“Daddy…” my voice trailed off because, for the life of me, I had no clue what to say. Tears fell down my cheeks as something inside of me felt like it as being ripped in two, between Ethan and my father.
“I’m in love with her.” At Ethan’s sudden exclamation the air in the room grew thicker. We all turned to look at him and what I saw shining in those golden eyes of his, sent an entirely different pain through me. “I’m in love with her, and I know I hurt her, but you have to believe that as long as I have breath in my body, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to her so she never has to struggle with that again.”
“Those are good words, son. But that’s just what they are… words. A real man is judged by his actions, so you’ll have to forgive me, but based on your past actions, I’m not carrying much faith in what you’re telling me.”
“I can respect that, sir,” Ethan answered as the muscle in his jaw ticked rapidly. “But you have to know I’m not giving up on Eliza. I’ll never give up.”
“And you need to know that until I can trust that you’re what she needs, I can’t stand behind this relationship.”
I was suffocating. The air around me was too thick, I couldn’t think. The two men who’d mattered most in my life were at a stalemate, over me. I felt like I was being forced to choose between the two of them, and I just couldn’t take it. The pressure grew too strong.
“I have to go,” I whispered to no one in particular as I kept my head down, moving for the door that would lead me back to the sanctuary of my apartment.
“Eliza…” Ethan grabbed my arm to stop me.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered, my words breaking as more tears broke free. I looked up at the three people left in the room with me. Ethan looked just as crushed as my father did. Chloe’s hands were over her mouth as tears streamed down her face. “This is all too much. First, Shannon messing with my life, and now you and my dad fighting, I just can’t. I need to leave. Please let me go.”
“Baby, just let me—”
“No!” I interrupted. “I can’t choose between you and my father. I can’t. This is all too much. I can’t handle it. Just let me go.”
His face fell, and with it, my own heart dropped to my feet. The instant his fingers loosened I pulled from his grasp and ran, shoving through the door and taking the stairs two at a time.
It wasn’t until I was locked inside my apartment and curled up in my bed, with the smell of Ethan on my sheets, that I fully lost it, crying harder than I had in years, pouring all my grief out with every tear that fell onto my pillow.
29
Ethan
It had been three days since Eliza ran out of the kitchen of the café in tears. Three fucking days and I felt like I was dying inside. She wasn’t answering my calls or texts. With each passing second, I had to tamp down the furious desire to drive over to her place and break the door down and demand she talk to me. But I knew that would only set me back even further than I already was.
I needed to give her space no matter how much it killed me to do so. The foundation we had started to repair was still far from stable, and the shit with Shannon, coupled with her father’s disapproval of our relationship, was enough to shake it to its very core. I needed to fix this, but the problem was I had no goddamned clue how to start about doing that.
“Geez, Ethan,” my sister’s voice called from behind me. “What did that poor, defenseless piece of bread ever do to you?”
At her sarcastic question, I was snatched from my morose thoughts and back into reality. I looked down at the counter where I’d been spreading mayo on a slice of bread for a sandwich and saw that I’d ripped the slice to shreds with my butter knife. With a heavy sigh, I scraped it off the cutting board and threw it in the trash before pulling out another piece and starting over again, hoping Harlow would get bored with my lack of conversation and leave me in peace. I should have known better.
“Want to tell me what’s had you walking around in a perpetual state of asshole the past three days?”
“Not in the mood for your attitude, today, Low-Low,” I growled as my butter knife tore a hole in the second piece of bread. “Goddamn it!” I shouted, picking it up and flinging it across the room. It splattered against the wall and slowly slid down before finally falling off and hitting the ground with a gross plop.
“Okay, that’s it,” she snapped, coming over and grabbing hold of my elbow, using it to pull me toward the dining room table. “I’ve let this shit go on for long enough. It’s time we talk.”
Resting my elbows on the table, I dropped my head in my hands and began massaging my temples. “No offense Harlow, but this really doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s my own shit I’m trying to deal with.”
“Bullshit.”
My head shot up to see her glaring at me. “I know exactly what this is about. Despite what you think, I’m not stupid, Ethan. I pay attention to what’s going on. I know about you and Eliza.”
My shoulders slumped in defeat as I sat back in my chair. “You talked to Chloe?”
She nodded. “I did.”
“So you know Derrick’s less than thrilled about it.” It wasn’t a question. I could see it in her eyes. She knew, and there was a part of her that probably agreed with him.
“Do you really think this is smart, Ethan? I mean, once your knee’s better, you’re heading back to Denver. She was in a bad enough state the first time you left.”
Christ, I really didn’t want to have this conversation with my sister. But with everything that had happened, I didn’t see a way out of it. “This time’s different,” I stated.
“How so? You’re still a professional football player with a busy life that lives in a different state. You can’t guarantee that the same thing won’t happen this time around.”
“Yes I can,” I argued, that tension that had been coiling in my gut for days suddenly starting to feel unbearable.
