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“Who do you think he’s waiting for?”
Ethan stiffened as footsteps shuffled toward him.
Katrina sidled up beside him and rested her elbow on his shoulder. “You gonna tell us, cousin? I didn’t realize when you left the ranch that you were coming here.” She nodded to the flowers. “If you give her flowers, she’s gonna think you’re serious. I don’t think I’ve seen you with the same girl twice since you’ve been staying with us.”
“Give him a break, Katrina. Look, he’s nervous,” Gabrielle teased. “He’s practically shaking in his boots.”
Ethan shrugged out from beneath his cousin’s touch and flashed Gabrielle a playful smile. “If I’m shaking, it’s because I’m worried for Katrina. She’s the one who’s securing her ball and chain to Simon.” He lifted his brows with question as he gazed ather. “Are you sure you’re ready to spend the rest of your life with only one guy? I’m sure he’s got some annoying habits.”
Katrina snorted. “Coming from a guy who isn’t capable of going on more than three dates with a girl?Please. At least I know I’m capable of loving someone.”
A couple of the women sucked in sharply and stared at him to gauge his reaction. Ethan chuckled and shrugged. “I guess I can see where you might think that. But I assure you, I’ve just been keeping my heart locked up for the right woman who holds the key.”
The same girls who gasped released varying degrees of adorable sighs. They glanced among themselves, their expressions looking more like something a child would wear when looking at a bunny rabbit for the first time.
He rolled his eyes and turned his focus to the bus. No sign of Tina yet. While he had never been interested in a long-term relationship before, it wasn’t that he was against them, either. Any relationship he’d started simply fizzled out by the third date. They had parted ways without either party being upset about it.
Tina would be different. He could feel it in his gut. He’d never met anyone like her before and this time, it could really work.
A loud, high-pitched holler exploded from the top of the bus steps and a tall, slender woman waved her hand in the air.
The women around him hollered back. Tina hurried down the steps and rushed at him—no, she rushed at the women. Happy greetings were quickly overtaken by squeals of surprise and delight.
“You’reengaged?”
His head snapped around to stare at the group just as Tina placed her left hand in the midst of all of them. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.
Yes, Tina was definitely different. He nearly lost his grip on the flowers in his hand as his heart stumbled over what he would need to do with them. Katrina had teased him too much for him to just toss them in the garbage. How was he going to save face?
His stomach swirled and his head pounded as the women shouted questions at Tina, who willingly obliged.
“His name is Max, and it happened last week. I haven’t posted it on my social media yet because he wants to tell his grandmother first and she’s out of the country.” She waved her hand out in front of her. “Isn’t itgorgeous?”
Katrina grasped the hand and stared at it. “That has got to be the biggest ring I’ve ever seen. What does he do?”
Tina shrugged. “Does it matter? He’s sweet and he’s handsome.” She winked at them. “Definitely doesn’t hurt that he’s rich.”
Ethan’s hand tightened on the flowers this time, nearly crushing the stems. They had talked on the phone just yesterday. She’d asked him to come to get her from the bus stop. She hadn’t mentioned being with another guy. Did this Max know that she was stringing along other men?
“Oh? Are those… for me?” Tina’s voice seemed to make the rest of the world fall silent. Even Katrina’s entourage didn’t seem to know what to say. “Did you get me flowers?”
Even her voice had seemed to fill with a mock sense of pity.
He could see it written all over each of their faces. They felt sorry for him—were embarrassed for him. As their eyes darted fromTina to Ethan, he couldn’t help but wonder if they were secretly judging her or him. Probably both.
Another time, Ethan might have managed to come up with a retort that could brush off everyone’s unwanted attention. He could make some flippant remark, hand her the roses, and walk away.
For some reason, he couldn’t. His brain was unwilling to function—to find a way out of this situation. There was no escaping the trap he found himself in.
Someone approached from his other side. Somewhere deep in his mind, he recognized the sound of footsteps, but he wasn’t prepared for someone to take the flowers out of his hand.
“Not everything is about you, Tina,” she said with a sickeningly sweet voice.
Ethan turned to the intrusion. The familiar woman on the bus. Her warm brown eyes immediately dispersed the brain fog that hovered around him, but her smile made it hard for him to speak.
She lifted the roses to her nose and glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “You really shouldn’t have,” she murmured, though he knew without a doubt the others heard.
The air had turned a few degrees cooler with the arrival of this woman. Why couldn’t he remember her name?
