Ethan however, didn’t change at all. His warm brown hair still lightens when he’s out in the sun a long time, since he keeps it pretty long on top. His eyes have always been brown and way too intelligent for their own good.
Right now I wish they weren’t trained on me.
“Emma is dating an older man.”
Eric’s eyes flicker. “Why do you think I’m here?”
Staring at them I groan, “I thought we were going spend time with Kaya together!”
Both heads shake at the same time.
“This is an intervention?”
Both nod.
Eric growls, “You and grandfather time!”
“He’s not even fifteen years older than me!”
“Geezer!”
“Gah,” I groan, lifting Kaya and walking out of the room. “I can’t take this anymore.”
Following, my brothers try another tactic. “What about Andy?” Ethan asks.
Eric says, “Yeah, Hannah told us you guys were hooking up. He’s a nice guy.”
I flick a look over my shoulder before I start down the double-wide staircase. “Eric, when did you ever meet Andy?”
“At one of Tobias’s fights!”
“Oh yeah,” I sigh. “Well, if you knew me at all you’d realize we probably wouldn’t have made it to the altar much less to forever, like Mom and Dad will. You really think I would’ve been happy with a nice guy?”
Eric jumps the final stairs and lands in front of me. “Aha, so you admit Tanner’s not nice!”
“He’s not nice, no,” I maneuver around him. Since I have our niece in my arms Eric doesn’t fight me. He can’t. His only choice is to move, as I inform him, “Tanner’s powerful, honorable, and wonderful. That’s what he is.”
They follow me into the game room as Ethan demands to know, “What’s so wonderful about this guy that would make you hurt Dad?!”
“Here, take your daughter so you’ll watch your volume.” I hand her over and as her wide eyes lock on her daddy with a big smile, Ethan melts and holds her against his chest. “You calm now? Good.” I throw my fists on my hips. “Give me some credit. Do you really think I’d cause this much chaos over just anybody? Tanner is not what you’d call nice, but to me he is kind and strong and protective and caring and powerful and fair. He’s a man. Andy was still a boy, and he let me lead all the time. And yes, maybe that’s how things started with us in Florida, but it never changed. He was like a puppy dog doing whatever I told him to. I need more! Someone to watch over me, not me over him. Someone who helps me be stronger in who I am as a woman when I’m feeling weak and want to give up.”
Ethan frowns and glances to Eric. “There’s a story she’s not telling us.”
Eric crosses his arms. “Spill it.”
“Over food,” I grumble, and we all go into Ethan’s immaculate kitchen. Normally I wouldn’t notice but for obvious reasons the pots drying on a spotless countertop make me think of our father. The three of us owe our tidiness to Dad, who cleans up after every meal so it’s always ready for the next feast. A pang twists. I stubbornly ignore it.
Eric takes Kaya so Ethan can make sandwiches for us.
“Don’t hold her like a football! She’s a baby!”
“Sorry,” Eric mutters, resting Kaya on his chest. “Better?”
Ethan rolls his eyes and pulls out all the fixings while they listen to what happened with Cora, what a wreck it made me, and how Tanner helped me remember who I was. “He wouldn’t let me bail. Every time I felt I couldn’t do it, or tears would come, he’d ask me about the house, and force me to get on with it. Then he made me show him another one. Until finally I was me again. And he didn’t ask for congratulations, bring attention to what he’d done.”
They glance to each other.
“And you guys, he wasn’t the one who pursued me. I purposefully drove him crazy so he would take down his walls and give us a shot. But he fought it, because Tanner didn’t want to hurt me.”
Throwing ham on sourdough bread like he’s dealing out cards, Ethan glowers at me. “He knew he’d hurt you?!”
“Because of Dad. He knew there’d be trouble and he didn’t want me in the middle!”
“That worked out real well.” Eric grabs the block of sharp cheddar and cuts off a slice, chowing on it.
“Give me some.” I hold out my hand and he sets a fresh slice on it. “Then I sent him home saying he had to choose, and he came back to me. And you know what, while he was gone I never stopped missing him. He was exactly the same. We hated being apart. And even though we weren’t talking I didn’t doubt my feelings. They just kept growing. You know what they say!”
Under his breath as he piles arugula onto three ham and cheddars, Ethan reluctantly mumbles, “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.”
Eric eyes his older brother. “Who said that?”
Ethan and I both answer, in unison, “Roger de Rabutin.”
“Who the hell is that?”
We both shrug.
Eric grabs his sandwich and mutters, “I can’t wait to stay single for the rest of my fuckin’ life. Ooops. Sorry, Kaya.”
“Real nice, Uncle Eric. Give her back.” Ethan lifts his daughter into his arms and turns to me. “I’m getting her bottle. Grab your sandwich, then Bahamas. Go.”
On a sexy smile I ask, “You guys really want the details?”
They gag and back away from me
