Playing For Her Heart

by Megan Erickson

  Ethan nodded, squeezing her hand, then let it go to eat his sandwich. She did the same.

  “Sydney is a firecracker, isn’t she?” Ethan asked.

  “Yes, she’s wonderful. Was Grant married to her mother or…?”

  Ethan shook his head. “One-night stand from college. The woman was going to give her up for adoption, but Grant said he’d care for the child. Sometimes I’m sure he wants to smack himself for that decision, but he’s never regretted it.”

  “She adores him.”

  “As she should.”

  When lunch was over, Chloe cleaned up. She caught Ethan staring at the picture on the refrigerator, the one of Samantha, him, and Chloe. She knew it had taken a lot out of him to talk about their sister today. He rarely did, and she didn’t push. Although she was starting to think maybe she should, because Ethan wasn’t doing any better at his grief than she was.

  “I’m going to visit Mom and Dad,” she announced. “Leaving later today.”

  He was staring out the back door again, hands in his pockets. He didn’t respond.

  “Would you like to come?” she asked.

  Even though she knew his answer, she held out hope until he shook his head.

  “Maybe you could call them?” she suggested softly.

  He turned to her then, eyes filled with sorrow before he threw down the shutters. “Drive safe, Chloe. Are you staying with them or at a hotel?”

  It was hard for her to stay in that house, the one she’d grown up in with two other siblings. “At the house, I think.”

  He nodded and walked toward the door. “Please let me know when you get back into town.”

  She followed him. “Are you going to say anything to Grant?”

  He paused with his hand on the doorknob, then turned around. “No, I don’t believe I will.”

  “It was hard for him, I know. He didn’t like not telling you. But it was my decision as much as his.”

  Ethan smiled slightly. “I understand. We’ll see if Grant comes to me. Something tells me he will.”

  Chloe doubted it. She’d left Grant standing in a parking lot. If he never talked to her again, she wouldn’t be surprised. But at least he’d given her the push she needed to change something about her life, even if he wasn’t there for her on the other side.

  Chapter Twelve

  Grant admitted this was a little over the line. Dipping into obsessive territory. He wasn’t driven by a lustful desire to claim Chloe or anything crazy like that.

  He cared. He was worried. And he missed her.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about finally getting the chance to be with her—really be with her. The glimpse of her heart he’d gotten during her interaction with Sydney and with him at the coffee shop wasn’t enough. He wanted more. He wasn’t willing to give up.

  And that’s why he stood outside Ethan’s door, biting his lip raw and holding two foil-wrapped burritos in one hand. He knocked and heard a deep voice from inside answer. “Come in!”

  He opened the door and shut it behind him. A vision of Chloe dancing around in Ethan’s kitchen flashed through his mind and he shook his head quickly.

  Ethan was in the living room, reading a book. He laid the worn paperback on the table beside him and leaned back in his recliner. Grant lifted a burrito toward Ethan, who shook his head. Grant shrugged and took a seat on the couch.

  “Sydney says hi,” Grant said.

  “Yeah? Why didn’t you bring her over?”

  Grant took a bite and swallowed before talking. “I, uh, wanted to talk to you about something.”

  Ethan’s expression showed nothing. “About Gamers?”

  Shit, why was this so hard? He’d been tempted to take a dick pic before he came, just in case that was the last time he’d ever have his genitals intact. “Uh, no, it’s personal.”

  Again, no movement on Ethan’s face. The cold bastard.

  Grant took a deep breath and set the burritos aside. He wasn’t as hungry as he’d thought. “So I’ve been seeing a woman.”

  Not even a blink.

  Grant soldiered on. “At the beginning it was kind of all physical. But then it wasn’t. I really care about her, and I think I’m falling of her.”

  Ethan fingers tapped the armrest of the recliner.

  “The problem is she’s…working through some stuff. It’s been a couple of days since I heard from her and I’m nervous, you know? I don’t want to crowd her but I want her to know how much she means to me. How much I want this to work. And I want a way to show her that.”

