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Chapter Seven

Eh the airport in Pensacola After their awful airport experience in Mias in the vicinity "Emma!" a familiar voice called out Uh-oh, maybe her relief had co jeans and a white V-neck T-shirt, was bearing down on them Shit, she had told her that they would take a taxi She should have known she couldn’t count on her ave her a questioning look She rolled her eyes "You o ahead and brace yourself; that’sbefore her mother launched herself into his arms Ehts look

"Well, hello there, handsoh to say, "I’ave her a nervous smile "Great to meet you, Kat I’m Brant Stone"

Her mother’s mouth seemed to drop to the floor before she blurted, "You’re the asshole that Eht of that? Of course she would haveabout hiht had never occurred to her that her mother would make the connection On the plane ride into Pensacola, she and Brant had decided to say that they had been introduced by a mutual friend That wasn’t technically a lie The lady from Human Resources had introduced them when Emma was hired Now that whole story was useless As they stood there gaping at each other, herhi hysterically "I love it! I should have known all of that arguing was just soroaned This was just getting worse and worse She needed to shut her mother up before this escalated further "It’s all kind of neeen us, so we haven’t really told anyone yet"

Her ave therab your bags and head hoht"

"I think we both need to shower before dinner Could you drop us at our hotel first? They’re supposed to have our rental car there"

Her ave a shake of her head "No hotels, honey You know that’s not hoe roll The house has plenty of room I have your room already s are now Robyn and Boston can’t wait to see you"

She was scraet the when Brant did so that co, "That sounds wonderful, Kat I can’t wait to meet the rest of the family"

Emma shot him a look that would have felled a lesser ht, honey? I know you want to spend as much time as possible with your family while we’re here"

That was it He had officially lost his freaking et to her for soh? She had to wonder if he even understood that her ether for several days Her rooood size, but it had a queen-size bed and that was it Giving him an evil s on the floor all weekend, then as she to argue?

That’s right, honey Game on

She was more than a little pissed at him anyway When he picked her up at the hotel, he hadShe kept waiting for hi It wasn’t as if she’d thought he would come back and declare his love, but come on, shouldn’t they at least talk about it? Was such an earth-shattering experience that easily dis hi her, she reverted to what she knew best: sarcas ever happened, then so could she Just because he had given her the best orgasm of her life didn’t hters, right?

A few steps ahead of her, Brant continued to talk to her mother like they were old friends

"Mom, we need to at least stop and pick up our rental car"

"I’ve got that covered, too Your father gave your old car a once-over and you can use it while you’re here It will be good for the thing to get soue, it suddenly hit her Yeah, Brant would be horrified by her old car She could picture hisNot that it thrilled her to drive it either What was once a cool car back in high school was now considered a vintage Barney reject Still, she could handle some embarrassment if it bothered Mr Freshly Pressed even a little

She s back to her reat idea I’ll cancel our rental car" Soon they were settled into her mother’s black Tahoe and she had insisted that Brant take the front seat He could continue the bonding that he had going on more easily from there As they approached her childhood home of Pensacola Beach on the Santa Rosa Island, she felt the sa When her friend Madison had decided to attend college at the University of South Carolina, E there as well As luck would have it, they were both accepted and Emma had moved from her home in Florida to South Carolina Her parents had not been thrilled, which had s She had raduation The last she heard, she was in Georgia Her parents had urged her to move back home, but she enjoyed her independence tooperiods of ti South Carolina kept her close to the ocean that she loved, but allowed her theup with a loving butmother

When they pulled into the driveway, E two-story house looked the same as she remembered It was coe and an infinity pool out back Soranted, but she had always felt like she was on an extended vacation No ood swis better Her father had actually built their house along with ht-after builder who didn’t believe in constructing the sahbor’s, he would refuse So had to be different He said that no two people had the same personality, so why should two houses be identical?