Four days. Did four days with nothing more than cryptic texts qualify as ghosting? Emmie could tell something was going on, but Ox wasn’t sharing, nor had he shown up for work in four days. The longer it dragged on, the more resentful she grew. The more her mind went in circles.

This was it. This was what Ginger had been talking about. Ox was going to get pulled back to the ranch, and she was going to be out a tattoo artist a month after she started the bookshop, right at the busiest part of the retail year. And whatever had been between them… that was probably history too.

“I feel like you’re not really here,” Adrian said from across the table. “Everything okay?”

Emmie forced a smile. “Fine. I’m fine. Sorry, thinking about work. And rain. I’m so glad it’s raining, aren’t you? We really need the rain.” She picked at the bread on her plate. They’d ordered wine, but she hadn’t decided on a meal.

“We do.” Adrian glanced out the window of Marley’s. It was the newest restaurant downtown, started by a chef who’d moved from Chicago. It was small plates and wine and great cheese. Emmie had been excited to go when she and Tayla talked about it. Going with Adrian was less exciting and more confusing.

“We’re talking about the weather.” Adrian smiled slowly. “Surely we can do better than that.”

“Work?” She shook her head. “We shouldn’t talk about work.”

“I know how you feel. I’m the same way, but you have to pull back. It’s one of the hardest things about working for yourself.”

“Oh no,” Emmie said. “I was preoccupied when I worked for other people too. I just really love my job.”

“That’s awesome,” Adrian said. “You’re really lucky.”

“It’s not all luck.”

“Of course not.” He poured more wine from the bucket the waiter had set by the table. “I’ve seen how hard you work. You’re there every day. How is it working to have just Monday off?”

Switching her brain from Ox mode to work mode was a relief. “It’s fine for now. I might hire someone down the line. Depends on my hours and what my busiest traffic days are.”

Adrian leaned forward. “Do you really want to talk about work?”

Yes, please. “Did you want to talk about Sense and Sensibility? If you want to read more Austen, I’d recommend Pride and Prejudice. It’s her most popular for a reason. Or Emma. Both are pretty funny.”

“I want to talk about you.” Adrian sipped his wine. “What do you like besides reading?”

Emmie swallowed. She hated these types of conversations. Wasn’t reading enough? There were enough books to keep her occupied for the rest of her life. Books about everything! What else could she talk about? “I went hiking recently. That was fun.”

And now she was thinking about Ox again.

Adrian lit up. “Nice! I like going to the coast. I love hiking at the beach.”

Emmie hated the beach. Well, she liked the ocean from a distance, but not lying in the sand. Sand got everywhere. “We went hiking in the mountains. Up to the sequoias.”

“We?” Adrian’s smile was tight. “Did you go with Ox?”

“Yeah.”

He nodded slowly. “Maybe I can take you to the coast for a wine-tasting trip or something like that.”

“That sounds fun.” It did sound fun, so why was Emmie feeling so guilty? Ox hadn’t talked to her in days. He’d all but disappeared by Saturday morning. He wasn’t answering texts. He didn’t call. He wasn’t even calling his clients because two had shown up at the shop for their appointments, and Emmie had been at a loss making excuses for him.

And now she was on a date with Adrian Saroyan.

Ox had never called her his girlfriend. She wasn’t cheating on him. Besides, this was a friend dinner. That’s what she’d told Adrian. They were friends and he was talking about taking her on a friendly wine-tasting trip to the coast. As friends.

Emmie, you are so full of shit.

Adrian was not looking at her like a friend. He was looking at her like he wanted to get in her pants. Not that she was wearing pants. She was wearing a pretty skirt and shirt, not jeans and a goofy T-shirt like she would if she went out with Tayla or Ethan or Jeremy.

She fidgeted in her seat. “Adrian, I’m sorry.”

He set down his wine. “Why?”

“I shouldn’t be here. It’s not fair to you. And—”

“Where’s Ox?” he asked. “He wasn’t working when I picked you up. Doesn’t he usually work on Sunday?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know when he works?”

Emmie’s eyes flashed. “Why the third degree?”

“I’m trying to figure out why you’re sorry to be with me when the other man you’re involved with isn’t around. In fact, he hasn’t been around in a few days, has he?”

“You’ve been keeping track? So those times you stopped by the shop to chat weren’t friendly, I guess. Were you spying on me? On him?”

“Where is he, Emmie?”

“Why is that your business?” A gust from the door touched her neck and Emmie shivered.

“Because I like you.” His voice rose a little. Not too much, but enough that their neighbor turned his head. “I like you very much. I’m attracted to you, Marianne Elliot, and I think if you gave me a chance—”

“Who’s Marianne?”

Emmie’s eyes went wide when she heard his voice. She turned and saw Ox standing in the foyer of the restaurant, staring at her and Adrian. “Ox?”

He was dripping wet from the rain. He strode toward them, his eyes blazing. “Who’s Marianne?”

Emmie turned around and crossed her arms. Of course he’d chosen the middle of her… non-date to turn back up. Of course he did.

“Marianne is her name,” Adrian said. “Her actual name, not her nickname.”

“Emmie?”

Her cheeks heated. “I don’t like Marianne. Don’t call me Marianne.”

“Is that your name?”

“Marianne Elliot. M.E. I’ve gone by Emmie since high school. It’s not a big deal, Miles.”

“How about that?” Ox was dripping on the carpet, his thumbs hooked in his pockets, the bottom foot of his jeans covered in mud, and everyone was staring at them. He did not look amused by her nickname. “So I’m gone four days and you’re out with someone else?”

