Page 44 of Always Been You

"I hope you folks enjoyed your ride."

"We did, thank you," Jess said, but in her mind she was thinking that they would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if he could’ve taken one more lap around the park.

Ethan got out and helped her down and asked, "Do you mind if we walk a little?"

"Sure."

As much as she was looking forward to what might happen when they got back to the hotel, she didn't want this night to end.

Ever.

Ethan had no idea how long he and Jess had been walking around the city. After the carriage ride, he'd wanted to give her some time to process what he'd told her, and he'd thought a walk would be the perfect thing.

But he hadn't planned on ending up here.

"Ethan?" Jess's hand rested on Ethan's forearm, and he turned to see a concerned look in her gorgeous baby blues.

"Sorry, I just...I didn't realize where we were."

She looked around, and he could see that she was trying to get a clue as to why this place would be significant to him. She'd never be able to figure it out.

"This was the alley my dad found me in." He'd never spoken about his unusual start in life to anyone. Not even to the counselor his grandma had forced him to see after his dad was killed.

"The alley your dad found you in?" Jess repeated as if she must’ve heard it wrong.

"Yeah." He nodded and started walking again, Jess kept pace with him, but he noticed she slowed slightly when he told her, "I'm adopted."

"This was my dad's beat when he was a rookie. It used to be a lot different around here before it was gentrified. These buildings were all abandoned. They were flophouses and crack dens. My dad was rolling through in his cruiser, and he said that he had no idea what made him pull into the alley. In the six months he'd been on patrol before that, he'd never gone down there. But that night he did. And something told him to get out of the car, so he did.

"As soon as he stepped out, he said he heard a baby crying. So he started sifting through a pile of boxes beside a dumpster and found me at the bottom, wrapped in a dirty white T-shirt. I was a couple of days old."

He paused and took a breath. Hearing the words coming out of his own mouth was so different than hearing it from someone else.

"He took me to the hospital, and that's where I spent the first few months of my life. I had some issues because of the drugs in my system. He came and visited me a lot and even got to name me. Then, when I was healthy enough, I was released and went into foster care. My dad kept tabs on me. Every month or so he'd check in with me. Then, when I was about four, he showed up one day without calling to schedule a visit. He saw the conditions I was living in and told me to get in the car. A few months later, he asked if I wanted to be his son. He used to always say that I was a superhero and that being found in an alley was my origin story."

"He sounds like he was an amazing man."

"He was. It's so weird to think about the fact that he was three years younger than I am now when he adopted me,"

Jess spoke so quietly he could barely hear her. "I can't believe I never...knew any of that. I mean, I knew your dad died but..."

"I never talk about it." Ethan shook his head. "But, I'll never forget that day. I walked out of school and saw my dad's partner waiting for me. I knew that something was wrong from the look on his face. He told me he was taking me home. I kept asking where my dad was, but he wouldn't answer me. He kept trying to make small talk about sports and other things. I was so mad by the time I got home I wasn’t even speaking to him. When I opened the door, my grandma was there, and I knew. My dad was gone. She was sitting on the couch, and she asked me to come join her.

"She told me what happened to my dad and said I was coming to live with her. She said she didn't want anyone else to tell me because she didn't want me to think, even for a second, that I was going to go back to foster care."

"Wow."

Ethan felt like a huge weight had been taken off his shoulders. He'd never bought into the philosophy that talking about things was healing, but he had to admit, saying the words out loud was cathartic. He hadn't thought about his dad for a long time. Right after he lost him, it was just too painful, so he blocked it out. Then, as he got older, he'd think about him when he had milestones like his first touchdown, first girlfriend, graduation, but other than that, he did his best not to think about him.

His grandma never really talked about his dad, either. They'd have moments where they both knew the other one was thinking about him, but they rarely vocalized it. It was just too painful.

Jess and Ethan walked for a while in silence before she slipped her hand into his. He threaded his fingers through hers and finally knew that this was home. Wherever she was, be it in the city or in Whisper Lake, that was home.

"The day on the pier was my first day in Whisper Lake. I was walking along the lake, and I saw this girl sitting at the end of the pier. You looked so tiny. I was worried you were going to fall in. Then when I got close, I saw you were crying."

"Most boys would have run the other way."

"I saw the same sadness in your eyes that I was feeling but didn't know how to talk about it."

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