Now and Then Read Online Free PDF Page A

as she was about to tell Layla, Emma turned and reached for her drink instead.
    “What? You were about to say something,” Layla said.
    “Nope. Just got a text from a cute guy at my office is all.”
    “Good. Y ou’ve been celibate for months now. You’re making me look like a whore.”
    “You’d look like a whore with or without me,” Emma said sweetly. Layla extended her middle finger as she finished her drink.
    “I might be using my key to your apartment over lunch soon,” Layla said.
    “You want to have lunch at my dumpy apartment?”
    “No, I want to fuck Chad at your apartment. It’s closer to my office than mine is.”
    “Chad who?”
    “I don’t even know his last name, and I like it that way. He’s the one from that band I saw with Court a few weeks ago. He’s really, really hot.”
    “Are you putting your Layla Carson-Marlowe plans on hold?” Emma asked wryly.
    “No. What’s wrong with having a little fun in the meantime?”
    “That’s a little creepy, Layla. I could go home and lay down in God knows what after you rendezvous with some stranger at my apartment, and not even know it.”
    “We won’t use your bed, we’ll use the couch.”
    “Oh, good, because I don’t mind having a strange man’s semen on my couch .”
    “Lighten up, Em. It’s for a good cause. You know how bitchy I get when I’m not getting laid.”
    “Seriously, Layla, don’t be a slut.”
    “Did you just call me a slut?”
    “No, I said not to be one, which is different than saying you are one. You say you want to get married, and you aren’t going to fuck your way to a good husband.”
    “Oh, I hold out on the ones who are marriage material,” Layla said. “Chad’s strictly for sex. Are you jealous because you aren’t getting any?”
    Emma rolled her eyes, pushing her plate aside as she finished eating.
    “I’m happy with my life the way it is. I don’t need a man taking up the time I want to spend painting and reading and doing whatever else I want.”
    “You certainly ran through plenty of men in Paris.” Layla gestured to the server for another round of drinks. Emma smiled a t the memory of her time abroad, where she’d discovered that she was more than just Layla’s shy, awkward little sister.
    “That was different. I’m feeling settled now ,” Emma said.
    “You haven’t met any men you’re interested in here? Other than the office guy who just texted you?”
    This is my opening. This is when I tell her I had lunch with Cole Marlowe earlier. I can tell her right now.
    “Nope.” Emma shrugged, her heart picking up speed as she lied. Layla was the one person she was always completely open with. But something was making her hold back. She felt a stab of guilt at knowing she didn’t want Layla to go after him. Cole had never looked at Emma, actually looked and seen her, before their recent run-in. It had been an innocent lunch anyway. And dinner Friday … that would be innocent, too.
    The mention of the text she’d gotten made Emma grab her phone and write back.
    Sure, call me. Great to see you, too.
    The casual tone of her message belied the way she felt about seeing him again. Cole and I are just old acquaintances, nothing more . We’ll hang out and that’s it. So why don’t I want Layla to know?
    She realized with another flare of guilt that it was because Layla would manage to insert herself and join them for dinner, and she would command Cole’s attention. Emma had spent years longing for his attention, and even if it was just over a casual dinner, she wanted to feel those blue-gray eyes seeing her – really seeing her, again.
    “I’m picking you up for dinner at Mom and Dad’s Sunday, right?” Layla asked.
    “Yeah. Remind me to give back that jacket I borrowed from you.”
    “I’m going out with Kim and Lane Friday night, want to come?”
    “No, I’m planning to paint,” Emma said, the stab of another lie making her look away from her sister. “And if you use my