Chapter 31

thirty-one

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

“ S o,” Beau drawls slowly, looking around the room before landing where Emery fell asleep curled up in my arms. “Safe to say, Xander is, in fact, not dating a stripper.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I can’t do either with Emery in my arms.

Torryn is the first one to break the ballooning silence of the room, her sharp laugh spilling out of her only to be joined by nearly everyone else.

Zac stares at me bewildered, before looking at Tate for answers, but he’s still giving me the silent treatment. His arms crossed in front of his chest, glaring at me from across the room where he leans against the wall.

“What the fuck?” Zac curses. “What the fuck do you mean?”

Emery stirs in her sleep and I help her settle in my lap until she’s more comfortable, brushing the hair from her face. The panic attack zapped what little energy she’d managed to gain right back out of her. Fucking Becca.

Though it was nice watching her hit the ground, it wasn’t worth the toll it took on Emery .

Megan does pack a mean right hook though. Another reason to be glad to have her around my girl.

Zac glares at me, still waiting for an answer. In fact, just about everyone is staring at me waiting for an answer. “I’m not discussing this without her,” I say simply.

“She’s passed out,” Zac argues, waving to her. “She loses her spot in this conversation.”

“Because she had a panic attack after being roofied by her best friend, jackass,” I snarl, my body tensing and Emery reacts to it even in her sleep. I force myself to breathe evenly and release the tension from my body.

Zac sputters. “You’re making me sound like the asshole.”

“Because you’re being one,” Torryn steps in. “Xander is respecting Em. If you want to respect her, wait until she can be a part of this conversation.”

Before he can argue, Colby puts her hand on his elbow. “Tor is right, Zac.”

“She’s my little sister,” he argues, looking at her with a look of betrayal and I grimace.

We shouldn’t have hid it for so long. Or maybe at all. I knew back then, we were making a mistake, but it seemed like something she needed to do. And if I’m being honest, I was too scared to risk losing her. I think I can finally understand where Emery has been coming from all this time. How infuriating it can feel to have everything boil down to the same singular point over and over again.

“And she’s so much more than that,” I interject. “No one is saying she isn’t your sister, or you don’t have the right to have questions and want answers. But she is not just your little sister. She’s her own person and she should be a part of conversations that involve her.”

Zac’s eyes narrow and his hands turn into fists at his sides. “Fuck off, Xander. Just because you have her attention doesn’t mean you know her better than us.”

“I think I do. When was the last time you guys had a real conversation? When she opened up to you about how she was feeling or the way she thinks or what she wants to do with photography?” Every late night phone call filtering through my mind as I realize how much I didn’t know about her until the last few months.

“Did you know she had been having problems with Becca for months now? Or that the guy who roofied her was harassing her for weeks after a bad date? Or how about that it was her growing friendships with Colby and Megan that helped give her the confidence to even start standing up for herself in the first place? Do you even know how much she struggles to be confident in herself?

“You can be pissed about the choices we made all you want. You can care about her and be protective over her. But what you’re not going to do is sit here and act like you know what she wants and needs when you still see her as some fourteen year old kid. We can talk about everything else, and if you want to punch me, you can. But acknowledge that Emery is growing up first.”

The girl in question groans as she rolls over in my lap, her head slowly lifting as she yawns and stretches her arms over her head.

Fuck me. I got a little too heated and went and woke her up. Goddammit, Zac.

“No one is punching my boyfriend,” she scolds, wiping sleep from her eyes. “Ugh, what a thing to wake up to,” she gripes, but I’m still frozen, my arms banded around her waist. Frozen doesn’t seem like the right word when warmth is infusing my entire body with a level of pride and happiness I’ve never experienced before .

“I brought you a smoothie,” Megan calls cheerfully from across the room.

Fuck that smoothie.

“Your boyfriend?” I ask, all anger completely forgotten as a dopey ass grin spreads across my face. She turns in my arms and gives me a bewildered look.

“What else would you be if not my boyfriend?”

A fair question, but…we’ve never. We never had that talk or used any labels before.

