“What do I need to do to be the guy she needs? To be someone You might care about?” More of the songs from Sunday poured into his head and filled his heart. The lyrics about surrendering it all. Asking God to take his life. Another one about the love of God they’d sang. He stared up at the vast sky remembering something about His reach goes above the highest stars.
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
He snapped his fingers. Yes, that was it. Was there more? Maybe in that Bible on Ethan’s nightstand. He needed to learn more. With careful steps, he returned to his room and passed through the adjoining bath. When he reached Ethan’s room, he paused in the doorway, waiting until his eyes adjusted to the darker interior. Then he listened and heard something unusual.
Absolutely nothing.
No soft breaths of sleep. Nothing.
His vision adjusted enough to see the covers were rumpled, but flat against the mattress. He moved toward the table near the head of the bed and flipped on the light.
“Wheeeereee’s E-maaan? Dare I ask?” Stephen went out the main door and looked over the railing to the floor below. Every light downstairs was off. He returned to the room and checked the balcony door. Unlocked and not even closed properly.
“Well, you little rascal. Time for you to fess up, buddy-boo.” Plopping on his friend’s bed, he took the Bible and started flipping through the crisp pages. Eventually, his friend would return. Ethan must normally sneak back home sometime before morning.
He’d be right here waiting.
* * * *
Stephen bolted upright with a start, wondering where he was. The Bible slid off his chest and landed on the ground with a loud thump. Ethan’s Bible. Ethan’s room. Another look around confirmed still no Ethan.
Faint light filtered in through the thin curtains. He climbed off the bed and checked the restroom before heading downstairs. Why hadn’t E-man returned? He’d claimed exhaustion when he went to bed last night, but evidently not exhausted enough to go right off to sleep. Seemed he had enough energy to slip away to visit his girl.
The bottom floor was as quiet and empty as the rest of the place. The little hypocrite!
What was he playing at? Mr. High and mighty. Just because they were engaged didn’t mean Ethan wasn’t held to the same expectations he had for others.
Stephen stomped up the stairs, stopping at the first doorway. The Bible still lay on the floor. He went to pick it up, thinking of all the questions he had about the passages he’d read before drifting off to sleep.
He’d wanted answers. Had waited for his friend’s return to get those answers. That little rat.
“He’s not getting away with this.” Stephen returned to his own bedroom and jerked on a long-sleeved shirt and jeans. After shoving on his loafers, he stomped toward the stairs, stopped, returned for the Bible, then hurried toward the footpath that joined their properties. He’d wait outside of Haley’s room for his friend to come out.
On his way along the trail to the Victorian, he sent Bekka a text. Want to help me flush out a weasel?
Chapter Eighteen
Haley bolted up in bed. Bright sunlight poured through the French doors, and something was buzzing on Ethan’s nightstand. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around. Oh man, oh man, what time was it?
Ethan’s back was to her and his head was buried under his pillow.
What was he still doing here? Oh man, nooo!
He was supposed to leave before the sun came up. She glanced toward the French doors. Drat it all! That sun was up and dressed for the day by now! She shook him hard, yanking at the blankets. “Your phone’s going off. Bet Stephen or Bekka’s looking for you.”
He groaned. “Tell them to make their own bowl of Fruit Loops. I’m tired.”
As if she’d ever serve something so disgusting. She did, however, have an egg and potato casserole in the fridge, ready to be thrown in the oven. First, she needed to get this lazy lump up and going, and then she’d shower and get dressed.
“Listen to me, buster!” She yanked away the pillow he’d burrowed under.
He frowned and pulled the blankets up over his head.
What was he thinking? “Ohhhh no! You better be up and out of here by the time I’m done with my shower. Or there’ll be heck to pay!”
A muttered response came from under the mound of sheets. She gave his shoulder one more shove, then climbed out of bed. The moment her feet hit the floor, she let out a yelp. Good night, but the wood floors were chilly in the mornings. Would summer ever arrive in arctic-land? Her jean shorts were screaming to come out of the dresser where she’d lovingly kept them all winter.
