by M. M. Koenig
Ethan pointed towards Wade, who sprang to his feet and jumped into the water. He shouted to Kane’s boat in demand for his board. Kane flipped him off with a taunting smirk. Eli couldn’t contain his amusement as he watched his brothers bicker with each other. Ethan went to the back of the boat and pulled out two wakeboards from underneath the floor. My heart jumped when he pulled out the board he had bought me. He gave me a knowing smile as he set them down. He truly had put plenty of thought into this trip.
He returned to the driver’s seat with his head tilted at my awe-struck expression. I looked at all the content people around me; there wasn’t a frown among them, and Ethan was responsible for bringing all these people together. The effort he put into making the people he cared about happy warmed my soul. I pulled him towards me for a passionate kiss.
“I’m glad you’ve started showing your affection around others again,” Ethan teased around my lips.
I pushed him away, rolling my eyes. He prepared to take off as Wade saddled into his board. When he gave Ethan the green light, the boat flew forward and Wade was up immediately.
The guys boarded for quite some time as they tried to continuously outdo each other. It shocked the hell out of me when Jackson did a few flips that showed up the other two. After all the men had had a turn on the water, Ethan urged me to go next. I rose from my seat and grabbed my board. Olivia strapped on a board and further down from her I could see Wyatt persuading Karissa to join us. I put on a lifejacket before jumping into the water.
After I was strapped in, I signaled for Ethan to take off. He did so at a slower speed than he’d towed the guys at. I closed my eyes as the tension of the rope increased. I forced myself to remember everything he’d taught me. My hands gripped the handle tightly as the speed increased, while my feet shifted for the board to slide vertically as I rose above the water. I was beyond excited to make it up without falling.
This is never going to grow old. I love it. Who’d have thought?
I gave Ethan a wave to increase the speed before leaning to the left to fall outside of the wake and ride the other side of the wave. I crossed over the wake a few times. I loved being on the water. It was more than exhilarating. I continued to fly across the lake without any trouble. It motivated me to try something new. Ethan caught my face as he glanced over his shoulder. His eyes were full of fright as he figured out my next move before I even attempted it.
I leaned back with all my weight on my left side to make the wake even wider before sharply cutting across it. My feet lifted the board as I approached the other side to make the jump. Much to my surprise, I landed it. I hoped for the same outcome as I prepared to jump back to the other side, but I caught far too much air. It forced me to either do a flip or fall. I let go of the rope and prayed it wouldn’t hurt too badly. My body crashed against the water, with my head bouncing off it as though it were asphalt. I tried to keep my eyes open, but blackness consumed me.
“Sophia,” she says, in a panic.
“Open your eyes,” she begs.
“I love you so much. Please open your eyes,” she says desperately.
“Mia, open your eyes! Baby, please open them,” Ethan urged.
I squeezed my eyes together. Everything was a giant ball of confusion. I tried to get up, but Ethan kept me pinned to the floor. I reluctantly opened my eyes. The pressure in my head was close to demolishing me. I groaned and shut my eyes again. Between the pain in my head and the knowledge that everyone had seen me trying to show off, I wanted to puke.
“She might have a concussion. We should take her to the hospital,” Eli spoke up.
“I’m fine. I don’t need to go to a hospital,” I mumbled, swallowing back the rising vomit.
Ethan pulled me into his lap. His hands gently ran along me to determine if there were any other injuries.
“Mia, are you sure you’re OK?” Bri asked frantically.
I squinted in the direction of her voice. She was next to Ethan and about ready to fall over, judging by the alarm in her eyes. Trey was behind her, looking just as concerned. I glimpsed at Eli and Kami’s anxious faces. Apparently, I had scared the shit out of everyone when I fell. I forced myself upwards. Ethan’s arms remained around me.
“I’ll be fine. Who the hell is Sophia?” I asked, perplexed.
