Page 167 of Slumming It

"Nothing," he said. "But I'm just saying, if she's not dating someone now, she will be soon enough. And do you wanna know whatyou'llbecome?"

"What?"

"A bigger asshole than you are now."

Probably. But I would rather be an asshole a thousand times over than cause Emily any more grief. It didn't help that her final criticisms of me had turned out to be justified.

Last week, I'd tracked down my foster mom to get some answers that were long overdue. Yeah, I'd had to pay for the truth, but it had been worth every penny to learn that she'd forged that police report just like Emily had implied.

Andwhyhad she forged it?

It was because she had been worried about losing her meal ticket – yeah, I meant me – after Emily's family had starting making noises about taking me home to live with them instead.

Wasn'tthata kick in the teeth?

If things had played out just a little differently, I might've been Emily's stepbrother instead of what I'd become.I might've had a family.

But I wouldn't have hadher –or at least, not in the way I wanted.

Talk about messed up.

When I remained silent, Slade said, "I hear she's going back to work."

That got my attention. "Where?"

"At that pancake house."

The hell she was. I'd pulled some secret strings to make sure she was rehired at the bank. The teller job was nice and safe, with no graveyard shifts required.So why was Emily waitressing?

If it was a matter of money, I could solve that in a heartbeat–not that she ever would let me.

More to myself than to Slade, I said, "Fuck."

But Slade just kept going. "And the wayIhear it, you're not the only one who's broken." His eyebrows lifted. "You know whatthatmeans?"

"What?"

"If she's the one you want, you'll go back there now and make it right." He paused to let that sink in before adding, "For both of your sakes."

Chapter 65

Emily

Already, a whole month had passed since I'd last seen him in person.

But Ihadcaught glimpses of him from time to time in the news or on social media. As far as I could tell, he wasn't dating anyone new, but that was a cold comfort in the dead of night when I couldn't stop myself from asking what might've happened if only I'd handled things differently.

What if I'd been kinder when I'd gone to see him?

What if I'd stuck around?

What if I'd given him even an hour to digest everything I'd learned from my mom before expecting him to give up twenty years of bitterness solely on the word of someone he had known for barely a month?

But I couldn't turn back time.

So now, I was getting on with life as best I could – except it wasn't so simple. To my surprise, Vivian had not only returned to that internship in Chicago but had also decided to accept an extension to the original term.

As far asourlittle hotel, it was now closed for renovations – or at least that was the official story. The real story was that Vivian was having second thoughts about buying the place at all, and Mister Dembrowski's son had agreed to put the deal on hold and shutter the entire hotel until next spring, when the arrival of tourism season would give the place a better chance.