“What are you doing, talking to that asshole?” Ethan asked in a low growl the moment Kevin began descending the bleachers.
My head whipped around to find he was so close we were almost nose to nose. “He’s not an asshole,” I bit. “He’s a sweet guy. Maybe you should pay attention to how he acts. Women actually appreciate that kind of behavior.”
His head jerked back slightly. “It’s a bullshit act, is what it is. He’s playing you.”
“You’re crazy! He’s not playing me!”
“I’d bet my left nut that shy, nice guy shit is all an act just to get in your pants.”
“Oh my God!” I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. Luckily, our team just did something on the field to make the whole crowd cheer so my outburst went unnoticed. “This is ridiculous, Ethan. “You’re the one being an asshole. For your information, Kevin’s always been shy. It’s how he was all through school.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged, “but that’s not the case now. My guess is he’s grown into his looks and knows that awkward-as-fuck blushing shit works on the ladies because most of you are suckers. Trust me, he wants to fuck you.”
I wanted to slap him so bad. My palm was actually itching for it. “You know what’s bullshit? Your overprotective brother routine. That’s bullshit! You have no right to judge Kevin when you don’t even know him. And newsflash, dickhead. I’m an adult now. I don’t need or want you wading into my business so you can save my virtue or some shit.” Leaning close, I hissed quietly so only he could hear. “My virtue’s long gone and has been since junior year in the back seat of Kenneth Randall’s Ford Focus. So back the hell off!”
I was too wrapped up in my own anger to notice Ethan’s face had turned an alarming shade of red so deep it almost looked purple, or that the muscle in his jaw was ticking like crazy.
“Where the fuck is Randall? I’m going to beat his ass.”
“God! Stop! Just stop, okay? I don’t need you looking out for me anymore. I don’t need a big brother.”
“That’s what you think I’m doing? Being a big brother?” Something about his tone seemed off.
“Just…” I paused, somewhat losing steam at the sight of his golden colored eyes flashing with something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “Just treat me like you would any of your other friends. You said that’s what you wanted, right? To be my friend again?”
“Yes,” he all but growled the one word.
“Then act like it.”
His eyes closed and his chest rose and fell with a deep breath before his lids opened and he focused on me once more. “I don’t like that guy.”
Something in my belly whooshed. and I struggled to decipher if it was a good whoosh or a bad one. The intensity in his gaze and the resoluteness of his words was something I’d never experienced with him before. The actions were the same as how he used to be years ago, but it just… felt different.
Doing my best to push it to the back of my mind, I shook my head and replied, “I don’t care. It’s not up to you who I associate with.”
His whispered, “Fuck,” came out garbled as he leaned back to run a hand over his face. With his body having moved away from mine, and the tension dwindling, becoming less of a distraction, I shivered again as the cold seeped back in.
“Shit,” Ethan grunted. Leaning further away from me, he said something to Chloe that I wasn’t able to hear. Seconds later, he straightened, but this time with a fluffy blanket in his hands. “Come here,” he said, moving into me.
“What? Why?” Ignoring my instincts, I slid away, needing space between us.
“Just come here, would you? Stop sliding away.” One of his arms hooked around my waist and yanked until my side was flush against his.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he shook out the blanket and proceeded to drape it around both our shoulders.
“I’m cold too. Killing two birds with one stone.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t bring myself to pull away again. Not only because the blanket and Ethan’s massive body were providing much needed warmth, but because being snuggled under it next to him as he looped his arm back around my waist and held me close just felt… good. Too good. Dangerously good. But I was too weak to put a stop to it.
“Here you go,” Kevin’s cheerful voice called out, pulling me back into reality. When my head turned to face him, I was surprised to see the surprise and, if I was reading it correctly, disappointment on his face. Ethan must have noticed it at the same time I did because his arm tightened around me and pulled me closer.
Kevin tried his best to mask the emotions I’d just seen on his face by giving me a somewhat wooden grin. “I didn’t realize you two were together.”