“It’s not like that,” she whispered. “Can we talk about this—”

“If you’d called me two days ago when I asked you to, we could have talked about this.” Ox glanced at Adrian. “But I guess I know why you were so busy. Good to know where I stand.”

“It is not like that!” Emmie glanced around the restaurant, mortified by the public scene.

“Four days, Em. What the hell?”

“Where have you been?” she hissed. “I don’t even know where you’ve been.”

“My mom was in the hospital.”

“How’s she feeling, Miles?” a voice called from the other side of the dining room.

“Much better, Mr. Howard. She’s home now. Thanks for asking.”

Emmie stood up, her napkin falling to the ground. “Your mom was in the hospital and you didn’t call me?”

“I didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t want to bother—” Ox suddenly stopped and looked around, realizing that every eye in the restaurant was on them. He leaned down to Emmie. “I’m not doing this here. Him or me?” he whispered. “Who do you want?”

“You, you idiot! Why didn’t you call me?”

Ox grabbed her chin, kissed her hard, and reached for her hand. “Get your coat, Buttons. You’re not having dinner with Adrian Saroyan.”

Emmie picked up her napkin and set it on the table. “Adrian, I’m—”

“You’re not sorry,” Adrian muttered, “so don’t say you’re sorry. See you later, Emmie.”

Ox muttered something she couldn’t hear under his breath, then he grabbed Emmie’s coat while she grabbed her purse. He walked to the door, taking a second to drape Emmie’s coat over her shoulders before he strode into the pouring rain, Emmie’s hand still clutched in his.

She put up with it for five long strides before she yanked her hand away.

Ox spun around. “What?”

“I am not finished being mad at you for disappearing, and also I am not impressed by the caveman deal back there.” She marched past him. Her feet were squishing in her heels it was raining so hard. But she was only three blocks from her house. At this point she just wanted to go home. Tayla was in San Francisco visiting some friends, and Emmie decided she should have gone with her even if she had to take the train. She wanted to go home and eat ice cream and read a book she knew the ending to. It was going to be a happy ending where heroes weren’t assholes who disappeared for days on end and didn’t call you when their mom was sick.

“Where are you going?” Ox yelled.

“Home! I’m freezing cold and soaked and I don’t want to talk to you.”

“So you’re mad at me? Is that what’s happening? I’m the one who found you on a date with Adrian Saroyan, and you’re mad at me? What the hell?”

It was eight o’clock and no one else was on the sidewalk, but Emmie was still allergic to public displays. She kept walking.

Ox yelled, “What if it was me and Ginger, huh? Would you like that?”

Emmie stopped in her tracks and spun around. “It wasn’t like that. I promised him weeks ago—way before we started… whatever it is we’re doing—that I’d go out to dinner with him and discuss a book he was reading.”

“Whatever it is we’re doing?” Ox asked. “What do you think we’re doing?”

“I don’t know!”

“I’m fucking falling in love with you and you don’t know?”

Emmie’s jaw dropped open. She could feel rain falling on her lips. Down her cheeks. It was pouring, but all she heard was Ox.

“You’re falling in love with me?”

Ox didn’t say anything. He walked toward her, grabbed her hand, and started dragging her toward the shop.

“Ox?”

“It’s fucking pouring out here. You need to get inside.”

Had he meant it? Was it said in the heat of the moment? She thought he’d been playing. She’d been convinced he was ghosting her.

Emmie stumbled, and he caught her before she fell. Ox bent down, pulled off her soaking-wet shoes, then handed them to her before he picked her up and carried her down the sidewalk cradled in his arms.

Emmie was speechless for a block.

“Total romance-hero move,” she said. “If I were writing a romance novel, I’d want to put that in, but I couldn’t because it would be considered too cliché.”

He barely cracked a smile. “Buttons, you kill me.”

“Is your mom going to be okay? Are you?”

“They put her on a couple different blood pressure medications. She should be fine once they figure out what the right combination is.”

“When did it happen?”

“Saturday morning. I was on my way here when she had a dizzy spell. Her nose started bleeding and she passed out at dinner. The hospital just let her out this afternoon.”

“That’s why you didn’t call.”

He gave a short nod and set her down when he reached the door. Digging into his pocket, he unlocked the door and pushed it open. The shop was warm and dry and utterly silent. All she could hear was the rain falling outside and low thunder in the distance. Emmie dropped her shoes by the door and peeled off the soaking-wet coat, hanging it on the coat tree by the door.

“I left my umbrella at Marley’s.”

Ox had his hands in his pockets again. “And I left my truck there. I’ll grab your umbrella when I get it.”

“How did you know we were—”

“I didn’t. I was driving here to see you when I passed the restaurant. I could see you right in the window.”

Emmie tried to imagine what she’d feel like if she’d seen him having dinner with Ginger. She’d have been devastated.

Ox was staring at her. “You look beautiful.”

She looked down at her dripping outfit. “I look ridiculous.”

“No, you don’t. You’re beautiful.”

She shook her head. “I told him dinner was just as friends. But then he wanted to go to Marley’s, so I wanted to dress up. It’s not… When I told him we could go for dinner when he finished Sense and Sensibility, it was before… us. And then when he finished the book and called me—”

“He read a book so you’d go out with him?”

“I know.” She desperately wanted to get into dry clothes. “Stupid, right?”

“Smart.” He took a step closer. “He knows you.”

“Not as well as you do.”

“Yeah? I didn’t even know your real name.”

“I hate my real name.”

Ox put a hand on her cheek, rubbing away the drips that were falling from her hair. “You should get upstairs. Get dry.”

Emmie caught his hand before he could pull it away. “You said you were falling in love with me.”