10. Drake

A twinge of jealousy tugs at my gut, as I watch her walk away. I cock my head to the side and watch her go.

Zane pursuing her isn't a big deal because I know he has no chance with her. This guy Kade, I don't know him or what he's about.

I'm not jealous, but I don't like the idea of her at dinner with another man. How does that look when my fiancée is at dinner with another man?

Fake fiancée.

I'll go to Matthews' Bar Grill and have dinner by myself, I guess.

I leave the rink and walk directly to the restaurant. The cold air does me good as it clears my head a bit.

Emma and I have gotten closer over the last few days. She's like a completely different person after realizing that I didn't ghost her. It's like the wall she had around herself has been lowered.

My phone vibrates and I glance down to see that Callie is calling.

"It seems that Zane is on the warpath."

"What do you mean?"

"He is telling people that your relationship with Emma is fake, is just for show. He's also telling people that you're not the good person you pretend to be and that he's going to prove it."

"He's a blowhard, I'm not worried about him."

"Well, he's going around asking a lot of people questions in town."

"Again, I'm not worried."

"Zane reached out to Toby's family. Toby's Mom called the rink to talk to you, but you were in a meeting."

"And?"

"Toby's parents didn't tell Zane anything. They won't tell him anything but it's still bothersome that he reached out to them. It means he's gone on a deep dive."

"That's a deep dive for sure."

Toby was my first business partner. We were college roommates and best friends. We went into an incredible tech start-up business as freshmen. The world was our oyster in every sense of the world.

My grades were stellar, I showed up to every football and hockey practice there was. I was playing games and excelling at everything I touched. Toby and I even started a non-profit to provide tech scholarships to underprivileged children.

The problem is that when college guys make a lot of money with no limits, they tend to get stupid. Toby and I both became drug addicts. We were operating and walking upright solely due to cocaine and any other drug that gave us the drive and high we needed.

What I didn't know was that Toby's addiction had caused him to embezzle a lot of money from our non-profit. I didn't find out until a donor, who was on our financial advisory board, learned about it and went to Toby threatening to expose us if he didn't donate three times what the man himself had donated. Toby didn't have it. All of his money went to drugs, sex, and gambling.

I may have had a problem, but my parents enlisted my grandpa as my accountant, and that saved my life and all the money I had. He gave me an allowance so to speak and invested the majority of my money into various places to continue the growth.

When Toby came clean, I had the money to cover the problem. I didn't tell him that. We got into a huge argument, and I told him he could get out of the mess on his own. I was done and would make certain everyone knew he was to blame.

I went to my grandpa, told him what happened, and paid the non-profit what the man had requested, in exchange for him keeping quiet about everything. No one ever learned the truth.

In the meantime, Toby called me a hundred times in a row. There were crazy, belligerent text messages and voicemails in which he was threatening to kill himself if I didn't help him or if I didn't talk to him.

I didn't believe him, of course, and I walked back into our apartment that night five minutes after he had shot himself in the head.

I've never recovered from that. I've never let go of the guilt that grips me.

All of it was covered up. It never came out that money was embezzled or that we'd had a fight over it.

It was the last time I ever drank or put a drug inside my body.

I still feel like it was all my fault. Callie thought my feelings for Emma were what kept me from dating other women, but she was wrong. After that, I didn't reach out to Emma or even start a relationship with anyone else because of the guilt.

I didn't deserve to be loved was my mentality for a very long time. It's taken me a long time to work through that and only recently have I accepted it.

Will it be the end of the world if it all comes to light?

No, because I wasn't the one who embezzled, but it doesn't mean that the league and anyone else won't see it differently. It could end me.

"How did Zane even know about Toby?"

"I don't know," Callie sighs. "He's really livid about you and Emma being engaged. I think he was holding onto some hope that they'd get back together someday."

"He doesn't respect anyone, he can't …" I blow out a breath. "Never mind, it's moot. You think he's doing this out of jealousy?"

"Partly. Zane isn't used to people telling him no or holding him accountable. You do that and he's retaliating like a child."

"Other people's kids, man," I chuckle.

"Toby's Mom reiterated that nothing was your fault, but she wanted you to know that someone was asking questions."

"Thanks, Callie. I need to call her anyway and check in. It's been a while."

