The After of Us (Judge Me Not #4)(17)

“Great, thanks,” I murmur as I try to continue to play it cool.

Kay is persistent, though. “You sure you don’t remember Emma?” she presses as she cocks her head, probably curious as to how I could forget Emma Metzger.

I’m trying to play it off, for my brother, who is watching my every reaction. I’m sure he’s worried that if I’m still hot for Emma—which, if she looks as good as she did back when we were teens, I sure as hell will be—it’ll somehow cause trouble. See, like Kay mentioned, Emma is Missy’s cousin. And Missy is married to Chase’s business partner, Nick Mercurio.

“Um, I don’t think I remember her,” I maintain, to keep up the farce.

Chase, as suspicious as Kay of my strangely foggy memory, says, “You met Emma at our wedding reception. Spent quite a bit of time with her, as I re—”

“That was, like, seven years ago, dude,” I interject.

“You sat and talked with her half the night, Will.”

“Yes,” Kay chimes in, always supportive of Chase. “You two talked for hours. I remember you telling Emma about your plans for college, even. Chase and I were sitting at the same table for a while, that’s how I know what you talked about. And, actually, now that I think on it further, I also remember you sharing how you were hoping to someday publish that comic book you were working on at the time.”

Oh, yes, that one-time dream. Sighing, I push regret aside.

I better fess up, or this will get weird. “Oh, yeah,” I say, like it just dawned on me who this girl is. “Emma Metzger, right. I remember her now. She was the girl with the long, silky black hair and the really blue eyes, right? Kind of resembles Mila Kunis in the face?”

Emma was gorgeous back then. But there was more than that driving my attraction to her. She was cool, and we really hit it off that night. I talked with her for a long time, sharing things I only shared with Cassie at the time.

But then I f*cked it all up.

At the end of the night, Emma asked me to walk with her out to Missy’s car, so she could grab a hair tie or some shit. I knew it was her ploy to get us alone, which was fine with me.

Emma lingered at her cousin’s car, even after she retrieved her hair-thingy. I thought she was so freaking beautiful. And her body was bangin’, all perky tits and long-ass legs. I was so used to tiny Cassie, and here was this girl who could almost look me in the eye.

And she did exactly that.

I remember getting lost in her eyes, mesmerized by their varying shades of blue, churning and stormy, like the sea. I wanted to kiss her right then, hard and unyielding. And I knew she wanted me to make a move. After all, providing an opportunity to kiss was the real reason we’d snuck off to be alone.

But then I panicked.

I’d only ever been with Cassie at that time, even kissing-wise. Embarrassed, I ended up acting like the fifteen-year-old boy that I was.

There was Emma, giving me her best seductive “kiss me you idiot” look, and what did I do?

I stumbled back and told her, “We should probably go back inside. It is my brother’s wedding reception, after all, and I don’t want to be rude.”

She blushed so deeply I actually watched her cheeks turn from pink to red, clear even in the dim glow of the street lamps.

“Yes, of course,” she said.

Embarrassed—so embarrassed—she sounded absolutely mortified. At fifteen, there we stood, pretty much shattered—me by my own stupidity, and her, by me.

And I had no clue how to fix it.

“I’m sorry,” I said in a rush. “I’m just not—”

“—that into me,” she finished for me, brushing past me, all huffy. “No need to explain, Will.”

“No, it’s just… It’s not that,” I tried to explain. “That’s not the reason at all.”

I reached for her arm, to stop her from leaving, but she ducked away. “Leave me alone,” she hissed.

“At least, let me walk you back inside,” I begged.

She hesitated, but when I stepped toward her, she backed away and held up her hand. There were tears in her cat-like eyes. “Seriously, Will, just stay away from me, please.”

“But—”

“Will…”

She choked back a sob, and I acquiesced. “Okay.”

That was the last time I ever saw Emma Metzger. My few visits back to Harmony Creek since that day, I never bothered to look her up. First, there was Cassie to think of, and then I just got too busy with school.

But now I have to see Emma, to ask her if she’ll watch my kid. A kid I didn’t even know I had until three days ago. Fuck. My. Life.

Chase is eyeing me more suspiciously than ever now that I’ve grown so quiet. He knows something happened that night.

“Yeah, that would be Emma,” he finally confirms, referring to my earlier question.

“This is so great,” Kay innocently chimes in. “You two will have a chance to catch up.”

Under his breath, Chase mutters, “Don’t encourage him.”

“Dude.” I roll my eyes at him.

What does he think happened that night? And what does he think I plan to do now? Hook up with Emma?

Truthfully, though, I wouldn’t pass up a second chance with her. Like I said, she was hot back then, and I’m sure she’s even hotter all grown up. She must be. Chase wouldn’t be so worried about me making a move on her if she wasn’t still cute.