  “And you want my opinion on how to do that?” Ethan asked.

  Grant nodded.

  “And you’re asking me, why? I think it’s pretty obvious my skills with dating are rusty. Why aren’t you talking to Austin about this?”

  So, it was now or never. He was really going to do this, and hopefully come out of it unscathed or at least unscarred. Maybe he should have greased up his face first, like fighters do, so Ethan didn’t cut open his eyebrow with his fist.

  “Well, I’m not talking to Austin about this because the woman I care about isn’t his sister.” Grant sucked in a breath. And held it. He didn’t dare look away from Ethan, from those pale eyes. He’d be a man and take his hit, literally or figuratively.

  But the creepy thing was that Ethan hadn’t moved. He hadn’t made any outward reaction to the fact that Grant had been carrying on a relationship with his precious sister behind his back.

  If anything, he looked…bored.

  Grant waved a hand. “Earth to Ethan? Are you there? Because… I guess I expected you to yell or something.”

  “Why’d you expect that?” Ethan said softly.

  Grant threw up his hands. “Seriously? I’m sleeping with your sister, Ethan! I’ve been doing it for about a month. Granted, I had no idea she was your sister the first time it happened. We were dressed up at the Comic-Con and she was Sari and I was Breck.” And oh God, he was rambling but he couldn’t stop. “We tried to stay away, but neither of us wanted to. Then she tried to cut it off because she thought I wouldn’t like her once I really got to know her. Which is so dumb, right? I mean, she’s pretty fucking awesome and smart and sweet. I tried to get through to her a little but she shoved me away. And I’m not willing to give up.”

  He ran out of breath. And steam. He slumped down into the couch cushions and let his head drift back so that he stared at the ceiling.

  There was nothing but silence between them until Grant said, “I’m sorry, Ethan. I’m sorry it happened and I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry. But I’m not sorry for falling for your sister. Because she’s everything I didn’t know I wanted.”

  More silence, until this time, it was Ethan’s voice that broke it. “She’s at our parents’ house.”

  Grant raised his head. “What?”

  Ethan was fingering the dog-eared edges of his paperback, eyes on the cover. “She came over here and told me about you two.”

  Grant stared. Chloe had told her brother? It must have killed her to tell Ethan. Despite that, hope flared in Grant’s chest.

  “And then she talked to me about some other things,” Ethan said. “About what she’s been going through. I hadn’t realized… I hadn’t realized she was placing so much on her shoulders. It broke my heart, but it needed to be done.” He lifted his gaze to Grant’s, who stared at him dumbfounded. “She said you had something to do with that?”

  “Well, I don’t know about that. She confided in me a little and I told her she needed to talk to you, that you wouldn’t have wanted her to be carrying around this burden.”

  “She said she thought it should have been her. I had no idea she felt like that.”

  Chloe might have been better for the conversation, but Ethan looked wrecked, and Grant didn’t know how to fix that for his friend. “It was all an accident, E—”

  “I don’t need you to psychoanalyze me.” Ethan’s gaze was ice. The room dropped twenty degrees. “You can do that with Chloe because
it seems to help, but don’t come here and patronize me and tell me it was an accident.”

  “Don’t get all frosty with me, you asshole. I care about you and Chloe.”

  “Well worry about Chloe, because I don’t fucking need it.” Ethan stood up abruptly and walked into the kitchen.

  Grant closed his eyes and balled his hands on his knees. He wished Ethan would go to therapy or do something to help him deal with what happened. Instead the guy threw himself into work and generally avoided all human interaction.

  If this continued, he was going to have to stage an intervention. He followed Ethan into the kitchen, realizing that calling Ethan an asshole wasn’t the way to go.

  Ethan stood at the sink, staring out the back window with his arms crossed.

  “I’m sorry I called you an asshole. And for other things that I’m sure I still owe you apologies for,” Grant said.

  Ethan’s lips twitched. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. You didn’t deserve that.”

  An apology from Ethan was not unheard of but still kinda rare. Grant took the olive branch. “It’s no problem, I was prodding.”

