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His heart felt a little heavier than usual as he left the old neighborhood behind, but it was time. Past time.
He had music to face.
In the Chase family, Sunday afternoons meant family dinner. The tradition went back as long as Ethan could remember, back to his grandmother when she was alive. It hadn’t always made sense to him for the family to spend the week working in close quarters at Fusion Air and still feel the need to spend Sunday afternoons together, but mostly, he appreciated the downtime with them.
This was not one of those occasions.
The second he walked through his parents’ front door, seven faces turned to him and stared. His oldest brother Crosby and his wife Estelle, older brother Sawyer and his fiancée Kelsie, his only younger brother Liam, and both of his parents all watched, most trying to bury smiles, while he stood in the threshold, letting in flies, as his grandma would have said.
“What?” he asked. As if he couldn’t guess.
His mother beamed. “I got a call today from Elaine Campbell.”
Campbell. Barely two hours had passed since he left Rue’s house, and already word had spread. He wasn’t entirely surprised, but he’d banked on having a chance to explain the situation to his mom before…well, this. Everyone in his family was looking at him as if…as if they were happy.
For the first time since Amy’s diagnosis, they weren’t looking at him with pity.
Ethan swallowed. Keeping his expression guarded, he asked, “And she is…?”
“She’s on the Von Adler committee with me,” his mother said. “Or rather, I with her. She fancies herself in charge of the whole thing, after of course the Von Adler family, and with her connections, one would be hard-pressed to argue. Anyway, she said you were taking her daughter to the gala. Ethan, I’m just so overjoyed.” And she was. She beamed. “Of course, I don’t think she was too thrilled about it. She seems to have had her heart set on Boyd Von Adler as son-in-law material, so I wouldn’t take it personally. Clearly, Rue means something to you if you’ve taken such a big step.”
And just like that, he had a headache. “Mom, stop. I’m afraid you were misinformed.”
Her face fell, and the confusion and sorrow left behind gutted him. “You’re not going to the gala?”
“Of course I’m going to the gala.” Alone. Like always. He paused, searching for words to explain the situation with Rue, while the light of hope filled her face again. In the silence, Ethan’s father Russell approached.
Clasping him on the shoulder, he leaned close. “I know this has nothing to do with your mother, but you’ve made her damned happy, son.” He retreated with a wink, leaving Ethan staring at his mother, who looked like she might burst.
His whole family looked that way, although to a lesser degree than his mother. Even Estelle and Kelsie, who had never met Amy, were beaming.
For once, he wasn’t the object of sorrow.
It lifted weight from his shoulders he didn’t realize he carried.
“From what I know of Rue, she seems to be such a nice person,” his mother said. “Not exactly one for the beaten path, but it’s hard to fault a girl for wanting to make her own way.”
“You’ve met her?” Crosby asked. “She exists?”
“I think she exists,” Sawyer supplied helpfully. “His shirt is on inside out.”
Ethan closed his eyes, praying Sawyer was just giving him a hard time. Because Ethan hadn’t exactly paid attention when he’d yanked on his shirt at Rue’s, nor had he been home since. He’d just walked, during which time his clothes had dried, and the plain white, tagless tee hadn’t exactly screamed this side out.
“Wow,” Liam said. “So this is serious? Have you been holding out on us?”
Ethan shot a glance toward his shoulder, where visible seams definitively screamed inside out. Perfect. That would have been a great detail to notice before he was standing in front of his entire family. “She’s just a friend.”
“Yeah,” Sawyer said with a knowing smirk. “Like Kelsie is my friend.”
“You’ve had more friends than anyone I know,” Ethan snapped and immediately felt like a jerk. “Sorry, Kelsie.”
