Sure enough, she knew—and she couldn’t resist putting Emery on the spot.
“I still live in LA, but I’m staying in Silver Springs for a few weeks, what with the holidays and all.” Emery didn’t add that her parents were no longer there, or that she’d have to move away from LA eventually, because she couldn’t bear the thought of returning.
Sidney lowered her voice. “It must be hard.”
“Why would it be hard?” Dallas had been moving along the display case. He acted as though he was going to order a box, too—and maybe he was—but Emery knew he’d also been monitoring the conversation.
Sidney’s eyes lifted to his. “Is this...your new boyfriend?” she guessed.
Emery didn’t have a chance to respond before Dallas spoke again.
“No, but I’d like to be,” he said. “You saw that video, right? Damn, it was hot! Any man would be lucky to have her.”
Sidney’s jaw dropped. In one fell swoop, Dallas had removed her power. He’d tackled the situation head-on, as if Emery didn’t have anything to hide or feel awkward or embarrassed about, and that left Sidney with nowhere to go. “I...I guess,” she stuttered.
Dallas took his time choosing a box of chocolates for Aiyana. Then he insisted Emery sit with him at one of the little tables in the shop, where they ordered a hot chocolate and sipped it slowly, proving they were as comfortable as could be.
“Enough already. I’m dying to get out of here,” Emery whispered once Sidney was busy helping some other patrons who’d wandered in.
Dallas checked his watch. “We’ll leave as soon as she’s available, so that we can say goodbye.”
“I didn’t even want to say hello,” Emery grumbled.
He laughed loudly as though she’d just made a great joke and they were having a grand time together. Then he lowered his voice. “You can’t dictate how most people will react to you. But you have to remain in charge, can’t give them the power to hurt you—or they will.”
Her attorney had suggested she hire a PR company to handle the debacle. If she hadn’t lost her job on top of everything else, she would’ve taken that recommendation. Now she could see why a PR company might be important. With a little strategy, she could spin what’d happened in a more favorable light and outmaneuver her detractors. They didn’t have to know she was dying inside.
The customers Sidney had just helped were walking out the door when Sidney glanced over. Surprisingly, there was no hint of the smugness in her expression that had been there when she mentioned LA. She seemed almost jealous again—jealous that such a handsome man would shrug off what Emery had done instead of making a joke out of it, out of her.
“Incredible,” she muttered to Dallas after Sidney picked up their empty cups and disappeared into the back.
“What?” Dallas said as he stood.
“Attitudes are as catchy as the flu.”
“Exactly.”
“We appreciate your help,” Emery said to Sidney when she returned to wipe off their table.
“No problem.” Her gaze shifted to Dallas. “Merry Christmas,” she said, obviously eager to please him.
“Merry Christmas,” he said with a wide smile and once again took Emery’s hand.
5
It was after eleven when Aiyana sat on the couch next to Dallas. His younger brothers had gone up to get ready for bed, and Emery was in her room, possibly asleep. “How’d it go today?”
Dallas continued flipping through TV stations. He didn’t watch a lot of TV, just a show here or there on his computer. Not only did he sleep in his van in one campground or another throughout the summer, he went to bed early so he could get up at the crack of dawn. And during the winter—until this winter—he spent most of his time at the gym, coaching or working out so that he could maintain his strength and earn enough to carry him through the next climbing season. “How’d what go today? Shopping? Fine.”
“You and Emery get along okay?”
“Of course. Why?”
“You were gone all day.”
He eyed her dubiously. “What are you implying?”
She arched her eyebrows, unwilling to back down even though the look he was giving her warned her not to make a big deal of the time he’d spent with her houseguest. “It means you were having fun.”
After glancing back toward the stairs to be sure Emery wasn’t coming down, he lowered his voice. “I was just trying to help her.”
The way Aiyana smiled made him suspect she didn’t believe him, so he leaned forward. “You know better than to play matchmaker,” he said. “Even if she were interested, which I’m sure she’s not—she’s going through too much right now to even consider getting into another relationship—it would only set her up for heartbreak. I wouldn’t make a good husband.”
She rolled her eyes. “Says who?”
“Says me. Climbing has come between me and plenty of other women. This relationship would be no different.” He knew that wasn’t strictly true. It wasn’t climbing that made him leery; it was a lack of trust. The only psychologist he’d ever found helpful had told him he had abandonment issues. But anyone who’d been through what he’d been through, especially at such a young age, would be angry and walled off.
“Eventually, you’ll be looking for something more...fulfilling than climbing,” she predicted.
He settled on SportsCenter since he knew his mother wouldn’t stick around long enough to watch anything even if he chose a program she’d like better. She had school in the morning, was already up past her bedtime. “I don’t find anything more fulfilling than climbing,” he said. “I’m happy the way I am,” he added the moment he saw the concern enter her eyes. Aiyana had saved him in so many ways; he refused to cause her to worry. “I’m good.”
She sighed as she glanced away, then looked at him again, this time catching and holding his gaze. “I got a letter a couple of months ago.”
He tensed. He could tell by her somber tone that this wasn’t
