The Nice Girl Gets Even novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Eleven More

Emmett tied off the bow line himself.

Then he stood up on the dock, a head taller than his father.

He handed me out of the boat by both hands.

"Hello, Dad."

"Your mother's been calling you since noon."

"I was on a sandbar."

His father looked at me again.

"With the Blanchard girl. Who's been harassing your sister. Margot's in pieces."

"Margot's fine," Emmett said. "Margot's always fine. I pay for it."

"Not anymore, apparently."

His father's voice was very calm, the calm of a man who'd never once been told no in his own family.

"Whatever you think you're doing for this young lady, you're doing it with the firm's name on your card. I won't have it. Leave it alone, or clear out."

Emmett was still holding my hand.

He didn't let go.

"No," he said.

His father waited for more.

There wasn't any.

"Think about your mother," his father said finally, and walked back up the dock.

He didn't look at me again.

Emmett watched the camel coat get into a long black car.

"You didn't have to do that," I said.

"Yes, I did." His shoulders came down. "Thirty-four years. That's the first time I've said it to him."

"How did it feel?"

"Like falling off a boat." He turned and looked at me. "Come to the office with me. Tonight. Before he changes the locks."

The Merrill firm takes up the top floor of an old cotton exchange on Royal Street.

There are oil paintings of dead Merrills in the lobby.

His office was small, with a window over the river and a model tugboat on the shelf.

"Gaillard files what's rented and what's empty every year," he said, pulling a chair up beside his. "Margot signs it."

He opened a list on his screen.

And at the bottom, a long tail of small storefronts, old buildings on old streets, the kind of places that don't make anybody rich.

← Chapter 9 · All chapters · Chapter 11 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend