Double Dare

by Melissa Whittle

  Tobias kept to himself that the other underlining motivation was sex. “It is Emmaline.”

  “Plus, you know, you guys kept circling each other. I was tired of watching it.”

  Tobias snorted. “You see too much.”

  “You don’t see enough.” His brother raised his brows in a challenging gesture.

  “Fair,” Tobias agreed, but wondered what else he was missing. “Now shut up.”

  Josh grinned.

  *****

  Around one in the afternoon the next day every customer had turned into a blur. Tobias and Emma had decided to stay open until every last crumb and coffee bean were gone. It was heading toward three and her arches were screaming in the loafers, and even Tobias had stopped trying to feel her up. A testament to exhaustion.

  The crush of the crowd around them was getting to her. But, the special was Late Night and the coffee Tobias had given her the other morning. She kept trying to imagine the till at the end of the day to keep up her spirits, but that had worn off an hour ago.

  So, Emma had to do a double take when she squinted down from the canteen order window. “Do my eyes deceive me now?”

  Abigail’s hand was looped through Sasha’s arm. “We kissed and made up,” Abigail said. “And we realized that I’m in need of a dare.”

  Emma perked up and didn’t begrudge the work she still had to do. “Can’t. I’ve have to stay here.”

  The bodies behind her friends seemed to grow in size, and damn her preparedness. They had enough desserts to feed an army until they fell sick.

  “What?” Tobias said on the other side. His eyes never left the coffee machine.

  “Nothing,” she said and then of course the canteen door opened and Josh propped it wide with his back. The sight of him would have been a godsend two hours ago. Unfortunately he was there now.

  “I don’t have time for this,” she told her friends.

  “A tradition is a tradition.” Sasha held up straws Tobias had laid out for customers.

  “I’m not doing a dare,” Emma protested, but knew she was on a sinking ship. Her friends had familiar expressions of determination. She tried another avenue. “She’s not even sad.”

  “This tradition was your idea,” Abigail said.

  “Then I should be able to veto it. Let’s go get drunk at the end of the day. I’m going to need a Scotch.”

  A man behind them huffed. “Are they going to order?”

  Both Sasha and Abigail turned to the man and he quickly shut up. They would have physically removed him if he spoke to Emma again in the same tone. They’d kissed and made up and were here letting her know. They could have called, but they knew she would have wanted to know face to face. God, she loved them.

  And, hell.

  “Ok,” she finally said to them. “But later.”

  “I’ll cover you,” Josh said.

  “And I need a break too.” Tobias’ tone sounded guarded.

  Emma felt surrounded by Merchant men, friends and traditions. Her heart lurched, right on the edge of something she didn’t need but wanted. Desperately. Happiness, unadulterated and unbidden filled her. This could be her family. Not by blood, but no less family. She didn’t want this feeling to change, ever.

  She fought back the smile, reached down through the window taking a straw. “Oh, come on!” Right off the bat she ended up with the short stick.

  Abigail cackled. “This is going to be classic.”

  Sasha snorted out a laugh. “It so is.”

  “What?” All the humor had left Tobias’ gaze.

  She frowned at him, but said to Josh, “Come on in. It’s crazy out there, but I shouldn’t be long.”

  “We’ll put up a Closed sign,” Tobias said.

  Finally, she took him in, the tone and demeanor. She moved to him, placed a hand on the side of his cheek. “You want to see the dare?”

  “Yeah.”

  Josh wore the same strange expression on his face. “Yeah, I want to see it too.”

  Emma went back to the window. “Ha, you can’t make me get naked. The Merchant men are coming.”

  Both Abigail and Sasha grinned at her, and Emma’s stomach dropped. They looked way too satisfied. “That’s ok,” Abigail said.

  “Oh, hell,” she muttered but said loudly, “Sorry! We’re closing down for a lunch hour.” There were a couple of curses and groans and only a few people left, most didn’t move out of the line. With everyone’s help, it didn’t take long to lock up.

