Page 95 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

Laney turned in a circle, checking out who was left, mostly volunteers and workers. A handful of attendees clustered around Seraphina as she held court in the corner, and a couple with a child, who was throwing a fit over what looked like a stuffed animal, was attempting to carry him out.

“Okay, well, I guess all that’s left for me is to shut everything down.” She hated that she had missed the rest of the fundraiser, but there was no way she could’ve avoided theemergency. The only thing she could do now was make sure everything was cleaned up and head over to Ethan’s. “Make yourself useful,” she told Dean with an elbow to his side. “Go gently kick out Seraphina and her friends. I’ll take care of the screamer,” she said, pointing to the opposite sides of the room.

Dean agreed with a nod and tossed his popcorn before holding his arms out in a grand gesture, shouting to the women. “Ladies, what’s going on over here?”

Laney let out a small laugh then made her way to the toddler having a tantrum to offer him a balloon. The quicker this all got cleaned up, the quicker she got to see the man she’d put it all together for.

29

Ethan opened up his front door with a little more force than he meant to, and it banged into the wall. He toed off his shoes and tossed his wallet and car keys down before throwing himself on the couch, stretching out along the cushions. The night had started off so well and ended up a shitshow. Although, he’d played it off pretty well for a guy who had never been involved in acting. From the way he’d walked back into the fundraiser, smiling and laughing after punching Bobby fucking Magnate in the face, no one knew the difference.

Except he did. He knew what it was like to face down the man who broke Laney’s heart. To hear her plead with him to leave it alone. Yet, he didn’t. He couldn’t and wouldn’t stand by and leave her to deal withiton her own. Ethan had hoped Laney would follow him back inside the party, leaving that asshole to stew outside in his own arrogance, but she didn’t. In fact, she never came back at all.

And that really pissed him off. He and Laney had been in a good spot, save for the little hiccup about Marcela, but he didn’t think Laney would hold that against him. At least not until Bobby and his line of bullshit showed up tonight.

Ethan couldn’t help but be jealous that she allowed Bobby to stay in communication with her. He couldn’t imagine a scenario where she would want her ex in her life, and him showing up out of the blue tonight was proof of how giving an inch turned into a mile. At this point, Ethan didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know how to feel about her staying to talk to him or what she could possibly have said to him.

As far as he was concerned, Laney was it for him. He only hoped that their second chance wasn’t completely spoiled because of some miscommunications and an asshole Australian.

With a deep breath, he sat up, deciding on showering away his stress. Afterward, he’d call Laney and make sure everything was status quo and get back to his original plan of having her over tonight. They would havea lotto talk about.

He scrubbed his body under cool water, checking out the red marks over his knuckles that were still a little sore, though the pain was well worth it. After a few minutes, he shut off the water, grabbed a towel, noticing three missed calls on his cell phone that sat on the counter. They were all from Leah, and she hadn’t left any messages. A pit formed in his stomach as he picked up his phone to call her, but before he could, it vibrated in his hand with another incoming call from his sister-in-law.

“Hey, Leah. What’s going on?”

“Justin,” she said, and Ethan could hear Trace shrieking in the background. “He fell down the steps, and I called the ambulance.” Her voice was in near tears. “Trace is freaking out. I can’t get him to calm down.”

“Okay, okay,” Ethan said, racing to his room. “Where is Justin right now?”

“The EMTs took him a few minutes ago,” she said, crying now. “Ethan, I need your help.”

Ethan tripped onto his bed in his haste to get pants on one-handed while he spoke to Leah. “Listen, you stay there with Trace. He needs you right now. I will go to the hospital and call my parents on the way.”

“Tracey, baby, shh,” she said, her voice far away, and Ethan tossed a T-shirt over his head.

“Leah, did you hear me? Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” she said and cleared her throat. “I’m going to try to get him to bed, but I don’t know how long that will take. I just want to see that Justin is okay. I need to know that he’s okay, Ethan.”

“I know. I know you do, but you can’t be in two places at once,” he said, stepping into sneakers. “I’ll tell Mom and Dad to go to your house, then you can come to the hospital, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered over the line as Trace cried. “I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t get Justin up, and Trace was so upset, crying for his daddy, I called 9-1-1.”

“You did good, Leah. Everything will be okay,” he reassured her, although at the moment, he didn’t feel that confident. “Everything will be okay. You sit tight for now.”

She sniffed a few times. “Okay.”

“I’m heading out the door right now. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Ethan hopped into his car and hit the gas, his tires squealing as he pulled away from the curb, calling his mother’s cell phone. He skipped the pleasantries when she picked up and said, “Mom, Justin fell, and Leah called the ambulance to get him. I’m going to the hospital to be with him until Leah can get there. Can you and Dad go to their house? Trace is really upset.”

“Oh my god.” Rita called for her husband. “Tom! Get your shoes on! Justin’s hurt, we gotta go!” Then she said to Ethan, “We’re leaving right now. You call me as soon as you know what’s going on.”

“I will.”

“I love you, honey,” Rita whispered like she was about to cry, but Ethan hung up to concentrate on driving. He made it to the hospital not long after, practically drag-racing there, and ran into the emergency room, where the nurse at the check-in station showed him to Justin’s room.

It was empty.

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