Page 148 of Return To You

“Yeah.” I shrug. “Not that we’re doing anything wrong.”

A small smile plays on his face. “How would you feel if I talked to Ilse every now and then?”

Something like jealousy, possessiveness, stirs in my stomach. “Not great.”

“See?”

“But you were going to marry her.”

He cocks his head. “And you weren’t married?”

It’s not the same. “I guess I see your point.”

He rocks me softly in his arms. “Anything else I need to know about you that you’re not volunteering yet?”

“No,” I whisper.

Then, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“About Kyle or about the baby?

“About both. Don’t they go together?”

“They don’t. Kyle… it didn’t feel important. I mean, you would have found out eventually.” More like, I was too chicken to tell you I was talking to another man about my feelings for you. “And the baby… it was… it was too much.”

“Too much for me?”

“No. Too much for me. I didn’t even know where to start. I don’t-don’t really talk about it. Ever.”

“Not even to the Bitch Brigade?”

I scootch deeper into his hold and shake my head. “Not anymore. It’s in the past.”

He strokes my back, saying nothing for a while. “I’m gonna go finish that roof for you, and then I’ll take a shower. And then we’re gonna talk about what you need from me.”

I raise my face to meet his gaze. “What do you mean?”

He cups my nape with his hand, kneading the back of my head, and his gaze darkens. “I want to be the man you can talk to about everything and anything.”

My heart booms so hard, there’s no way he doesn’t hear it.

His gaze caresses the frame of my face, and he pads his thumb across my lips. “I get that some of the stuff is hard to unpack just like that, but I’m your best friend on top of being your… everything else. I wish I’d be the man you could talk to about your miscarriage without being forced into it.” He kisses a tear off my cheek. “I want you to be comfortable telling me you’re still talking to Kyle if that’s what you need to. I don’t want you to feel like you need to hide stuff from me.” He kisses the crown of my head. “I want you to feel comfortable telling me you miss Skye like hell even if you’re over the moon happy for her.”

I hug him tighter.

“If the time comes, I want you to feel free to tell me that’s what you want with me.”

“What do you mean?” I whisper.

He lowers his forehead to meet mine and whispers, “You and I—this is all going very fast. But it’s going in one direction. And we both know which direction that is. So if at any time you need from me more than what I’m giving you, you need to tell me. Because sometimes I’m a little thick, a little slow to get with the program. And I’m going to count on you to keep us on track.”

He stands, lifting me with him, sets me on the floor, then gently slaps my ass. “That roof isn’t gonna fix itself,” he says.

Like he didn’t just rock my world.

forty-eight

Ethan

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