“I was just saying.”
“And I’m just saying,” Maren continued, her voice steadier now, “that we’re all adults here. We did what we did, and you don’t have to stoop to lying to get rid of me. You especially don’t have to cut the kids’ vacation short over it.”
She turned to leave, and Ethan reacted before I could, rising behind his desk. Hell, he practically clambered over the thing.
“Maren, wait.”
“It’s okay, Ethan,” she said, pausing at the door. “I’ll save you the bother of long distance phone calls. I’m leaving.”
Her absence was felt in more than the fleeting breeze she left in her wake. The one that smelled faintly of that pomegranate body wash she liked to use.
“What the fuck, Ace? What did you say to her?”
But I wasn’t about to sit pretty as the next target for Ethan’s agitation. “Me? Why is it me?”
“Because I was on the phone with Gabe,” he said. “You and Maren were talking on the couch, and then all of a sudden, she’s quitting. Who else is it gonna be?”
I walked up to him and jabbed his chest with a finger. “You’re the one who freaked out about us kissing at the harvest market. You’re the one who’s been frantically calling your brother all morning which, I mean, how did you think she was gonna take that?”
He drew a sharp inhale through his nose, and let it out so slowly I was sure I sprouted three gray hairs while I waited. “I didn’t freak out.”
“Save it.”
I went after her, because letting her go like that wasn’t an option. Not for me. Not while she was this close, and yet, just out of reach. I didn’t care about Ethan and his hangups, or whatever the fuck he wanted to call it. Mr. Always in Control who couldn’t handle not being in control of a situation for one second… He might’ve been too stubborn to fix this, but I wasn’t. I knew—even though it was still early in the relationship and I’d probably be labeled as presumptuous—that things with Maren had potential.
I caught up with her on the porch steps, where she was pacing like she meant to wear a hole straight through the ground. Her arms were crossed tight, jaw locked, eyes flashing like she’d just bitten into something sour.
“Hey,” I said, easing down the steps. “Take a breath. Preferably before you combust and I have to explain spontaneous human explosion to Sadie.”
She shot me a look but didn’t stop.
“Sit,” I said, patting the step beside me as I sank down. “Come on. I promise not to startle you with any sudden rational thought.”
She hesitated, then sighed hard enough to rattle the railing, dropping down beside me. Her shoulders were still stiff, her knee bouncing like it had its own vendetta.
“I can’t believe I was such an idiot,” she muttered, half to herself. “God, I knew it was a mistake. I knew it.”
I leaned my elbows on my knees. “You’re gonna have to narrow that down for me. You’ve been around us long enough that ‘mistake’ could apply to a lot of things.”
“With you. With Ethan. Miles.” She blew out another frustrated breath. “I should’ve kept things professional. I should never have crossed the line.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “So we’re talking about that line. The one that’s already been thoroughly crossed, erased, and replaced with… something far more fun?”
She didn’t laugh. I didn’t really expect her to. But I noticed some of the tension in her back dissolve just the same.
“Ethan’s just stressed,” I said. “That phone call? It’s not about you. It’s about his brother. Gabe’s been stringing him along, and Ethan’s too responsible for his own good. Always has been.”
Maren rubbed her forehead, shaking her head. “You don’t have to explain it.”
“I think I kinda do, actually—”
“No.” Her voice broke a little, quiet but firm. “I get it. This isn’t about Ethan and his brother. It’s about me.”
That pulled me up short. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” She turned toward me, eyes glassy, voice trembling under the weight of too many thoughts. “I’ve just beenoverwhelmed. Trying to keep up. Trying to make sense of what this even is. And I can’t. I don’t think I can.”
I wanted to tell her she could. That she already was. But she kept going, words spilling faster.
