The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River #3)

Emma walked back around to the front of Leo’s chair and picked up the second basket of laundry.

“Hello, you’re blocking Days of Our Lives,” he pointed out.

Emma shifted to her left.

“It’s okay to like someone, you know,” Leo said casually, his gaze on the television. “You don’t have to be an ice princess.”

“I’m not an ice princess!” she snapped. “I’m direct, and I can’t help it if people can’t deal with direct. I choose my friends carefully, Leo. I’m not nicey-nice just for the sake of being nice and that does not make me an ice princess.”

“Okay, just don’t stab me with an icicle,” Leo said. “How about ‘cool cucumber’? Can I say that? Because I know you like being a cool cucumber. You work hard enough at it.”

“You’re really annoying me,” she said. “That’s just me, don’t you get that by now? It’s not an act; it’s who I am.”

“Please,” Leo scoffed. “That’s like me saying, yeah, I have MND, but that’s just me.”

“Stop it,” she demanded.

“Come on, Em, what’s really twisting you around?”

Everything. Everything! So much that she couldn’t pick out one single thing that was the culprit behind her admittedly foul mood. Her whole life was twisted around and upside down all because of that damn medal! “Gee, where to start?” she asked snidely. “I don’t like that you’re going to Denver, for one,” she said, and whipped a wrinkled towel out, snapping it dangerously close to the television. “There, I said it. I know you don’t like to hear it, I know you don’t like anyone disagreeing with your wants. And I know you really want to go, and how important the game is to you. But frankly, I’m worried about it.” She looked at him. “You know what? I agree with Bob. It’s a bad idea.”

“Oh!” Leo said, wincing. “That’s a dagger to my poor weak heart! Beat me, curse me, but don’t agree with Dad!”

“And the worst of it is that I can’t go with you,” she said. “What if you need something? What if you aren’t feeling well?”

“That’s why I have a big burly nurse going with me. Plus Dad and Dante. I’ll be fine.”

“Dante has stage-four cancer, Leo.”

“So he’s a little weak,” Leo said. “But I still have Dad and the nurse. And the two Methodist dudes who are driving us. That’s plenty of people to worry about me while I worry about the Broncos.”

“In other words, you don’t need me,” she said curtly.

“Not this time,” Leo said easily, and drew another deep breath.

Emma suddenly felt defeated, utterly defeated. Even Leo didn’t need her, the one person in her life who truly needed someone by his side 24/7. But wasn’t that what she wanted? Hadn’t she lived the last few years making damn sure that no one could ever get close enough to her to know her, much less need her? Hadn’t she equated familiarity with the ability to hurt her and wound her? Theoretically, Leo should not be able to hurt her feelings, and yet, he just had.

“Great,” she muttered, and moved across the room to stack the towels on an empty chair.

“Would you quit moving around? I can’t turn my head. Come on, talk to me, Em. Tell me what’s going on.”

Oddly enough, Emma was frustrated enough that for once, she wanted to unburden herself. She wanted to say aloud the things that were rattling through her brain. And as Leo was the only person she could possibly bring herself to speak to about such personal things, she hesitantly moved toward the stool in front of him and sat down. “Am I allowed to speak during Days of Our Lives?”

“Silly girl. I DVR my shows in case someone like you has a life crisis. But it is Days, so this better be good.” He flashed his lopsided smile.

“I gave him the medal,” Emma said flatly.

That caught Leo off guard. “Wow. If I could raise my eyebrows, I totally would right now. You had the thing he wanted? And you gave it to him? And you lied about it?”

“Yep. All of that.”

“That is like, super curious,” Leo said. “What, you didn’t like the guy or something?”

“I hardly knew him,” she said. “I have a lot of things like it. Things I’ve taken from guys I hardly knew. But did know, you know . . . intimately.”

For once, Leo didn’t have an instant comeback. “That’s awesome,” he said, his voice full of wonder. “That makes you like . . . a love bandit. And yet it begs the question of why?”

“I don’t know,” Emma said angrily. She spread her fingers wide over her knees. “It’s weird, I know, God, how I know,” she said, feeling the agony of it. “Even saying it makes me kind of sick. And it’s so wrong, obviously. Maybe even criminal. Not to mention unhealthy,” she said, gesturing at her head. “But honestly, Leo, I don’t want to really do anything about it. Or at least I didn’t until now.”

“An unrepentant bandit. That’s the best kind, you know. That makes you a sexy jewel thief.”