Oh. “Oh! No! We’re not!” My argument came more from a self-preservation standpoint than anything else, because just as I moved away from Ethan’s arm every fiber of my body protected against it. “We were just cold and sharing the blanket.” The words felt dry in my mouth, heavy on my tongue, but I forced them out since they were the absolute truth.
His smile became less stiff and he sat down next to me and passed me a hot chocolate at the same time Ethan’s whole body grew stiff against me.
To say the rest of the game was uncomfortable would have been the understatement of the century.
Ethan
THAT FUCKER ASKED her out.
Right in front of me. I had to hand it to the guy. He had that nice guy bullshit down pat while still having balls big enough to make a move on Eliza with me sitting Right. Fucking. There.
It took every ounce of willpower I had not to knock the guy’s teeth down his throat when the game ended and, instead of moving with the rest of the crowd as they began exiting the stadium, he turned and asked Eliza if she’d like to go to dinner with him the following Tuesday.
And she’d hesitated. I knew she did, I could feel it when I pressed close to her. She wanted to say no, or at the very least she was uncertain. But because I was a fucking idiot, I’d run my mouth and pushed her, basically leaving her feeling like she had no choice but to say yes, even if it was just to fuck with me.
Which was exactly what she did.
It was already Sunday evening and I was still stewing over it, pissed at myself for pushing her when I knew she’d react. Pissed at her for reacting. And pissed at that bastard for encroaching on what I was quickly starting to think of as my territory. On many levels Eliza had always been mine. She was my best friend, my confidant, more mine than anyone else’s in most of the ways that mattered, and now that I had her back in my life, I struggled to suppress the need to make her mine on all levels that mattered.
And now she was going out on a fucking date.
And I wanted to shove my fist through something every time I thought about it. Not the most preferable mood to be in when I was with Harlow and Noah as they took Evan around town to trick-or-treat.
I’d considered turning them down when they asked if I wanted to join them, but keeping myself holed up in their house with only PT with Fletch as my human interaction wasn’t doing anything to help my foul mood so I’d agreed. We’d been at it for an hour and a half already, and I’d started to regret my decision, feeling an annoying headache from the masses of screaming kids everywhere, when we rounded a corner and I saw her.
“Cate! Abbi!” Evan yelled before taking off their direction, the fake light saber at his side nearly impaling a few kids along the way. There was no stopping the grin that started to tip my lips when Eliza caught sight of me, her eyes going wide, then guarded in an effort to mask the fact that she wasn’t sure how to react around me. Any other guy would have considered those shutters she slid into place to be from disinterest, but I knew her better than that, and my gut told me it was something more.
She looked amazing. The faded jeans hugged her legs and hips to perfection, leaving me to believe that they worked the same miracle on her ass. The long sleeve, V-neck t-shirt wasn’t anything special, but it was tight enough to dip in at her
waist and low enough for just a glimpse of cleavage. Her hair was down and blowing in the soft breeze, and I had no doubt it smelled like almonds and vanilla. At that moment I’d have given anything to bury my face in her hair and inhale. Only thing that would have made it any better was if she were naked, in my bed, underneath me.
“Hey guys,” my sister waved as Eliza, along with Chloe, her dad, and her little sisters stopped on the sidewalk next to us. “How’s trick-or-treating going so far?”
“I got like, a million pieces of candy!” Abbi — who’d clearly already dipped into her stash — yelled as she held a bulging bag up over her head.
Chloe and Eliza held up large plastic cups with lids and straws as an answer, judging by the color of the liquid inside each they filled to the brim with red wine.
“Nice,” Harlow nodded. “Why don’t I ever remember to do that?”
“Because you always know I pack extra,” Chloe answered, sliding a backpack off her back and pulling out a thermos.
“And this is why we’re best friends,” Harlow said as she snatched the thermos from Chloe’s hand and chugged.
“I’m a princess,” Abbi exclaimed, pulling my attention off her oldest sister and down to her. Her hands held out both sides of her skirt as she swayed side to side to show off the glittery material of her princess dress.