  Ethan sighed and opened a kitchen drawer. He rummaged around for a couple of seconds and then pulled out a pad of paper. He scribbled on it and then handed it to Grant. “This is where my parents live.”

  Grant frowned at it. “Why are you giving this to me?”

  Ethan raised his eyebrows. “So you can go after Chloe.”

  “Y-you think she wants me there?”

  Ethan leaned on the counter. “It’s got to be hard for her there. And I’m sure she’s doing her very best to handle it. But there’s nothing wrong with showing up and telling her that you’re there for her. Sometimes my parents…aren’t so good with words. They think they’re saying the right thing but it’s really the exact wrong thing.” Ethan stared at his hand, braced on the counter. “I think maybe we all want to know that the person we care about cares just as much.”

  Grant flicked the paper in his fingers. It was a three-hour drive, and he’d have to get a hotel room nearby. He didn’t want to assume he could stay at the Talley’s. “Can you watch Sydney overnight?”

  “I’ll come over and sleep on your couch. Movie night or something.”

  “Sydney would like that.”

  “Great, now go pack and rescue my sister.”

  Grant grinned.

  Sydney’s eyes were huge.

  Grant rarely talked about his dating life with his daughter, because he kept it separate from her. He hadn’t introduced a woman to her in years, and they both seemed okay with the arrangement.

  But there was too much to this situation with Chloe. She was Ethan’s sister, and no matter what happened, Grant couldn’t deny that he cared about Chloe and always would, in one way or another.

  So he’d come clean and told Sydney that he’d dated Chloe a few times. Sydney’s response was accurate. “Oh my God, Dad, does Ethan know? He’ll kill you!” Her voice was edging higher, her hands on either side of her cheeks like McCauley Caulkin in Home Alone.

  He laughed as he pulled his duffel bag out of the back of his closet. “Yeah, he knows.”

  She stared at it as he tossed it on the bed. “Where are you going?”

  “Ethan’s coming over to watch you tonight,” he said, as he pulled a couple of T-shirts out of his drawer. “I’m heading out to try to convince Chloe that I’m a model boyfriend.”

  Sydney’s less-than-hopeful expression was not comforting.

  “What’s that look for? I can be very persuasive.”

  His daughter bit her lip. “I don’t know. I get the impression Miss Talley can see through all your tricks.”

  “I resent that you’re calling my charm tricks.”

  Sydney flopped onto the bed. “I’m excited to hang out with Ethan. Movie night?”

  “He mentioned that.”

  “He’s less grumpy when it’s just him and me.”

  Grant paused, and then he resumed packing. He’d noticed the way Ethan warmed up around his daughter, too. Did she remind him of Samantha? “He likes you a lot, Sydney.”

  She popped up quickly. “Do I have time to make cookies for you to take to Chloe? Where are you going anyway?”

  “I’m going to visit her at her parents’, and I’d love to take some of your cookies.”

  Sydney clapped her hands together and ran out of the room. “I’ll bake fast!” she yelled over her shoulder.

  Grant chuckled and continued to pack. Every once in a while, a wave of indecision would wash over him. Was he making the right choice to go after Chloe? Maybe Ethan was sending him to his doom on purpose? But no, that was mean and while Ethan was a reclusive bastard, he wasn’t a spiteful jerk.

  And Grant liked the idea of reaching out to Chloe. He got that she needed to deal with her issues on her own; she’d already done an amazing job telling Ethan how she felt. But Grant didn’t want her to think she had to do this all herself. Moving forward, if they were a couple…well wasn’t that what a relationship was about?

  Grant hadn’t had a real partnership in years…or maybe he never had one? His feelings for Sydney’s mother were purely platonic after that one drunken evening together. And now they only talked when it was necessary for Sydney.

  He wanted that with Chloe, though. He wanted to help her with her life and get the same back in return. Sure it was selfish, but he wanted a part of her heart for himself. And in order to do that, he needed to show her how much of his she already had.

  After he packed his toiletries into his bag, he zipped it up and headed downstairs. Sydney was at the counter smoothing batter into a pan. She looked up as he walked in. “Hey!”

