my safe haven. “We just came to talk,” he rushes on to say.
“About?” I cross my arms and glare at him. I don’t even waste an inch of eyesight on her. Instead, I stare at the man who is still technically my husband.
“Sandra felt like we should finalize some things, particularly now that my parents know about the baby.” He actually looks a little chagrined. But then I realize that, no…that’s annoyance on his face. “Your grandmother could have minded her own business,” he says quietly but still a bit petulantly.
“Oh, she could, could she?” I reply. “Well, you could have kept your dick in your pants, couldn’t you?”
He stiffens. “You don’t have to get nasty—”
“Nasty?” I sneer. “Is that the word for a woman who isn’t afraid to share her opinions?” If so, I will wear that word with pride.
Sandra looks from me to him and back. “We really didn’t come here to cause any problems.” Her voice is quiet and shaky, and I can see that she’s actually unsettled by this.
I pinch my nose between my thumb and forefinger and blow out a breath. “So why are you here?”
“I wanted to apologize,” Sandra says quietly. She begins to wring her hands together. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like this. And I’m sorry it did.”
“Are you done? If so, you can go.” I turn and march back up my steps to stand by the porch rail. I use it as a barricade between me and them.
“Can you forgive me?” she calls out.
I close my eyes and count to ten silently.
“You see,” she continues, “his mother is really angry, and she isn’t in favor of our relationship.”
“Thanks to your grandmother’s meddling,” Charles reminds me.
“So, you’re blaming this on Gran?” I bite back a snort. Almost.
“If she’d just minded her own business—”
But then I see him. Ethan arrives like an angel sent from heaven. His steps are heavy, his stride purposeful as he walks toward me.
As he walks past Charles, his little duck pecks at Charles’s pant leg, and Charles jumps in place, trying to get away. “What the…!” Charles says, his voice panicked a little.
I’ve never been quite as happy to see anyone as I am in that moment.
“Is that him?” Ethan asks, and he has a wicked glint in his eyes.
“That’s him,” I reply as he marches straight up my steps and bends his head to kiss my cheek. He presses a small bouquet of flowers into my hands. “And her,” I add, nodding my head in her direction.
“He picked her over you?” he says with a snicker close to my ear. “I can’t see why.”
As I compare the two of them, Ethan and Charles… I can’t. I simply can’t. There is no comparison. They are as different as night and day, or light and dark. As different as any opposites that ever presented themselves, that’s the difference between Charles and Ethan.
I lift his little nosegay and inhale. The wildflowers smell like outdoors and happiness. They smell like him. “They’re beautiful,” I say.
“So are you,” he replies softly, and he lifts his hand to rest on the center of my back. I melt a little when he lifts the bottom edge of my t-shirt so that his hot palm touches my skin.
“Who’s he?” Charles asks, his face and neck suddenly blotchy and red.
Ethan raises his hand. “Name’s Ethan,” he says. “Nice to meet you.” His duck has made it all the way up the steps and sits squawking at the intruders. I step a little closer to Ethan, and I feel his hip press against me. I’ve never felt quite as safe as I do in that moment. I’ve never felt quite so loved, and that makes tears sting my eyes. I blink them back.
“Tell me if you want them gone, and I’ll make it happen,” he says to me, his brow furrowing. He reaches over and very tenderly brushes a lock of hair behind my ear.
“You’d do that for me?”
“I’d do just about anything for you,” he replies, his voice soft. He stares straight into my eyes as he says it.
“Wait,” Charles calls out, his voice interrupting the tender moment. “Are you fucking him?”
Sandra grabs for his arm, but he jerks it out of her hands. She falters for a moment, surprised by his anger. She stares at him.
But she can’t stare long, because Ethan is already charging down the steps in his direction. He stalks forward until he bumps his broad chest against Charles’s. Charles