Emma's Home (The Fairfield Series) Read Free Page A

this as their meeting place. The bar was run by Wendy and Bill Evans, longtime town residents, who knew everyone and everything going on in the town.
    “God, I can’t believe you are finally here and not just visiting but staying!” Laurie said while not letting go of Emma’s hands. Laurie, like Emma, was petite but her thick brown hair hung in soft waves down her back. Emma was a brunette with auburn highlights that fell to just below her shoulders. Emma had the dark brown eyes of her parents, but Laurie’s were stormy grey, a trait they could only assume came from her father.
    “It was time for a change, and I figured I might as well come to where my only family was,” Emma replied, smiling at her niece.
    Seeing Laurie sitting next to Rob, Emma noticed the way they looked at each other. Rob was tall and powerfully built. He wore faded jeans, a navy t-shirt fitted tightly to his torso, and cowboy boots.
    “Rob, I’m so glad to meet you. I can tell by the way Laurie is looking at you, this is the real deal,” Emma said enthusiastically.
    “I’m the lucky one,” Rob replied, smiling back at the lady who had given up everything to raise the woman he loved.
    Carol and Tom sat across from Emma. Carol was a beautiful slim woman with blonde hair stylishly cut to just below her shoulders. She had an angelic aura about her. Her husband, Tom, was slightly leaner than Rob, with the same yellow blond hair that his wife had. Carol wiggled in her seat, trying to disguise the rumbling of her stomach. Her husband gazed at her with a questioning look on his face.
    “I’m sorry, I’m just really hungry. I haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Carol said sheepishly.
    Laurie looked around, not seeing Jake. “I wanted to wait and order when Jake got here. Where is he?” she said, agitated. Tom and Rob shared a look over their wives’ heads.
    Emma grinned. “Am I being stood up, gentlemen?” Emma, never taking herself too seriously, knew that life was too precious to waste on things that just did not matter. And being stood up by a man she had never met would certainly not break her.
    Laurie snapped her head around, looking up at Rob to see what she was missing. Her temper began to rise, but Rob quickly spoke to calm her.
    “He would never skip out – he knows how important this dinner is to you.”
    “Yeah,” Tom added. “He’s just running late.”
    “Well, while we are waiting on him, why don’t you go ahead and order appetizers? I am going to run to the ladies room.” Emma stood and walked over toward the hall by the bar.

Chapter 2
    J ake pulled his pickup truck up to the bar, but didn’t get out right away. He didn’t know why he was so opposed to going inside to have dinner with his friends. He understood he wasn’t being “set up” with Laurie’s aunt; he was just supposed to meet her and sit with her so she would have a dinner partner. But being there watching Rob and Tom have what he wanted was just going to be one more reason for delaying. He was happy his friends had found amazing, beautiful women. Rob and Tom were his best friends and deserved the best. But… Jake shook his head to clear his thoughts. Taking a deep breath, he hopped out of his truck.
    Approaching the door to the bar, he saw a tall, skinny blonde with painted on blue jeans, hanging around the front. Recognizing the young woman as Brandi, a notorious flirt always looking for attention, he tried to walk by. She turned around, a huge hungry smile covering her face.
    “Jake,” she purred. “I was supposed to meet someone, but he isn’t here yet, so you can buy me a drink.” She latched onto his arm, dragging a long red fingernail down his chest.
    “Sorry, Brandi, but I am meeting friends,” he said as he tried to disentangle himself.
    “Well, since you didn’t come with anyone, I can be your date,” she said as they walked inside the bar.
    Brandi, barely old enough to drink legally, was too young to be a barfly, but Jake knew