“How?” she demanded loudly. “You left then, and you’ll leave again this time. There’s no—”
“Because she’s not a sixteen year old girl anymore!” I shouted, the words pouring out before I could give them any thought. “I left before because I was falling in love with her. She was just a kid, for Christ’s sake. It was fucked up and wrong, and I had no other choice but to disappear before I did something that would ruin both of our futures. But she’s not a teenager anymore. She’s an adult. That’s what makes this time different.”
“Holy shit,” Harlow breathed, her eyes going wide. “That’s why you left? Because you were falling for Eliza?”
Resuming my previous position of arms on table, I scrubbed at my face with both hands. “That’s part of it.”
“Then what was the rest?”
Shit. I really needed to stop speaking before thinking. This was a conversation I never had any intension of having, and I’d just stuck my foot in my mouth. Harlow was like a goddamned dog with a bone. There was no diverting her. “I don’t want to talk about this now,” I said, standing from the table and moving back to the counter.
“Oh no you don’t.” She rushed after me and yanked the loaf of bread from my hand, tossing it back into the breadbasket. “I don’t feel like going to the store today because you want to take your frustrations out on food products. Besides, you can’t just drop a bombshell like that and think I’m going to let it slide. You brought it up. Now spill.”
Like a said, a dog with a bone. “Harlow, just let it go.”
“Screw that! You’ve been dodging this conversation for six freaking years, Ethan! What other reasons did you have for not coming home?”
“The reasons are my own!” I insisted. “Just leave it.”
Getting in my face, my sister gave my chest a shove. “Tell me, damn it!”
And with that, I snapped. “Because of you!”
Her expression morphed into one of immense pain, and I hated myself for hurting her. “Because of me?” she asked in a small, heartbroken voice.
Her golden-brown eyes swam with tears as she sniffled. “Well excuse me for being upset when I just found out my baby brother abandoned home because he didn’t want to be around me. You’ll have to forgive me for having my heart broken!” she snapped back, turning on her heels in an attempt to storm out of the kitchen.
I couldn’t possibly let her leave thinking that I had wanted nothing to do with her. Grabbing her by the arm, I spun her back around and pinned her to my chest, holding tight as she started to struggle. “That’s not it,” I whispered into the hair at the top of her head. “That’s not it at all, Low-Low. I love you more than anything. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be around you. I swear.”
She pulled back enough to look up at me, sniffling and batting at the few tears that had broken free. “Then what was it exactly? And you better make it good, or so help my God, Ethan, I’m going to punch you right in the throat.”
I couldn’t help but smile at my sister’s tough girl act. “You have to actually listen, okay? Don’t interrupt. Just let me say what I have to say before you lay into me.” She huffed but nodded her head. That wasn’t good enough. I knew her too well. “Promise.”
She rolled her eyes dramatically, but said, “Fine. I promise.”
Leading her back to the table, I pulled out a chair for her and took the one right next to her. My only option was to just dive right in, so that’s what I did. “I left because I thought I needed to build a life for myself where I’d never be stuck depending on someone else. I thought that was the only way I could guarantee I’d have the security I never had growing up.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I held up my hand to stop her. “I’m not saying it was a rational way of thinking, but it was mine. Our parents died and we were forced to leave everything we knew to come here and live with Gram. It was good for a while, but then, one day, you just… left. I get why now. I understand that you needed an escape, but back then, I was just a kid. I felt like you abandoned me, and that killed, Low-Low.
“I eventually let that go, but when Gram died that just brought all those feeling back to the surface.” I leaned over and grabbed her hands in mine, holding tight. “You came back, and not a day goes by that I don’t love you for giving up your whole life to come and take care of me. But once you got here, you and Noah started up again almost instantly. Then if felt like I blinked and you were pregnant with Lucy. Noah moved in, and you guys had your very own family to worry about. The two of you never once made me feel like I was unwanted, but, subconsciously, I felt like I didn’t belong. This went from being my home with Gram to being yours and Noah’s. I felt like I was just a guest in your lives. I left because I wanted something that was just mine. Something I knew I wouldn’t lose. But I never, ever stopped loving you. I never resented you or Noah. I was so glad you’d finally found your own happiness. But at the same time, I was struggling to find my own. Once my feelings for Eliza started to change, I couldn’t handle everything I was feeling. It was the coward’s way out, but I decided to just run and leave it all behind.”
I gave her hands another squeeze, imploring her with my eyes to understand. “I’m so damn sorry if what I did hurt you.”
She remained silent for several seconds, clearly fighting — and losing — against crying. Finally, in a move that was so fast it startled me, she jerked her hands from mine and shot from her chair. “You jerk!” she shouted, planting both her palms on my shoulders and pushing. “You stupid jerk! Why didn’t you ever say anything? I could have fixed it if you’d have just told me, you… you… stupid—”
“Jerk. I get it,” I said, standing to my full height and grabbing her hands to stop the blows she was landing. “I’m a stupid jerk. I know.”
