"Ethan, welcome back." Aidan's smooth voice cut into his thoughts. Ethan hadn't even noticed his older brother coming up to him, but what he did notice right this moment was Aidan's look of warning.
Aidan clearly didn't want him to say anything, and Ethan reluctantly responded with a clipped nod.
"Anah—-" Aidan turned to the girl as he spoke. "Do you think you can ask Cook Nancy for a bottle of champagne?"
"Of course." Anah was more than relieved to finally have an excuse to look away from Ethan, whose cold gaze had her heart breaking into pieces.
All three brothers watched in silence as Anah whirled around to use the back door of the dining room. She tripped on her way out, and while the sight had even the normally-stoic Thornton wincing, Aidan couldn't help noting how Ethan's steely expression hardly changed at all.
"Ethan..."
He swung to face his older brother, saying explosively under his breath, "I didn't fucking know..."
Neither twin spoke. They had suspected as much in the end, with how their younger brother had never seemed to hesitate to speak about Guilia in Anah's presence.
Ethan raked a hand through his hair. "What the fuck do I tell her?"
"Nothing," Aidan said flatly. "You're not in the right frame of mind right now. Just forget what you saw—-"
Ethan stared at his brother in disbelief. "Forget that Anah's in love with me?"
Aidan stared back unflinchingly. "You've been blind to her feelings this long. I doubt she'd be able to tell you're faking it." He saw the way Ethan bristled at his tone, but Aidan refused to take the words back. Now that Ethan's eyes were finally open the truth, it was time for his younger brother to make things up to Anah.
"Confronting her will only cause the girl unnecessary pain," Aidan continued quietly. "It would be best if you simply wait and let her feelings die a natural death."
Ethan tried to imagine how it would feel, being with Anah again but pretending not to know about her feelings. "I don't—-"
"Think she'll eventually stop loving you?" Aidan asked with an arched brow.
Ethan swore. "You know that's not what I meant—-"
"Then what exactly it is do you mean to do with her?"
"I just learned about her feelings, dammit. How the fuck would I know—-"
"Exactly," Aidan said quietly. "I know you want what's best for Anah, but if you can't tell me right now that you're completely over Guilia..."
Silence stretched between them.
A muscle ticked in Ethan's jaw. He wished he could give his brother the words he wanted to hear - the words that a girl like Anah deserved - but he couldn't. He just fucking couldn't...and that only meant one thing.
"You're right," Ethan heard himself say. "I'll do it your way and keep being a blind asshole around her."
Chapter Six
Ethan came home for dinner hungry, exhausted, and still embittered by his last exchange of texts with Guilia. His gaze was still on his phone when he strode inside the dining room, and he had already taken his usual spot at the table by the time he looked up...and realized the twins weren't even there to join him for dinner.
Instead, there was just...Anah.
"Fuck."
The word slipped out in his shock, but fortunately Anah took no offense, and only shook her head at him with a peal of laughter.
"You're so jumpy these days," Anah teased.
He forced himself to smile. "Force of habit," he lied. "I had to dodge a lot of paps when I was with...Guilia." He had been home for a few weeks already, but he was still unable to keep his voice from turning stiff at mentioning his ex's name. And it was worse even now, with words from Guilia's last text still harshly vivid in his thoughts.
"I texted you this morning," Anah ventured.
"I must've missed it." Or rather, he had made it a habit not to look at Anah's texts until at least a day had passed.
"I kinda miss our rides."
"I do, too." This was the truth. "But work's kinda piled up in my absence..." This, however, was a lie. "You shouldn't let me keep you from riding, though. Old Rick knows you can ride Coral Dawn anytime."
"It doesn't feel right," Anah confessed.
"You're giving Coral Dawn the exercise she needs, so we're the ones who owe you actually."
"I guess."
An awkward silence fell between them then. Something like this would never have happened in the past, and it just showed, Anah thought sadly, how much things had changed between Ethan and her.
She had done a little digging online since Ethan's unexpected homecoming, and although the Blackwoods' IT team had done a good job at keeping Ethan's name out of the Internet, Anah's familiarity with the couple enabled her to put some puzzle pieces together.
Guilia and Ethan had definitely broken up, that much she was sure of. But while Guilia's Instagram stories always showed her out with other guys, Anah wasn't buying it. The other woman might be smiling in all the photos, but her eyes were...well...hollow. A part of her was missing, and even though it hurt Anah to think of this, she knew it was the same for Ethan. A part of him was missing, too, but because of Anah, he had been forced to pretend it wasn't so.
Hence tonight's dinner, Anah thought with a gulp, which even now she wasn't sure was the right thing to do. But it was too late for regrets. It had already taken all of her courage to approach the twins about this, and since she only had less than a week to go before having to leave for Laramie for college...
Anah cleared her throat and was about to force herself to speak when Ethan suddenly asked, "Do you know where the twins are?"
It was a