Ethan stopped breathing. Bri and Trey looked at me like I had lost my mind. Eli and Kami averted their eyes from me. No one answered my question. I thought that maybe that brief flash had been a weird dream. It made me even more confused. I wasn’t sure if it was something I saw on television, or even a figment of my imagination. Ethan started breathing again and placed soft kisses on my shoulders. He looked around to the others before slowly standing me up. I swayed back and forth and fell into him.
“I think we’re about finished for the day,” Ethan said snappily.
“Absolutely,” everyone agreed.
Ethan set me in the passenger seat before taking the wheel and quickly taking off. As I rested my head against the headrest my eyes started to droop.
“Bri, she definitely has a concussion. Keep her awake,” Ethan ordered, elbowing me.
“Sure,” she responded, jumping in between us.
Bri lightly tapped my face before grabbing my chin to make me look at her. She gazed at me, downright terrified. I knew why she was freaking out. After I cracked my head open last year, the doctor had mentioned that any blows to the head could result in a concussion, if not something more severe. Bri clutched me tighter to ensure my eyes remained open. I tried to convey my apologies without verbalizing them.
“Mia, please don’t ever scare me like that again. Promise me you’ll let us take you to the hospital if you need it. You can’t take something like this lightly,” Bri rambled.
“I’ll be fine Bri,” I murmured, trying to keep my eyes open. It was a battle of wills. If her grip hadn’t have been cutting off my circulation, it would’ve definitely been a lot easier to drift off to sleep.
“Keep talking to her. Make her answer questions,” Ethan demanded.
I tried to look at him, but my vision was blurry. It was probably a good thing, because he sounded pissed. Trey joined Bri on the floor, wrapped an arm around her and massaged her side to keep her calm. She leaned into him, but didn’t lessen her grasp on me.
“Do you know where you are Mia?” Trey asked anxiously.
I gazed around the lake but we were moving too fast. I closed my eyes for a second. Bri wouldn’t allow it and shook me repeatedly. I groaned from the unwanted motion. Trey picked up my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, which surprised me. He shouldn’t have been worried. He had seen far worse injuries with me over the years.
“I have no clue. My enigma of a boyfriend rarely gives me those types of details,” I mumbled.
Eli and Kami burst out laughing. Trey started to chuckle. Bri lessened her hold a fraction, her face showing a half smile. Ethan’s emotionless expression tugged at my heart. He was definitely pissed at me.
“Do you remember what happened?” Bri asked.
“I was trying to pull off a jump and fell flat on my face. This has got to be the most humiliating weekend of my entire life,” I muttered, making everyone laugh again.
The boat hit a bump that caught me off guard. Everything inside of me jolted upward. My free hand flew to my stomach. I was going to be sick.
“Your memory seems to be intact. That’s a good sign,” Eli pointed out.
The boat landing was in view. Ethan cut the engine and maneuvered the boat to the dock. Eli and Trey jumped out to tie it off. Bri finally dropped her grip on my jaw. She shuffled out of the way as Ethan crouched next to me. He gripped my arms as I stood up and stumbled. His breath hitched as his arms went down to pick me up.
“I can walk. Just stay close to me.”
Ethan took heavy breaths as he carefully helped me out of the boat. He kept an arm snugly around me on our way across the yard. I directed him towards the garage so we could get to the closes
t bathroom. Everyone nervously stared at us. After we were inside, we quickly made our way down the hallway. Ethan opened the door to the bathroom and I fell to my knees and puked my guts out. After several rounds, I leaned forward to flush it away. Ethan sat back and pulled me into his chest.
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” Ethan insisted.
I was sweating profusely and my head felt like an electric current was running through it. I nodded in agreement.
Gunshots fire from behind me. Glass shatters over me. A voice screams at me to lie flat on the seat, so I do. The car starts swerving back and forth. It’s going so fast. The smell of the burning rubber from the tires flows in through the broken window. I cough to rid my nose of the smell. They scream again. The metal starts to crush as we flip. I fly from the seat. My head crashes against the side of the car and darkness takes me away.
