Free Beastly (The Ever After Collection) by Noelle Marie Page A

didn’t even bother to peek out the window before throwing open the door.
    It was him. Heath. Tension she hadn’t even been aware was there fled from her shoulders. She smiled. “Hi.”
    For the first time since Emma had met him, Heath looked unsure of himself. His hands were stuffed deep in the pockets of his coat as he shifted his weight from foot to foot on her doorstep. “Hey.”
    The car he’d driven to her house – Emma assumed it was his – was parked on the road behind him. The old Chevy with faded red paint clinging to its body and a sizable dent on its hood had character, and Emma could appreciate the fact that someone in her class owned a vehicle nearly as ancient as her own.
    Heath cleared his throat, abruptly bringing her attention back to the boy in front of her.
    “Sorry,” she apologized, cringing in embarrassment. “Why don’t you come in?” She stepped out of the way so he could do just that. “Do you want something to eat before we get started?”
    Emma had tried to work away the nervous jitters she’d experienced while waiting for Heath to show by attempting to bake brownies. “Attempting” being the key word. They’d turned out harder than what she imagined Heath’s head to be. She was fairly certain they wouldn’t kill him though. Fairly certain .
    Emma didn’t have to worry about being indicted for murder by brownie, however, because Heath just shook his head.
    Emma frowned, forehead crinkling as her eyebrows drew together. She hoped Heath didn’t plan on giving her the silent treatment the whole time he was there or it would be next to impossible to get any work done.
    Before she could worry too much about that , however, Heath proved her wrong by hastily thrusting a piece of paper under her nose. “What’s this supposed to be?” he demanded.
    Upon closer inspection, she recognized the paper to be the note she’d written on her receipt yesterday at the diner. The two simple words she’d sprawled out glared up at her accusingly.
    “Is this some sad attempt at making fun of me or something? Because-”
    “What?” Emma interrupted, finding her voice. “No!” she exclaimed, appalled that Heath would think that. “Of course not! I just…”
    “You just what?”
    “I was just trying to apologize!” she exclaimed.
    Obviously.
    “I wanted to say that I was sorry for cornering you at your job and…” For whatever reason the second part of her apology was harder to spit out. “…and for grabbing your hand at the party at Percy’s house. I… I didn’t mean to pry or make you feel uncomfortable.”
    Heath stared at her, his expression betraying his incredulity. “You are exasperating.”
    Emma’s eyebrows shot up in disbelief. “Uh, have you met you?”
    That shocked a laugh out of him, the rich timbre of it making Emma’s face suddenly feel much too warm. He shook his head. “I practically shove you into a lake and yet you’re apologizing to me.”
    Emma barely managed to refrain from rolling her eyes. “You didn’t shove me,” she asserted. “I fell.”
    Heath shrugged. “Yeah, because of my asshatery.”
    “You may have been a bit… abrupt,” she finally settled on, “but I fell because the dock was slippery and I have about as much poise as a newborn deer when I’m on dry land. That’s hardly your fault.”
    Heath didn’t look like he believed her. “So are we going to work on this project or what?” He was clearly finished with the current line of conversation if his change of subject was any indication.
    Emma blanked for a second. “The project. Right. Uh, you can sit on the sofa if you want. I’ll run upstairs and grab my book bag.” She could see that Heath hadn’t bothered to bring his.
    Hurrying up the stairs Emma grabbed both her backpack and her laptop before heading back down to the living room. In the minute she’d been absent, Heath had settled himself onto the plaid eyesore taking up a decent chunk of the room’s space. His coat