“I’ve never met a group of people so involved in each other’s business,” Ethan said. “It’s downright uncomfortable,” he added, heading back out of the office with Jake minutes later. They were heading to Dr McBride’s clinic.
“We care about each other,” Jake said. “And now that you’re one of us, you’re subjected to the same rules.”
“Rules?”
“We know everything that’s happening in your life, then talk about it, and intervene if we feel it’s required.”
“That’s weird, but kind of nice at the same time,” Ethan said.
“Sounds about right,” Jake replied before they headed inside the clinic. “I’ll go find Annabelle and send her out to you, then I need to help Mom with some stuff.”
Annabelle was in with Cooper, and they weren’t to be disturbed, so Ethan said he’d wait in the reception area as it was busy out back. He was reading a disturbing article on gum disease and running his tongue around his mouth when she came out to see him.
Still pale, she had dark rings under her eyes and the worry and guilt sitting on her shoulders was in every line of her lovely body.
“Hey.” He walked towards her. Lifting a hand, he cupped her cheek and leaned in to brush a kiss over her lips.
“Hey.”
“How’s Cooper?”
“Bad.” Just the one word, and Ethan could see she’d closed her emotions off from him and was battling to show him she was all right.
“I have to head back to Brook for a few days because I have a couple of charters I can’t cancel at this short notice.” “Sure. Hey, don’t hurry back. I’m going to be pretty tied up with Cooper now. He has to be my main focus.”
She didn’t look at him, so he turned her chin so she was facing him.
“I’ll be back, so don’t even think about pushing me aside. What’s between us is not going away, so when you’re ready we’ll be having a talk.”
“Oh, but…we—”
“No buts.” Ethan pulled her back into his arms and kissed her right there in front of the administrator and other patients waiting to be seen, letting her go only when she’d stopped resisting him. “Cooper deserves your care and love, Annabelle, but not that you shut everything else out of your life…especially me.”
She didn’t speak again, just stepped away from him and walked back through the doors. The feeling in the pit of his stomach wasn’t a good one.
He flew out of Howling an hour later, frustrated and tense.
Two days later he was at the point of saying to hell with the tours, he was going back to Howling. Annabelle was avoiding him; every time he called, she found a reason to cut it short. Her words were clipped and unemotional, and it was an exercise in self-control not to yell through the phone at her.
Ethan wasn’t a total asshole; he knew what she was going through, and why she was shutting herself away from him, but it still hurt. He wanted to help her with Cooper, help with every goddamn thing, ease her pain, soothe her hurts, but she wouldn’t let him in, so in frustration he called Jake.
“Cooper’s anxious and irritable and depressed most days, and Annabelle’s taking the brunt of everything because she’s had him moved back home with her. She’s taken two weeks’ leave and is nursing him around the clock. We’re all doing as much as we can, taking turns to help, but you know how stubborn she is, Ethan. She’s continually telling us she doesn’t need help and trying to push us away.”
Ethan was listening to Jake on his speakerphone while he did paperwork.
“But you’re ignoring her, right?” Ethan asked. “You’re keeping an eye on her like I told you to?”
“For the record you, didn’t need to tell us to. We just do that shit because she’s one of ours,” Jake said.
“Yeah, yeah, I got that,” Ethan said. “I’ve had that lecture from you, Branna and pretty much everyone else in that town.”
“We got her covered, Ethan, don’t worry. Cubby’s keeping an eye on anyone new coming and going in case that guy Jenson shows up in town, or anyone suspicious. Buster and Newman turned up at her house last night and told her to take a drive in his car and that they’d watch over Cooper. When she refused, he threw her over his shoulder and carried her out to his car. When she still refused, he walked back inside, and then he and Newman locked all the doors and windows so she couldn’t get back in.”
Ethan grunted his agreement with Buster’s move.
“I’ll be back tomorrow. I just couldn’t get out of these two charters,” Ethan said, feeling guilty as hell that she was going through this without him.
“I know, and I’ve told her that, like you said, but she keeps saying you’ve done enough and that you don’t need to come back,” Jake said, which had Ethan’s blood pressure climbing.