She made her shower quick. Time was wasting. People would be up and hungry soon. It was already after seven. Throwing on a pair of jeans and a lacy tank top, she headed back into her room, drying her long hair with the towel. She’d let it air dry for an hour before hitting it with the dryer. Or maybe if it was warm enough, she’d just let it go. But the cold floor told her otherwise. She pulled a button down sweater from the closet and slipped it on.
There was still a lump on the bed. Her quick steps halted. Ugh! She’d have to buck him out of that bed like an angry bronco. “Ethan Gene Winters, get your lazy behind out of that bed this instant!”
No answer. He must be really exhausted. She hated to push him, but it was his fault. If he wanted to sleep in, he could have stayed at the barn. Or he could have come clean to everyone. Then they’d not have to keep sneaking around like a couple of thieving raccoons raiding the garbage at night.
A light blinked on her phone, as well as Ethan’s. Great! She checked the messages to find one from Bekka. Need to show you something real fast. Hope you’re up. BTW, have you seen Ethan?
“Oh no! By the way, I have seen him.” She climbed on the bed and started to shake him again. “Get! Up! Bekka is looking for you.”
From under the pile of pillows and blankets, he muttered, “Tell them I’m down at the creek fishing. Please let me sleep just another half hour.”
Haley sat back with her feet tucked under her bottom. The warmth of her behind relieved her chilled toes. “Well, I’m gonna have to play dirty it seems. She can’t come in here and find you asleep unless you want her to find out about us by catching you here.”
He didn’t answer. She turned around and placed her feet on the floor. Her teeth bit down on her bottom lip, but she held them firm. Oh, the things she did for her guy.
Soon as they were good and cold, she yanked the blankets off her handsome Yankee and placed her cold, bare feet right on the small of his back.
A sound emitted from him that shouldn’t come from a guy. He twisted to get away from her frozen tootsies and tumbled off the bed. He was back up in a moment, a flurry of blankets billowed around his furious face. Dark, wild hair fell over his stormy gray eyes. “Woman, what are you doing to me?” He smacked the mattress with the palms of his hands.
Haley pointed to the patio doors. “Get ou—”
A knock sounded at the hall entrance. “Haley? You up? I need to speak with you, sweetie. Didn’t you get my text?”
Both Haley and Ethan gasped. The covers flew into the air as he scrambled to his feet and rushed over to the chair where he’d left his clothes last night. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He hissed.
“I tried! Now’s your chance to tell her the truth,” she hissed back.
He spun to face her, his faded jeans clutched in his hands as he shook them out. “No. I’ll never live it down if she catches me in here. I’ll tell her. But she is not going to bust me. No. Way!”
Siblings. Good night.
“You get the bed made,” He ordered. “Do not open that door until I’m out of here. Got it?”
Haley held the blankets but was distracted as he slipped into his t-shirt. The way the muscles on his back rippled caused her
to pause a moment in admiration. Her fool mouth hung open like a broken trap door.
He yanked the bottom of the shirt over his jeans breaking her deer in the headlights trance. “Well? You going to fix the bed? Bekka won’t wait all day.”
She snapped her mouth closed and brought her attention back to the tousled bedding. “Got it.” They were both speaking in hushed voices. “But what am I gonna say when she asks where you are?”
“I’ll be long gone. Look around and shrug. How hard is that?”
She flipped the blankets across the mattress and said nothing in response. Anything that might have come out wouldn’t have been nice, anyhow, so she decided on the higher road.
Buttoning his outer shirt, he raced around the bed to peck her on the cheek and offer a lousy apology. On the way out, he grabbed his loafers and called Wally to follow him outside. Haley waited until she was sure he’d cleared the room.
She rushed to the second set of doors to her private quarters and turned the lock. Yanking it open, she greeted her unknowing sister-in-law with a Barbie doll smile. “Sorry, I overslept. Just got out of the shower. What’s up?”
