CHAPTER ONE
“Hey, Tex, I just saw Ella a few minutes ago. She looked pissed about something.”
“Wants me to marry her, Roy, and I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t break the hearts of American women by committing to one.” Ethan found his usual smile for the man who had been his doorman for the past three years.
“You’re a saint, man. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating.”
Ethan slapped Roy’s shoulder and made his way out the entrance of the building, letting his smile drop when he was alone. Raising his arms, he stretched and then sighed as he lowered them. Heading left, he took the path that would lead to the coffee he so desperately needed.
‘You go cold on me whenever I mention taking our relationship further, and I won’t stay with a man who cannot commit to me, Ethan.’
Ella’s words had pretty much mirrored those of the other women who’d wanted him to take their relationship further, and his response had been the same also.
‘I’m not ready to commit to anything at this stage in my life, Ella. Can we not just continue on as we are and see where it takes us?’
Of course she hadn’t wanted to continue, and had stormed loudly from his apartment, leaving him alone, without the regrets he was fairly sure he should have.
Ethan knew the fault was his and not Ella’s or any of the other women who’d walked out of his life, but as the reasons why he couldn’t commit probably involved his family, he’d chosen to ignore them, because that was a place he never went, even in his head.
Inhaling, he could smell the approach of fall in the air and his eyes sought the water that lay in a large blue body to his right. People were walking or running around the edge of the lake, which was always a hive of activity even at this hour. Shaking his head at such excessive behavior, he headed into town.
He’d lived in Brook for two years and had never once regretted his move from Texas. After leaving the army, this place had been the next biggest city to Lake Howling, and as that was home to his closest friends, he had settled here with his bird, and started taking people on tours around the beautiful Oregon countryside that surrounded him.
Born and bred a Texan, he’d never lose his love for his home, but this area was coming in a close second. The mornings were starting to cool and soon fall would give way to winter and they’d be shivering in their beds for a few minutes longer.
“Commitment-phobic is what I am,” Ethan muttered, disgusted with himself as he remembered the hurt he’d put in Ella’s eyes. Why could he not find that one woman who would make him want a picket fence and babies?
‘Love will bite you in the ass when you least expect it, boy,’ he remembered his uncle Mitch once telling him, but he was still waiting.
Jogging across the road, he headed for his favorite café, almost tasting the first mouthful of coffee, hot and black. He saw her then. AnnabelleI’ve got attitude so don’t mess with meSmith. She was striding down the sidewalk, that beautiful body of hers in motion like it always seemed to be. Her golden brown hair swung above her shoulders, and an emerald scarf was tied in a large floppy bow just above one ear. Spine straight, Annabelle didn’t stroll anywhere; she went from A to B without stopping at Z along the way.
Stepping up his pace, he moved in behind her, happy to watch her walk while she talked into her cell phone. It was just when she opened her mouth that he wanted to run and hide, and usually after she had blistered his ass over something.
She was from Howling, and close with Ethan’s buddies, so they spent a bit of time together socially. Like him, she wasn’t into relationships; in fact, Ethan had never seen her with a man, so he guessed she kept her private life to herself.
“I’ll never forgive you for this. Never! I’ve bailed you out so many times, saved your ass from prison, paid for whatever I could, but no more. I don’t want to ever see or hear from you again. This…this, to take everything, I can’t forgive you for that. So now you’re on your own. Don’t call me, no emails, just stay the hell away!”
Her voice rose on the last word and Ethan could hear the emotion in it. She then wrestled one strap off her shoulder and fired her cell phone into her bag, no doubt never to be seen again if her bag was like those of the other women he knew. She then veered left before he could talk to her and started weaving her way around the few people that were on the street.
Shocked, Ethan took a few seconds to register what was happening, and then he followed, losing sight of her briefly as she ducked behind a building. He saw her again seconds later as she ran down to the lake.
Before he could reach her, she’d dropped her handbag, pulled off her shoes and rolled up the hems of her pants. She was ankle deep in water when he arrived.
“Annabelle?”
Because he’d surprised her, she had no time to school her expression and the devastation he saw hit him like a fist to the stomach. She turned away when she realized who was standing behind her.
They’d never hit it off. In fact, other than greeting each other they’d only ever shared insults.
He bent to unlace his sneakers, pulled them and his socks off, then rolled up the cuffs of his jeans before stepping into the cool water to reach Annabelle.
“Nice morning for it.” He stood beside her looking over the water to the mountains beyond.
“Go away.” Her voice was flat and cold and her body was so stiff he was certain that if he touched her she’d shatter.
“Having a bad day?”
“Yeah, and it just got worse.”
