A Hot Winter (New Adult Romance) (The Attraction Series Book 2) (18 page)

“You didn’t tell Mom about Matt and me, did you?” Emma asked, as she tucked her cell phone into her shoulder and gathered some road trip essentials.  Granola bar, bagel with peanut butter, travel mug of Columbian coffee.  She’d filled up her gas tank earlier so she could head straight onto the highway, and she was beyond ready to go pick up her sons. 

“No, of course not,” Andy said, “I wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, good.”

Andy joked, “Why, are you afraid the idea of
two
blue-collar sons-in-law might send her over the edge?”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Emma warned.

“Actually, I’m being unfair. Having Tragan in our lives has made Mom much less of a snob these days,” Andy noted.

“I mean don’t joke about me getting married.”

“Oh, sorry.  So…what
will
happen with you and Matt when you go?”

Uncomfortably, Emma shrugged, as she stuffed an extra charger in her bag.  “Nothing,” she said, zipping it closed.  “He’ll go on doing whatever he was doing before he met me.  We’ll probably stay in touch as friends, you know, over email.”

Andy sounded tentative when she asked, “Don’t you think you guys might continue to see each other?”

“I don’t see how,” Emma said simply.

“What do you mean you don’t see how?” Andy questioned.  “People have long distance relationships all the time.”

Suppressing a sigh, Emma replied, “Well, I can’t speak for what ‘people’ do; I only know what’s realistic for me.  I’ve been with my sons practically every single night of their lives.  I’m not going to stick them with some babysitter now, so I can go off and visit a guy for the weekend.  Sorry, that’s not me.”

“Right, I see that, but it’s not like it would be ‘some babysitter.’ It would be their grandparents,” Andy pointed out, referring to Connor’s mom and dad.

“Ha!” Emma said cynically.  “I’m sure that’ll go over real well--when I tell
Dina
about my pressing plans for the weekend.”

Sighing into the phone, Andy admitted, “Fine, maybe the idea of you visiting Matt isn’t that realistic.  But he could visit you.  You said Jake and Ben like him--”

“I’m sure that would get old fast,” Emma interrupted, rolling her eyes to no one.  “Matt works a physically demanding job all week.  How often do you think he’s going to shove a ten-hour road trip into his weekend?  Come on.”

“There
are
flights…” Andy mumbled quietly, and Emma decided to put an end to this discussion. 

“Enough,” she said.  “Look, I’ve already laid out for you the logistical issues here.  Not to mention, it would be confusing for Jake and Ben if Matt came every once in a while, and then stopped coming altogether.  I can’t do that to them.”  Before her sister could say anything, Emma pressed on, “Andy, I may be very rusty with man-woman stuff, but even I know not to confuse sex with love.  Matt’s a fun guy and I like him, but not every relationship is built to last.  You should know that--look at you and Brad.  Sometimes something is just what it is.”

~

On her drive to New York, Emma received a call from Dina that, for an irrational moment, made her contemplate tossing her Bluetooth out the window.

“What time will you be here?” Dina had asked.

“I’m about an hour away now.”

“Great!  Because I found a copy of your wedding video!” Dina nearly squealed.  If Emma wasn’t driving, she would have closed her eyes and prayed for patience.  Instead, she opted for a more immature option: rolling her eyes dramatically.  It wasn’t that Dina was doing anything wrong.  That was the most frustrating part.  Emma shouldn’t feel annoyed whenever Dina raised Connor from the dead, because he was her only child.  As a mom, Emma understood why she needed to do it.  It was just…

God, it was so damn hard to listen to sometimes.  Still, Dina prattled on cluelessly.  “And I mean the full,
extended
version.  Not just the ceremony!  You know, all the girls getting ready in their dresses and…”  Emma tried to tune her out, as rude as that was, because remembering her wedding day and how hopeful she and Connor had been never seemed to make her as happy as it made her in-laws. 

Finally she tuned back in when she heard Dina say, “So I wanted to show it to the boys, but we’ll wait till you get here.  Then we can all watch it together.” 

“I, uh…I don’t know if I want to show the boys that video today,” Emma told Dina, then feeling the need to assuage her, offered lamely, “I can take it with us, though…”

“I don’t understand,” Dina persisted.  “Why can’t Jake and Ben see the video?  They were too young before, but surely now they’re old enough to appreciate it.”

