“Ready for the next chapter.” Emily beams. I wish I could have that kind of excitement about the future. Am I broken?

“She’s ready to date.” Tomas shakes his head.

“Who is it that you're looking to date?” Asher asks. I peek over to see him glaring at his sister. He might be a jerk, but it’s kind of sweet that he’s protective of her.

“Emily won’t date high school boys. She’s waiting,” my mom says.

“Yep. High school boys are annoying. They are way too immature.” My mom nods in agreement. Asher glances over toward her.

Good. He can see for himself that Emily and Mom get along just fine. Enough that Emily confides in her. At first, Emily was on guard with Mom. Not the way Asher is, but she kept a wall up. It slowly started to come down, and they’ve begun to form their own bond. I think Emily was worried that Mom and Tomas could fall apart with how quickly they’d gotten together. She didn’t want to open herself up and be disappointed.

Once she realized the two of them are in love, she opened up more and more to my mom. I’m not even going to lie. For a moment, I’d felt a stab of jealousy. It was short-lived when I realized Emily never had a mom really. I couldn’t imagine not having a mom. I don’t wish that on anyone. If Mom can give her that, then I will support that in any way I can.

“Or jerks,” I mutter under my breath. Asher’s attention turns back to me, having heard me. I cut into my steak.

Thankfully, Emily fills the table with chatter. I try to pretend I don’t feel Asher staring my way when he thinks no one is looking.

6

Asher

I’m officially a stalker. First thing I did this morning was look up whatever information I could on Emily. I was happy to find out she is in fact eighteen. Thank fuck. I didn’t stop there though; I’d even gone onto the Bradford Prep School website to make sure classes still started at the same time as they did when I went there. They were the same. Not that it's much help. I might know what time she has to be to class, but I don’t know when she comes out of her bedroom. I can only surmise a guess.

That guess has me standing at my own door listening for another door to open. Why I’m doing this, I have no fucking clue. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her all through dinner. Emily may have filled the silence with chatter, but my thoughts kept wandering to Molly.