Her temper spiked, and she had to fight to wrestle it back. “Right. Because I’m single and desperate.”
“Mama… that’s not what I meant.”
“But that’s what you said.” And the hurt of it still churned inside her. “Is that really how you see me, Ethan?”
“No, Mama, of course not. I just worry about you, is all. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I understand that. And I love you for worrying about me. But Dylan has made me happier than I’ve been in a very long time.”
“Jesus.” Closing his eyes, he let his head fall back against the couch. “I don’t understand. Hebeatyou.”
She really,reallydid not want to have this conversation. But there didn’t seem to be a way around it. “He did not beat me, Ethan. He spanked me, and it was completely consensual.”
“I don’t want to know this,” Ethan mumbled.
“Well then maybe you should learn to knock before you come barging into people’s homes.” It was difficult to keep` the accusation out of her voice, hard as she tried.
“I thought this was my home, too.”
There was so much hurt in his voice, it threatened to shatter her heart. “Oh, baby. This willalwaysbe your home. You are always welcome here. Just… maybe call first. And knock.”
“You’re going to keep seeing him.”
She hadn’t realized until he’d said it that she’d already made up her mind. “I am, yes. And I’m sorry if that hurts you.”
Lifting his head with a sigh, he turned to face her, his expression unreadable. “And he really makes you happy?”
In a sea of difficult questions with even more difficult answers, that one was shockingly easy. “So fucking happy, Ethan.”
“All right.” Blowing out another breath, he nodded. “Then I guess I’ll try to be okay with it.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“Can I ask one more thing, that I probably don’t actually want the answer to but I can’t seem to help myself?”
“What’s that?”
Confusion twisted his features again as he gestured at the soft pile on the floor. “What’s with all the stuffed animals?”
Where was a hole in the ground when a girl needed it? “We were having a Marvel movie marathon.”
“Okay, but where did they all come from? I’ve never seen like, ninety percent of these.”
“I keep them in my office.” And that was as much as she was willing to tell him. “Look, baby, if we keep going down this rabbit hole you are going to learn way more about your mother than you really want to know. For both our sakes, please, just leave it at that.”
“Fair enough.” A ghost of a smile tugged at his lips. “I know it’s barely noon but I think we could both use a drink.”
Daddy would be pissed if she got a drink without asking first. But there was absolutely no way she could tell Ethanthat. So even though her ass still ached from the spanking she’d just gotten for breaking a rule, she forced a smile and rose from the couch. “It’s five o’clock somewhere, right?”
Chapter Nineteen
Dylan
He took his time, stopping to pick up Sam’s favorite sodas as well as Ethan’s favorite chips to go with the pizza. A peace offering couldn’t hurt, he figured, though he wasn’t sure salt-and-vinegar chips were really enough to make up for seeing your best friend eating out your mom on your living room couch.
But it couldn’t make thingsworse.
Right?