I woke up shaken to the core. My eyes darted around the room to figure out what the hell had just run through my head, but my stomach didn’t allow me to dwell on it for long. I leapt out of bed and ran for the bathroom to be sick again. Ethan rushed along with me and remained by my side until I was finished. I leaned away from him and got up to wash my face.
My elbows rested on the vanity as I tried to even my breathing. The terror from that weird flash consumed every part of my chest. It had to have been from some horror movie that I saw as a kid. I closed my eyes before splashing my face with cold water. I snatched my toothbrush to rid my mouth of the sweat-sock taste lingering in it. Ethan flushed the toilet and took a seat on it. I finished brushing my teeth and left him behind me.
On my way into the bedroom, I noticed it was dusk. We had got back from the hospital an hour ago so I hadn’t slept long. It was a concussion, but the doctor didn’t seem overly concerned that anything else was wrong. He suggested I take it easy for the rest of the night. He also advised against any wakeboarding for a few weeks. I had scoffed at that, because I doubted Ethan would ever let me go back out there. The entire time we were at the hospital I thought he was going to pass out. His naturally tan skin looked almost albino until the doctor cleared me from anything severe.
My head had needles poking at it from every angle. I crawled into bed and rested my head on the pillow. Ethan settled next to me. He snuggled me closer, with his head above mine and his arms around my waist. Besides barking out orders, he had barely said two sentences.
“Will you please talk to me?” I asked quietly.
Ethan sighed. “I’m so mad at you right now. I’d rather keep my mouth shut.”
I squirmed out of his grasp and rolled over to face him. Ethan closed his eyes. I forced them open with my thumbs. Once I saw them, my breath wavered and my heart sank. It nearly made me sick again. There was so much pain behind them. Ethan clutched my hands to his chest.
“I’m sorry I scared you. I’m going to be fine,” I whispered.
“Mia, you terrified me. You were unconscious for close to five minutes. I can’t go through seeing you like that again. When you didn’t move after you fell, my heart stopped beating. What were you thinking?” Ethan asked harshly.
I flinched. “I thought I could pull it off.”
Ethan glowered. “It takes more time to learn those types of tricks. You can’t try them on the fly without seriously hurting yourself, as you now know.”
I rolled away from him. I didn’t have it in me to fight. Ethan forced me back around. “I hate hospitals, Mia. I rarely walk out of them with my loved ones. The thought of losing you … I can’t go back to living my life the way it was before I met you,” he said in a faint whisper.
My eyes watered as every part of me tightened at my carelessness for his emotions. His thumbs reached up to wipe away my tears. “I’m really sorry Ethan. I’ll be more careful next time, but you need to know something,” I answered timidly.
“What?” Ethan asked warily.
“If I want to try something or chase after something, I will, and you can’t keep me from doing it,” I paused when he looked ready to argue and pinched his mouth shut. “You can’t Ethan. In the same way, I have to accept the parts of your life that terrify me.”
He grunted until I removed my fingers. Ethan opened and closed his mouth several times. I shut my eyes. He exhaled loudly before folding his arms around me. I was slowly fluttering in and out of sleep. I was more than happy that the doctor had said to sleep whenever I felt like it. It annoyed the shit out of me when they forced me to stay awake earlier. I had almost hit a deep sleep when Ethan stirred. I had cuddled into his chest so I felt his heart rate triple at whatever was crossing his mind. I kept my eyes closed but squeezed his side to encourage him to talk.
He took in a deep breath and asked, “Mia, what were you dreaming about?”
“Hmm …” I murmured. It was a fucked-up dream. I didn’t feel like analyzing it.
“I thought you were having a seizure at first, but then you started whimpering, so I figured it was just a bad dream. Do you remember it?”
“Not really,” I lied. “Can I go back to sleep? I promise I’ll be ready to join everyone else soon.”
“I really wish you’d stop worrying about everyone else and try a little harder at being concerned with yourself,” Ethan griped.
I yawned. “I’ll add it to the never-ending list of things you want me to do. Not saying it’ll happen.”
“She has a right to know. Tell her,” Tristan whispers heatedly.
