“Then what is the problem? Stop being so difficult and just explain it to me.”
“The problem is,” I sighed, “I’m pretty sure Emily doesn’t want to date me.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense.”
I turned away from the window toward my desk. “You asked. I answered.”
“But I don’t understand. You said you were good together. That you were compatible. Why on Earth wouldn’t she want to date you? I’m confused. And for that matter, what is it you’re even doing? When you take a woman out to dinners, help out her child, and take on fancy foreign vacations, that’s dating.”
“No, that’s two friends spending time together.”
“Then what’s holding back those friends from becoming more?”
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t. There’s just something there blocking things. Something on her end.”
“Then you unblock it, boy. If you can convince people to sign multimillion-dollar deals, you can convince that woman you’re worth dating. You’ll have to try harder.”
I laughed. “That does have a certain logic to it, and I can’t really argue with it.”
What could I say? When my mother was right, she was right.
A beep in the background alerted me to another call. I looked at my phone.
“She’s calling now, Mother.”
“Then hang up on me and take her call. Don’t make her wait.”
“Okay, okay. I only told you all that so you know what’s going on.”
“Answer her, Logan.”
My mother hung up on me, which made me burst out laughing. I calmed myself and answered Emily’s call.
“Hello,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice smooth and neutral.
“I hope you had a good Sunday,” Emily said quietly.
“Lovely. Even the sermon at my church this week wasn’t boring.”
“That’s good. We didn’t make it to church since I wanted to give Juniper another day to rest.” I could hear Emily swallow over the line.
“What is it?” My heart sped up. Had Juniper’s illness worsened again?
“Juniper is up to being outside. She played a little in the yard today.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “That’s great news.”
“Yes, it is. She also keeps asking about your dogs, and I don’t know. I tried to tell it’s already pretty late in the day, and you’re a busy man, and—”
“I’m almost done with work. You can bring her by in a couple of hours if you want.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“No, the boys would love to play with Juniper, and I have a huge backyard.”
I heard the sound of something I think was a muffled sigh. Silence followed for long enough that I thought the call had been disconnected before Emily finally responded.
“Okay, I’ll tell her, and we’ll be there in two hours. See you then.”