Bed of Roses (Bride Quartet #2)(36)

"I'm on my way to the courthouse, and you have better coffee."

Del strolled over to the setup on the counter, and helped himself. "Ready to lose?"

"Lose what?"

"It's Poker Night, pal, and I'm feeling lucky."

"Poker Night."

Eyebrows lifting, Del studied him. "What the hell are you working on? You look like you've just shifted dimensions."

"It just shows my uncanny ability to focus on the job at hand. Which I'll be doing with poker tonight. You'll have to do a lot more than feel lucky to win."

"Side bet. A hundred."

"Done."

Del toasted him, drank. "How's it going on the additions for the Quartet?"

"I've got something I like for Mac and Carter. I just want to refine it a little more."

"Good. Are you working on Emma?"

"What? Am I what?"

"Emma. The second cooler?"

"Not yet. It . . . shouldn't be complicated." Then why was it? Jack wondered. Why did he feel like he was lying to his closest friend?

"Simple works. I've got to go be a lawyer." Del set the mug down, started to the door. "See you tonight. Oh, and try not to cry when you pay me the hundred. It's embarrassing."

Jack shot up a middle finger, so Del walked away laughing.

Jack waited ten full seconds, ear cocked for any sound of return before bringing up his e-mail again.

No reply, yet, from Emma.

How could he have forgotten it was Poker Night? That sort of thing was engraved on his brain. Pizza, beer, cigars, cards. Men only. A tradition, maybe even a ritual, that he and Del had established when they'd still been in college.

Poker Night was sacred.

What if she said she'd be there? That she'd be knocking on his door tonight?

He thought of Emma in a black trench coat and red high heels.

He thought of good friends, cold beer, and a hot deck of cards.

Of course, he thought, there was only one answer. If she got back to him and said she'd come by, he'd simply explain.

He'd tell Del he'd come down with a violent case of stomach flu.

No man living or dead would blame him.





MAC GLANCED OVER AT PARKER AS SHE DROVE TOWARD GREENWICH. "Okay, it's just you and me. What do you really think of Emma and Jack?"

"They're both adults, single, healthy."

"Uh-huh. What do you really think of Emma and Jack?"

Parker let out a sigh that ended on a reluctant laugh. "That I never saw it coming, and I thought I was good at that kind of thing. And if it feels this weird to me, it must feel a lot weirder for them."

"Weird bad?"

"No. No. Just odd. There's the four of us, and the two of them-Jack and Del. Together it's the six of us. Well, seven with Carter, but this is all rooted in pre-Carter. We've been in and out of each other's lives and business for years. Forever for the four of us and Del, and for what, a dozen years with Jack? When you think of a man as a brother, it's an adjustment to realize not everyone in that same network feels the same. It's almost as strange as it would be if one of us really disliked him."

"That's what's hanging Em up."

"I got that."



       
         
       
        

"They get all sexy, and that's good, but then the heat backs off. Maybe it backs off for one of them before the other. That's awkward." Mac checked her mirrors before changing lanes. "Does the one who's still warmed up get their feelings hurt, or feel sort of betrayed?"

"Feelings are feelings. I don't understand why people blame other people for what they feel."

"Maybe not, but they do. And Emma is the softest of soft touches. She's a whiz at handling men-I bow in awe-but she really feels for them if she doesn't . . . feel for them. You know what I mean."

"Yeah." Because they approached the garage, Parked slipped back into the shoes she'd slipped off when she'd gotten in the car. "She'll end up going out with a guy a second, third, fourth time even when she figured out from the first date she wasn't interested. She doesn't want to hurt his feelings."

"Still, she dates more than the three of us put together. Pre-Carter," Mac added. "And she nearly always manages to shake a man off without denting his ego. I tell you, she's skilled."

"The trouble is, she's closer to Jack. She loves him."

"You think-"

"We all love him," Parker finished.

"Oh, that way. True."

"It has to be hard to break off a relationship with someone you really care about. And being Emma, she's trying to work that part of it out before they up the relationship. Hurting him isn't an option for her."