In a Rush (Friendship, Rhode Island #2)

by Kate Canterbary

guess it’s nice to know I’m not at the bottom of your list or something depressing like that.” He met my eyes. “You’re the list, Em. You’re it.”

“I’ll be damned.” “What?” I snarled. He smiled at me then, wide and toothy and definitely smug. “Ryan Ralston has a heart,” he said. “I haven’t seen it until now because you left it with her.”

“Am I allowed to touch you?” “Of course,” she said. “Like you’re my wife?” I held my gaze on her hands because I wasn’t prepared to see the reaction on her face. I was even less prepared to hear her say, “I think you mean fiancée. You’re getting ahead of yourself.” I realized then that Emme was going to make me work. Even if this deal of ours was all about getting back at her ex and winning over the Wallaces, I still had to put in the work and fucking earn her. And I would. I wanted to.

So, when I found myself staring into the eyes of the only woman I’d ever loved, I knew it wouldn’t feel like work at all.

We stared at each other. I knew she was thinking we would hurt my family when we split up. But I was thinking we could spare everyone and just keep this ruse going for the next fifty, sixty years.

“Emmeline. Listen to me.” I leveled her with a gaze because we just couldn’t fuck around right now. “I have wanted you for half my life. I don’t remember what it’s like to wake up in the morning without thinking about you. Everything good in my life has your fingerprints on it and you’ve been there for me to lean on through all the bad times.”