Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Emmett

I 'm a gentleman. People don't think I am, but I am. I was raised to be one. As much as I'm an asshole, I give a shit about people and their feelings.

Clearly, something is going on with Briar. She's not giving me the attitude that she usually does. And I'm annoyed because I get off on her snarky comments.

Again, I love my family, but how can they seriously not have a clue why she doesn't want to live with them? Why would she want to live with any couple who just got together?

So I don't say a word about my dad's decision. Because that's what it is. He thinks his idea is brilliant—though when Gillian first announced that she'd sold the house, I thought about where Briar would go and how she could stay at my house. There are three empty bedrooms down the hall from mine. Not that I want her to live with me. Of course I don't.

But now that my dad has decided it, it's going to happen. We might all be fucking adults, but that doesn't change the fact that when my dad wants something done, it's easier to do it. Gillian must realize this too because she doesn't fight him on his idea.

Briar goes to the bathroom after dinner, and I take the opportunity to go out on the porch with my dad. I need to figure out a way for him to think it's his idea that Briar moving in with me won't work.

"Dad," I whisper. "I'm not sure Briar wants to live with me."

"Why would that be?" He stares at the pond, watching the ducks flying low until they splash into the water.

"First off, she hates me. Like loathes me." I really wish I knew why, but what do I care? It's her problem.

"All the better then."

I glance over my shoulder. Ben, Clayton, and Jude are doing the dishes while Gillian and Sadie gossip at the dining room table and set up the games. God help me. Briar must still be in the bathroom.

"Why would it be better that she hates me?" Sometimes I think my dad talks in code.

"She won't be tempted to sleep with you."

I scoff and draw back. "What?"

Dad looks at me. "You're a younger version of me. Hard for women to resist. Plus, and don't tell your brothers…" His eyes follow their laughter inside until he looks back at me. "You have my charm. But it seems like Briar needs her people right now. She needs family and to feel loved."

"You should have your own show, Dr. Bruce."

He shoots me a look that says cut the shit. "She's back in Willowbrook because she doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"Why would you say that? Did she tell you that?"

Sometimes people do tell my dad a lot of shit they don't tell others. Five years after Ben left, I woke up to find Gillian at our kitchen table in tears, talking to my dad. Sadie was just having coffee with him the other day, talking about becoming a new parent.

"I've seen a lot of people come back to town throughout my life. There are only a few reasons why they come back after leaving it in the first place. More often than not, they have nowhere else to go. It's important we keep her on the ranch, make her feel like she's a part of our family. She hasn't had the easiest road."

Neither have I, but I don't say that. Sure, I lost my mom, but I had my dad and brothers, plus all my cousins, aunts, and uncles. From the little I know about Briar, which is practically nothing other than that she's Gillian's half sister, I don't think she's had much of a support system beyond her sister and brother.

"She might not last long. Doesn't exactly seem to be comfortable here." I stuff my hands in my pockets, watching Briar through the window. She sits down next to Gillian, who places her hand on Briar's forearm.

Dad laughs. "I wouldn't worry about that. Let's go do game night."

"Wait, what do you mean?" I ask before he can open the screen door.

He looks perplexed. "I'm sure the two of you can manage in that large house of yours without killing one another."

"I'm not so sure," I mumble.

He walks into the house, and I stare at the lake for a moment before joining them, which I regret immediately when I see the pair-ups.

Ben is next to Gillian.

Jude has his arm around Sadie.

Dad and Clayton are in hushed whispers.

And Briar is sitting by herself, her arms crossed, her eyes boring into mine. Fucking hell.

I guess the new Noughton duo starts now.

"Come on." I hit the paper over and over again with the marker while the sand slowly disappears through the hourglass.

"A guy. I said a guy," Briar says, leaning back in her chair, her arms still crossed.

"Same thing, different word." My eyes narrow on her.

"You can't talk," Gillian says.

I look at her. "Thank you, Pictionary Police."

"Hey," Ben chimes in, and I give him my palm.

"Okay, how about this," I say and draw a house.

"Man of the house?" Briar says in a bored tone.

I get it, I don't want to be here either, but here we are. Does she have no competitive streak? She has to want to win.

I shake my head and draw an arrow from the man to the house.

"Man in the house?"

I growl and draw a gingerbread woman in a dress.

"Married couple? Love?" She shows no excitement or urgency that we're about to lose this round.

Finally, I draw a dick between the gingerbread's legs and circle it.

"The size of your dick?"

"Briar." Gillian eyes Clayton.

"Please, Gill, he knows what a dick is." Briar rolls her eyes.

I love that she didn't apologize.

"Still." Gillian sits back. Hopefully, that will shut her up for a bit about the rules.

I circle the entire man and point at the dick between his legs.

"I got nothing," Briar says.

I stare at the ceiling and finally decide to draw an oven and a cookie sheet with all the little men on it, minus the dicks, in the hopes she'll get it. I turn away from the paper, and she stares at it. My eyes zero in on the sand slipping through the small hole.

"Ohhh. You went about it entirely the wrong way. Why didn't you do that in the beginning instead of drawing the house and giving him a dick? I told you, you only think about sex."

"Say the damn word," I grind out between my teeth.

"Gingerbread man," she says nonchalantly right before the last grain of sand slips to the bottom of the hourglass.

"Jesus, that was like pulling teeth." I put the cap on the marker and set it down.

"You guys are finally on the board." Sadie claps and places a slash next to our names.

Every other team has cute names—Billian and Judie and Bro Crew. But when it came time for us to give our team a name, we just said Emmett and Briar. We fought about whose name went first, and eventually Sadie said she'd write them alphabetically. I've never wished more that I was named Bennett like my cousin.

Everyone at the table disperses to take a short break, some going to the bathroom, others getting drinks, and it leaves Briar and me by ourselves. How wonderful.

"You just like things to be dramatic," she says when I sit next to her.

"Are you kidding me? You almost gave me a heart attack." I down the rest of my beer.

"It's a game. Grow up."

"A game? It's Pictionary against my brothers. It's more than a game." I'll switch to water now since I'm working early in the morning.

"I hate competitive guys." She rolls her eyes and finally moves from her stoic position and grabs her own water.

"Good, that means you won't be sneaking into my bed in the middle of the night."

"You wish."

Fuck, do I, but the hell if she'll ever know that. "You'd be so lucky."

Her face crinkles into a disgusted expression. "Ew… no walking around naked, okay? I don't need to see that thing." Her gaze falls to my crotch, and damn if it doesn't twitch. "It would ruin my day."

"Let's remember that you're moving in with me . It's my house, and if I want to be naked, I will be."

"Fine, then I will too," she says as though that would be a threat.

"I knew you wanted me to see your titties." I down the cold water, hoping like hell it cools down my body while I'm thinking of stripping off that sports bra and seeing her tits. I wouldn't mind…

Fuck that. Stop.

"You're so full of yourself."

I grin at her. "Most women like my confidence."

Briar stares at me long and hard, back to her cool demeanor. "You better hide the knives."

My head falls back in laughter, but when I straighten, she's staring at me. Not even one of her perfectly arched eyebrows is raised.

"Fuck, you scare me," I say, not realizing until she cracks a small smile that I said that aloud.

Now I just gave the enemy intel.

I leave her alone at the table before I give her any more incriminating truths. Like how I want to fuck her so badly, my cock aches.