Page 346 of Branded
Silence.
Long enough that I found I was holding my breath.
“Yeah,” Ethan eventually whispered, finally looking up at me again. “That would be okay with me.”
“And I don’t know why your father decided that he wasn’t able to be a dad to you”—other than the fact that Nate Miller was a fucking asshole—“but I do know that it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with him. You are an awesome kid. Awesome,” I repeated when Ethan started to look away. “And your dad is a dumbass to miss out on all your awesomeness.”
Ethan’s eyes went wide, and I realized that I probably shouldn’t be calling Nate Miller a dumbass to his five-year-old son, but that didn’t change the truth.
Nate was a dumbass, amongst other things.
“Really dumb,” I said again—sort of, anyway. Minus the ass part, in deference to Ethan’s five-year-old ears.
More silence, but at least the tension had left Ethan’s body at that point.
Then he broke it, and what he said made me fall for the kid even harder.
“He’s dumb to miss out on my mom, too,” Ethan said, fierce protectiveness in every word. “Because she’s really awesome, too.”
“She is,” I agreed. “And, I agree, he was dumb to miss out on her, too.”
“Do you love her?”
Another question from left field, but there was no point in denying it. I’d loved Jules for months.
“Yeah, bud.”
Ethan grinned.
But that wasn’t what kept my focus.
Nope.
What stole my focus from the adorable little boy next to me and yanked it to the hall was the gasp. I looked to the wide opening that led to the space and saw that Jules was standing there, the keys I’d loaned her hanging from her hand.
Her mouth had dropped open. Her eyes were locked on me, and even from the distance I could see the panic on her face.
Fuck.
But then she blinked, and it was gone, and she was moving toward me, toward Ethan.
Her hand landed on my knee, squeezing hard, and then she was taking Ethan in her arms, holding him tight. “I’m so sorry, buddy,” she whispered.
“For what?” Ethan asked.
“For making you think that your dad didn’t wa—” She broke off, words growing more than a little choked up.
“Cas says my dad is a dumbass for missing out on me,” Ethan said, squirming slightly so that Jules would release him. “Because I’m awesome.”
Jules froze, dropping her arms when Ethan straightened away from her. “That’s true,” she said, recovering quickly. “You are exceptionally awesome.” A breath. “And while I don’t think that cursing is the answer”—slightly narrowed eyes in my direction—“he is a dumbass. Mostly because how could anyone live with not having you in their life?”
A blip of quiet, and I wondered if Jules was holding her breath as she waited for Ethan to reply.
Because I was.
And then Ethan did reply, and it was a fucking knife to the gut. “Because I’m bad.”
“Oh, buddy,” she said on a rush of air, confirming that she had been holding her breath, but her tone was calm and steady and gentle when she said, “We talked about this before. You didn’t do anything wrong, remember? Your dad wasn’t ready to be a dad. It had nothing to do with you. In fact, he never even met you, so it really didn’t have anything to do with you.”
