“Almost. Sixteen months, to be exact. It’s been…yeah. Iwish I could say every day gets easier. But I have more good days than bad now. And even the bad ones aren’t as bad as…well, you know.”
“I’m really proud of you,” she said softly. He ducked his head and smiled, color rising to his cheeks. She realized she’d never seen him blush before. It was so damn charming she thought her heart would explode.
“Thanks.” He looked back up at her. “Did Nora tell you we just redid the custody agreement? I have the girls half the time now.”
Grey tried to ignore the way her heart leapt. If Nora had agreed to that, he really must be doing better—not just parroting what he thought she wanted to hear in a hollow attempt to win her forgiveness. “No, that’s great. We, um. We don’t really talk about you.”
He nodded slowly. “That’s probably for the best.”
“Yeah.”
She noticed his glass was empty, and held her hand out to him. He passed it to her and she went to the fridge to refill them both. With her back to him, she felt a surge of courage.
“Can I ask you something? Unrelated.” She finished off one glass bottle of mineral water and cracked open another one.
“Sure. Trying to get through the last of those love questions?”
“What? Oh. Ha. No, I’m freestyling this one.” She brought the glasses back to the couch and handed him his. When she sat back down, she sat closer this time, her knee firmly pressed against his outstretched leg. She leaned her other elbow on the back of the couch and rested her head on her fist.
“Why did you sign the contract in the first place? I don’t believe that you couldn’t have made your comeback without me. But it didn’t even seem like you wanted to. You barely showed anyinterest in work the whole time we were together. What made you say yes?”
Ethan took a long sip of his sparkling water, then stared into the glass like it held the answer.
“Well, two things, really. I showed up because Audrey basically begged me to. I guess it was her form of an intervention. I almost didn’t make it at all.”
“Oh, I remember.”
“My plan was to eat my free lunch, make a little small talk, and get the hell out of there.” His lips curved into that half smile that was as familiar to her as her own. “But you kind of ruined everything. Once I met you, that wasn’t an option anymore.”
Grey’s stomach fluttered. “So what sealed the deal? Was it when I told you to fuck off and die?”
He laughed, a real laugh from deep in his chest. “What can I say? You know how to make a first impression.” His face turned pensive again. “It’s hard to describe. I don’t even really understand it now. I’ve never felt anything like it. It was just this…pull. I felt it the first time I saw you. And it just kept getting stronger the more I got to know you.”
“Are you sure you weren’t just horny?”
He laughed again. “That was definitely part of it. There was something else, though. Something like…recognition, maybe? Like I knew you already. But at the same time, like I’d never run out of things to learn.”
Grey bit her lip, forcing herself to ask her next question before she lost her nerve. “Do you still feel it?”
His eyes swept over her face. “Don’t you?”
Her breath caught in her throat. Slowly, he set his water glass on the table, without taking his eyes off her. She slid her legs out from under her and scooted toward him as gracefully as scootingallowed, until she was draped across his lap. She was tempted to nestle against his shoulder, but sat upright instead, as he ran his hand up her denim-clad shin, then up her thigh, and back down again.
Something inside her released, something she hadn’t even been aware was tensed.
His gaze drifted to her lips. As he leaned in, she placed a hand on his chest.
“Wait.” She shut her eyes for a second, trying to gather her thoughts. “Is this…what is this?”
He chuckled. “I thought it was obvious.”
“Spell it out for me. I’m not feeling so smart right now.”
He took both her hands in his, kissing the back of her left hand, then her right. Staring deep into her eyes, he intoned:
“Emily Grey Brooks. I am madly, desperately in love with you. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the day we met. If you would do me the honor of giving me another chance, I swear I will spend the rest of my life proving that I am capable of being the man you deserve.”
She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t pictured this moment hundreds of times over the past year and a half. Maybe thousands. But she’d been so focused on what he would say, the different ways he’d beg and plead and grovel his way back into her life, that she’d never stopped to think about how she would respond. Whether she could look into the eyes of the man she’d allowed to hurt her more deeply than anyone ever had, and agree to give him the power to do it again. Whether she could trust that he wouldn’t.
