Chelsea narrowed her gaze at Jane. “I don’t remember you being such a bitch. Why are we friends again?”
Emma laughed. Being with Jane and Chelsea was good for her. They made her laugh.
“Have you heard from Molly lately?” Jane asked her.
Emma nodded. “I talked to her yesterday.”
“Still in . . . where is she now?”
“She’s still in Little Rock. It hasn’t been that long. She’s usually good for about three to six months before she has to take off.”
“How long has it been since she’s been home?” Chelsea asked, using her chopsticks to slide noodles between her lips.
Emma blew out a breath. “I can’t remember. Too long.”
“Why does she stay away? Or is that too personal a question?”
“She has a hundred reasons. Or excuses. She left kind of abruptly after high school graduation, bailed on her college of choice, even though she had a scholarship. And she’s never come back.”
“I assume you’ve asked her why.” Chelsea slid a wonton into the lively sweet red dipping sauce.
“I’ve repeatedly asked her why. She just says she changed her mind and decided she wanted an adventure instead of school. Which is fine, I mean people change their minds about education all the time. But never coming home? She’s never produced what I consider a good reason. She always tells me that home is wherever she lands, and if she came back to Hope that might signal the end of her adventures, so she’s afraid to do that. But I don’t think that’s it. I think there’s a bad memory here.”
“Something bad happened to her here?” Chelsea frowned.
Emma shrugged. “Not that I’m aware of. Or not that she ever told me, but Molly has always carried her emotions within. She wasn’t one to share. For all I know, she got fired from a job and that scarred her enough to never want to come back.”
Jane gave her a look of disbelief. “Oh, come on. That wouldn’t keep her from coming home. Did she have a guy?”
Emma nodded. “Carter Richards. Molly and Carter were inseparable from the time they were kids. God, since they were twelve up until high school graduation. Until Molly left town.”
“So they broke up when she left?”
“I guess. I was away at school during those last couple years, so I don’t really know what went down with the two of them. As far as I knew, they were still together, still madly in love. They had planned to go to the same college. Carter went to college, but Molly didn’t.”
“So maybe it was something with the two of them. Some bad breakup,” Jane suggested.
“I asked her about it, but she said her relationship with Carter had run its course, and he had nothing to do with her leaving town.”
“Do you believe her?” Chelsea asked.
Emma shrugged. “With Molly, I don’t know what to believe.”
“What about seeing your mom and dad?” Jane asked. “Ten years is a long time to be away from home.”
“They fly out to wherever she happens to live and visit her a couple times a year. And always try to convince her to come home. Or at least they used to. I think over the years they’ve stopped trying.”
“That’s just so odd,” Chelsea said.
Emma scooped rice onto her fork. “Tell me about it.”
Explaining her younger sister to people had never been an easy thing. She wished she and Molly had been tighter, that Molly felt comfortable enough to confide in her. When they were younger, they were so close, would tell each other everything. After Emma went away to college, she lost touch with Molly, which was Emma’s fault. She’d gotten wrapped up in school.
In Vaughn. And he’d taken away everything, including her relationship with her sister. And with that distance, Molly stopped confiding in her.
She’d lost so much because of him. Because of her weaknesses. Which was why she was such a bad judge of relationships.
Of men.
She pushed her plate to the side.
“How are your knees, Emma?” Jane asked.
Happy to not talk about her sister anymore, or dwell on the past, she smiled and said, “Healing. Better. Thanks.”
“Good thing you had the hot cop there to help you. Was he your knight in shining armor?” Chelsea teased.
“Actually, he was more than that. He drove me home, bandaged me up, and settled me on the sofa. Then he ordered pizza, and when I got tired, he tucked me into bed and left.”
Chelsea arched a brow. “I’m surprised he didn’t offer to sleep there.”
Emma took a sip of her tea. “Actually, he did. On the couch, in case I needed anything.”
“Aww, that was so sweet of him,” Jane said.
“It was. Just so very nice of him.” She stared down at her tea, wanting to ask the question but not wanting to appear naïve.
“Will’s like that, too. He always does things that surprise me.”
She lifted her gaze. “Does he? Like what?”
“Well, for example, the other day I got stuck with monitoring detention at school, so he picked up the kids and dropped Ryan off at baseball practice, then got Tabby ready for dance. Can you imagine Will doing Tabby’s hair? But he did, and she looked adorable. He stayed through dance class, then picked up Ryan, and had dinner on the table when I came home.”
Chelsea leaned back in the booth. “He’s a regular Prince Charming, isn’t he? Wherever did you find him?”
“At the gym,” Jane said with a serene smile. “And you dated him. You know what he’s like.”
“I do know what he’s like. But I didn’t have kids, and he and I are better as friends. And hey, I go to the gym. Trust me, there aren’t guys like him there.”
“So you’re saying men like Will—and I guess Luke. That’s not typical guy behavior?”
Chelsea snorted at Emma’s question. “Uh, no. Not all men are nice guys.”
No one knew that better than Emma.
Jane squeezed her hand. “Hang on to Luke, Emma. Trust me when I tell you that great guys aren’t a dime a dozen. When you find a good one, you don’t want to let him go.”
She had a lot of thinking to do.
Chapter 12
IT HAD BEEN a few days since Luke had seen Emma. He’d pulled a couple of double shifts, and he wanted to give her some time to recover. On his breaks, he’d texted her a few times to check on her knees, and she’d texted him back that she was doing fine and healing up fast. He’d been relieved to hear that. He wished he’d had time to stop by and check on her, but damn work had gotten in his way.
Plus, he’d made that whole mental promise to himself that he wouldn’t see her again. She was too hard on his—well, his everything. His libido, for one thing. He knew she wasn’t looking for a relationship, and he sure as hell wasn’t.
The problem was, he kept thinking about her. About that night they’d spent together. He wanted to be with her again. Which was a clear sign that he shouldn’t see her again. Another night together could only spell trouble.
Since this was his day off, he decided to spend it working on his truck, which needed way more maintenance than his screwed-up love life. After a punishing workout at the gym in the morning, he went home, took a shower, and headed to his friend Carter Richards’s flagship auto-repair shop, the first of the many he’d opened in his growing chain.
He didn’t expect to see Carter coming out of his office as he entered the shop.
“Surprised to see you here. I thought you’d be at one of your other shops in Tulsa.”
Carter gave him a grin. “I had some . . . personnel issues to deal with here today.”
“Fired someone, huh?”
“Yeah. And now I want some coffee. You up for it, or do you need to leave?”
“I have time. I was dropping the truck off for some diagnostic work anyway.”