All Chapters of FALLING FOR MY BEST FRIEND'S FATHER : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Marcus stood abruptly, moving around his desk with predatory grace. "And what exactly have you decided?"Emma rose to meet him, refusing to be intimidated by his proximity. "That we're adults. That we can have a conversation without falling apart. That avoidance was making everything worse.""So what?" Marcus stepped closer, his eyes blazing. "You're just going to pretend you feel nothing? Look me in the eye every day and act like that night in the kitchen didn't happen? Like you weren't seconds away from letting me—""Stop," Emma interrupted, her voice steady despite her racing heart. "Not here. Not now. You have a conference call with her in fifteen minutes, and I have reports to finish. We do this later as we agreed. Properly."Marcus stared at her, and Emma could see the war raging behind his eyes, the desperate need to push this now, to demand answers, to close the distance between them and damn the consequences.But finally, he stepped back. "You're right. Tonight. My office. Se

Lily just disappeared into the adjoining room to finish getting ready, and just like that easily, carelessly, without any awareness of what she had just done, she had left Marcus and Emma in the same place again.They sat at the table.Emma pulled up the email on her iPad. Marcus turned his chair slightly toward hers. Not close enough to touch. Close enough that the warmth of him reached her before anything else did.They looked at the floor plan. Or they pretended to."The east entrance is the main guest flow," Emma said, keeping her voice professional."And the stage?""Centered. The coordinator wants us on the left side for the first hour, then we rotate to —""Emma." She stopped. Her fingers stayed flat on the keyboard. She didn't look at him."What?" she said.He didn't answer immediately. She could feel him looking at the side of her face with an intensity that had no business being directed at someone reviewing a venue floor plan."You stopped avoiding me," he said. Low. Almos

Marcus came down the steps and began gathering plates from the far end of the yard. They worked in silence — the specific kind of silence that is too careful to be comfortable."She shouldn't have come," Marcus said finally.Emma was quietly pretending not to know who he meant. Emma looks at him finally. "After she has honored your invitation.""I didn't invite her," Marcus responded without thinking. As Emma didn't say anything again.Another silence. Emma set down the cups and straightened and looked at him directly for the first time since those four unguarded seconds with Lily between them."Marcus," she said quietly, "You don't owe me an explanation."Something moved across his face. Fast. Gone before she could fully read it."I know," he said. But he had explained anyway.And they both knew what that meant, even if neither of them was anywhere near ready to say it out loud.Emma picked up the cups. She walked toward the back door. She could feel his eyes following her, steady an

"Do you know how much I love you?" Serah's voice broke through, sharp like a knife at the side window like it had been thrown. High and cracked at the edges. Nothing like the polished, composed woman who had walked into that dining room twenty minutes ago wearing her beauty like armor. This was different. This was the sound underneath all of that, the real sound. The one people made when the carefully constructed version of themselves finally gave way. Emma closed her eyes. "Do you have any idea?" Serah's voice continued, trembling now, climbing. "Any idea at all what I gave up? What did I wait for? What I told myself every single time you pulled away, that it was just Marcus, that it's just the way he is, that he just needs time — " Marcus's eyes shot open as he stood there silently. Emma caught the shape of it — calm, firm, the voice he used to end conversations, but not the words. Serah didn't let it end. "Don't do that." Sharp. Immediate. "Don't use that voice with m

The fire was generous and orange against the darkening sky. Someone had brought too much food and not enough plates and someone else had brought excellent wine and the kind of music that came from a portable speaker. But somehow it sounded like it belonged to the water. Lily sat between Daniel's children, roasting marshmallows with the focused intensity of someone performing surgery, her small face gold in the firelight.Emma sat slightly apart from the main group on a piece of driftwood, her knees drawn up, her glass of wine barely touched. She had been doing well. She had been perfectly contained and pleasant, and present all evening.And then Priya sat down next to her.Priya was the kind of woman who noticed things. Emma could tell that within forty seconds of meeting her. Warm, yes, and funny, but with eyes that moved thoughtfully over the world and collected information the way some people collected stones, quietly, constantly, without making a production of it."How long have