Page 116 of Cuffed (Everyday Heroes 1)
“Em?”
Emerson turns to me, her face a startle of shock, hair pulled back in a bun, and there are circles under her eyes. The minute she sees me, she begins to walk the other way.
“Emerson,” I call after her and then jog to catch up.
“I don’t have time for you,” she says as she shakes her head and picks up her pace. “I’ve been gone for a few days, and I need to get caught up for the owners so that it’s in good shape for any potential buyers.”
“What?” My gut twists. “You didn’t get the loan?” Here I am being an asshole, thinking all of this was brought on by me, and it had to do with her not getting the loan. It has to do with her losing her dream.
“I don’t know if I did. It doesn’t matter. I’m pulling my application.”
What the flying fuck?
“What are you talking about?”
It’s the first time she stops walking and turns to face me. “I’m a gypsy, Grant. I don’t stick around. I get antsy and need to move on. It’s obvious I can’t trust my judgment anymore . . . I mean look at me . . .” She laughs. “I’m a twenty-eight-year-old woman trying to buy a skydiving school with money I don’t have. I make rules that I never keep. I sleep with you then run away. I cut myself when I promised myself I was never going to again. I mean . . . who is going to put their trust in me to teach them to skydive, repay a loan, or live a normal life when I can’t even trust myself anymore?” There’s hysteria ringing in her voice, and the resignation from it is reflected in her expressionless eyes. “I have to get back to work.”
And without another word, she turns on her heel and jogs toward the office and the comfort of company to prevent me from making a scene.
Panic hits me like a battering ram.
She can’t leave me.
She’s fucking crazy if she thinks I’m going to let her walk away and out of my life without a fight.
I guess it’s time to make a scene.
“Hey, Reeves,” I say as she pushes the door open. I follow her in, and Leo looks up from his desk, his eyes darting between Em and me as he leans back in his chair, watching the show. “Take me up.”
It takes everything I have not to sound like I’m choking the words out, but I know the fear currently coursing through my body has nothing on how I’d feel if I lost her again.
“What?” she says as she makes a show of slowly turning around, brow narrowed, confusion morphing into surprise. “What did you just say?”
“I said I’m cashing in my gift certificate. Take me skydiving.”
“But you’re terrified of heights.” She takes a step closer, as if she doesn’t believe a word I’m saying, and honestly, I don’t, either.
“Everyone has to face their fears sometime, right?” I shrug as she just stands there and stares at me. “Someone once told me that living safely is dangerous . . . I don’t want to be dangerous, Emerson. I just want to be with you.”
Her breath hitches, and she shakes her head back and forth. Her eyes say she wants to believe me, but her body tells me she’s not certain.
I take another step forward, my own pulse racing and mind struggling to believe what I’m asking her to do.
“You’re the only one I’d trust to get me down safely, Em,” I finally say, my coup de grâce, that she needs to wrap her head around.
“No.” It’s a half-hearted sound, chock-full of disbelief but laced with hope.
“You don’t get to say no.” I smile as I catch Leo in my periphery laugh. “I have a gift certificate paid in full, and I’m cashing it in on you. Right now.”
“No.”
“The customer is always right, Em.”
“Once you commit, you can’t back out,” she says, lifting her eyebrow and straightening her posture.
Exactly. Once you commit, you can’t back out. I hope she realizes the same goes when it comes to me.
“I won’t back out,” I say, ignoring the way my feet desperately want to walk the other way . . . but everything about her changing demeanor stops me. The way her shoulders square. How her lips quirk. The placing of her hands on her hips.