Beau stares at me, mouth gaping, his hand pressed against his temple. His frown deepens the longer I sit like a fish out of water, my mouth opening and closing as all words fail me.

“Please, for the love of hockey, tell me you asked Emery to be your girlfriend properly, Alexander Channing.” Beau being the one to make me squirm in my seat over Em and I was not on my bingo card, but here we are.

“You didn’t even make it official?” Zac’s screech hits an octave I never would have thought he’d be capable of. “Are you fucking using her?”

The question makes my rage boil, but Emery puts her hands on my chest and shakes her head.

“What the fuck is it with you guys and never being able to ask a girl out properly?” Beau mutters, more to himself than anyone else. Emery smiles, amusement shining in her eyes even in this situation.

“I told you he needed our help,” he hisses.

Isla rolls her eyes. “Because it went so well with Baylor?”

“Hey!” Baylor protests. “Extenuating circumstances.”

James studies me, rubbing his hand over his chin. “Xander can follow a plan. I bet he would have stuck to it even in extenuating circumstances.”

“We are getting off topic,” Zac snaps .

“Damn,” Em whispers only for me to hear. “I was hoping that’d sidetrack them.”

I press my forehead against her shoulder, hiding my face as I struggle to keep it straight. My little brat.

“Can you get off his fucking lap?” Zac glares at us and I tighten my grip around her waist. Tate continues to give me a death stare from across the room, not having said a word.

Her hand lands on my arm and gently squeezes. I don’t want to, but I follow her lead. She needs to do this her way.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” She’s already been through so much in the last twenty-four hours. It’s unfair to be putting her through another confrontation.

She gives me a reassuring smile and squeezes my arm, her eyes holding a promise I can trust. She knows what she’s doing.

Reluctantly, I release her and she stands on her own two feet, looking between both of her brothers.

“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,” she says simply, meeting both of their eyes. “But it was my choice. I needed time to see what we could be without interference or your input.”

Tate tenses, something warring in his eyes I can’t understand.

“We only ever did that to protect you,” Zac protests, but Tate cocks his head as if he isn’t so sure about that anymore.

She gives Zac a sad smile. “In protecting me, you hurt me. You guys have deprived me of learning lessons for myself. I love you for caring, but it was time I stepped out of your shadows and made my own decisions.”

“And you decided on him?” The disgust in his voice makes me snort. He’ll never not be an asshole. “He didn’t even ask you to be his girlfriend.”

That’s never going to not be held against me. They’ll never let me forget it .

Emery laughs, shaking her head at him and it strikes me how much she has changed this year. It was only a few months ago she was stomping her foot and screaming at her brothers they were mother fuckers.

“He didn’t need to.”

I should have though. I really should have. The thought had never really crossed my mind until I heard the words come out of her mouth and I realized how much I liked it.

“He’s done absolutely everything else to make sure I know I’m special to him.”

For once, it’s my face that flushes when all the girls trade looks and smiles. Assholes.

“That’s so sweet,” Isla coos.

“They’re so cute,” Megan agrees in a whisper.

Why do we have to do this in front of everyone? It’s making the whole thing so much more dramatic and embarrassing. But it’s too late for that.

Baylor is nodding his head in agreement with them but Tate stays silent through it all. Fuck. This might be even worse than I thought.

Zac opens his mouth to say something else, but Emery lifts her hand to stop him. “I’m not asking for permission and neither is Xander. We are apologizing for not telling you sooner. That is it. If you want to have a problem with it, that’s your choice. It changes nothing for us.”

Even as worried as I am about Tate’s silent glower and stressed about the way this will change things, I’m so goddamn proud of her.

I stand at her side, putting my hand on her hip and kiss the top of her head. Zac and Wilder share a disgusted look and Colby snorts at the pair of them.

Finally, Tate pushes off the wall and I can’t even breathe. He completely disregards me, but his eyes soften as they land on Emery.

“Can I take you out for some ice cream, M&M?”

She hesitates at the softness in his voice and looks back at me with a million questions in her eyes. One thing has been made abundantly clear. Tate and I are not okay.

I give her a nod of encouragement. They both need this and she shouldn’t have to hold back on my account.