April sighed loud enough for them all to hear her. “That’s so sweet. What did you do?”
“You’re making this all up, Ethan.” Mari didn’t sound annoyed. If anything, she’d calmed down with his storytelling.
“No, I’m not. I grabbed you and held tight, kissed you right back. Of course you pretended to struggle for all of two seconds, but it was all for show. I knew it was me that you’d been watching and the other guy meant nothing to you. I mean, we’ve been friends for years but one day I noticed the shift from friends to something more. You wouldn’t look at me the same way and kind of avoided touching me. Made it into a big deal when you did. That was the biggest signal that our relationship had changed to something more so I felt safe locking lips with you. I’ve been in love with you ever since.”
“Ethan, how is she?” The voice came from downstairs and Ethan lifted his head and peered down the hole at April’s boyfriend, Doctor David Morrison. “I’ve got her, David and I don’t think there’s too much damage. She’s in a bit of a pickle but we’ll get her out of here soon. Right, Jake?”
The fireman had made his way upstairs and talked to them from the doorway. “Yeah. Everyone needs to remain calm and listen up.” He faced Mari. “I’m going to have the guys bring up a ladder and lay it down beside you, okay? Then I’m going to crawl along, get a safety harness around you, and once you’re safe, get you to shuffle your body over onto the ladder and then I’ll release your foot. I don’t want you to move until I say so, got it?”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Panic lit her eyes again.
“Keep talking to her, Ethan. Keep her calm and we’ll have her out in a jiffy.” Jake spoke into his two-way and organized his crew.
In the meantime, Ethan kept up a line of chatter, some real events and some stretching the imagination. Without looking, he knew her sisters hovered by the door of the ballroom watching and waiting for Mari to be released. By the time Jake had managed to get a safety harness on her, she knew how much he’d missed her. How grateful he was that she was back in town. He left out the part where she ran away and why, just mentioned how her leaving had left him heartbroken even though he blamed himself.
Jake double-checked the harness. “Right, I’m going to poke around your foot, Mari. If it hurts too much, say so.”
“Uh-huh.”
David called up. “I’m here for you, Mari, in case you need me. I have my bag so I can patch you up or we can go down the street to the practice. I don’t mind either way.”
She giggled nervously and squeezed Ethan’s hand. “He’s so cute. April is such a lucky girl.”
“I’ll decline to agree with you on that one. Not sure the guys would like me talking about them like that. Just seems wrong somehow. Now your turn. Tell me how you met up with your sisters. We didn’t really know much about them before you left.”
Her face lit up for a moment. “Don’t you know? I thought for sure someone would have filled you in.”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“Rake suggested I get in touch with Dad. It all kind of snowballed from there and when the girls found out I was coming back, they all decided they’d move here too.” She gave a little squeal when her foot came free.
“Okay, Mari, I want you to move your legs sideways onto the ladder and then crawl toward Ethan. Slowly now. Ethan, back up a little but don’t let go of her hands. Take your time, both of you. This isn’t a race. Safety first.” Jake kept one hand on the harness even though the safety line was being pulled taut by a member of his team positioned at the door end of the attic. “That’s it. Keep going, you’re both doing great.”
Mari crawled along the ladder until she was far away from the damaged floor. Jake helped her sit up and undid her harness. “Get David to look at that ankle but from first impressions, I don’t think it’s too bad. You were very lucky.”
“Thanks to Ethan.” She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tight. “You’re an amazing man. Thank you so much.” He went to pull away but she leaned in again. “Thank you for saving me.”
Better late than never were the words that ran through his mind as she hobbled out of the attic into her sisters’ arms.
Chapter Eight
“Oh my goodness. I was so scared for you, Mari.” April flung her arms around her and the tears rolled unheeded down her cheeks.
“If it wasn’t for Ethan…”
“Yeah, he’s a gem. Don’t let him get away.” April looked her in the eye and smiled. “You need to go see David before he has a heart attack and let him check your ankle but I mean it. Ethan’s such a sweetheart. Don’t let him get away again, Sis.”
“But he’s not, I mean, I’m not looking for anyone.” She couldn’t get the words out in a way that sounded like she meant it before April hurried away to get David.
Jake moved to stand in front of her. “Mari, we need to block this off now before anything else happens.”
Ethan came loping out onto the landing, dusting his clothes off. “I’ll make sure nobody can get in here, Jake. I was looking for Mari when she slipped up there not realizing what was going on. We’d only just discovered the rot in the ceiling when we were taking down the boards today.”
“I saw the collapse downstairs when I came in. Guess you have more work on your hands than you thought.” Jake glanced at the floor. “Looks like more than one lucky escape today.”
“Yes. I can’t believe that happened