“And a beautiful one at that,” I told her with a smile.
“It’s not as cool as a cheerleader, but Mommy said Daddy would have a corny…cornair…cor…in…ary,” she finally managed on her last try.
“And Mommy was right, sweetheart,” Derrick answered, pulling her against his leg as he wrapped an arm around her, looking a little pale at just the thought of it.
A snort coming from beside me had me turning to see Eliza trying in vain to stifle a laugh as she sucked on her straw.
I studied her flushed cheeks and the slight glassiness of her gorgeous hazel eyes, and gasped in fake shock. “Eliza Anderson, I can’t believe it. You’re taking your little sisters trick-or-treating drunk!”
Her cheeks grew redder as she giggled. “I’m not drunk.” She so was. “I’m buzzed. I’m just remembering my father’s face before we left when I told him I planned on wearing my cheerleader costume to take the girls out tonight.” The giggles grew in frequency. “I thought that vein in his forehead was going to burst!” Then she dissolved into laughter, followed quickly by an equally buzzed Chloe, and Abbi and Cate who had no clue why they were laughing, but decided to join in on the fun anyway.
“More candy!” Evan yelled like a battle cry, and the girls joined right in, giving us adults no choice but to follow along after them as they ran up to another house to add to their loot.
We walked behind the rest of the crowd in silence for a few houses as Eliza finished off the rest of her wine. I didn’t want to be the one to break the silence. The ball was in her court. I’d made stupid mistakes already, and I was determined not to keep making them by pushing her. I wanted to talk to her, to hear her voice, but I was going to wait her out. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long.
“Your knee isn’t bothering you walking around on it?”
I glanced over to find her eyes focused on the brace on my leg, her eyebrows dipped in a cute little frown. “You worried about me, sweetheart?”
Her head shot up, gaze meeting mine, and I gave her that grin that had worked in my favor for more years than I could count when it came to women. A grin I learned moments later Eliza was immune to.
“Don’t you give me that look,” she demanded. “I’ve seen that look before. I saw it when you were trying to hook up with Peggy Cafferty… and Samantha Williams… and Sherry Line—”
“Okay, okay,” I cut her off with a frown of my own. “I get it. No more of that look, all right?” She seemed happy enough with that and turned to face ahead. We came to a stop while the kids hit up another house. “And to answer your question, my knee feels fine.”
I got her eyes back, which made me really fucking happy. Jesus, how had I never noticed she had the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen?
“Really?” She sounded skeptical, and I couldn’t help but tease.
“You really are worried. Aw, sweetheart. I’m touched.”
“Of course I’m worried.” The moment the words left her mouth I could tell by the startled look on her face that she hadn’t meant to say it out loud. “What I mean is—”
I didn’t want to give her a chance to backtrack, so I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, enjoying the feel of her pressed against my side as we started to walk again, and said, “I appreciate that, Eliza. I really do.”
We walked in silence for a while before she spoke again. “Well… I know how much football means to you. I can only imagine how you felt when it happened.”
I let out a quick bark of laughter. “I’ll tell you. It was fucking excruciating. I was scared to look down, thinking the lower half of my leg was just dangling there. Christ, I’d broken bones growing up that hurt less.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said softly, looking at the sidewalk. I took it as a good sign that she still hadn’t pulled away.
I gave her hair a tug to get her gaze back and asked quietly, “Then what’d you mean, honey?”
“Just that… football’s your life. You had to have been scared when you got hurt. It means everything to you.”
Her words caused me to come to an abrupt halt, pulling her to a stop with me. I scanned her face, seeing nothing but sincerity glistening in her hazel eyes. “Not everything,” I told her, meaning those two words from the very depth of me.
Something passed between us right then, something I’d never experienced before, something so intense my chest tightened and my stomach lurched. I was so sure she was going to acknowledge what was happening between us just then that made the air feel like it was full of electricity, I hoped she would.