Brows raised, Bekka strolled in and glanced into the bedroom. Haley cringed over forgetting to shut that door.
“Nice space.” Bekka turned to face her. “I’ve never been in your room. Love the curtains.”
Haley hadn’t been allowed to let anyone in their room out of fear they’d see some of Ethan’s things. Most of his belongings were in boxes stacked in the back of her closet, thank goodness.
Bekka held up her phone and gave it a little wave. “Mom sent some wedding dress pictures. She wanted you to take a look and see which style you like best. That’ll help us narrow the selections when we start shopping. They’ll be here by next weekend.”
Wonderful, more people she’d have to hide from. “Um, why don’t we head over to the kitchen? I need to get breakfast started. Just need to find my shoes and—”
Bekka’s phone chirped. She scanned the message with a frown that slowly turned up into a plastered on smirk, “Well, well, looks like y’all’s been caught red-handed.” Bekka’s tone took on that annoying drawl all the Yankees enjoyed taunting her with.
Another text came in. She looked at the phone again. “Oh, and there’s my dear brother. Finally. He wants us to meet him and Stephen in your office.”
So. They’d set a trap for Ethan, did they?
“Oh fine.” Haley stomped back to her room. “Let me get my shoes. Think I’ll grab my boots because someone’s needing a swift kick of I-tole-ya-so.”
* * * *
Ethan waited for the black dog to hurry past before softly closing the French door. The sun nearly blinded him, and he had to rub his eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. All the craziness seemed to finally be catching up to him. If he thought about it, he’d not had a restful night’s sleep in over a week.
Wally started for the yard, then stopped and circled around the swinging bench on the porch. Knowing the dog would take care of his business in his own sweet time, he headed across the deck, aiming toward the path that would take him back to the barn. On the way, he’d need to come up with something to tell Stephen who was sure to be—
“Good morning, sunshine.”
Ethan froze. Think of the devil and he appears. He stared up at the bright blue expanse. Really? I bet you agree with Haley that this is what I get for not telling the truth sooner, right?
He slowly turned to find Stephen on the porch swing, a smug grin on his annoying face. “Good morning. Are you the one who sent Bekka to Haley’s room?”
“Well?” Stephen gave a slight shrug. “She’s been as curious as I was about where you’ve been sneaking off to. In the dead of night.”
“Right. It’s not what you think.”
Stephen chuckled as he slowly stood, tucking something behind his back. “Really? Now, what could I possibly be thinking?” He tapped his chin and pursed his lips. “Hmm, my best friend. Or, should I say, my upstanding, honest, and rule-following—”
“All right. Enough.” Ethan motioned for him to follow. “Come on. I’ll explain everything.” As he turned and headed around to the back of the house, he sent a text to his sister to meet them in the office.
Stephen’s heavy footsteps pounded behind him until he reached his side. “Explain what, buddy? It’s obvious where you’ve been. I’m open to simply accepting your apology for all the times—”
“Ha. I’m not apologizing for anything. I’ve not done anything to apologize for. Not to you, anyway.” He pulled the keys from his pants pocket and unlocked the door to the garden room. Warmth welcomed them as they strolled past the dining tables toward the office in the private area. “Haley Belle, I need you to open the safe.” He called out.
Bekka waited in the hallway, leaning against the wall outside the office. The look she shot at him made Ethan duck his head. Haley was already at the bookcase, flipping the toggles and latches to reveal the secret compartment where her forefathers set a hidden safe.
While Stephen entered the room and took a seat on the smaller sofa, Bekka waited at the door, her lips set in a tight line.
“It’s not what you two think.” Ethan leaned against the edge of the desk. “We eloped. We’re married.”
“No way.” Stephen shook his head. “You, of all people, don’t do stupid things like elope. What game are you playing?”
Haley handed him the envelope with their license. “Can I go?”
