Chapter 67

I’ve endured being yelled at, hugged and cried on. Yelled at some more, by various members of my family, and I’m now standing in the last address on my tick list of people I owe apologies to. So far, I’ve stood up to it well, and in the end, most of them, minus Leila, have forgiven me for my disappearing act.

Leila is being Leila, and no doubt will come around after she calms down; luckily, her husband, Daniel, is good at restraining her and my apology was pretty much shouted from behind Arrick as Mr. Hunter. kept her lassoed in his arms across their lounge. I’m sure that even Arrick would have little to no chance of being any sort of interference if she actually flew for me. Leila’s an actual psycho.

Now I’m standing in Emma’s kitchen, while her housekeeper alerts her to our presence. Arrick checks his watch, standing beside me with an arm casually around my shoulder. I’ve literally given up trying to point out that maybe he shouldn’t keep touching me, knowing that it’s natural for him, it always has been. We were always this way, and he can’t break the habit of an entire friendship that easily. To him, touching me, being close to me this way, is like breathing, and would be more awkward if he stood feet apart with a gap between us.

As much as I like to think that Jake and he are not alike, I guess he does have that same touchy-feely thing going for him when it’s someone he is really close to anyway.

“Jake should be arriving home any minute, when he gets here, we’ll go out and give you two a little time.” He kisses my temple reassuringly, causing me to become a bundle of nerves I’m not sure it relates to seeing Emma at all. He knows how important Emma is to me and I want to be alone with her to talk properly.

“Sophie”. Emma’s voice rings out from behind us and she envelops me as soon as she walks in, that bump making an awkward obstacle, but it feels better than good and instantly I lose all the fear and tension in those loving little arms. Emma pulls back and regards me closely.

“You silly girl. I’m only glad you had the sense to call us.” Emma kisses me affectionately on the cheek and slips her arm in mine as she pulls me back towards the low table to our familiar place to chat. Arrick lingers back as the housekeeper follows and prepares a tray of refreshments. It’s late, getting on into evening and we should head home soon, give her space to rest and put the kids to bed, but I had to see her tonight. I had to make sure she was okay and knew that I was too.

“I’m sorry, Emma. Jake said you were really stressed. I’m sorry if I put you through that. I’m sorry I ran. I just didn’t know what else to do.” I sit down with her, opposite each other at the kitchen table, while the housekeeper lays out the glasses and cakes in front of us, freshly baked I guess, as they smell divine. Once she tends to us, she ups and leaves to go to other duties with a nod. Emma smiles her away, looking genuinely thankful for the woman’s care.

“Your dad realized how stupid the rehab thing was once he calmed down. I think he blames himself to be honest.” Emma regards me with a gentle nod and pushes a glass of iced tea towards me. “Were’ just glad that Arrick came and got you. Best thing right now is being with him. Jake called and told me that you have big plans ... How about you tell me all about them.” Emma beams at me, smiles past me at Arry too, appreciatively. I’m feeling less uptight now I’m here with her and I can see that she is clearly fine and not stressing herself into early labor or laid out in bed. I’m a little more than relieved.

Almost as if on cue, the appearance of Jake behind Arrick at the door causes major disturbances with his children running crazily in with him and chasing off after the nanny in a fit of screaming giggles; obviously on a sugar high that Jake has inflicted, and he tries to hide the empty ice cream wrappers as he walks in. Emma gives him that knowing look, the one that is a sort of telling off, mixed with a ‘what am I going to do with you?’ smile.

He discards them in the nearest trash can by the kitchen door, slides past his brother and then me, straight through to lean in and plant a steamy kiss on Emma’s mouth, across the table between us. Ignoring our presence until he has stuck his tongue down his wife’s throat for a minute, and the only thing I can do is lean away to give his ass room to get in closer. Emma giggles as he pulls back, fingers trailing his face and jawline while I’m looking anywhere but at them.

“Mmm, strawberry flavored.” Emma kisses him again, this time a little less pornographically and runs a finger over his scruffy, stubbly chin with hugely adoring eyes locked on his. Close enough to make feel incredibly awkward, but Jake has never cared about making a scene when it comes to her. He has eaten her face at just about every family function there has been and makes no apologies for being unable to keep his hands off her.

“I bought an extra tub for later.” He winks suggestively, leans back in, and kisses her, with a smile, lingering a moment, rubbing noses, and grazing his thumb across her cheek in a cute sensual move before pulling back and suddenly noticing we are here. Meanwhile, Emma’s blush just adds to how pretty she looks tonight; he’s put that twinkle back in her eye.

“Hey, you two.” Jake turns with a smile, completely unfazed about that little moment. I’m still trying not to watch the way he always heats his wife up with minimum effort, wondering what it would be like to be that way with someone who’s very close by. Arrick is focused on his cell, oblivious to it all. He never seems to react to his brother’s over amorous behavior, I guess because he too is used to it.

I get a dip in my heartrate at the way he’s looking at the text he received, something in that expression telling me it’s Natasha, as he types a reply with an unreadable frown across his face, honed in and blanking us all out. I can’t help the jolt in my chest, or the way my eyes keep wandering to him, wondering what they are saying to each other and that gut-wrenching bite of jealousy. I swallow it down and take a steadying breath to try to ignore it, that sadness hitting home again, that I will never know that side of him.

“Hey.” I smile at Jake as he ruffles my hair affectionately, dragging my somber expression back to him, he smiles, straightening to stand over me.

“Glad to see you came. And not even bound and gagged as I was expecting.” He winks, with that cheeky Jake grin, before looking across at his brother with a flicker of irritation. He frowns at him and then smiles at me quickly; a weird flash of an unreadable expression, obviously a family trait, and saunters over towards him, gently sucker punching Arrick in the stomach. It makes him almost drop his phone when he jerks in reaction.

“Asshole.” Arrick tuts and ignores the grin aimed his way. Jake throws an arm around his shoulders loosely and rests it there casually. Now equally matched in height and build, these two are undeniably from the same gene pool. He leans in and says something quietly in his ear which gets rewarded with Arry elbowing him in the ribs. Face deadpan as he does so and doesn’t even look up from his cell. Clearly not amused with whatever his brother has just said. Jake hangs around his shoulders, looking decidedly male and not in the least bit weird that he’s cuddling his brother. It just looks dude.

“Coming with the old man to throw some hoops with Hunter?” Jake prods him again, this time in the side, and gets an agitated flinch and frown from Arrick. His voice louder this time and Arry relinquishes his phone to his back pocket with a quick glance at me. I spot that tiny hint of uncertainty, the way he catches my eye, looks down guiltily, and then it’s gone, in the blink of an eye. So to speak.

“Sure, we’ll leave these two alone to do the girl thing. I can once again pound you into the concrete with another set of slam dunks.” Arrick winks at me, suddenly all adoring and not being dodgy anymore, and Jake does exactly the same to Emma, like two bookends. It’s pretty damn freaky how similar they look in that brief second.

It’s a strange moment for me, almost feels like two men leaving their women to chat, like this is the norm and gives me a strange pang in the pit of my stomach. A flutter of genuine wishful thinking, wondering what being in a real relationship with him would be like.

“Pffftt. Shut up, we both know I reign supreme on the court.” Jake shoves him towards the kitchen door playfully and Arrick jabs back with a practiced boxing blow that lightly grazes Jake’s abdomen, his defending hand up and guarding while he makes the cut. It’s not hard to tell that he does it for a living.