"James, thanks again for coming here. I don’t know how I will ever repay you for everything you have done for me in a matter of a week." Emily told him while they were standing in front of her father’s house. 

"For the millionth time, Emily, don't. Just stop thanking me because, believe it or not, I don’t want any harm or unnecessary stress to attack you. The least you could do for me is to relax and throw all your problems aside." James said, hoping that she would listen to him.

"Easier said than done, especially when we are both just stepping into it." She stated.

"Then we will deal with it together." Jake extended his arm, which Emily gladly linked with hers.

When they rang the doorbell, it was none other than the host who welcomed them.

"Emily! You made it. And you must be her famous boyfriend." Henry greeted them. 

His words had a sarcastic tone.

"I don’t know about famous, but her boyfriend? Yes." James addressed him politely.

"We will see how long it lasts," Henry said, too confident that Emily's relationship with this fellow wouldn’t work. 

No one can deal with her.

"For as long as she will have me. Even then, she won’t be able to get rid of me this easily. The root of a great relationship is respect and trust, which we both have that for one another." 

Emily felt like kissing him right there and then. 

Henry's body went rigid, though. He thought that he could manipulate James, but her boyfriend is a stubborn but sensible man.

"So, where did the two of you meet?" He asked James.

"We work in the same work-place. She is my associate." James explained.

"So you are her boss." It was a statement rather than a question. 

He had a judgmental expression in his eyes.

"No, Justin is her boss. I am her partner." James said, challenging him to speak otherwise. 

This guy is a complete moron.

Fortunately, her nephew Max interrupted their chat by running towards her and hugging her knees. Emily gladly picked him up.

"Aunt Fluffy." 

This caused James to chuckle and Emily to frown. 

She cursed Justin under her breath for influencing her nephew to call her that. That idiot gave Max an idea to test how big a softie she is by pulling her cheeks, which he happily did, and he's been calling her Aunt Fluffy ever since.

"Come on, Maxie. Let's go find your parents. We should not stop Henry from meeting his important guests." Emily told her. 

She would do anything to stay away from this man.

"You should not call your father by name, Emily." He glared at her. 

"For that, you need to act like one, and we both know you are far from doing that." 

Emily left Henry furious, and James followed her. Emily's anger runs deeper than he had imagined. This guy must have done something extremely horrible to make her detest him so much.

Emily and James both headed to the corner of the room, where Jake and Kate were already standing. She put her nephew down while greeting her brother and sister-in-law.

"Thank you for showing up so early," Jake commented sarcastically. 

It was fair, as they were one hour late, on purpose.

"Be glad that I even showed up." Emily rolled her eyes. 

She was going to say something further when she noticed Max was looking adorably but curiously at James.

Emily tapped James' shoulder, who was standing beside her, and signaled to him to look at her nephew. James wished to pull Max's cheeks. He was way too adorable and cute.

"Hey Max, my name is James. I am Emily’s..." But Max completed his sentence.

"Special friend. So, I should call you Uncle Jamie." 

This made both James and Emily look at him with a dumbfounded look.

"I may or may not have mentioned something about you having a new friend," Jake said to Emily in a teasing tone.

"Geez, thanks for nothing, brother," Emily replied with a snarky grin.

“You are welcome, my lovely sister.” Jake winked and let out a hearty chuckle

James intervened and tried to correct Max, but Emily’s nephew was as hard-headed as her.

"Max, you can call me James."

"Uncle Jamie," Max said while hugging him. 

“Jamie sounds like a girl.” He muttered but nonetheless hugged the cute little boy back.

But Emily heard it.

“If I can tolerate fluffy, so can you handle being called Jamie. Anyway, your nickname is a lot better than mine,” Emily told him. 

She was happy that she wouldn't be the only one with a lousy nickname.

"No, it isn’t." James grimaced at her, but his mood changed when Max took the support of his knees. James looked down, he noticed that the little kid was tired and sleepy. 

“Hey, Max. Do you want me to pick you up?” James asked him. 

In response, Max extended both his arms for James to hold him, which he gladly did and buried his head in his shoulder.

"Max likes you," Kate said with a smile.

"I guess so." James agreed while rubbing his other hand on Max’s back.

"He is not a fan of a lot of people. More specifically, Henry. He always runs ten feet away from him." Emily pointed out.

"I think he is more like you, Em." James pointed out.

Jake agreed. "You will be surprised at that. You don't mind holding him, do you? He is not going to let go of you easily."

"Not at all. I have a niece a year younger than him. So, I have a bit of practice in holding kids for a long time." James said.

"I didn’t know that. Sierra's daughter? What’s her name?" She asked him. 

James didn’t think that Emily would have remembered his sister’s name.

"Jessie," he told her with a smile.

"I would love to meet her," Emily told him excitedly. Because of Max, Emily loves kids.

"She would love to meet you, too." He told her with a smile of his own.

Their eye contact didn’t go unnoticed by Jake and Kate. They were very well recognized by that look and hoped that things would turn out better for Emily and James.

