Page 90 of Sliding Into Love
“Tomorrow, we should go feed this to the ducks at the park near your place.” She pulled a bag of frozen vegetables marked for clearance from the freezer. “Do you want to take the kids with us? We don’t have to; I just think they’d like to go. But not if you don’t want to.”
Ivy didn’t look at him as she wandered further down the aisle, peering through the glass cases in her search.
“Yeah, that sounds fun. What snacks do they like? We should get something for them, too.”
Ivy ducked her head, spun on her heel, and marched back to where he stood, launching herself at him at the last second.
“I love you, too,” Ivy whispered in his ear while she squeezed the air out of his lungs.
Ethan felt warmth surge through him at her words but…
“I mean it’s nice to know, but why tell me now?”
“It’s just, you’re so perfect anyway.” Was she crying? Ethan soothed his hand over her back. “But you want to get snacks for the kids?” Ivy was definitely sobbing into his shirt. “Sharing food is one of our love languages, mine and the kids’, and it just… means so much to me. That you care about them, too.” She sniffled.
Ethan wrapped his arms tighter around Ivy and kissed her temple in the middle of the frozen vegetable aisle.
“I love you, Ivy,” he whispered into her hair. “And they’re your family, so I love them too. Even Janna. Especially Janna.”
Ivy let out a watery laugh.
“Ice cream?” he asked her.
“Only always.” She met his eyes and smiled, and he brushed away her tears.
Somehow, Ivy managed to talk Ethan into buying one of every pint of Ben and Jerry’s, and he didn’t even care about the amount of sugar she was persuading him to eat because it was Ivy andshe loved him too.
After his time with Ivy,Ethan felt as if a piece of his soul had fallen back into place, and he rode that high right into Monday morning.
He pulled into the stadium lot behind Derek, and they parked in adjacent spots. He wasn’t wholly unsurprised to see the catcher exit his car with Isaac on the passenger side.
“Good day off?” Ethan asked, offering a genuine smile. They both grinned back at him.
“Looks like yours was pretty good too. Or you had a run-in with a vampire.” Attempting to look concerned, Isaac leaned forward to peer at a mark on Ethan’s neck, but he couldn’t keep his face serious.
The marks Ethan had sucked into Ivy’s thighs the night before were much worse than the ones she’d left on his neck, but he wasn’t sharing that information with his teammates. Some regressive part of his brain was proud of having marked her, and she, him. As Ethan walked through the halls of the stadium’s underground labyrinth of offices and meeting rooms, he smiled and nodded at his teammates, noting and blissfully not bothered by their shock at his abrupt change of temperament. After changing into workout clothes, Ethan wandered into the gym, shoving his wireless earbuds in and finding the playlist Ivy had made for him. Bright, upbeat music that was a musical representation ofherfilled his ears. Ethan went through his warm-up stretches, feeling tighter than usual thanks to some particularly acrobatic positions Ivy had suggested. His muscles were pleasantly sore as he stepped onto a treadmill, adjusting the speed and incline.
He started off slowly, letting his body get warm, not paying attention to the pop music in his ears, but enjoying the background sounds anyway. He was about to head to the batting cages when --
“Ethan. We’re leaving.”
Ethan jumped a mile, nearly losing his footing, having completely missed Harkness appearing beside him. He yanked the earbuds out and turned to face her.
“Perhaps you’d like to join us?” She gestured a manicured hand to where the team waited outside the bus. He followed her to join them.
Something in him shifted, needing to get the weight off his chest. Tell the truth and let them judge him. As he stepped toward his usual seat, he cleared his throat and waved for attention.
“Guys, can I say something?”
The bus went silent, and Ethan winced. Anxious thoughts skittered through his mind as he searched his teammates’ faces, but he wasn’t discouraged by what he found there. He mostly saw confusion, so he looked at Harkness in question.
She nodded at him with one corner of her mouth tipped up.
He cleared his throat again. “Some of you may know this, but I wanted to clear the air. My dad is Jimmy Fisher, who you’ve probably heard of.” A few nods affirmed him. “And my grandpa was David Lorne, pitcher, elite agent, and trash human. And my mom is the CEO of one of the largest sports agencies in the country. So…yeah. Umm. Hi, I’m Ethan Fisher. Ethan Ford was…” he paused. “Ethan Ford was entirely Marshall’s creation.”
Ethan saw a lot of furrowed brows and scowling, but none of it seemed directed at him.
“Hiiiii, Ethan!” Isaac winked and waved wildly at him.
