Coming Full Circle (the Pembrooke series Book 2)

by Jessica Prince

  Then it all went to complete shit when I got a call from my agent while I was on my way to see Eliza. He’d made quick work of getting the name of the person who’s sold those photos to the rags. I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised when he told me, I’d known for a long time that Shannon was the lowest form of scum I’d ever met, but realization she’d actually snuck around to take photos of me and Eliza for her own monetary gain had me itching to put my fist through a wall since I couldn’t actually put my hands on her.

  And things only got worse as I pulled my truck up in front of Sinful Sweets and saw reporters camped out in from of her café. Goddamned vultures. I pushed through the crowd, my jaw ticking and fists clenched in an effort not to go off on the assholes for invading Eliza’s privacy. All eyes in the dining room landed on my when I shoved through the glass door.

  “Where is she?” I snapped at one of the poor servers.

  “Uh… just a second,” she mumbled before scurrying off. As I looked out the windows of the restaurant, watching the photographers snapping pictures through the glass, I felt like a caged lion ready to pounce on the next person who was stupid enough to cross my path.

  “Ethan?” The sound of Eliza’s melodic voice put a stop to my aggravated pacing.

  I closed the distance between us and cupped her cheeks in my hands, scanning her face for any signs of distress. “You okay?” I asked in a quiet voice.

  Her tiny fingers came up and wrapped around my wrists, and I breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t pull them away. Her face warmed with the most beautiful smile at the same time her fingers tightened. “I’m fine.” Her hazel eyes flashed as they skittered throughout the room, landing on the audience of customers who were too interested in what was playing out before them to pretend they weren’t eavesdropping. I sensed her discomfort, but didn’t give a fuck about nosy people. I needed to make sure she was okay. “What are you doing here? I thought you had therapy.”

  “Finished early. I got a call from my agent, and I was coming to tell you he found out who sold those pictures when I saw the reporters. “Christ, baby. I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”

  “Are you serious?” she asked, wide-eyed. “Who?”

  My teeth clenched at just the thought of her name. God, I regretted ever getting involved with that bitch. “Shannon.”

  Eliza’s head jerked back. “Are you kidding?!” she squeaked. “Why? How? What a bitch!”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at her outrage. It just made her look so damn cute. “I’m going to fix this, baby. I swear.”

  She still hadn’t let go of her anger when she asked, “What the hell did I ever do to her to make her hate me so much?”

  My fingers on her face clenched. “Nothing,” I answered in a low growl. “Not one damn thing. She’s a conniving bitch who’s jealous that she’ll never be even half as amazing as you are, so she tries to make you feel bad because she can’t handle her own pathetic, miserable life.”

  Eliza’s mouth dropped open slightly in surprise at the fierceness in my tone. My gaze darted to her mouth and there was no stopping myself, I leaned down to press a kiss to those addictive, plump lips just as the piercing sound of a siren broke through my Eliza fog, followed seconds later by a voice that hit me like a cold bucket of ice water.

  Eliza’s dad.

  “I’m going to have to ask all of you to leave the premises!” Derrick called as he stood in the open doorway of the restaurant. “The owner doesn’t want any of you loitering around, and seeing as the owner’s my wife, I’m inclined to give her what she wants. Now get gone before I arrest every one of you for disturbing the peace.”

  I slung my arm over Eliza’s rigid shoulders and watched as one not-so-smart reporter decided it was a good idea to go head to head with Derrick Anderson. I almost felt bad for the guy. “We’re perfectly within our rights to be here. We aren’t doing anything wrong or disturbing anybody.”

  Derrick paused before leaning into the café and asking in a loud, booming voice, “Anyone here feeling disturbed?”

  Hands went up everywhere. Even Eliza cautiously lifted one up in the air. Derrick turned back to the mouthy paparazzi. “Perks of being in a small town,” he said. “I win, you lose. Now get out of here.”

  They grumbled and bitched, but they all dispersed under the threatening glare of Derrick. Even if the man wasn’t the Sherriff, he’d still be intimidating as hell. Within seconds they were gone and the legitimate customers went back to their food and conversation.

  But Eliza’s body hadn’t loosened in my hold, and Derrick looked about two seconds away from committing murder as he stormed over to us. “He knows about us, doesn’t he?” I whispered through the side of my mouth.

  “Yep,” she confirmed, not sounding the least bit happy about whatever was about to go down. Derrick was two feet away when Eliza spoke again. “Daddy—”

  “Kitchen. Now,” he growled, stomping past us and through a set of swinging double doors.

