Page 18 of Sliding Into Love
“I don’t think so,” Derek countered. “I have an idea.”
And then Derek disappeared into the living room, hollering about a Wii bowling tournamentright now, and for everyone tohurry up.
Lily appeared, abandoning her torture of Ethan, who followed Jase as the boy was talking non-stop. While she didn’t understand their baseball speak, she’d never seen him so animated, and she considered asking Ethan about his secrets to sad kid wrangling when Lily sauntered over and pulled on Ethan’s arm.
“Ethan, you have to go first! You’re our guest!” Lily said, dragging Ethan forward.
The tiny woman looked even tinier next to him, but a very bewildered Ethan did as she commanded.
“I don’t know how to play,” he said, his ears and cheekbones stained red. They’d stopped in the cleared space in front of the TV.
“Ivy will show you. She’s our best player.” Lily looked over and waggled her eyebrows at Ivy.
Confused, Ivy raised her brows in question. She always lost bowling tournaments, real or otherwise, and she was certainly not the best player.
“I guess I can.” Ivy glared at Lily in suspicion.
Ivy took the controller and slipped the cord over her wrist, adjusting it to fit. Then she swung her arm wildly, jerking her body forward to send the digital ball on the screen flying off into the gutter. She took her second shot and only knocked down three pins.
“See? It’s pretty easy,” she told Ethan, whose face had gotten redder. “You just kind of sling it. Nothing like the real thing, though.”
“Oh, um, sure,” he replied, not meeting her eyes.
When Ivy tried to take the controller strap off her wrist, the plastic adjuster clip, which had a piece missing due to someone (Ivy) getting too ambitious during a tennis match, got stuck, and she couldn’t pry it open.
“Let me help.” Ethan’s deep voice came from a mile over her head. God, he was so tall.
Ethan stepped closer, taking Ivy’s forearm in one hand and the thin white strap in the other. His thumb brushed over the tender skin on the inside of her wrist as he flicked the clip open, and his touch was like electricity shooting up her arm straight to…nowhere. Because he didn’t want her that way. His hand was huge covering hers, and his fingers barely touched her palm as he slid the cord over her hand. It was too small to fit over his.
They still stood so close that Ivy wondered if the same rush of heat staining her skin burned him when he touched her. If she tipped her head back, it would be the perfect angle for him to lean down and kiss her, and no—just stop.
“Thanks,” she croaked and edged away, desperately trying to decide if she wanted to avoid brushing against him as she escaped, or if she wanted to touch him on purpose.
Choosing the safe route, she retreated to the familiarity of the couch, observing the game.
Little Janna had latched onto Ethan like a barnacle, following him around and asking the kinds of questions only small children thought to ask.
“Why is your hair so long, Mister Ford?” Janna asked.
“You can call me Ethan, Janna.”
“Nuh-uh. You are Mister Ford,” the little girl replied, scowling up at him. “Why is your hair so long?” Janna repeated as she climbed on his lap, trying to reach his shoulders to tug on a wave.
Ethan tried to duck away, but Janna’s fingers were caught in his hair, and the little girl looked satisfied to sit beside him and twirl her fingers in it.
It did not escape Ivy’s notice that while Ethan untangled Janna’s fingers from his hair, he talked to her, engaging with her in a way many people didn’t with children so young. Her heart squeezed at the sight of them together.
After the game ended, and Lily left, Derek popped up between Ivy and Ethan, wrapping his arms around them both. Ivy noticed Ethan flinching away from Derek a lot more violently than he had from her, and that was… something. Maybe?
“We better go, dude, or she might put us in bed too!” Derek said before making T-Rex arms and chasing Jase and Janna, who shrieked, pretending to be afraid of him as they fled his roaring.
“Thanks for having us, Ivy. I hope I’ll—umm— never mind.”
Holy shit, the way Ethan’s voice dropped when he said her name scorched her skin, and the flames still smoldered long after the kids had gone to bed.
Ivy had no idea that she did an adorable little moan while she ate. Because she had no idea she did it, she had no idea what it did to him.
And he hoped no one caught him staring at her ass while she’d done an adorably awkward bounce when she’d taught him how to play the bowling game.
