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It’s Ethan fucking Blake. And he’s walking up the room – almost same route I took when I got here.
“What?” Ethan asks the room. “You all had a party and didn’t invite me?”
Motherfucker.
27
Ethan
“What? You all decided to have a party and didn’t even invite me?” I ask with a Colt Stackfordesque smirk as I walk up the room. The press is going positively insane, snapping pictures of me and shouting out questions. I finally make it up to the podium where I see Julianna look at me - there's hurt in her eyes. And for the first time, pain.
Then I look over at Colt and see something I never thought I’d see. Fear.
Well, I better remember their faces being like this.
“Ethan,” Julianna says and for a moment there, I’m worried she might actually start crying. Poor little rich girl. Miss Bad Girl. Now that would be a sight, wouldn't it? The one woman that can tame any man – that tamed Colt, that tamed me, and that brought us both to heel – starting to
cry on national television.
“Bro,” Colt says, taking a step towards me. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“What's wrong?” I say to him, and give him a smile. “Don’t want me to hog up the spotlight? Should be trained on you?”
He literally jerks back. Julianna looks at me like I’ve gone batshit crazy too. I think it’s the smile. Why would any sane person be smiling during a moment like this?
But I have good reason to smile.
You’re probably wondering what that reason is, aren’t you? Wondering if I’m the douchebag that threw both of the people I love under the bus so I could keep playing as defensive end and finally get one over Colt that he’d never be able to come back from.
Well, short answer – yes.
But wait, before you roll your eyes in disgust.
The long answer is a bit more complicated.
And I’m going to tell it, now.
I turn towards the podium and Colt gives me some space.
“AJ,” I say into the microphone. “You want to sit down for a second? Julianna gave you guys chairs for a reason?”
There’s a wave of nervous laughter that goes through the entire room. Christ, AJ has them riled up and ready to fucking tar and feather someone. And I think I know who.
“Let me start by saying something real slow, and I’ll repeat it if you need me to, because you know, it might take multiple times,” I say and the room quiets down.
“I Ethan Blake, love Julianna Heaton.”
And the crowd goes wild. They begin taking pictures and all of a sudden they have a more delicious twist to the story than they could have imagined. This is turning into one crazy sex scandal, isn’t it?
God, I feel so good. I haven’t felt this good in years. There’s something about letting go and being a bit more like Colt that does wonders for the disposition.
“But I’m not done, yet,” I say into the microphone and people quiet down, wondering what’s going to come next. They’ve stopped normal television programming by now and cut into it with the news conference. We must be great ratings.
“I also love Colt Stackford,” I say and leave it at that because this time the room goes absolutely batshit crazy. Reporters are scrambling. Some of the older ones might end up having heart attacks.
Only AJ is sitting there with a darkening scowl on his face. Christ, I’m going to have to face him sooner or later.
It’s not like I missed what was happening. I tuned in at the very beginning of the press conference. I watched Julianna stay strong and defend the honor of the team.
