She shoved a hair behind her ear. “Hey.”
“Em.” He said her name and then seemed to be waiting for her to say more.
So here’s the thing. All the stuff that happened at his house with her parents? The whole bit about Tony—and him knowing Tony? It’d wiggled under her skin and she needed a minute to work through it.
One moment turned into another and a minute had morphed into days and then…well…the picture pretty much painted itself, didn’t it? But he hadn’t reached out to her, either.
Maybe that’s how a fake breakup for a fake relationship went. This was all new to her, so she wouldn’t have known.
“Do you want to come in?” Em asked. “The girls are upstairs in Fiona’s room. I can get them.”
“Why do I feel you’re avoiding me?” Ethan asked following her inside and cutting right to the point, not even answering her sort-of question.
His question was an easy one to answer.
“Because I am,” Emmaline said, going with the truth because at this point in the day, it was just that much easier.
“You are?” He seemed surprised at her quick acknowledgment.
“You weren’t supposed to notice, though.” She lifted one eyebrow. “I was blending.”
“Em.” He said her name in such a way that it totally made her pause.
She glanced up. She sorta wished she hadn’t because he held her still with a molten stare she felt all the way to her toes.
“I…” He didn’t stalk her way, but the look he gave made her feel like he had. Like he moved forward to blow right through her personal space bubble. “Noticed.”
Oh. Dear.
Her body seemed to purr in complete opposition to her dedication to avoidance.
So she wasn’t as good at avoiding and blending and becoming one with the shadows as she’d hoped.Good to know.
“You don’t have to.” He pushed his hands in his pockets in that adorable way that made her consider opening herself up for real.
“You don’t have to avoid me,” he clarified.
Which was why, “I’ve been taking some space after everything that happened with my parents,” she admitted. “They really got in my head.”
There, now he knew. Could she puh-lease go back to blending now?
That announcement had his eyebrows raising and his head ticking a little to the right in question.
“About all that…with your parents. That whole bit got in my head, too,” he said as though it was no big deal.
To be clear, admittingthathad taken a lot from her. But the way he said it?
It cost him nothing.
“I brought you a little something,” Ethan said, holding out a white paper sack.
“You brought me cookies.” Cookies she had no problem accepting.
“You didn’t get any last time, if I recall.” Ethan’s eyes sparkled with wit and…this was super-duper sweet.
Her chest heaved with humor and the weight of that sweet.
I don’t want my mom to date someone else…
