Loving the Best Man (Friends & Lovers Book 2) (10 page)

A couple of days later, Emerald woke up alone in her own bed, relieved to get a chance to sleep in but feeling lonely. It was Christmas but there was no sign of Christmas in her little studio apartment. She’d taken gifts to Robyn and Olivia the day before when she’d gotten off work and received a lovely cashmere sweater from Robyn and Devin. The only presents she still had were for her father and SM3, and they weren’t even wrapped. She’d dropped them into gift bags.

She imagined Lincoln waking up with his family and having Christmas breakfast. She and her father had never had a Christmas tradition. They’d always gotten up at whatever time, assuming he was off from whatever job he had, and eaten anything for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Once in a while he’d buy a turkey and she’d bake it but there had been times that they’d had sandwiches or pizza for dinner. Sometimes there was a stepmother or girlfriend to share the meal with them and other times they’d eat alone or not at all.

Shawn didn’t have many family members. The few that Emerald knew about lived in the south. She’d never known her mother’s family. Her father had once explained that once her mother died, they’d cut all ties with him and hadn’t cared about baby Emerald.

The previous Christmas had been their first with Samantha. Emerald had cooked a turkey and made a couple of things to go with it. They’d eaten ice cream for dessert. Emerald expected a much bigger affair this year, since some of her father’s in-laws were going to be there.

She turned over, wishing that she’d accepted Marjorie Phillips’ invitation to Christmas dinner. Every Christmas Eve, various members of the Phillips family and Jamison family gathered at the Phillips home. It was a long running tradition that Emerald had been invited to since childhood.

There had been a couple of times that she’d stopped by on Christmas evening but she rarely joined them. Whenever she was done with her father, she’d go back home.

It was nearly eleven and she got out of the bed, stunned that she’d slept that long. She made herself a quick bagel and ate it before taking a shower. She lingered in the shower, knowing that the day would be anything but relaxing. Just thinking about SM3 cooking Christmas dinner was enough to make her uneasy.

Her phone rang as she began to dress. She adjusted her bra and picked the phone up. It was a text message from Robyn, wishing her a Merry Christmas. She smiled and hit a fast reply then went back to dressing. Although she knew it was freezing cold outside, she put sheer stockings on and dressed in a long-sleeved cream colored scalloped lace dress. It came down to her knees and she put her feet into a pair of her highest heels. She knew that she shouldn’t bother getting dressed up but dressing nicely made her feel good and she needed a pick-me-up.

She stood at her mirror, undecided over what to do with her hair. She finally did several twists, pulling them all into a ponytail. She decided against makeup, settling on simple clear gloss for her lips.  She put all of the food that Samantha had requested into a bag and also packed herself a bag of snacks.

She put her coat on and grabbed her purse. She felt a little foolish dressed as she was in the arctic-like temperature. Her car took a long time to warm up and her teeth were chattering by the time it did. She blasted the heat and began driving to her father’s house.

The streets were very empty and she made it to the house in about fifteen minutes. Parking was a whole other matter. After driving around several times, she was forced to double-park the car. She’d take SM3 the bag of food she’d asked for and then go back to looking for a spot.

She could hear the laughter and yelling before she even knocked on the door. A man she didn’t recognize opened the door. He was thin and at least a foot taller than her with creamy brown skin and dark brown eyes.

“Hey,” He said, stepping back so that she could enter. “You must be Shawn’s daughter.”

“Emerald,” She said, sticking out her hand for him to shake. He surprised her by kissing the back of her hand instead. Shivering from the cold she gave him a quick smile before turning to everyone. There were about a dozen people and the only one she knew was her father.

He jumped up from his spot on the end of the couch and gave her a hug.

“Hi, baby,” He said as they hugged. “Take your coat off; let me introduce you around.”

“I’m Deon,” the man who’d let her in said, standing very close to them. “I’m Samantha’s nephew.”

“Nice to meet you,” Emerald said politely. “Where
is
Samantha? I need to give her this stuff. I couldn’t find a parking spot, Daddy. I have to go back out and try again.”

“I’ll take it to her.” Shawn took the bag. “She’s in the kitchen with her mother.”

Emerald became aware that everyone was looking at them and some of the conversations had stopped. She was used to being stared at. As a reasonably good looking woman, it had happened often. What she didn’t like were the frowns that a couple of the women gave her.

She waved and told her father, “I’ll be back soon. I can’t leave my car double-parked.”

“I’ll go with you,” Deon said, already reaching for a coat.

“You don’t have to,” Emerald began to say although her father was grinning as if he liked the idea.

“Damn, D,” A male voice teased. “Don’t hurt yourself now.”

Deon sneered at someone behind her and put his coat on.

“Be back.” Emerald walked out of the door with Deon behind her. They quietly got into her jeep and she shivered in her coat as she turned the key in the ignition.

“Shawn has been telling us a lot about you,” Deon said conversationally.

“Oh, really?” She feigned interest in what her father had said about her. The truth was, she didn’t care what her father had said about her or what anyone thought about her.

“He said you work for 50G, the gaming company.”

“Yeah, I do.” She turned the corner.

“That must be cool.”

“I’m not a designer or anything important like that,” Emerald said, frowning at a car that was just pulling into a space. She’d just missed it.

“So what do you do there?”

“Receptionist.”

“I work at Kent & Sayers,” He said as if she’d asked.

“The publishing company?” She inquired, not because she cared but because she felt it would be rude not to.

“Yeah,” He replied eagerly.

She didn’t say anything else. They drove in silence for about a minute and she shook her head, driving further and further away as she looked for a parking spot.

