“No one,” she replied dismissively, pretending to check her phone.
“He’s a beast. Boyfriend?”
“Nope.”
“Brother?” She was relentless.
“No. Only child.”
“Well, he could be a bodyguard with that build.” Her gaze didn’t waver from the glass in front of them. She knew exactly what Alex was doing. Emma had been carefully schooled in the art of interrogation, in many forms. Alex was spitballing until she got a reaction. Emma wasn’t sure why, but she had her suspicions. As soon as she volunteered an explanation, Alex would know she had scored a hit. Well, surprise Alex, this wasn’t her first rodeo.
“Or an undercover cop....” she continued.
“He could,” Emma conceded, “or he could be an NFL player taking an old friend to lunch.” She winked and walked out of the building, leaving Alex huffing in frustration and beating a hasty retreat to her office.
Emma climbed into the back of the Suburban around the corner from prying eyes and rested her head against the tinted glass. She had given a lot of thought to telling Nathan her whole truth. Two things had given her pause. She was reluctant to rock the boat this early. This was her first relationship, her first sexual experience, and her first time falling in love. The idea of adding more complications felt like aiming a fan at a house of cards. That was her chicken shit reason. The other reason was a bit more substantial. Nathan was clearly keeping secrets of his own. If her suspicions were correct, he, like Emma, was hiding another identity. And if that was, in fact, the case then they were currently on equal footing. Her lack of experience was an easy excuse to put the burden on Nathan to decide when they pulled aside the curtain. God, she hoped it was soon. She wanted to know every part of him, and, more shockingly, she wanted him to see every part of her.