Page 92 of Sliding Into Love
So, he decided to play their game.
“Oh, well, actually, Ivy takes care of me. There’s an apron, pearls, heels, a whole bit.” He paused to wipe his mouth and to look up to see their glowers before he continued. “She cooks, she cleans, it’s delightfully archaic.”
Lily’s eyebrows furrowed, as though she knew something he’d said was wrong, but she didn’t quite catch it. Derek glared. Ethan raised his eyebrows at them, waiting for the pieces to click.
“Wait a minute,” Lily said, grinning. “Ivy can’t cook for shit.”
“She sure as hell can’t walk in heels. The cleaning is questionable too.” Derek threw his head back and howled with laughter, smacking Ethan on the shoulder.
“She cooks and cleans? Oh, my stars.” Lily chortled. “Sasquatch, you had us going for a second. You have now earned our approval.”
After they returned home, Janna was napping in her room when Jase quietly asked Ethan to play a game on the Wii.
“Sure, what did you have in mind?” Ethan hoped it wasn’t bowling.
“Umm. Baseball?” Jase cracked a grin.
Ethan groaned, but they played, and Ethan was spectacularly bad at it, worse even than he’d been at bowling.
“But you have to account for things like the angle and the wind!” He shouted at the tv. “You can’t flick your wrist to pitch! It’s justwrong!”
He was so caught up in the wrongness of Wii baseball he didn’t even register Ivy entering the room.
“Lemme show you how it’s done!”
Ethan blinked, and Jase laughed.
“Oh, boy,” Jase whispered, “here we go.”
Ivy flounced over and took the white controller from Ethan’s hand. She stood in front of the tv, gripped the controller, set her feet, stuck out her butt, and slung her arm forward in a horrible imitation of pitching.
And she somehow threw three strikes in a row. The indignity of the game was entirely negated by watching her shake her ass, though.
Nope, Ethan hadn’t minded at all.
When Jase won the game and went to his room, he left Ethan and Ivy alone for the first time all day.
“Hey,” she said, dimpling up at him with a wide smile and slightly unfocused eyes. She twined her arms around him, resting her head on his chest.
“Hi,” he replied, kissing the top of her head.
“So, I have news.”
After spending the day with his mother? Not good news, then. When she didn’t speak, Ethan realized whatever she had to share was going to take some prompting.
“That sounds ominous.”
“It’s about the job.”
“And…?” He didn’t want to assume, but since she wasn’t showing her usual excitement, his mind immediately went to the worst.
“I told them I couldn’t take it. It’s been so long. I’m so tired of waiting.”
“Oh, no, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. Honestly, with how much they’ve been dragging their feet all year, I’m not sure I want to work with them. Anyway, that’s not the news. After the last time I spoke with them, I got fed up and started searching for other jobs.”
That was a good idea; he’d wanted to suggest it to her, but she’d been so certain that the teaching job would be hers.
