Page 94 of Return To You

I laugh.

Ethan takes my hand softly in his. “Hell, Grace, any boy had you, they’d want to show you off.”

I nod quietly. Now it’s beginning to make sense. The treehouse, the secret meetings. None of this business of having my dashing date pick me up, come inside the house, have my Dad give him the talk. Does Dad even realize how much he messed up his own life, let alone the lives of his loved ones?

Ethan’s hand closes around mine. We’ve both lost our appetite. “I’m so sorry you had to live through that with your Dad. And I’m so sorry you felt that way about me. I kind of assumed you knew, that he’d told you as well, but I didn’t want to rub it in by bringing it up, at the time. I just wanted all of our moments to be happy.”

“He’s much better, you know,” I say to excuse my father. “Night and day.”

Ethan nods slowly. “I kind of got that impression at the farm. I’m happy for you.”

We both play with our food for a bit, trying to climb back up to happiness, until Colton comes back and slides the keys on the table. “All set, man.”

Ethan gestures to the empty seat in front of us. “Lemme buy you dinner.”

“Won’t say no to that,” my brother says.

And now I’m looking at my two favorite men, sitting across from each other, stupid jokes flying, and my appetite is back.

Until Ethan’s phone chimes, and his frown is a total mood killer.

twenty-nine

Ethan

My phone chimes with a text message, and I make the mistake of checking the screen.

Shit.

I pocket the phone. I’ll answer later.

Grace’s gaze on me is questioning but warm. She wants to know, but she’ll let me share on my own time.

We go back to talking shit with Colton, which is way more enjoyable.

When we get back to Grace’s place, the sky is turning pewter. There’s still time to enjoy the day. I open up the bottle of Zin I bought earlier and pull out two stem glasses.

While Grace is in the bathroom I call Damian. “Hey, bud, look what I got for you.” The laser light is an immediate winner, and my four-legged friend is running around the living room like crazy, jumping the couch, pounding into the air, crashing into furniture.

“Ohmygod, what did you feed him?” Grace half shrieks, half laughs when she joins us.

I hand her the gadget. “Here. Got that at Noah’s store. Isn’t it cool?” I pour the wine and slide the porch door open. Damian trots behind us—or rather, behind the red dots bouncing randomly around.

“You spoiled little cat,” Grace coos as she sits on my lap in the single lounge chair.

My phone digs into my hip. I pull it out to set it on the floor. Then I take a long draw on the wine and set my eyes on Woodbury Knoll. “That was my commanding officer, earlier. Sent me a message to let me know I should get ready to go back in a couple days.” I feel Grace tensing against me, so I add, “It’ll just be for a week or two of meetings.” Hell, there’s no avoiding it. “But after that, I won’t have much time left. I’ll see where they send me.”

She sets her glass on the floor and moves on my lap so she can look at me. “I thought you were going to Brussels?” Her voice is barely audible.

I smile feebly at her, not even asking how or where she got that information. It’s true, that was what I was hoping for. “Ultimately, I’ll go wherever I’m needed. But yeah, Brussels would be quite the career move.”

“What’s in Brussels?”

“NATO.”

“You deserve the best, Ethan, and if Brussels is your dream post, I hope you get it. I know you’ll get it.” Her eyes are shiny, but her smile is genuine. “Now tell me what you’d be doing.”

I take a sip of the wine, let it swirl in my mouth, swallow slowly. “For NATO, it’d be doing anything from cyber defense initiatives to protect communications, to threat analysis, or it could be partnering with countries or other international organizations, training and exercises, incident response… whatever they need. It’s part of what we’ll be assessing in the next few days. The world is a scary place, Grace. Potentially the most dangerous wars are fought online now. That’s where guys—and girls—like me come in. We always need to be one step ahead.”

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