But she cleared her throat, pulled from my arm, and started walking again. Only this time, her fingers stayed clasped in front of her so I couldn’t have taken her hand if I wanted to… which I did. Not that I could have since there really was no reason to hold her hand that wouldn’t have sent her running in the other direction.
We didn’t speak again as my nephew and her sisters finally seemed to be winding down, indicating trick-or-treating was coming to an end. I wasn’t ready for it and was just about to turn to tell her so and ask her to go get a drink or something, when she beat me to the punch.
“This was kind of nice,” she said, catching me off guard. “I mean us actually being in each other’s company and not fighting or yelling at each other.”
I smiled again, this time making sure it didn’t hold a hint of the look. “It really was.” I opened my mouth to suggest we head over to The Moose when she continued looking toward our families.
“Looks like we’re done for the night. You should head home and ice your knee or something. You know, to make sure it’s okay from all this walking.”
Shit, it felt like I’d just been punched in the gut. My smile dropped a little “Uh, yeah. You’re probably right.”
“Well, seeing as we have this truce between us now, I won’t dread seeing you next time.” She reached up and nudged my shoulder, and with her next words my smile completely died. “Unless you pull that brotherly shit again.”
All I could manage was a low, emotionless, “Yeah,” as she began walking backwards.
“I’m sure I’ll see you around. Have a good night.” She started to turn, but called over her shoulder, “Oh! And rest that knee.”
With that she waved and took off with the rest of her family, leaving me and mine behind.
A wave.
A fucking wave. Not even so much as a hug.
Looked like I still have my work cut out for me after all.
Ethan
SINCE MY RETURN to Pembrooke, my days had been filled with therapy, shitty daytime TV, and sitting on my ass at Sinful Sweets Café, hoping to catch a glimpse of Eliza
. To say I was bored out of my mind would have been putting it mildly, so when Quinn called and asked if I wanted to grab a beer with him at The Moose and catch the football game on their big screens, there was no way in hell I was turning him down. It would give me some much needed adult interaction. Not to mention the fact that it was Tuesday evening and Eliza was more than likely already out on her date.
Just thinking about that set my teeth on edge.
The evening crowd was still going strong by the time I walked through the door. The place was a little more than half full as I scanned the faces. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Quinn’s hand come up to grab my attention. I gave him a chin lift and started toward the booth he’d snagged returning several greetings — some from people I knew, some from people I couldn’t remember ever seeing before — as I made my way over.
“Hey man, glad you could make it,” he said once I’d shrugged out of my light weight jacket and slid into the bench across from him.
“You and me both, dude. If I hadn’t gotten out of that house soon I was liable to lose my fucking mind.”
He chuckled and lifted his beer bottle to his lips as a waitress stopped to take my drink order. A few minutes later, I leaned back, relaxed with a bottle of bud in my hand. “So, how’d you manage a night out with your little girl at home?”
He gave me a funny look. It wasn’t necessarily bad, just very speculative. “See you didn’t jump to the conclusion she’d be home with her mom, so I’m taking that as you already know that particular story?”
I gave it to him straight. “I know she’s passed. Don’t know how and don’t plan on asking. That’s your story to share if or when you’re in the mood. I didn’t come here tonight to get in your business. I just came for good beer, good company, and hopefully some good wings. I’m starving.”
His appreciation showed as his mouth twitched before he took another pull of his beer. “Good to know. That conversations for another, much later time when I don’t have a shift at the station the next day and have the opportunity to get drunk out of my goddamn mind. And to answer your earlier question, my girl’s with my folks. They like to keep her for sleepovers one night a week and every other weekend. She gets time with her Meemaw and Papaw, they get to spoil their grandbaby, and I get a breather which means I get my bed to myself without having to worry about being kicked in the ribs or punched in the junk because my baby has a habit of climbing in with me in the middle of the night and flails in her sleep. Works for everyone.”
Coming Full Circle (the Pembrooke series Book 2) Page 11