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Her next words were like a knife driven through my heart. “I’m not the one ashamed of our... friendship.”
I heard the hitch in her choice of word right before she disconnected our call. I let out a blazing “Fuck!” even as I dialed her back.
I was sent directly to voicemail.
It took me two weeks of almost constant persistence to get her to speak to me again—even through text. I finally let some of what my heart was feeling out in voicemail, admitting, “Before you, there wasn’t anyone I wanted to protect, Fal. It’s instinctive. I don’t know what to say where you don’t get hurt.”
She begrudgingly came around. When I finally talked to her again, she texted me something I’ll never forget.
Fallon:
Don’t be ashamed of who I am.
Ethan:
I was trying to protect you. I care too much for you not to try to, Fal.
Fallon:
If I care for someone, I’ll go straight to hell for them. I want to know they’re in my thoughts on the way down.
Frowning at the computer screen at the information I’ve located, I should be leaping with joy. Instead, a knot of worry has slithered into my stomach. The part of me that knows Fallon is the end of my heart’s journey—despite my underlying worries—is the man sitting in the hotel room, waiting to surprise her at her graduation.
The part of me hunting down the victims of child traffickers from forty years ago wonders if I’m not just the same kind of sick fuck thinking we can make a twenty-year age difference work.
Either way, I’ll know when I see her face tomorrow, when she realizes Austyn’s husband isn’t the only man attending her graduation.
CHAPTER FOUR
ETHAN
Seven Virtues, North Carolina
With a rainbow of cords proclaiming her superior academic excellence draped around her neck, Fallon’s mother and I take photo after photo of two women hamming it up outside of Seven Virtues Stadium. The crowd shifts and bulges around them as they carry on—Especially once they realize who is posing with Fallon, I think sardonically.
But it isn’t until Austyn demands I get into a picture with Fallon. “After all, Uncle E. If it weren’t for you taking care of us, who knows if we’d have ever survived that first hangover,” she mocks, tongue in cheek.
Fallon’s mother snickers. “I’m just grateful I never knew about it, Ethan. I’d have been mortified.”
Fallon bursts into gales of laughter. The brightness of her smile lights the dark corners of my soul. My whole body stills when Helen Brookes murmurs, “Ethan? Can you promise me you won’t hurt her?”
Slowly, I lower my cell phone and face her mother’s directness, realizing Fallon has told her everything. Her mother’s knowing eyes meet mine head-on. Still, I give her the only thing I can: honesty. “I can promise to try.”
Her chin jerks. “That will have to be good enough.” Her attention returns to Fallon, whom she taunts, “Well, at least I know who instigated your obsessive-compulsive love of Ho Hos.”
Fallon doesn’t hesitate before calling back, “Thus why I kept it from you for so long, Mama.”
“Austyn, switch places with your uncle. He needs to be in some of these photos,” Helen commands.
Austyn’s melodic voice purrs, “I couldn’t agree more.”
I roll my eyes. “Brat.”
“But you love me,” she sings—on key, as always.
I hand her my phone and approach Fallon—whose smile hasn’t wavered since she spotted me sitting beside her mother and her best friend. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, I murmur, “Good surprise?”
Her arm slides around my waist and she tilts her face upward. Her mortarboard shadows her eyes, but not the blazing emotion bursting from them. “The best, E. Better than anything.”
