Emily gave a little huff at that, wrinkling her nose at him. "And that is just one huge double standard," she pointed out. "Boys and girls can get in the same kinds of trouble. It's just for some reason it's worse if a girl does it than if a guy does, which makes no sense to me." She had a stubborn tilt to her chin, but she wasn't being rude or lecturing him or anything. She didn't want things to get weird or tense, but she didn't really like such blatant double standards, though.
She didn't really think she needed to worry about taking them with a grain of salt, as she just didn't read those magazines, and she didn't see that changing. Why should she find out what was on the gossip mill about Connor when she could get to know the man himself? "Ooh!" she said with a little laugh at the story. "How sneaky of you!" Though it wasn't a really scandalous story. She wondered if he had those, not that she had any intention of asking.
It was a credit to how comfortable she was with him, as inexplicable as it was, that her only outward reaction was another soft smile for him when he laid his hand over hers and squeezed. Internally, her stomach did a little flip that she wasn't looking too closely at just yet. "You're not, don't worry about a thing. It's all still really fresh, and I understand needing time to grieve," she said gently. It was true, even if the things she'd had to mourn had been completely different than his.