  Outside of driving up to the fountain and stocking the canteen, Emma hadn’t walked around the campus. The university held an eclectic crowd of students. Some looked criminally young while others looked like they’d lived there most of their adult life. The Mohawks balanced the amount of tweed jackets. At the moment, a good portion gathered on the east side of the campus in an empty field that always held the college’s events.

  “I have got to pay attention to what you tell me, Abigail.” Fear pooled like bile in Emma’s stomach. What felt like over night a platform reached to the sky. And because she knew Sasha and Abigail, Emma knew that was her fate. “I’m going to make you guys pay,” she said with a nervous laugh.

  “Skate boarding is an extreme sport,” Josh offered.

  “This is insane,” Tobias said.

  Her friends just grinned like evil stepsisters. Emma turned to them. “Let’s look at this logically.”

  “Oh, and the bargaining starts.” Sasha shook her head.

  Students, and probably half the town by now, milled around them as Emma looked at someone crashing down to earth only to be jerked up by a man-sized rubber band just before going splat. The thought that she would be doing it too scared her beyond words.

  And, because she’d never acknowledged that side of her until now, it thrilled her. Yeah, she did these things for her friends, but not even loyalty could make her do something deep down inside she didn’t want to do. She laughed and embraced her friends in a hug. Both women felt familiar and everything she thought of as home.

  “I’d be a stick in the mud without you guys. I love you both.”

  “You’re not going to die.” Worry filled Abigail’s voice. “I talked to the guy earlier. It’s safe. There’s always a risk, but, hell, that’s deciding to leave the house, too.”

  She let them go and kept walking. “I don’t think I’m going to die,” Emma said. “This will be fun.”

  “Are you ok?” Sasha asked. “You’re not going to try to talk your way out of this?”

  “To keep up tradition, but you guys know I’m going to do it.”

  “If she’s not, I will,” Tobias said, now at the stairs of the platform.

  “I think I want to do it too. Looks fun,” Josh said.

  “No.” There was steel in the single word.

  Emma picked up on it and put out her hand to Tobias. “I’m a little nervous.” She gestured for Sasha and Abigail to go ahead, but she squeezed his hand. His palm was clammy in hers.

  Josh squeezed past them and muttered, “I’m dealing with bats.”

  She moved into Tobias’ warmth. “Hey, it’s all right. We do this stuff all the time. It’s how we met, remember?”

  “I’d rather have you running around naked right now.”

  If he’d meant it in a sexual way she would have laughed, but he didn’t. Only a blind woman would mistake the fear in his gaze for anything else. She placed both hands on his face and kissed him.

  “Ok?” she said after pulling back.

  “I know this is important to you. I know your friends are your everything.”

  Emma looked at the man she’d been falling in love with from the beginning and saw what she’d been missing. What was the difference between a man being your entire world and two women? Both were creepy and a little sad. His life had started to intermingle with hers. Even at this point could she cut him out without bleeding?

  “How about you jump with me?” Emma said.

  “What?” He jerked back i
n shock.

  There, the humor was back. “You’ll stop worrying about me, because you’ll be seeing your own death coming at you.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “I’m not laughing. When was the last time you did something absolutely reckless and crazy?” Something flickered behind his gaze. It made her heart quicken. Instead of asking what it was she said, “And you being tied next to me will keep me from wetting my pants.”

  “Not funny,” Tobias said, and the fear was still there in his gaze.

  “That time I was laughing.”

  His lip twitched and the fear stayed but was no longer filling the silence between them. He let out a breath and glanced up the steps. Tobias took her hand from his face and squeezed it. They went up the rest of the stairs and her friends didn’t look impatient at having to wait. Josh chatted with one of the workers.

  Emma’s stomach filled with nerves. “Quick amendment to the rules. If one of us is too scared to see straight we can do a dare with someone else.”

  Abigail narrowed her gaze. “They have to be part of the group.”

  “Honorary members?” Sasha suggested.

