Playing For Her Heart - Megan Erickson Page 0,47

“So I’ve been seeing a woman.”

Not even a blink.

Grant soldiered on. “At the beginning it was kind of all physical. But then it wasn’t. I really care about her, and I think I’m falling of her.”

Ethan fingers tapped the armrest of the recliner.

“The problem is she’s…working through some stuff. It’s been a couple of days since I heard from her and I’m nervous, you know? I don’t want to crowd her but I want her to know how much she means to me. How much I want this to work. And I want a way to show her that.”

“And you want my opinion on how to do that?” Ethan asked.

Grant nodded.

“And you’re asking me, why? I think it’s pretty obvious my skills with dating are rusty. Why aren’t you talking to Austin about this?”

So, it was now or never. He was really going to do this, and hopefully come out of it unscathed or at least unscarred. Maybe he should have greased up his face first, like fighters do, so Ethan didn’t cut open his eyebrow with his fist.

“Well, I’m not talking to Austin about this because the woman I care about isn’t his sister.” Grant sucked in a breath. And held it. He didn’t dare look away from Ethan, from those pale eyes. He’d be a man and take his hit, literally or figuratively.

But the creepy thing was that Ethan hadn’t moved. He hadn’t made any outward reaction to the fact that Grant had been carrying on a relationship with his precious sister behind his back.

If anything, he looked…bored.

Grant waved a hand. “Earth to Ethan? Are you there? Because… I guess I expected you to yell or something.”

“Why’d you expect that?” Ethan said softly.

Grant threw up his hands. “Seriously? I’m sleeping with your sister, Ethan! I’ve been doing it for about a month. Granted, I had no idea she was your sister the first time it happened. We were dressed up at the Comic-Con and she was Sari and I was Breck.” And oh God, he was rambling but he couldn’t stop. “We tried to stay away, but neither of us wanted to. Then she tried to cut it off because she thought I wouldn’t like her once I really got to know her. Which is so dumb, right? I mean, she’s pretty fucking awesome and smart and sweet. I tried to get through to her a little but she shoved me away. And I’m not willing to give up.”

He ran out of breath. And steam. He slumped down into the couch cushions and let his head drift back so that he stared at the ceiling.

There was nothing but silence between them until Grant said, “I’m sorry, Ethan. I’m sorry it happened and I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry. But I’m not sorry for falling for your sister. Because she’s everything I didn’t know I wanted.”

More silence, until this time, it was Ethan’s voice that broke it. “She’s at our parents’ house.”

Grant raised his head. “What?”

Ethan was fingering the dog-eared edges of his paperback, eyes on the cover. “She came over here and told me about you two.”

Grant stared. Chloe had told her brother? It must have killed her to tell Ethan. Despite that, hope flared in Grant’s chest.

“And then she talked to me about some other things,” Ethan said. “About what she’s been going through. I hadn’t realized… I hadn’t realized she was placing so much on her shoulders. It broke my heart, but it needed to be done.” He lifted his gaze to Grant’s, who stared at him dumbfounded. “She said you had something to do with that?”

“Well, I don’t know about that. She confided in me a little and I told her she needed to talk to you, that you wouldn’t have wanted her to be carrying around this burden.”

“She said she thought it should have been her. I had no idea she felt like that.”

Chloe might have been better for the conversation, but Ethan looked wrecked, and Grant didn’t know how to fix that for his friend. “It was all an accident, E—”

“I don’t need you to psychoanalyze me.” Ethan’s gaze was ice. The room dropped twenty degrees. “You can do that with Chloe because it seems to help, but don’t come here and patronize me and tell me it was an accident.”

“Don’t get all frosty with me, you asshole. I care about you and Chloe.”

“Well worry about Chloe, because I don’t fucking need it.” Ethan stood up abruptly and walked into the kitchen.

Grant closed