  He stood next to her and peered into the pan. “Hey yourself. What’re you making?”

  “Well I already had butter softening on the counter, so I whipped up a quick pan of chocolate-chip-cookie bars. How does that sound?”

  Oh shit, he loved these things. It’d be a miracle if he didn’t eat the whole pan on the way there.

  As if sensing his thoughts, Sydney scowled. “Don’t you dare eat all these in the car.”

  He laughed. “You know me so well.”

  She huffed and handed him the spatula to lick, which he happily did as she placed the pan into the preheated oven. She set the timer and announced, “You can leave in fifty minutes.”

  What the hell was he going to do for fifty minutes? But Sydney was so pleased with herself, cheeks flushed, that he resigned himself to wait around until the damn things were done.

  He helped her clean up and as she was loading the dishwasher, she tossed her braid over her shoulder and looked at him. “She emailed me, you know.”

  “Who?”

  “Miss Talley!”

  “Oh, right. Emailed you about what?”

  “The recipe for the chicken fajitas.”

  Grant’s mouth watered. “Please, please make them.”

  Sydney smirked. “If you convince Miss Talley to call you her boyfriend, then I’ll make you chicken fajitas.”

  He gasped in mock outrage. “Bribery.”

  She giggled. “I think that’s excellent incentive.”

  He wasn’t going to tell Sydney the best incentive, which was sex with Chloe. Although, admittedly, fajitas were like sex in his mouth.

  They spent the next forty-five minutes or so playing Aric’s Revenge. Grant loved to watch Sydney play, her tongue poked out the corner of her mouth as her brow furrowed in concentration. She’d forget to blink, so then she’d have to rub her eyes and blink them rapidly to get the moisture back.

  The oven timer beeped at the same time a knock came at the door.

  “I’ll get the cookie bars!” Sydney announced, running in to the kitchen.

  Grant let in Ethan, who spotted Grant’s bag inside the front door. He didn’t say anything, but he did smile.

  Grant hadn’t worked this hard for a woman’s family approval in…well, ever.

  When they walked in t
o the kitchen, Sydney was staring at the pan. “I was going to cut them into squares and put them that cute tin I have, but they aren’t cool enough for that.”

  Grant and Ethan just stared at her.

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, at least I used my nice maroon stoneware.” She pulled out the tinfoil and rolled out a piece, laying it on top and crimping the edge. “Okay, so you’ll just have to let it cool on the way and then you can cut it there. Make sure you use a sharp knife and—”

  “I planned to just stick my face in the pan and gnaw on it,” Grant said.

  Sydney glared.

  He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Be good, kid. Be nice to Ethan.”

  “I will; have fun and drive safe.”

  She was such a mother hen already. He tugged her braid and then turned to Ethan. “Take care of my girl.”

  Ethan gazed at him steadily. “Will do. Take care of mine.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The only sound in the kitchen was the scraping of utensils on plates. When the clock on the wall chimed, Chloe startled, the sound cutting through the deafening silence.

  She’d arrived at her parents the previous night, slept in the next day, and now it was lunch.

  A silent, awkward lunch.

  It’d been too long since she visited. Everything she wanted to talk about involved Ethan but the sound of his name made her parents bristle. Which in turn made her feel guilty.

  She stuck a forkful of macaroni and cheese in her mouth and chewed, even though she could barely taste it. She’d been so motivated by her conversation with Grant that it had been easier to talk to Ethan than she expected. But now, facing her parents, she was grasping at her waning strength, barely remembering the reason she’d come.

  Maybe she wasn’t ready to let go, to give up on fixing her family. So she extended her heart again, hoping her parents didn’t crush it. “Would you want to come visit me?” she asked. “We could go out to dinner…with Ethan.”

  Her mother looked at her with the same pale blue eyes she’d given to her son. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”

  Chloe tried to sound firm, but instead her voice rose in a whine, wobbling on each word. “He’s suffering, Mom. I know he is and maybe if—”