  “Criteria,” Emma said.

  Tobias glared at his brother. “They have to be over twenty-five.”

  And they all looked at Josh, who snorted, “Bats.”

  “Must be of a different sex,” Sasha added and winked at Emma.

  “Must hurry up because they’re going to kick us off the platform.” Abigail gestured her head at the three workers.

  “Agreed,” everyone said.

  Minutes later Tobias muttered, “This is crazy.” He winced when one of the workers hooked up the equipment between his legs.

  “You’re stuck on repeat,” Emma pointed out.

  “Can’t think of something else to say,” Tobias said.

  She grinned at him and laughed when he scowled. “Hey, that’s good though.”

  “You guys ready?” the second worker asked. He’d been securing her equipment all the while throwing instructions at her.

  “Yeah,” Emma said. Tobias made a strangled noise in the back of his throat.

  “Wuss,” Abigail yelled from the safety zone. Of course she would, given her position.

  The fear receded again in his gaze and he looked like he wanted to laugh. “You wouldn’t have the balls,” Tobias shot back.

  Emma swallowed when guy number two motioned them to the platform. “Would you still like me in the morning if I throw up right now?”

  Tobias’ eyes glinted. “This moment is why I wear black.”

  “That is not why you wear black.” All the bravery she’d shored up ran for the hills as she looked down over the side. Hard, impacted earth greeted her.

  “Stop stalling,” guy number three said.

  Tobias looked down over the side of the platform and just that action made Emma close her eyes. “This is stupid,” she finally managed to say. “We’re grown-ups. We don’t have to do this.”

  “You’re breaking tradition.” Tobias wrapped his arms around her.

  Given the circumstances, it amazed Emma how safe she felt in the embrace. “Not even you can piss me off into a different mood.”

  “On the count of three.” One of the workers yelled.

  “Oh, God. Oh, God!” Emma said.

  And then Tobias mouth was covering hers. The sounds turned to a buzz, a rushing in her ears and everything blurred. It wasn’t until the rope jerked them up, keeping them from going splat, that she realized they had fallen. Emma laughed against his mouth.

  Crafty man, she thought and sighed, because the moment before the fall was always the scariest part.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The fine hairs on Tobias’ arms stood up, and his gaze whipped to the door of the coffee shop. Why did he think fifty miles would be far enough to separate him from his past? Since it wasn’t, he smiled and it became genuine when Tina beamed at him as she came to the counter. George, as usual, refused to meet his gaze.

  “We got the numbers from last week. Congratulations! We’d like to personally thank Emmaline Sharp.”

  His smile slipped. Emma knew them as his backers. They knew her as the owner of Sweet Tooth, and it felt wrong to not alert them of the non-professional side. And if he did, what would he call them? He could no longer say they were only lovers. That would be a lie he tried to convince himself to believe.

  The truth hit again, just as hard as it did the first time and his breath hitched. Tobias wanted Emmaline to be his forever. God, he’d been scared down to his soul on Friday, just a week ago. She’d agreed to do a dare that put her life in jeopardy, and he stood there not able to bring himself to talk her out of it. Those dares were who she was.

  Emmaline was loyal, and it sometimes meant reckless. She did her best to project the square peg, but that wasn’t her. Last week she’d been torn between soothing him and making her friends happy. He knew if he asked, she would have broken tradition and not jumped. Actions, her actions told him he could be her forever. If and when she ever got the balls to want him, leaving behind her ideal man.

  For the past week, and at that moment, he didn’t have the balls to ask her to make the decision. Instead, he forced his lips into a curve.

  “That could be arranged.” He glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes to closing.

  Tina waved him away. “We’ll have some coffee until you’re done.”

  He got together their order and cursed the momentary spineless man taking over his body. For the next twenty minutes Tobias tried to figure out a way to explain his relationship with Tina and George to Emma. Before, what he and Emma had didn’t matter.

