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I pushed through the other hands and stood up front. It was Ethan and Cricket at the bottom of the large log stairwell in the center of the room, and Ethan was yelling at her at the top of his lungs. I made a move toward them to stop him, but Emmett stayed me with a hand so I obeyed. Ellie and Emmett stood very near Cricket.
“This can’t be happening!” Ethan yelled at the ceiling. His long black hair had fallen from its leather strap and shook with each word.
“Ethan, listen, I—” Cricket began to say but he stopped her.
“No! You don’t understand! I need to do this for you, Cricket!” he practically screamed in her face, making my blood boil.
I clenched my jaw as well as my fists.
“I’m not going to ask you to do this for me, Ethan. It’s too much of a sacrifice.”
“Cricket,” he said, his voice shaking. He fell to his knees and hugged her waist, then looked into her face. “I don’t understand this at all. How could you consider this a sacrifice, if I don’t? I love you.”
“I love you too,” she told him sweetly. Although the words matched, their meanings were completely different.
“We were on schedule,” he said, not realizing it. “Everything was so perfect. What’s changed?”
Cricket fell to her knees and held his face in her hands. “Ethan,” she said, then broke down crying. “It’s too much to ask. It’s just too much.”
“It’s not. I’ve offered because I’m in love you. I want to marry you, Cricket. What better reason to do this than that?”
“I can’t,” she said, explaining nothing else and stood.
She pried Ethan’s hands from around her waist, but he fought her, begging her to reconsider whatever it was they were arguing about. The tears streamed, but she had made her decision and shook her head twice before bounding up the stairs. It took everything in me not to chase after her, but I knew it wasn’t my place, so I held back.
Ethan slumped into himself, his hair falling forward, shielding him.
Surprising me, Ellie fell to the second step on the bottom of the stairwell, buried her face in her hands and wept openly. Emmett sat with her and held her hand but didn’t say a word.
The other hands had dispersed back to the dining hall, realizing they’d overstayed their welcome from the beginning. I turned around and went to Jonah and Bridge.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
He looked down at his feet. “I’m, uh, not really sure.”
“Bull, Jonah. Just tell me what’s going on?”
He looked at me with sympathy. “You’re in love with her, with Cricket,” he stated.
“I’m not.”
“Then it seems you shouldn’t worry about it,” he told me. “It seems to be a private matter to me.”
He led Bridge off toward the dining hall and left me there speechless. I turned when I saw Emmett pass me and follow Bridge and Jonah. Ellie still sat on the steps but she’d stopped crying, though her head hung low, thinking. I looked around and saw that Ethan was nowhere to be found.
“Ellie,” I said softly, and sitting next to her.
She looked up and smiled genuinely at me. “Yes, son?”
“I’m not sure what’s going on, and I’m not asking, but I do want to know if you’re okay.”
She patted my knee. “You’re a good boy, Spencer Blackwell. You’re still a little confused about life, but you’ll figure it out yet.”
She kissed my cheek and headed for the hall with the others, leaving me bewildered.
I wished I had asked her what she meant, but I didn’t want to bother her. I was so confused because I thought I had life down better than anyone I knew. I chalked it up to old age and dismissed what she said.
I joined the others and sat at the table next to Bridge. We talked about the pregnancy and what we thought the sex of the baby was going to be. She’d decided that she would wait until the birth to find out. That drove me crazy, but there was nothing I could do about it.
