Page 74 of Sliding Into Love
“How’s it going?” Ethan stood and held out his hand, which Frankie used to jerk him into a hug smelling of motor oil and aftershave. Frankie still towered over Ethan, and he rubbed his knuckles into the top of Ethan’s head like he had when Ethan was little.
“Ow, dammit! Knock it off, Frank,” Ethan groaned, dodging a swipe of his godfather’s huge hand.
Frankie grunted and muttered something that sounded like “dumbass kid” under his breath.
“That dumbass kid’s got a girlfriend,” Jimmy supplied and grinned at Ethan, who promptly started spluttering.
“Oh yeah?” Frankie said. “She cute?”
Ethan bristled.
“She’s beautiful.”
“She also comes with two foster kids,” Jimmy said.
“Kids, huh?” Frankie gazed down at them, waiting to see what Ethan had to say.
He shrugged.
“It’s different, but they’re good kids. They’ve had a hard time. Ivy gave them a home.”
Jimmy and Frankie shared a knowing look.
“When’s the wedding?” Jimmy asked, and Frankie let out a barking laugh.
“Shut up, you miserable busybodies.” Ethan rolled his eyes and tugged his hat lower, hopefully before they caught his burning cheeks and stupid grin.
“How are you, old man?” Frankie asked Jimmy.
Jimmy snorted.
“Ready to bust the hell outta here,” Jimmy muttered.
“Got the ‘Stang fixed up and ready to go when you do,” Frankie said.
“How has that piece of junk not been scrapped yet?” Ethan asked, only half-joking.
Both Jimmy and Frankie glared.
“I bet you’re still driving those new, flashy, piece of shit, spaceship-looking cars, aren’t you?”
“Hell, yes, I am. At least the floorboards don’t fall out whenever I hit a bump.”
Jimmy chose to ignore that, and Frankie covered his laugh with a cough.
Their conversation felt so familiar and…normal…the joking and ribbing. Ethan’s chest squeezed, and he looked over at Jimmy, who grinned at him with sparkling eyes.
When Ethan was little,his nightmares had been all violence and danger, the sort of things children are afraid of. As an adult, his nightmares were different: shadows and darkness and emptiness.
Ivy seemed to keep them at bay, but Ethan wondered about her dreams, too. He’d heard her talk in her sleep. Nothing coherent, just jumbled words accompanied by tossing and turning. When that happened, he pulled her against his chest, and she relaxed.
Ethan hoped she’d let him stay again, for both their sakes.
When he parked in her apartment’s lot, Ivy, Lily, and the kids clustered around the picnic tables, and Derek pulled into the lot behind him.
As soon as he exited his car, Ethan was mobbed by Jase and Janna. Unsurprisingly, Janna used her brother as a ladder, and Ethan scooped her up, depositing her on his shoulders. He felt her arms resting on top of his head as he walked to where the other adults were hanging around a grill, Jase trailing behind. Ivy didn’t notice Ethan at first, and he enjoyed watching her while she gestured excitedly to Lily, waving her beer bottle around.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he whispered in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. She jumped and laughed, squirming in his arms to try to turn around, but Janna wrapped her arms around both his and Ivy’s heads, squishing their cheeks together and cackling like a tiny tyrant.