“I need more time. I’m not positive,” Ethan shot back.
“You’re going to screw up your relationship with her Ethan,” Olivia hisses.
“Liv’s right. You won’t find another one like her. Tell her,” Dom commands.
“It’s true dude. My guy in Vegas just called confirming the worst,” Ziggy admits sadly.
“Are you sure?” Ethan questions irately.
“Yes, I know it isn’t what you want to hear, man,” Wade confirms.
“This is like a fucked-up version of Romeo and Juliet,” Olivia murmurs.
“Shut up Liv. I don’t need the reminder,” Ethan snaps.
“I’ll punch you if you snap at Liv again. It’s not her fault,” Tristan warns.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t know how to tell her. I need a few more days,” Ethan says.
“I hear Bri and Trey coming upstairs,” Ziggy points out.
“Do they know?” Dom asks.
“She doesn’t know. There’s no way they have a clue,” Ethan answers angrily.
“Tell her, Ethan. You’ll lose her if you don’t,” Wade reiterates.
“She’s the best thing in your life Ethan. Don’t screw it up,” Olivia echoes.
“We’ll talk more about this later,” Ethan says.
I flew up and thrashed the sheets to the side. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Ethan rose with me. I did a double-take between him and the door. I could’ve sworn I heard him having a conversation. I rubbed my face repeatedly, trying to figure out if it was real, or a dream. After a few minutes, I flopped down and let myself believe it was a dream. I recalled the other two and convinced myself it must have been another one. I was more than likely seeing my fear from all the other problems in my life in my dream world too.
“Are you OK Mia?” Ethan asked, running a hand through his messy hair.
I smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine. I’m ready to get up now.”
Ethan nodded and slid over to the edge of the bed. I crawled behind him and rested against his back. Ethan pulled my arms around his abdomen. I decided to bring up my last question. If it upset him, it couldn’t be worse than how he already felt with me.
“Ethan, I need you to tell me why Colin asked about me,” I murmured lightly.
“Mia, I’ll tell you when I’m ready,” Ethan snapped, trying to release my hold.
I hugged him tighter. “Ethan, every day you keep putting off this question just creates a wall between us. You say you want us to keep opening up, but you’re refusing to now. I need to know,” I reas
oned.
His heart rate quadrupled along with his breathing. Ethan turned around and sat us in the middle of the bed, with my legs straddled between his as his hands ran down my back. I rested mine on his hips. Ethan had heard the desperation in my voice. He was either going to tell me or we were going to have even more issues.
“I haven’t told you because I’m still figuring it out,” Ethan finally spoke up.
I peeked at his eyes and buried my head in his shoulder after seeing them. He looked like someone had been terrorizing him with his worst fears for hours on end. I willed myself to keep from getting sick or fainting. Every part of me had a strong desire to do both.
“Tell me what you know,” I requested.
Ethan’s arms wrapped around me like a vice. “Colin and Sean have been interested in you since your first day. As each week passed, they went more out of their way to track you. I think they have you confused with someone from their past. I’m trying to find out more, but it’s been difficult to do without them or Harrison knowing,” Ethan said, in a horrified whisper.
I stopped breathing. The boulder on my chest bared a heaviness I had never felt before. The dull headache I had from my concussion turned into a full-blown migraine.
“Is that the reason you took me off Connor’s team to work with you?”
“Yes. We were still such a mess at that point, but I refused to let anything happen to you. If I never got you, that was perfectly fine, as long as I knew I’d gone out of my way to make sure no one hurt you,” Ethan murmured.
My body roared with rage. He went out of his way to make me feel guilty for lying to him, but he had done it too. “We fought about you moving me to work with you our very first weekend together. But you didn’t tell me this.”
“I didn’t know what their interest was at that point. The reasons I gave you that weekend were as true as what I just told you,” Ethan justified.
“Holding back a portion of the truth is still a lie,” I bit back.
Ethan narrowed his eyes. “Are you really trying to debate the definition of lying?”