The Engagement

Chapter Ten

Resting her shoeless feet on the coffee table in front of her, Emme threw her hands in the air and sighed. "Honestly, Ashlyn. I just don't know what to think."

Cradling her sleeping baby girl close to her, Ashlyn smiled. "It sounds like a good business proposition."

"Right. But then he keeps kissing me, as if he's really been thinking of me all these years or something. I know that isn't true. The man has slept with half of Seattle."

A giggle escaped her friend. "I wouldn't go that far..."

Emme snorted her disagreement. "Maybe." Leaning her head back, she closed her eyes. "Look at all of you. You and Deacon, Andrea and Benton... It's so cute, it's disgusting."

"Why do you seem to think that can't happen for you?"

Emme swiveled her head to look at Ashlyn. "With Alex, most definitely not."

"That's what I thought about Deacon."

Emme sat up. "This is different."

"If you say so."

"You're not helping anything, Ashlyn."

Rising, Ashlyn went to place Josephine in the bassinet across from her. "Ultimately, I can't make your decision for you, Emme. I just know you want to expand your business and Alex is offering you a perfect way to do it. If you don't want it to go anywhere, then don't let it."

Pinching her fingers together, Emme said, "A tiny, small, small part of me... Well, she's caught in the past. And I don't want that part to get bigger."

"If there's one thing I've learned, Em, it's that you can't stop what's meant to be."

"If Alex and I were meant to be, that would have happened a long time ago."

Feeling like a brooding man in need of a good fight, Emme folded her arms and stared blindly across the room. Ashlyn had a point. It didn't have to go anywhere she didn't want it to. The problem remained, every time they got close to one another, they couldn't seem to keep their hands to themselves. Repressed sexual tension? She knew it wasn't love. She wasn't a stary-eyed teenager with butterflies for guts.

Sometimes, she couldn't make sense of Alex.  One moment he flashed those pearly whites and flirted as he always did. The next, he went serious on her, making her think she injured his feelings. If anything, the man was complicated and complicated wasn't something she needed right now. This arrangement couldn't be anything other than a means to an end. All of her went into her business right now, and the last thing she needed to ruin that was a relationship.

"Well, whatever the case, it looks like I've committed myself now. There's an event tonight and once he introduces me as his fiance... Well, that's the end of it."

"Not necessarily."

"I don't back out of commitments once I've made them, Ash. Looks like I'm in it for the long haul. Or at least, six months."

Ashlyn squeezed Emme's shoulder. "Six months isn't very long, Em."

"That's what I keep trying to tell myself."

Would it be a long six months, living under the same roof with Alex? She couldn't imagine living with a lover, much less with a fake one. Independence became her thing. And she never met a man she actually wanted to live with.

Sitting forward, she sighed again. "Well, I should probably get home and start getting ready."

Ashlyn looked at the clock. "Oh, it's six already. I'll have Sam take you home in the limousine."