“See you around and thanks for the beer.” Christian walked out leaving them alone.
Chapter Nine
“Sorry about that. He was never one for being subtle and he hasn’t changed much.”
“It’s okay, Ethan. The three of us have all known each other for years. I get it. If your best friends can’t say it like it is, who can?” She sat back on the deep couch, unable to keep a smile from breaking out. “Not that much has changed as far as I can see. We’ve all gotten older, but that’s it. Sitting here with you two is reminiscent of our youth.”
“I thought that saying was supposed to be older and wiser. Where he’s concerned, I doubt that’s the case at all.”
She laughed. “That’s so mean. He’s a nice guy and always was.”
“Yeah, I know. Wouldn’t have gone into business with him if I didn’t agree with you. Seems to me, he needs to mind his own business though. Get himself a life instead of meddling in mine.”
“Do you object to being left alone with me?” She tilted her head and watched the color deepen on his cheeks.
Seeing him uncomfortable pleased her in a selfish kind of way. It meant he still cared. Maybe there was hope for them once again but it would be dangerous to assume anything until all the secrets were out in the open.
Ethan turned to face her. “No. I think I’m a little more concerned that he’s putting you in an uncomfortable position. I don’t want you to think I’m trying to take back up where we left off. We’re different people now and there’re things we need to deal with before either of us can feel that comfortable again.”
Because that would be too easy and it seemed like it worried Ethan. “Right. Well, let me assure you that I agree with you. We both have issues to deal with and until they’re resolved, it’s going to come between us and I don’t want that for Noah.” She fiddled with the label on her beer. “I want him to get to know you, Ethan. It’s only fair considering you’re his father.”
He looked up at her with a frown between his eyes. “Am I really?”
A dark hand clenched at her gut. How could he doubt her? “Are you serious? Why would I come back here, put myself through this, if he wasn’t yours?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
Mari gasped, stunned by this new line of thought. Never had she considered the fact he might not believe her.
“You could be lying. You might be telling the truth but here’s the thing. You never told me you were pregnant and instead married my brother.” He held up his hand. “I know what you’re going to say, you tried. But if you were really keen for me to see my child, didn’t you think you could have called the house? Spoken to Mom before standing in front of a judge and sharing vows with Rake?”
“You really want to go there, Ethan? Fine. After we had that fight when you broke up with me, remember that night when you said you didn’t want to marry me or have children with me? I came looking for you to try and have an adult conversation and guess what I found?”
He shrugged and had the grace to look uncomfortable. “You’re the one telling the story here.”
“I found you making out with someone else. You were so intent on making love to her that you didn’t even see me.” The vision of his partly naked body wrapped around another girl was still burned in the back of her brain. Everything she thought she knew about him had gone in that minute.
Mari had stumbled away and gone home hoping to lock herself in her room and cry away the pain. But that wasn’t to be. The house had been broken into and the living room trashed. Books were scattered over the floor, cushions ripped apart, and she’d panicked in case someone was still inside and ran.
“I had to get away from the house and the only place I could turn to was the gym where Rake was fighting. Your folks were there and I had every intention of telling Jeff what happened. But something was wrong.” She sucked in a breath and continued. She wasn’t prepared to tell Ethan the whole story until she’d had a chance to talk to his father but he needed to hear some of it. “Your father and Rake were arguing, again. I didn’t want to get in the middle of that so I backed out before they could see me. Goodness knows where Pearl was. I couldn’t find her in the crowd.” She brushed her hair from her face, the memory haunting her. “I waited for Rake and Jeff to finish up the night and go home so I wouldn’t have to go back to the house alone.”
“And the police were already there.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“Yes, they were and someone had seen me running out of the place earlier. No matter what I said, your father wouldn’t believe that it wasn’t me who’d trashed the place.”
“And I backed him because I was being an idiot and trying to hurt you.”
“Yeah. That’s what I figured.”
“No wonder you didn’t want to tell me.” He rubbed his hands over his face and groaned.
“It’s probably not a good enough excuse in the scheme of things but it’s all I had at the time. I’ve grown up a lot since that night and, if I had my time again, I might do things differently. Back then I was hurting and scared. I felt like
