they’d be proud.”
“C’mon, you’re being the master of the understatement.” She nudged me in the side. “We’re here so you can talk to a Division 1 coach about a full-ride scholarship because you’re one of the best hockey players in the country. You’ve kept your grade point average up while juggling school and hockey, all while being basically on your own.”
I winked at her and teased, “If you keep giving me compliments like that, I'm going to end up with a big head.”
Emme shocked the shit out of me when she glanced down at my crotch and replied, “I think you already have one.”
I stopped and pulled her against my chest. “If this is what you’re like when we’re outside of Black Mountain, I have a lot to look forward to after graduation.”
“I don’t know what got into me,” she giggled, pressing her fingers against her lips. “I think it’s the combination of being away from my parents and having you all to myself.”
I led her outside and stored our luggage in the trunk before climbing into the back seat of the car with her. “I was surprised your mother agreed to this trip.”
“My dad set it all up,” she explained, cuddling into my side as we headed to the hotel to check in. “I lucked out because my mom is in the middle of planning a fall festival for one of the charities she’s involved with, and she was too distracted to ask any questions. I don’t even think she knows which school I’m visiting.”
I hated how hands-off Emme’s parents were with her. My mom would have given anything for just one more day with me, and it sucked that she would never get the same kind of love and acceptance from her mother. “Your dad was okay with sending you off by yourself?”
“He was originally planning to come on the trip with us, but something urgent came up at the office so he had to cancel at the last minute. He felt so bad about it that he told me to go ahead without him since I’d have a friend with me,” she explained with a sigh.
It had taken a few weeks for me to get used to how nonchalant she was when talking about the business her dad owned. I hadn’t known how to react when I first found out that her great-grandfather had founded a chain of hotels that was a household name. I’d stayed at them often when we’d gone on family vacations when I was younger. But the elite world I’d wandered into at Black Mountain Academy was full of kids set to inherit empires a fuck of a lot bigger, so Emme didn’t see her family’s wealth as anything special. One of the traits I appreciated most about her was how humble she could be. Money and status didn’t matter to her—if it had, she’d never would have been interested in me. But from everything I’d heard, her parents were a different story. “I’m sorry he had to bail. It would’ve been nice to finally meet him.”
“Liar.” She leaned back to smile up at me. “I hadn’t worked up the nerve to tell him the friend traveling with us was a boy and not Emily or Sarah, like he probably assumed. I love my dad but having you two meet for the first time right before we all got on a small plane together would’ve been super awkward.”
“You may have a point there.” I tapped her on the tip of her nose. “But it’s going to happen someday.”
“I know,” she sighed, patting my chest. “I’d introduce you to my dad when we get back tomorrow if it wasn’t for how I know my mom will react. There’s no way he’ll be able to keep the news from her for long, even with how rarely they spend time together.”
I had gotten the impression that a lot of couples in Black Mountain stayed together because of money. It was a shit way to live and the complete opposite of what my parents had when they were together. It was also probably a big part of why Emme had never gotten involved with anyone before me—she’d been afraid to end up in a marriage like her parents had. “Maybe his work emergency was a sign that we should wait until your birthday party. We won’t be able to get around me meeting them then. I’m too big to hide behind you, and my place as your