  “Fuck,” I muttered at the same time Eliza hissed, “Shit.”

  Well, no time like the present to face the firing squad.

  Eliza

  FOR A DAY that had started out so promising, it really was going to shit much faster than I would have thought possible. As I walked beside Ethan, using the arm he had wrapped around my shoulders as a comforting support, I wracked my brain with ways to try and convince my father to act like a rational adult. Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with a single argument that wouldn’t cause his head to explode.

  If I had been smarter, I would have disengaged from Ethan’s hold since seeing it would only make my father more upset, but as we pushed through the swinging doors into the kitchen, I needed all the strength I could get.

  The rest of the kitchen staff, having obviously read the feel of the room correctly seemed to have disbursed for the time being. It wasn’t ideal, considering we had a restaurant to run, but I couldn’t blame them. That left me, Ethan, Dad, and Chloe alone for the blowup that was about to happen.

  I opened my mouth to start, unfortunately Ethan got there before me. “Sir, I just want to say thank you for handling those reporters. If I’d known they were camped out in front of the café, I would have—”

  My father cut him off. “You wanna tell me why the hell you’re holding on to my daughter like you’re more than just friends?”

  Oh no. “Dad—”

  This time it was Chloe who interrupted. “Good grief, Derrick. Will you take a breath for two seconds and give them a chance to explain?”

  My father whirled around. “You knew about this?”

  To her credit, Chloe didn’t seem the least bit affected by my dad’s temper. Ethan, however, had tightened his arm around me like he fully intended on throwing me behind him and out of the line of fire if need be.

  “I suspected something’s been building between them for a while now, yes. And if you’d have pulled your head out of your ass instead of trying to keep your grown daughter a little girl forever, you would have seen it too, and you would have realized it’s a good thing!”

  “Woman! You knew about this, and didn’t say a word about it to me?”

  “Man! If you don’t want to spend the next several nights getting up close and personal with our sofa, I suggest you put a lid on it!”

  I could tell my father wanted to say something else, but having been married to Chloe so long, and obviously being smart, he kept his mouth shut and turned back to me and Ethan.

  I started to speak, only to be cut off again. “Derrick,” Ethan started. “I know this wasn’t the most ideal way of finding out about our relationship—”

  “Son, there’s no such thing as an ‘ideal way’ for me to find out you’re dating my daughter. I’ve always respected the friendship you had with Eliza, but you can’t fault me for knowing my daughter deserves better than a man with your kind of reputation with the ladies.”

  Red flooded my vision at the same time Ethan’s body grew completely
stiff at my father’s insult. “Dad! Stop it!” I stepped away from Ethan’s hold and moved closer to my father.

  “Baby girl, I’m just looking out for you.”

  “No, you’re not!” I argued. “You’re trying to control my life. That’s what you’re doing. I’m not a child anymore, Dad. I’m twenty-two years old. I’m an adult and I get to make my own choices about who I want in my life. You have no say anymore, and that’s driving you crazy!”

  “Now, that’s not fair—”

  He started, but I cut him off. “No. What’s not fair is you coming in here dead set on ripping into Ethan for daring to touch your precious baby girl. What’s not fair is you not having faith in me to make smart decisions regarding my life and who I allow in it.”

  “All I know is that my daughter, who’d already experienced enough pain in her life, was annihilated when her best friend up and disappeared for six goddamned years without a word. She walked around like a zombie, pretending that everything was fine, and putting on a mask whenever I was around so she wouldn’t worry me with whatever was eating at her.”

  I sucked in a harsh breath at the pain laced in his words. I had no idea that he’d seen threw the facade I’d put on in front of everyone, and it killed to know I’d hurt him by not talking to him about it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t finished, and what he said next flayed me right opened.

  “Knowing your child is hurting and won’t confide in you is a pain I pray to God you never have to experience, baby girl. But I did. And I might not know the full story, but I know damn good and well that whatever caused that hurt you had behind your eyes had everything to do with him, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him come back and do it all over again. I could deal with you two picking up your friendship where you left off, but this? This relationship? I just can’t stand behind that. I know you’re an adult, sweetheart, believe me. But as long as I have breath in my body, I’ll do anything and everything in my power to protect you.”

  I had absolutely no idea what to say. The realization that I’d been making my father suffer right along with me because I wouldn’t tell him what was going on caused my chest to tighten to the point it hurt the breathe.

  “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.

  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.”

  “Y
es 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!”