“I can drop you off,” She offered after she’d gone around a couple of times.

“Nah, it’s okay.”

She could already tell that Deon was interested in her. Unfortunately for him, she had zero interest in him. When she wasn’t interested in someone, she usually didn’t hesitate to let them down, sometimes gently but sometimes harshly.

It was different with Deon. They’d just met and he was a part of Shawn’s extended family, although he might not be for very long. Still, she didn’t want to cause conflict so she’d try to find a way to be nice to Deon when it was time to let him down. Maybe she’d have to tell him point blank about Lincoln, not that she intended to go into any details.

Just thinking about Lincoln was enough to cause flutters in her stomach. They hadn’t seen each other since very early Christmas Eve morning, when he’d dropped her off at her apartment. She hoped she’d get to see him that night. She didn’t know what time he’d be done with his family. They hadn’t really discussed it.

She’d wanted to bring it up but after she pushed so hard for her independence and for distance, she hadn’t wanted to give Lincoln the wrong idea. Asking or insinuating that she wanted him to leave his family for her on Christmas would be a huge deal.

She was so caught up in her thoughts of Lincoln that she almost missed a parking spot. Deon pointed it out to her and she hurriedly backed her Jeep in. She turned off the car and got out then grabbed the other bags out of the back seat.

“Need some help?” Deon asked, coming around the car to where she was.

“No, thanks,” Emerald answered, a phony smile on her face. “They’re light.”

The parking spot was two blocks from her father’s house and she hurriedly began walking, her legs already stinging from the cold air.

“Is it always this hard to get parking around here?” Deon asked.

“No, usually just on holidays.” She answered him without looking at him, trying to convey her disinterest without words. If she was lucky, he’d get the hint before it could become awkward.

“I have my own house,” He said, as if that was supposed to impress her. “It has a garage.”

“Hmm.” She did her best to hide her annoyance.

They were quiet for the rest of the walk to the house and she was so glad to enter the warm house. She forced herself not to let her teeth chatter and hung up her coat.

“Got a spot?” Shawn asked.

“Yeah, finally,” Emerald answered. “A couple blocks away.”

“Don’t you look beautiful,” Shawn said, approaching her and handing her a cup of coffee.

“Thanks, Dad,” Emerald answered and sipped the coffee gratefully. It was light and sweet, with a ton of cream and sugar. Even the simplest details about her eluded Shawn so she hadn’t expected him to remember that she liked black coffee.

“Yeah, Shawn,” Deon chimed in smoothly, “You didn’t tell us that Emerald was so beautiful.”

Someone snickered.

“Thank you, Deon.” She said before her father led her around the living room to introduce her to Samantha’s family.

Samantha’s sister and brother-in-law were there, along with their adult three kids. Latrice and Tiffany were the two women who had given Emerald dirty looks earlier. Deon was their brother. The other people were a couple of Samantha’s cousins with their significant others. After greeting everyone, Emerald went with her father to the small kitchen to be introduced to Samantha’s mother.

Her name was Jean Webb and she was very friendly. Emerald liked her right away and decided to stay in the kitchen. She put her purse and bags, including the gifts, under the sink. Although her father was in the living room he was occupied playing host to everyone and she didn’t want him to have to watch her things. She didn’t know that anyone was a thief but she was always cautious with her belongings.

Emerald was thrilled to see that Jean was doing most of the cooking and seemed a very capable cook. Samantha chopped vegetables and stirred the contents of the pots cooking on the stove.

Emerald drained her coffee and poured herself another cup. Black with one sugar the way she liked it. She heard her phone ring and fished it out of her purse. There was a burst of joy inside of her when she saw that it was Lincoln calling.

“Hello,” She hurriedly answered, going to a corner of the kitchen in a vain attempt to get some privacy.

“Merry Christmas,” He said, his voice low.

“Merry Christmas to you too.”

“How’s your day going?”

“It’s good,” She said, “I’m in the kitchen with my stepmother and her mother, just hanging out while they cook dinner.”

“My sister’s cooking dinner,” Lincoln said, “And my mother’s helping her out.”

“Do you have a lot of family over?” It sounded very quiet in the background.

“A good amount of aunts, uncles and cousins. Plus my grandmother. I’m hiding out in my old room. I needed some peace and quiet for a minute.”

“Oh, that explains why I don’t hear anybody.”

“I couldn’t call you with any of them around. I already spoke to my friends so they’d want to know who I was on the phone with this time.”

“Oh, so no one knows about me?” She teased, smiling.

“I didn’t say that,” His own tone was light and teasing. “My parents do. And so does Ally.”

“Let me guess,” Emerald said, rolling her eyes, “Grace’s comment?”

“My sister already suspected something was going on before that whole thing with Grace’s comment. And now that she saw what everyone wrote, she feels so sure of herself.”

“I’ve heard that twins have some crazy weird connection.”

“It’s true,” Lincoln conceded. “But in this case, Ally was just being bossy and nosy.”

She laughed. She’d only met his sister a handful of times throughout the years but she did seem like a bossy but loving sister.

“So did you get everything you wanted?” He asked, his own tone teasing.

“Maybe I will…tonight…” She whispered. A more obvious invitation couldn’t be given.

“I’ll be there.” He whispered too. A thrill ran through her and she wanted to leave at that very moment. They stayed on the phone for a few more minutes before hanging up.

Something he’d said replayed in her mind and her heart began to pound. His parents knew about them.

“Was that your boyfriend?” Jean asked as she put icing on a cake.

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Samantha said. “Shawn must not know about it because he told Deon that you’re single.”

“
What
?” Emerald shouted. She didn’t know where to begin.