“That must have been incredibly hard for all of you.”
“It was. Dad had to stop working a few years later. He was a foreman at a manufacturing plant. He loved his job and took pride in it. And suddenly, he couldn't do it anymore. His body was failing him, and there was nothing any of us could do to stop it.
“Mom became his full-time caregiver. We didn't have much money, and what we had went to his treatments, his medications, and the equipment he needed as things progressed.”
“Where did hockey come in?” I ask.
“I've loved the game since I was a kid, would have played no matter what. But when I got drafted, I made a promise to myself. I would take care of them. All of them.” He slides a stack of golden pancakes onto a plate. “My sisters, too. Bella and Lucy. I paid for their college, their textbooks, their housing. Everything.”
“You mentioned Bella is a nurse now?”
“Yeah. She works in the ER back home. She's the calm one in the family, never gets rattled by anything. Lucy just finishedher teaching degree. She's the opposite, loud and dramatic and always in the middle of some crisis or another.” A fond smile crosses his face. “They drive me crazy, but I'd do anything for them.”
“You're a good brother. A good son.”
“I try to be.” He hands me the plate of pancakes along with butter and syrup. “One more season. That's all I need. One more season with a full salary and I can set them up for life. A trust fund for my dad's ongoing care. Pay off the mortgage on their house. Enough money that my mom never has to worry about bills again.”
“That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself.”
“It's not pressure. It's purpose.” His eyes meet mine across the counter. “My family is everything to me. I'd do anything for them. Anything.”
I take a bite of pancake, and it's surprisingly good. Fluffy and slightly sweet with a hint of vanilla. “These are delicious.”
“Don't sound so surprised.” He leans against the counter across from me, taking the weight off his bad leg. “Your turn. Tell me about Charlotte. About your life before you moved here.”
“There's not much to tell. I worked at Premier Medical Center, had a nice apartment in a good neighborhood, dated a man I thought I was going to marry.” I stab at my pancake with my fork. “Then I found out he was cheating on me and everything fell apart.”
Ethan goes completely still. “You were going to marry him?”
“We were engaged. Had a date set, a venue booked, a dress hanging in my closet.” I glance up, and his expression has changed. Hardened into something cold and sharp. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“That's definitely not a nothing face.”
He sets down his coffee mug and crosses his arms over his bare chest. “I knew you had a boyfriend back in Charlotte. Ididn't know you were engaged. That you were planning to spend your life with someone else.”
The jealousy in his voice is raw and unmistakable. Part of me wants to reassure him, but a bigger part is oddly pleased by his reaction. That he cares enough to be jealous.
“Does that bother you?”
“Yes.” He doesn't hesitate. “It bothers me that some asshole had you and threw it away. It bothers me that you loved him enough to say yes when he proposed. It bothers me that he got to touch you and hold you and wake up next to you for years while I didn't even know you existed.”
“Ethan.”
“I know I have no right to be jealous. We've been doing whatever this is for about twelve hours. But yeah, it fucking bothers me.”
I set down my plate and slide off the stool, walking around the counter to where he's standing. I wrap my arms around his waist and look up at his face.
“He didn't deserve me,” I say quietly. “I know that now. He was charming and successful and came from the right kind of family. My mother adored him. I thought that was enough. I thought what we had was love.”
“Did you love him?”
“I loved the idea of him. The future I thought we were building together. The life that looked perfect from the outside.” I press my cheek to his chest, listening to the steady thump of his heart. “But when I walked in on him with another woman, the first thing I felt wasn't heartbreak. It was relief. Like I'd been holding my breath for three years and could finally exhale.”
His arms come around me, holding me tight. “What happened? How did you catch him?”
“I came home early from work. I was sick, some kind of stomach bug, and all I wanted was to crawl into bed and sleepfor days.” The memory still makes my chest tight, even now. “I walked into our apartment and heard noises from the bedroom. I thought maybe he'd left the TV on. But when I opened the door...”
