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“Only a little one.” She sputtered as he gave her a firm look and gripped her chin in his hand. “You can yell at me later but for now stay inside and lock the door behind me.”
He gave her a quick, soft kiss and with that, he was gone, and she was alone in the dark with Winston curled at her feet.
Eighteen
He was gone just long enough to make her worry before unlocking the door with a helpless shake of his head. “I didn’t see anyone, and I recognized all the cars parked nearby. Whoever it was, they took off.”
“Probably just looking for whatever they could find to grab off the porch. We don’t get a lot of crime around here so people tend to leave things out that they probably shouldn’t.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced, and he double-checked the locks on the doors and windows again before turning his attention back to her. “I guess I’m pretty glad you’ve decided to steal my dog.”
“Borrow.”
“If you say so.”
She rolled her eyes and picked up the pup before climbing the stairs and heading back to the bedroom.
“I mean it,” he continued. “I think it’s a good thing he was here and I want him to stay with you until we figure this whole thing out.”
“That’s sweet but I’m really not trying to take him from you, and I don’t think whoever did that is coming back. There’s nothing outside for him to steal and it looked like Winston really scared him.”
“You trust too easily.”
She put Winston in his bed and turned to find Ethan staring at her with a serious frown. “Look at that grumpy face,” she teased, amused when he refused to crack a smile even when she crossed the room to him and stretched up on tiptoe to kiss each corner of his downturned mouth. “I trusted you and look how well that worked out.”
“Eloise …” Something flashed across his face, a glimmer of uncertainty that was quickly gone. She thought for a moment that he’d speak but instead he brushed a thumb over her lips and kissed her softly. “Let’s go back to bed, okay? You’ve had a very long day.”
Guilt and pain rushed over her when she realized that she had, for the space of perhaps half an hour, forgotten about the events of earlier in the day. The fright she’d gotten had completely wiped her grief from her mind, and it came rushing back, a crushing weight that settled on her chest and squeezed her lungs until she couldn’t breathe.
Her smile faded and with it her playful mood.
“I’m sorry.” He wiped a tear from her cheek and pulled her into his arms. “I didn’t mean?—”
“It’s not your fault. I just forgot, somehow. I got distracted and I completely forgot for a few minutes that she was gone.”
“Come on.” He picked her up, one arm behind her back and one beneath her knees as he carried her back to the bed. “That used to happen to me. The forgetting thing? When my dad left and then later when my mom died.”
“You remember when he left you?”
Ethan nodded. “Yeah, he left when I was young but I remember enough. He wasn’t cut out for marriage and kids.”
“But he left you,” she repeated. Her parents had never been particularly warm but at least her father had stuck around. Helped pay the bills and attended the dance recitals and school open houses. Not enthusiastically, but he’d been there.
Ethan lowered her to the mattress and then climbed into bed beside her. “He came around for a while, dropped off a couple of birthday cards, but by the time she died, the social workers didn’t even know where to find him. That’s why I ended up next door with my grandfather, even though she hadn’t talked to him in almost twenty years.”
“You weren’t happy there.” He’d never said as much, but he’d lived there for weeks, and the house was still barren of everything except furniture. There were still no photos, no personal touches, and he spent most of his nights at her house instead of asking her to come to his.
“We didn’t get along and that’s an understatement.” He kissed the top of her head, holding her close as he spoke. “He wanted me to forget her, and I couldn’t do it.”
“I just can’t seem to picture it.” She paused and chewed lightly on her bottom lip. She’d only known his grandfather for a few short years but he’d been kind to her. “He seemed like such a nice old man when I talked to him. It makes me a bit sick to think he could be so cruel to you and I would never have suspected he was capable of such a thing.”
Ethan laughed but there was no amusement in the hollow sound. “I guess he could be nice enough when it suited him and, hell, maybe I was the problem. Sixteen and angry at the world. He got sick of my shit and called the cops regardless of whose fault it was, and they shipped my ass off to juvie.”
“I’m sorry.” She wanted to hold him, to pull him and erase the haunted look in his eyes. “I don’t understand how anyone would do that to a child.”
“He was the one who called them but I was the one who threw a punch at a cop so I guess it took both of us.”
“I thought my parents were bad, but I can’t imagine anything like that happening at my house.” It made her uncomfortable to think of it and realize how simple her own family problems were. What was apathy in the face of what he’d had to endure?
