Page 64 of The Matchmaker's Cottage

He’d left shortly after she had and a minute or so after Noah had announced he had to use the bathroom, not even considering for a minute that both men would have had the same inclination to follow her. Although Noah had his flirtatious side, Ethan hadn’t suspected he actually had a thing for Gem.

And why not?said the cynical little voice in his mind. It certainly wasn’t because she wasn’t pretty enough or worthy of admiration. No, a more insidious and unpleasant thought arose, one that painted him in likely the worst light imaginable. It was the idea that she had always just simply beenhis. The thought of another man wanting her, liking her, had never occurred to him, because, his lizard brain concluded, she wasn’tforanother man.

Only for him.

It was ludicrous and pathetic and most of all misguided, especially after everything that had happened between them, but it was the one prevailing thought he could remember having for the majority of his life. Before it could have been construed as anything other than friendship, before they had even reached their formative and hormone-driven teen years. The thought that Gem was his—hisfriend,hisperson, the one who was made for him and him alone. If he was so trite as to reflect on the concept of soulmates, maybe he would have put a finer point to it and just called her that.

But then he had lost her. And with that loss, he had lost the right to call her anything, even a friend.

Which was why seeing her and Noah kissing should not have evoked any reaction other than perhaps a mild curiosity. Maybe a bit of confusion. A shade of annoyance.

But nothing even remotely close to the inferno of rage engulfing him. He had to turn away, tear his eyes from the infuriating image before him, before he did something ridiculous like race down the stairs and physically push them apart.

He stalked back down the hall, completely bypassing the dining room, where Norman, Maggie, and Katy were presumably still eating, and ended up in the main foyer, pacing back and forth at the bottom of the stairs.

Every turn on his heel spurred him to go back downstairs to the kitchen, to catch them heading to Gem’s bedroom, to stop them from indulging in their passion. What would it accomplish, though? Aside from making him look like a stalker and a creep—a man who had no right at all to dictate who she saw or kissed or liked.

Instead, he turned away, trying to decide whether he should just go to his own room or walk right out the door instead.

His plans were in shambles anyway. With Emily here, it was only a matter of time before social media caught wind of her presence at Donwell Cottage. Then accounts would start making the connection between her trip and Katy and Noah’s—a picture with a similar-wallpapered background or the red facade of the cottage peeking from the corner. The questions would begin—why were they allreallythere?

It had been a stupid idea to begin with. One that now, in hindsight, he could admit had probably only been, in his own subconscious way, to be closer to Gem. In a moment of crisis, she had always been the one he’d turned to. Why would this time be any different?

“Boy, you look serious.”

Swirling around, he turned to see Emily sauntering down the stairs.

Resisting the urge to groan and roll his eyes, he gritted his teeth and gave her an imitation of a smile. “I’m fine. How are you enjoying your stay?”

“Great,” she responded, her smile less forced but just as insincere. “Surprised to see me?”

“Couldn’t have been more surprised,” he replied truthfully, jaw still clenched. “Whyareyou here?”

“Honestly?” She had approached him fully now, close enough to touch—which she didn’t hesitate to do, running a perfectly manicured finger down his chest. “Your office told me where I could find you when I told them I wanted to make amends.”

Damn it.Emily knew what kind of pull she had over there,now that she had gone nuclear on all of them. She’d probably coerced some unsuspecting and awestruck intern to give her the details after their phone call.

Ethan hadn’t even bothered to follow up with Gayle to ask why Emily had come. It would only serve to put a bigger target on his back, as she would undoubtedly tell Fordham and then all hell would break loose.

“You don’t need to make amends, Emily.” He sighed, mustering everything in his power not to remove her hand forcibly from his chest. “It’s fine.”

“I just feel like you should have known that the real chemistry lay between me and you,” she said in what he was certain she hoped was a sultry whisper.

“Emily.” Ethan closed his eyes briefly before opening them and leveling her with a hard gaze. “As I’ve told you, repeatedly, things have been strictly professional between us at all times.”

“I think,” she replied with a little smile, seemingly undeterred, “you just don’t know how good you could have it.”

Before she could even give him a chance to respond, she tilted herself up to kiss him, her mouth pressing to his. He had a moment of surreal abstraction—Is this actually happening? What even is life?—before immediately comparing it to his kiss with Gem.

Although sometimes fond of hyperbole, Ethan was not a man who leaned toward flowery words to describe something. Instead, he preferred keeping things simple, straightforward.

And that kiss, the one with Gem—it had been monumental. Life-changing.

It had finally put things into perspective for him in a single beat of clarity. Like the way people said that their lives flashed before their eyes when they were on the brink of death. In thatsingular moment, Ethan had been confronted with all his failures, all the wasted time he’d inflicted on himself and endured, a glimpse into the future he could have—all in the span of mere seconds. It had been like a movie playing out, and it had been over way too quickly, without even an opportunity to discuss, and now…

Now she’d been kissed by Noah, who came with the glow of celebrity and so much less baggage, and Ethan, unfortunately, was also being subjected to a kiss, one that was somehow both too dry and too wet at the same time and distasteful in every way and was literally no comparison.

“Really?”