“Please don’t.” He caught her hand and gave it a squeeze. Ah, this had been the very thing she dreaded. He could kick himself. A glance down at her boots made him wonder if she were itching to do the favor for him. “I want you to stay, even though I know you’re dying to say—”
“No point now.” She jerked her hand from his. “Get to explaining. They don’t seem to believe you.” She sat beside Stephen, hugging one of the silky peach colored pillows to her chest.
Ethan pulled out the document and handed it to Stephen. “All winter we kept trying to get the land I bought and what Haley inherited into a joint ownership. Since we weren’t married yet, they said we’d have to fill out several different thises and thats. Point is, nobody made it easy for us to do what we wanted. But that wasn’t why we eloped.”
Bekka covered her mouth as she stared at Haley. “You didn’t get her—”
“No!” Haley and Ethan said at the exact same moment. She glared at him. “Tole ya they’d think that. Didn’t I?”
He nodded and waved down her indignation. “Look, what happened was Haley got really sick near the end of winter. She had no insurance. We weren’t related, nor married. And she has no family to call. Lexie is still a minor and part of the Texas juvenile system. Not much help there.
“Because Haley didn’t have a way to pay for the medical expenses, they sent her to a community hospital two towns over to be treated. Turned out she had a really bad case of bronchitis and the flu. She was admitted to ICU, and they wouldn’t give me any information.
“For a whole day and a half, I couldn’t even locate where they’d sent her. Nobody wanted to tell me anything.” He brushed his bangs from his face, remembering how frightened he’d been.
When Haley had accepted his marriage proposal, he’d felt a responsibility for her. She had no real family, and he’d determined to take care of her. Be there for her. Until he’d lost her in the hospital system. “I was pretty panicked.”
Bekka pressed her hand to her chest. “And why didn’t you call us?”
“We’d been hit by that awful storm. I couldn’t risk Mom driving down here. I think the bridge was shut down, anyway. And I was too… all I could think of was that Haley was alone and at the mercy of strangers. Nothing else mattered except finding her and making them tell me what was going on.”
Haley’s head tilted as she gave him a sympathetic smile. “Poor babe. When I finally came to realize what was happening, I demanded to see him. Then they let him know where I
was. Soon as he found me, nothing they said or did would make him leave my side. When they took me down for x-rays, he waited outside in the hall until they rolled me back up to my room.”
Ethan took up the story again. “She got better, but I still think if she’d had better care…” He shook his head. “Anyway, soon as she was feeling better, I started to beg her to go ahead and get married. Then I could put her on my insurance. I’d be able to take better care of her, and we could get all the things done we wanted to.”
“Took him two weeks to finally break me.” Haley stood and moved back to his side. “He wouldn’t shut up about it. Finally, I told him to call Pastor John, and we’d talk it over with him when I was back on my feet. Pastor agreed so long as we did all the marital counseling.”
Ethan finished, “Pastor John performed our vows in private with his wife, Sally, as a witness. They promised to keep it quiet for us. We’ll still have the official ceremony in December. But our true wedding date is April 17th.”
Stephen held the document out to Bekka who made no move to take it. “The dates match up. They’re telling the truth.”
Bekka’s gaze darkened. Ethan could almost feel the invisible daggers her look shot at him and, his heart sank. He’d hoped she’d be more understanding once he told the whole story. Maybe if he’d told her sooner she would have.
She took a step backward. “Well? Guess that explains everything. Congrats, bro.” Then she turned and rushed upstairs to her room.
Oh, no. She was not leaving it like that!
When the door upstairs slammed closed, Ethan turned to Haley. “Where’s the spare room keys?”
“Babe, maybe you should let her—”
“Nope. We’re going to talk it out. Get me the key.” He turned to Stephen and took the paper. “Satisfied?”
Stephen gave one nod. “Yeah man. Congratulations. I guess.”
“Thanks. I guess.” Ethan’s heart dropped and bounced around his feet. This was supposed to be something joyous, and his pride had royally messed that up. First, he needed to deal with his sister, then he’d apologize to Stephen. Again.
Raining Fools (Madison Creek Bed & Breakfast Book 2) Page 19