I'm standing outside of the restaurant when I hang up with my cousin and walk inside. I'm surprised to see Emma and Kade in a corner booth talking and laughing. Our eyes meet almost instantly and it's clear she thinks that I'm checking up on her.

Dumb luck.

I turn to go toward the bar when I catch Susie's confused look. She greets me with a hug.

"Who's that guy?"

"It's a business meeting."

"For Emma maybe, that guy definitely thinks it's a date."

"I'm not worried about it."

She nods and squeezes my arm. "I'll grab you an appetizer and your usual."

"Thanks."

I find my seat at the bar and pull out my cell phone to see if I have any emails from Loughlin or the league. Callie's phone call has me a little concerned about the lengths to which Zane is willing to go to get rid of me and get his way.

I go to Google and put in Kade's first and last name, Jefferies. I can't find him on social media, which is odd, but I also can't find him anywhere. His digital footprint is nonexistent and, in this day and age, that's strange.

Sometime later, as the bartender and I are having a conversation I see Emma out of the corner of my eye.

"Hey," she smiles as she approaches me.

"Hey, how was your meeting?"

"Informative," she shrugs.

She glances up at Leah, the gorgeous dark-headed, and voluptuous bartender who's been talking and laughing with me all night. Emma moves closer and breathes in my ear.

"My door will be unlocked if you want to stop by when you're done here."

I nod. My pants immediately tighten at the thought of burying myself inside Emma.

"I'm not going to your apartment tonight."

Her eyes flash before she darts a glance back at Leah.

"Okay."

I reach into my pocket and pull out the spare key I had made for her. "You're going to come back to my house tonight. I'll see you at ten."

"I'm not a call girl."

"Well, I go to your place and I'm not a call boy, so what's the difference?"

"Why do you have to be such a dick?"

"I'm not being a dick. I'm asking a simple question."

She rolls her eyes and walks away. I tell Leah to close me out.

Ten minutes later, I walk out of the back of the restaurant and up to her apartment. The door is locked. I chuckle to myself before I knock on the door.

Twice.

She doesn't answer.

I knock again. This time I see her staring back at me from behind the window, arms crossed in front of her.

"Open the door."

"I don't want to."

"Open the door, please," I sigh.

She steps forward, unlocks it, and then walks away.

"The offer from earlier has been rescinded."

"If we're having a conversation, don't walk away from me."

She spins around and pins me with a steely glare. "You're unreasonable and an asshole. You got jealous and spied on me for my entire dinner. You were flirting with that bartender to make me mad. It worked and then you blame me for the consequences."

"That is not what happened at all. I tried to have a conversation with you about Kade, I just wanted to ask more questions. You walked away from me."

"I could tell you were jealous."

"I wasn't," I lied. "I didn't know you'd be at the restaurant for your business meeting. I eat there at least five times a week. I didn't go in there to spy on you. Leah doesn't like men, so I wasn't flirting with her; we were having an intelligent conversation."

"Then why didn't you want to come to my place."

"I want to introduce you to my world. But also at my place I'm not worried about everyone in the restaurant downstairs hearing you scream my name."

Her jaw opens slightly as she looks back at me blankly. "Why didn't you say that?"

"You haven't allowed me to say much, Emma. The second you hear something you don't like you go into fight mode. I'm safe. I'm not out to hurt you. I want to make this work between us, but I can't do that if you continue to fight me every step of the way."

"So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying stop fighting me," I laugh. "I know you've been through a lot and I'm willing to be patient and give you grace, but you have to do the same for yourself."

She nods. "How do I do that?"

"We start with learning from our mistakes. If you continue to do what you've always done, then everything will stay the same. Is that what you want?"

"No."

"Then let's be intentional about the change. We don't walk away from each other in the middle of a conversation. Also, you're not just sex to me. I appreciate you trying to be flirty and sexy tonight by offering to leave the door unlocked, but the sex isn't why I'm here. It's a nice bonus—a wonderful bonus, actually, because you're perfect—but I need you to see that you're more than just sex to me."

"Whoa," she breathes as tears prick at her eyes. "Whoa."

"Yeah."

I reach down and lace my fingers through hers. I tug her into me before wrapping my arms around her.

"I never …"

"You don't have to explain anything to me. We can be silent. Why don't we go to bed?"

"Yes please."

There's a lot that we can work through together, but right now I want to hold her all night long. I need her to see that she's so much more amazing than she's ever realized.