“Because…”  Emma struggled to find the words to explain.  “Now is not the time.  They’re excited about Christmas and I just want them to feel happy right now.”

“Seeing a video of their
father
will make them even happier,” Dina asserted.  “And they can see how happy you two were!  How much you loved each other and were excited for Jake to be born.”

The tip of Emma’s nose burned.  No, she couldn’t let herself get emotional right now.  She made an effort to keep her voice even and calm.  “I’ve shown them a video of Connor before.  He’d made a short video to us the first time he was sent overseas.”

Dina urged, “But this is his
wedding
; Jake and Ben should see that.”

“That video is too long and…”  Emma’s voice broke off as she thought angrily:
And
I
don’t want to watch it.  I don’t want to think about how Connor was taken away from us.  I don’t want to cry in front of them.  I don’t want to think about how painful love has been. 
Regrettably, when she spoke again, her tone was a bit sharp.  “Dina, I will show the boys the wedding video when
I’m
ready to show it.  When
I
feel that they’re ready to watch it.”  Uncomfortably, she cleared her throat.  “As I said, we’ll take it with us.”

A long, tense silence followed, before Dina responded. 

“I see,” she said tightly.

Inhaling a shaky breath, Emma fibbed, “Well, I’m coming up to a toll now, so I’m going to get going.  I’ll see you soon.”

“Right.  Bye.”

Well, that had gone horribly.  Before Emma could soothe her frayed nerves, her phone rang again. 

“Hey, it’s me,” Matt said, his deep voice like a thick warm blanket wrapping around her. 

She sighed.  “Hi.”

“Is everything okay?  What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing.  Just…frustrated.”

“Road rage?”

With a mirthless smile, she said, “Something like that.”

“Listen, I forgot to mention earlier, but I noticed that your laundry room is freezing.”

“I know,” Emma replied.

“And there’s some water damage on the window sill,” Matt went on.  “I’d like to put in a storm window.”

Emma said, “Oh, thanks, but don’t bother with that; I’m moving anyway.”

“Yeah, but when people come to look at the house, they’re going to notice.  I’m surprised your realtor didn’t mention it,” he remarked offhandedly.

“Maybe she did,” Emma admitted, trying to recall.  “Between the pizza oven, the skylight, the heated floor tiles and dual shower heads, who knows?  I suppose she might have mentioned the laundry room.”

“Dual shower heads?” Matt echoed, clearly disappointed.  “Damn, Emma, we could’ve been having a
lot
of fun with that.”

A blush came to her cheeks and she grinned.  “Don’t make smile right now.  I’m in a testy mood.”

“Okay.  So what time are you getting back later?”

“Probably pretty late--but, wait.  Um…”  There was something she needed to say to him, and this was probably the best time to say it.  “Matt, now that the boys are coming home, I…I don’t think we should have sleepovers anymore.  You know?  It would just be a confusing message for them.”

“Oh.”  After a pause, he said, “Sure, I understand.  I guess I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Good, I was afraid you’d be mad.”

“No, I’m not mad,” he said.  “It’s just that we don’t have much time left before you go.”

“I know, but we’ll still see each other,” she promised vaguely.  “Maybe during the day, or…you know, we’ll figure it out.”  When he didn’t say anything, she added, “We can talk on the phone--you know, practice the mnemonic devices we talked about.  I meant what I said about wanting to work with you on that.”  She should have quit while she was behind, but she kept babbling.  “Anyway, we’ll both have our own stuff going on, with Christmas being just a few days away.  It’s not like we’ll have a lot of time to get together in person.  And I’ll be busy packing, so…”

Unfortunately, Matt didn’t jump in to humor her or to validate her admittedly transparent attempt to put some distance between them.  He simply said, “All right.” 

Emma bit her lip, feeling torn.  On the one hand, she meant what she said about no sleepovers with Jake and Ben in the house.  On the other, she wanted to reassure Matt that she would miss being with him.  Holding him, lying next to him, making love to him…she would miss all of it, desperately.  But obviously she couldn’t say that.  It would only make it harder when they called it quits in January.