  But now…he tested different angles that wouldn’t blind side Emma when Tina and George waltzed into Sweet Tooth. Tina, probably, bubbling with excitement while George would frown in disapproval. Emmaline, these are my backers. They aren’t just the face of the company. They’re the parents of my deceased fiancée.

  Emma knew loyalty, but to two women she’d been friends with in college. Nothing complicated in that. She wouldn’t understand his loyalty to Tina and George, or why he kept this one connection to his past. No matter how he framed it that would be the sticking point. She wouldn’t understand why he hadn’t said anything. But, she would be hurt and disgusted. Tobias stomach filled with lead when time ran out and he still didn’t have a decent way of explaining Tina and George—or Emma to them.

  Not completely a coward, he led them across the street just as the sign’s lights went out. He knocked and she double-checked through the blinds before opening the door. Her brows creased in confusion, but she greeted everyone warmly.

  “You remember Tina and George,” Tobias finally said. “The face of the company and also the not-so-silent partners.”

  George sent him a look that would have withered any fruit on the vine, but it was Tina who spoke. “Don’t mind him. We’re family.”

  “Oh, his…?”

  Tina bit her lip for a moment, and when the emotions were back under her cheery control said, “He’s our adopted-son-in-law, you can say.”

  “Oh.” Emma’s voice went up an octave. “How about I give you a taste of what I make? We can get to know each other better.”

  Emmaline didn’t even look at him as she charmed a smile out of Tina and George. She gave them a tour of the store. Josh washed dishes in the kitchen.

  “I see you’ve put Joshua to work,” George said.

  Emma snorted. “He conned me.” She looked at his brother, still not at him. “Came in with a portfolio and puppy dog eyes, asking for a job.”

  “But she’s worked me to the bone since.” Josh slid a glance Tobias’ way that only solidified the screw up. Like the first night he was in her kitchen, Emmaline orchestrated a miracle, giving Tina Late Night and George a slice of Pig Lickin’ Cake, and then Lemon Ice Box pie to take with them. By the time she finished walking them through her business and the past few weeks working with Tobias as the owner of Caff-aholi
c, they had a batch of Hello Dollies and Cappuccino muffins. Josh had the sense to escape.

  “If you don’t mind, I would like a recipe,” Tina said, rubbing Emmaline’s back in a maternal way.

  “No secret. I’d be glad to.”

  Once outside Tobias shivered from the late night chill. The quick glance Emmaline sent him would have made George proud. She kept the smile and the down-home-goodness in place as she locked the door behind them all.

  “We’ll clean up the coffee shop,” George said without any inflection to his words. He placed a hand on the small of Tina’s back and they crossed the street.

  The silence, once they were gone, could have eaten him alive. “Emmaline,” he started, reaching for her.

  “Don’t.” Her hands whipped up, and she stepped back. “Touch me.”

  “I didn’t know they were coming.”

  She let out a short, mirthless laugh. “You think that’s why I’m mad? All I get, all day, every day is unexpected guests in my house. I could handle unexpected guests in my store in my sleep. But they’re your silent partners. Your backers. The face of your company. Those were the people I talked to in the emails for weeks.” The tremor in her voice cut through him. “And you never mentioned your relationship to them. Not your true one.”

  The anger was there, but she didn’t raise her voice. The hole in his gut widened. He didn’t know how to ease it or what to say to make it better.

  “How exactly should I have broached the subject? The reason why I have a business is because their daughter died while trying to protect me. There was a bloodstain on the floor I couldn’t get out in my other store. I had to redo them.” He rubbed his hands over his face and started again. “I’m here. Their daughter isn’t. I’m moving on, and she’ll never get that chance. It’s not that I was trying to hide them from you. My relationship with them…is complicated.”

  “What?” The word held a world of hurt and her jaw tightened against it. “You think I don’t know that guilt? My parents died because of me. I was some stupid twenty-year old thinking I was invincible. Me, pure little Emma would never end up like one of those girls who missed their period. But I did and I ended up pregnant.”