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Chapter Twenty-Five
Riley
This morning when Ethan arrived, I’d been slightly overwhelmed at the feelings that he evoked in me. Making love to him had been somewhat different than I’d remembered, or perhaps my memory was skewed because I was sober now. How long had it been since we’d had sex and I’d been sober? I honestly couldn’t remember—maybe years.
I knew about the party, and I kept him busy until it was time to be there. When he had invited me to join them, I had to pretend that I knew nothing. In fact, I’d acted as if I’d be a third wheel, but that’s not how he saw it.
I was already part of his family because of the little one I carried. Henley and I had probably been the closest to that family growing up, but why did Ethan’s statement mean something more to me?
I didn’t want to look too much into it, but as the day progressed, I found myself eyeing him more closely. Sometimes, my heart would falter in my chest at the sight of him laughing or talking to someone. If he caught my eye and smiled, my knees felt a little weak, and I had no clue why.
Which is one of the reasons I had avoided him for most of the party. Instead, I spent a lot of time talking to Charlotte about her pregnancy, and Roxy let us in on a little secret that she and Henley were trying, too. How awesome would it be for my child to have cousins so close in age?
My cousins had lived far away, and while we’d been friendly over the years, we weren’t close. I was way closer to the Winston kids than I had ever been to my blood cousins. In a way, I feel that I had missed out.
As it was, my child would have three older ones: Tonya, Tyler, and Marisol, and now Charlotte’s baby. It was rather exciting. So exciting that when Ethan pulled me in front of everyone and started talking, I was smiling. Life was good. Life was getting better every day.
Ethan was home, and he would get to share in the joy of our child growing. We’d get to know one another, and maybe I’d come to understand the feelings I had for him. Perhaps I’d love him, and someday we could turn this into something else.
Only as I listened to him and he dropped to his knee, I began to panic! No! Ethan, oh god! Don’t do this here! He couldn’t be proposing to me in front of everyone!
“Riley Young, you and I have had a roller coaster of a relationship since we were in high school, but I know without a doubt that I love you and would do anything for you or our child. I know that while you are probably freaking out right this minute, I also know that this is the right thing to do.”
You think? I was shaking in my shoes. My voice caught in my throat. If I could have spoken, I would have told him to stop!
“In front of our families, especially in front of your family, I want everyone to see my pledge to you and to our child.”
Was he just committing himself to our little family? No! He was asking me to marry him! Ethan—no! “Ethan,” I breathed out.
“Riley, let me be right there with you through everything that you and our child go through. Let me give you everything that you deserve.”
I wanted to cry, to yank my hand away from him, but I was frozen as I stared down at him. Please don’t ask me Ethan, please!
“Riley Young, will you marry me?”
He lifted the ring and held it up to me, and I covered my mouth to hold back the sob. How could he do this? My flight response kicked in, and I began to move away, pulling my hand from his and watching his emotions crushed under the weight of my movement. I didn’t want to crush him, didn’t want him to hurt. I wanted him to take this back. I wasn’t ready—I wasn’t ready.
I turned and ran, heard my name called from someplace, but I couldn’t look back as I jogged around the side of the house and looked for a way out of here.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I almost screamed. I didn’t want to hash this out with Ethan here. It was already bad enough that he had embarrassed us both. We didn’t need to continue the show.
“What the hell are you doing?” my brother hissed. “Why did you run away from him?”
“I can’t marry him, Lee! He’s only proposing because I’m pregnant.”
“Riley, he loves you!”
“Get me out of here, Henley. I need to go lie down. I don’t feel well.”
He took my arm and led me to his truck. “Ethan asked you to marry him because he loves you. Not out of some weird sense of obligation.”
“Henley, just take me home.”
He held the door open, and I was sitting down when Ethan showed up. “Riley, don’t go.”
“Ethan, I can’t believe you just did that! How could you do that?”
“Come out of there. We need to talk.”