So she said nothing. 

Finally Matt spoke.  “Drive safely then,” he said, his tone clipped.

“Yeah, um, have a nice day,” Emma threw in stupidly.

“Yep.”

When they disconnected, Emma chided herself.  Two awkward, borderline-rude phone calls that she’d caused in a span of fifteen minutes. 
Nice work
, she thought deprecatingly.  Matt was hurt, she could tell.  Well, she was hurting, too, but this was what had to be done.  Besides…

Matt was young enough to bounce back quickly.  He might be the most mature guy she’d met in a long time--but he was still only twenty-three.

When Matt arrived home that evening, Bardo and Pellican appeared to be waiting for him.  “Winter, you’re back.  How, uh, how was your day?” Pellican asked, seeming edgy.

Matt eyed him cautiously.  “Fine, why?”

“No reason.”

Bardo approached Matt next.  “Hey, got a second to talk, bro?”

“Sure,” Matt said, walking deeper into the living room.  Then he heard Bardo ask quietly, “Is he locked in?”

“Excuse me…?” Matt said, confused, angling his head back around.

“Quick, Pellican--block the door!”

Hurriedly, Pellican planted his stocky body in the narrow front hall of Matt’s apartment, and Bardo came up alongside him.  

“Huh…?” Matt said, scrunching his forehead, trying to make sense of the scene:  His friends standing there like a blockade, looking slightly nervous.  Calmly, Matt said, “Okay, you know that I can kick both of your asses, right?  Now obviously I don’t
want
to.  But you’ve got to know that I can.” 

Pellican exchanged an uncertain look with Bardo, who said, “Well, we’re hoping it won’t come to that.  But if it does, for the record, please don’t break my glasses.”

Tired from a long day--not to mention disappointed that he wouldn’t see Emma tonight--Matt dropped into a chair and gave his friends an impatient look.  “What the hell’s going on?”

“An intervention,” Bardo said.

“We know you’ve been seeing Keri,” Pellican explained.

“Wha--no…” Matt began, shaking his head--but Bardo cut him off.

“No use denying it.  It’s obvious.  As soon as Keri appears again, suddenly you’re gone nights, acting all mysterious--”

“And then your truck gets bricked,” Pellican interrupted.  “It was probably that dude, Douglas!  I bet he found out that you and Keri started up again; now he’s gunning for you.”

“
Man
…” Matt uttered under his breath as he rubbed his forehead.  If his head wasn’t pounding at the moment, this would almost be funny.

“Also,” Bardo went on, “I happened to notice last week, when I was looking for floss, that you had a brand new box of condoms under your sink.  Now it’s almost completely empty--and we all know Pellican’s not burning through those at record speed.”

“Oh, shut-up, Bardo,” Pellican griped. 

“What?”

“Look, we say this out of concern,” Pellican intercepted. 

“That girl is poison.”

“Okay, stop,” Matt said, slicing his hand through the air as he stood.  “Enough.  I’m not seeing Keri.”

Both of his friends eyed him skeptically, and Bardo said, “You can tell us the truth.”

“I am.  I haven’t even talked to Keri since that night at the Lamplighter.  And the
truth
is that I’ve got something going with Emma.”

“Who’s Emma again?” Pellican said, confused.

“Andy’s sister.”

“Really?” Bardo said, surprised.  “Well, why didn’t you just tell us that?”

“Because she asked me to keep it quiet at first.  She’s a private person,” Matt explained.  Then he lifted his brows expectantly.  “Well?  Are we done here?”

“
Damn
…you and Andy’s sister,” Bardo murmured appreciatively. 

“Huh,” Pellican said with a nod.  Then he crossed over and flopped on the couch. 

Affably, Bardo clapped Matt on the arm.  “Good talk, bro.”

“Game’s on,” Pellican announced.  Soon Bardo joined him in front of the TV.  Both acted like the whole ludicrous intervention was already a distant memory.  Despite his headache, Matt had to laugh to himself.

As he headed to the bathroom for a shower, Pellican called over his shoulder, “By the way, the heat and hot water are back in my building, so I’m heading home later.  Thanks for letting me crash all this time.”

“No problem,” Matt replied--secretly relieved to have the place to himself again.