The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River) by Julia London Read Free Book Online Page B

brisk greeting. “You remember me, right? I was hoping I’d catch you here. Have you got a minute?”
    A tingling sensation began to crawl up Emma’s spine. As thrilled as she was that he should come in search of her ,there was no way that this could be good. No way could this be anything but very, very bad.
    At her lack of response, he arched a dark brow. “Hello?”
    Emma snapped out of it, retreating quickly into her turtle shell. “I don’t have a minute. I’m on my way to work.”
    “Really?” He looked surprised. “Not even a minute? Because I’ve come all the way from LA just to talk to you.”
    “Hello?”
    Libby had appeared from thin air to stand behind Emma. She peered at Cooper curiously, as if she were trying to recall him from some long-forgotten function.
    “You don’t know him,” Emma said. “But take all the time you need to get acquainted. I have to go.”
    “One minute, Emma,” Cooper said as she pushed open the screen door, forcing him to step back. “Like I said, I’ve come a long way.”
    “Oh?” Libby asked, her voice annoyingly full of delight. “You did? Are you a friend of Emma’s?”
    “Don’t, Libby,” Emma warned her. She stepped through the screen door, brushing past Cooper.
    “Slow down,” Cooper said. “Please.”
    Emma stopped on the top step and glanced back at him. “All right, what do you want?” she asked, and looked at the man’s watch she wore loosely around her wrist.
    “Emma!” Libby exclaimed, horrified as she always was by Emma’s abruptness. “You don’t need to be in such a hurry. It’s not a real job—”
    “Yes, it is a real job,” Emma insisted with a withering look for Libby. Okay, so she’d had to talk her way into it and she wasn’t being paid for it. But it was where she wanted to be, and it was honest work. It was important work. It wasn’t a White Party for Chrissakes.
    “I mean, it’s not like you have to punch a clock,” Libby clarified. To Cooper, she said, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t—Emma, can’t you at least introduce us?”
    “Introduce who?”
    Good God, here came Madeline to gape at Cooper, too. Emma was not going to do this. She couldn’t do this. She wasn’t going to watch hopeful Libby and disapproving Madeline study Cooper. She wasn’t going to watch Cooper smile and chat them up. She wasn’t going to pretend that Cooper was some old friend and introduce him around. She didn’t owe Cooper Jessup money. She’d never slept with him. She hadn’t asked him to come, and she wasn’t going to stick around now just to be polite. What was the point of that? In the end, he would—well, who knew what he would do or why he was here, but Emma could hardly catch her breath, and she wasn’t going to stay and find out. “There went your minute,” she said to him, and started jogging down the steps.
    “Where are you going?” Libby shouted.
    Emma turned to answer and was startled to find Cooper practically on her heels. “What’s the hurry?” he asked in a silky, cool voice. “You’re running off like you just robbed a bank.”
    “The hurry is that I’m in a hurry,” Emma said. She began to stride across the drive to her car. The four dogs that resided at Homecoming Ranch crawled out from beneath the porch with dusty fur and their tails wagging furiously to impede Emma’s progress as they sniffed around her feet, delighted to have company.
    Cooper leaned over and scratched the biggest one behind the ears. “You’re in such a hurry I’m wondering if you’re trying to avoid something,” he said, and smiled.
    It was a startling smile, and it reminded Emma just how devastatingly sexy he was. It knocked her off center a moment, but she quickly righted herself. She never allowed herself to sway off the precarious point that had become her center. The fall was too great.
    “You’re not trying to avoid anything, are you, Emma?” he asked, stepping closer. “You have nothing to hide, right? Nothing that