Page 86 of Shadowing You

Was her husband not meeting her eyes on purpose?

“We will just…walk north?”

Ethan smiled at her, but this wasn’t a real smile. This smile said please believe me because I don’t want to tell you what’s really going on.

“Ethan—”

“Mei Lin.” He reached across the table, palm up. “One step at a time. Okay?”

She put her hand in his. “But we do not know the steps.”

“We’re going to have to trust God to lead us.”

She pulled her hand back and took another bite, but her stomach was too full, or perhaps too worried to accept more food.

When they finished the meal, Mei Lin cleaned the dishes as well as she could without running water while Ethan stoked the coal stove.

When everything was clean, he pulled the blanket onto the floor in front of the stove. “Keep me warm?”

She settled in beside him, and he pulled the blanket over her shoulders. She hadn’t kept the fire going that day and it had grown cold. She cuddled against his side.

“Thank you for dinner.”

“You hauled it from the village. I only heated it.”

“It was perfectly warmed, though.” They watched the coal glow. “You’re a pro.”

“Silly man.” If she squinted, she could imagine that it was a wood fire in a fireplace, but the stench couldn’t be ignored any more than the worry humming inside her. “Why will Gavin make the plan? Shouldn’t Michael, who is the professional?”

“Gavin is too.”

“Your father?” She angled to see Ethan’s face. “I am confused about your father. You told me he wasn’t in your life, and now he is? What happened?”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. “My father…” He took a breath. “My parents weren’t married when I was born.”

She’d known this, or guessed it, anyway. “In the West, this is not such a big thing, though, for them to be together but not married.”

“It is kind of a big thing that he was married to another woman.”

“Oh.” She faced the stove again. “Your mother told you this?”

“She always said they weren’t right for each other and that we didn’t need him.”

“Did you need him, though?” She couldn’t imagine having grown up without her father.

Ethan shrugged. “He sent her money. He came to see me every year on my birthday. He always sent gifts for Christmas. He called sometimes to check on me. My mother let him know what was going on in my life, so he was…aware, anyway.”

She processed that. “But you didn’t know about his wife?”

“Not when I was young, but… It was my ninth birthday.” Ethan’s words came slowly. “He showed up for breakfast. He and my mother were civil to each other, but not friendly.”

Mei Lin twisted to see Ethan. “Of course. She must have been very angry when she found out he was married.”

His lips quirked, more smirk than smile. “She’d known he was married when they were together. She admitted that to me later.” He shook his head. “I try not to dwell on what they were thinking when it started—him betraying his wife, her… I don’t know what she thought would come of it.”

“Perhaps she didn’t think that far ahead. Perhaps your father looked like you do now, and she thought he was handsome and charming. I can see being swept away by you. Perhaps she was swept away by him.”

Ethan shuddered. “Let’s not go any further down that road. I’d rather not know.”