mrs. Garza.”

“Oh, call me Marie. Gosh. I’m not your mother!”

“Okay, Marie. Take care.” I set down the receiver with a sigh and glanced at the clock. I’d gotten so caught up that I’d lost track of the time. “Sorry. I guess it’s lunchtime already, huh?”

“Yeah. How was Marie ?” she teased. “You keep charming all the ladies and gossip about us won’t be your only problem.”

“Ha. Funny. Ladies aren’t really on my mind today.”

She smirked. “I bet not. Let’s go stuff our faces and talk about your cute little crush.”

“Hmm, yeah. Let’s go to Jerkers, okay?”

I should give them the news face-to-face, but that wasn’t why I wanted to go. I’d been craving a burger and shake ever since I came across their file. Just one more reason I needed to save the dang place. I grabbed the Post-it note I’d written for Allison so I’d remember to ask her about it and stood.

“Craving grease, huh?” Allison teased. “I can live with it. I don’t know if my clogged arteries can, but what the heck? Life is short, anyway.”

I grinned. “That’s right. You could be hit by a bus tomorrow.”

“A bus made of trans fats and grease,” she joked.

“Exactly.” I rounded the desk, accidentally knocking the third file folder off the desk, the one I hadn’t looked at yet. Papers spilled out over the floor. “Shit.”

“Here, I’ll help,” Allison said, crouching down.

We gathered the papers up together. Allison paused, eyes scanning over a page with a frown.

“Oh, you shouldn’t read that.” I held out a hand. “Privacy issues.”

“Sorry.” She handed it over. “It’s just that the name caught my eye. I didn’t know the Forresters were in financial trouble.”

“What?” I looked down, and sure enough, right there in black and white, I saw Forrester & Sons Auto, followed by a deadline to pay off the debt.

Fifty thousand dollars, and only three weeks to pay it before we collected on the collateral. Shit.

“Emory?” Allison touched my shoulder. “You okay, babe?”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “I really liked him. Gray, I mean.”

“Well, yeah, I know. But why are you saying that past tense?”

Carefully, I slid the files back into the folder and placed it on my desk. I blew out a breath and shook my head. “Do you really think he’s going to want the guy who’s going to take away his family business?”

Her eyes widened. “Is that what’s going to happen?”

I shrugged helplessly. “I can’t imagine it’ll end well.”

I’d thought delivering bad news to friends and neighbors was difficult. But giving it to the guy who’d rescued me and given me the best kiss of my life?

That was so much worse.