However, Henry interrupted them. "It is great to see all my family members together, with the exception of James, who is Emily's friend. Please meet, Robin."

Emily chose to ignore her father and his guest completely and scooted closer to James, who then switched his place with that of Emily's. 

He could tell that she was not comfortable with Robin standing beside her. He didn’t blame her because he had a sinister vibe emitting from him and his smug face and sharp eyes were a dead giveaway.

"Hey," James spoke on behalf of everyone. 

He knew men like Henry, but unfortunately, his experience hadn’t taught him anything even after being an old man.

"So Robin, I hope you remember Emily. She is my elder daughter." Henry tried to introduce Robin, despite knowing what kind of man he was.

Jake had enough. He wasn't going to continue to encourage his father by remaining silent.

“Who is very much committed to my good friend James. I am sorry, but we all need to leave." Jake declared and gave a subtly glare to Henry. 

Emily was glad that Jake spoke up and dismissed Henry's indirect advances of setting her with creepy Robin.

"This soon? The party has just begun." 

Henry gave his son a warning look, telling him not to go and allow people a chance to smear his reputation.

"Yes, I already told you, we won’t be able to spend much time here because of our prior commitment. Moreover, lots of unpacking is pending on the part of Emily and James since they have decided to live together." Henry was shocked by James' words.

"You are living with him?" Henry said, looking at Emily.

"Yes, I am," Emily told her father. 

She touched James' arm to make a point that she is serious about him and her so-called father's opinion doesn’t matter at all.

"You didn’t even think to consult your father on this?" He asked her.

"I already told MY DAD, and he is thrilled that I have decided to move forward in my life with James," Emily said.

Jake added more fuel to the fire. "If you must know, dad loves James. He has a lot of good things to say about him." 

Bob was never one of Henry's favorites, even more so because he married his ex-wife.

"I think we should leave now," Kate said. 

She didn’t want the situation to escalate, so they all took their leave. 

Once everyone was out of the house, James spoke his thoughts aloud. "You guys just conveniently used me to prove your jerk father some unsaid point."

"Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have told him about you guys staying together, but forcing Robin on her even after meeting you was not done." Jake expressed his regret.

"I am sorry too, James. I told you, our interaction with Henry was skewed. We don't even know why we put up with him, and using you like that was not right, but…." Emily said. 

She despised herself for dragging James into her shambles.

"Em, honestly, I can’t believe I am saying this, but your father, Henry Davies, is an ass. So, if using me makes him stay away from you, then, by all means, go ahead and do it." James told her. 

It might sound pathetic to others, but he did mean what he said. It was not because of his feelings towards Emily; although there was a tiny propensity, but it was also because he was aware that sometimes one has got to take an absurd route to deal with people like Henry.

"Thanks, Jamie." Emily was grateful, but James groaned at her choice of words.

"Not Jamie, please." He whined.

"Too late for that," she said with a laugh.

"Anyone up for food? I am hungry," Jake asked, intervening between their usual banter.

"Yes, please." James agreed right away. He can never say no to food.

"There is this fantastic burger joint nearby. Let’s go over there." Emily said excitedly.

"In," Kate said, and all of them nodded their heads. 

While Jake and Emily were walking in front, Kate chose to walk beside James, who was still carrying Max on his arm. Her son decided to amuse himself by playing with James' tie, which James had no problem with.

"James, you might be tired of holding Max up," Kate said.

"Naah! He is adorable. I don’t feel like letting him go. There is so much innocence in these kids, which just makes you want to spend more time with them." He said while rubbing Max's golden hair.

"I agree. By the way, thank you for being cool with Jake and Emily. They sometimes tend to cross their limit when Henry is concerned." Kate apologized.

"Don’t worry about it. Henry does suck. Plus, Jake didn’t say anything, which was a lie. And I don’t like Robin. It was better to get the point across that Emily was off-limits to him." James said. 

"Yeah," Kate said, her mind wandering. 

Henry had set out on a mission to make their lives difficult. However, she was glad that she could help her husband deal with his father.

"Is their relationship really that bad? I feel like it was not even a tenth of what I witnessed back there." James asked her. 

"You have no idea. Divorce between parents in our community is not new, but Henry takes it to a whole new level. I tried to be optimistic in the beginning, but the toll it took on us which is something I don’t want to experience again." Kate said to him, trying hard not to reminisce about the time when Henry officially entered their lives.

"Wow." James couldn't think of anything more to say.

"James, thanks for standing beside Emily. I can't expect or ask you to constantly be there for her, but…." James abruptly cut her off.

"But I am going to, Kate. Emily means a lot to me. Moreover, she is also Fiona’s best friend, who is not only my best friend’s wife but also my dear friend. I take all my relationships seriously, especially the ones special to me. And my relationship with Emily is much more than a charade." James spoke from the heart.

"In that case, James, welcome to the family. Boyfriend or not, you will be a wonderful addition to our small family." Kate said with a smile.

"I am honored." James returned the smile.