to stop looking at his wrists or the stubble forming along his jaw after a long day. “So what’s your game plan for tomorrow? I’m going to try to get here early and start calling more venues.”
“Please,” Ethan said, a small smile lingering on his lips. “Let’s not talk about work for a minute.”
I frowned. “You just want to drink in silence?”
He shook his head. His hair, which was almost always slicked all the way back in a careless way, was disheveled, and I expected he’d been raking his fingers through it all afternoon in frustration as he worked tirelessly on the gala event like I had. “No, tell me about this friend of yours with the kids you don’t understand.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Because it’s not work talk and I’m about to become an uncle for the first time. Indulge me.”
I swirled the rye around in my glass. “Well, Miriam and I go way back to when we were little kids. We practically grew up together. She was always in my corner and I was always in hers. Then she met her husband, Robert, and you know how that goes. She fell in love, yada yada yada, and now she has two kids. Robert Junior and Adeline. The boy is three and the baby is six months old.”
“Sounds like nobody’s slept a full night through in that house in ages.”
“Probably not.”
“So why don’t you like them?”
“Who?”
“Your best friend’s kids.”
“I don’t not like them,” I said defensively. “I just don’t understand them. There’s a difference. Kids make me nervous, is all. And they change things. They change everything.”
“How do you mean?”
I shrugged before polishing off the rest of my drink. Ethan leaned forward and topped off my glass before pouring more into his own. I sat back. “Babies change people. They create space. I don’t see as much of Miriam as I’d like, and when I do, I have a fraction of her attention. I know how terrible it sounds to say that out loud. I know. But I can’t help but miss how things used to be.”
“I get that.”
“You do?”
Ethan nodded and leaned forward. “Of course, I do. I expect when my brother’s baby is born that I won’t see as much of him as I used to. At least in the beginning while they navigate the changes of becoming parents. But the time I do spend with them will be richer because there will be this tiny little human there. This baby.”
“Yes?”
Ethan went quiet for a minute and I thought he might shut down and blow me off. It was our go-to move, so I wouldn’t have blamed him for it. But he didn’t shut down.
“My dad died three years ago,” he said quietly. “Things haven’t been easy for my family. It’s been a time of grieving and we’ve finally started to heal. And this baby? Well, he’s given all of us something to be excited about. I think he’s going to fill a hole that’s been growing in all our hearts. He’ll be a well we can pour our love into again.”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat and resented feeling something because of his words. “I’m sorry. About your dad.”
“Thanks. So am I.”
I cursed myself for getting caught up in the moment with Ethan. It was so much easier to keep things surface level between us so I could hate him. He was my rival. I should hate him. But this vulnerability suggested there might be more to him than I ever imagined.
Maybe he wasn’t so terrible.
Chapter 14
Ethan
My head was a little fuzzy. How many drinks had we had? Three? Four?
It couldn’t have been more than that.
“I’ll call us each a cab,” I said, giving my head a shake to dispel the haze of the liquor as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
Kathryn set her empty glass down on her desk. “I think I might stay behind. The drinks gave me a second wind and I still have some phone calls to make.”
“It’s ten thirty,” I said flatly.
“And?”
“You can’t go calling people at ten thirty at night and expect them to want to help you. Are you delusional?” She really had no common decency. For a moment, I’d forgotten who I was sitting enjoying a drink with.
Kathryn, despite this brief reprieve where she’d almost seemed normal, was still my ruthless competitor who wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of getting the job done—including respecting the time of other people in the business world.
She licked