Some of the fire drained from her and she quit hitting me, moving in and wrapping her arms around my waist in a tight hug. “Gah! If you would have just said something…”
“Like what?” I asked on a small laugh, hugging her back. “That I was unhappy because my sister had finally found happiness? I might be an asshole, but I’m not that big an asshole.”
“Shut up,” she mumbled against my chest, pulling one hand back to give me another weak smack. “You’re not an asshole.”
“You really think so?”
She breathed in deep, still holding on tight. “I know so. But I hate that you spent so long struggling with that, shrimp.”
The use of her old nickname for me warmed me from the inside out, causing my arms holding her to squeeze. “I’m sorry I never said anything,” I whispered against her head.
“I’m sorry too.” She leaned back, not breaking our hold, and looked up into my eyes. “You know I love you, right? So damn much. I know you’re my brother, but I always felt like you were mine, just like Lucy and Evan. I hate the fact I made you feel any differently.”
“You didn’t,” I said fiercely. “It was never anything you did, Harlow. It was shit in my own head that I needed to get worked out. You and Noah both were never anything but good to me, and despite everything I just told you, I grew up feeling loved. You have to know that.”
She searched my face for several seconds before finally accepting the sincerity shining in my eyes. “Okay,” she whispered.
“And I love you, too. Even though you can be a total pain in my ass most of the time.”
At that, she laughed and disengaged from my hold. I watched as she moved to the counter, grabbed the loaf of bread, and began making a sandwich. Once she was done, she carried the plate over to me and held it out. “Here. Eat. And let’s figure out a way for you to finally get your happiness.”
Christ, but I loved my sister something crazy.
30
Eliza
“You okay?” Chloe asked, coming up to me in the kitchen and slinging her arm across my shoulders.
I wasn’t, not really. But over the past three days, I’d had the chance to do a lot of thinking, and in spite of everything that had gone down days before with Ethan, myself, and my father, there was one thing about that entire conversation I couldn’t stop thinking about.
There weren’t many men who would have had the courage to stand up in front of my father, but Ethan had. And even with all the horrible things my father said, he’d still had the guts to tell him he was in love with me, and that he’d do everything in his power to prove himself. To me, that in itself spoke volumes about the actions my father was so intent on shoving down Ethan’s throat. He stood toe to toe with my father and never backed down.
It had taken me longer than it should have, but I felt like I’d finally managed to pull my head out of my ass and see what was right in front of me.
“There’s something I want to talk to you about,” I said, turning away from the stove to face Chloe, full on.
“Yeah? And what’s that, sweetheart?”
“What do you think…” God, I really wasn’t sure what to say. It was such a huge request, such a massive gesture. But the one thing I’d discovered over the past three days was that Ethan Prewitt was worth a massive gesture. “How would you feel about… expanding?”
Her brows dipped down in confusion, “Expanding what?”
“The café,” I answered quietly. “I know what I’m about to request is a big deal, and it’ll take some time for you to consider, but what do you think about opening another café in, say, Denver?”
Anxiety clawed at my insides as her expression morphed from bewilderment, to excitement, before finally settling on what could only be described as complete exuberance. “I think… that’s a fantastic idea!” she shouted excitedly. “That is, if you’re considering expanding to a café in Denver for the reason I think you are.”
“Well,” I giggled, her excitement for me growing contagious. “If you think it’s because I finally realized I’m in love with Ethan and want to be with him, then you’d be right.”
Chloe threw he
r hands in the air and began squealing so loud I cringed before pulling me into a hug and bouncing from foot to foot. “Oh my God! This is so amazing!”
“Thanks,” I laughed, pulling away once she’d managed to compose herself. “I think so, too.” Some of my exuberance dwindled at my next thought. “Now I just have to find a way to convince Dad this is a good thing.”
“Oh, sweetie, don’t you worry about your father,” she said, cupping my cheeks. “When he sees that Ethan makes you happy, really and truly happy, he’ll come around. I promise. That’s all he’s ever wanted for you.”
I bit at my bottom lip, considering what she was saying. “You think?”
“Honey, I know.” She smiled. “Trust me, I’ve been with your father long enough to learn a thing or two. Behind that gruff exterior your dad’s a teddy bear. You know that.”
I giggled again, because I really, really did.
“Eliza?” Chloe and I were pulled from the moment at the sound of Megan’s voice. We turned to look at her and both of us grew still at the concern marring her face. “There’s someone out here asking for you.”
Chloe rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand. “Let’s go get whatever latest drama is waiting out of the way, then we can talk details of opening Sinful Sweets Café, Denver addition.”
I laughed and followed her out, my heart full to bursting all because of the amazing woman who played such an intricate part in raising me. However, that euphoric feeling was smashed to smithereens at the sight of the person waiting for us on the other side of the door.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I grumbled under my breath at the sight of Shannon, standing there with an evil cat-that-caught-the-canary grin on her bitter face. “I’m pretty sure I’ve made myself pretty clear on how I feel about you in my establishment. Please tell me you have a really good reason for souring my day with your presence.”
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