Coming to a Crossroads

by Marie Ferrarella

  Liz laughed. He certainly did have a way of delivering a compliment.

  “I sincerely doubt if you would even be traumatized for the rest of the day,” she countered, unable to keep her mouth from curving in a wide, deep smile.

  Ethan arched a single perfectly formed dark eyebrow. “Yes, but are you really willing to risk finding that out for sure?”

  She pretended to think his question over before finally getting into his rather small sports car. “I guess not.”

  Given her dress, getting into the passenger seat was not an easy feat. It took her a minute or so to situate herself and then buckle up.

  “Nice car,” she observed.

  “You like it?” he asked.

  His eyes swept over the interior as if he hadn’t seen the car before, and then he put his key into the ignition, but he didn’t immediately start up the car.

  “I am the proud third owner. It belonged to a cousin of mine, and he sold it to his friend. When the friend got married, he sold it back to my cousin, because he didn’t think it was a proper car for a married man. My cousin then sold the car to me. He said he figured it would be good for my image—until it turned out that I didn’t need an image.”

  “Oh, why’s that?” she asked, curious.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything. No woman wanted to hear about a man’s ex right off the bat.

  Ethan shrugged. “Long story,” he told her, hoping that put it off, at least for now.

  Liz smiled, nodding.

  “Okay. Then I guess you’d better talk fast if you want to finish before we get to the wedding.”

  Chapter Ten

  Ethan weighed his options. Ordinarily, he was an open person, but discretion did play a considerable part. And discretion told him that although he liked this woman—more than he’d thought possible, given how little time had gone by since they had met each other—he still didn’t know her well enough to share this personal part of his life.

  At least not yet.

  “If you don’t mind,” Ethan said after a long moment, “this isn’t the kind of story to just rattle off while traveling to a wedding.”

  Something in his voice caught her attention. “So it’s a serious story,” Liz concluded.

  It certainly wasn’t a happy one, he thought. And the more he reflected on it, the more disappointing it grew. “You might call it that.”

  “What would you call it?” Liz asked, genuinely interested.

  He spared her a glance. “Truthfully?” he asked.

  Her mouth curved. “Well, if I had a choice, I’d rather you didn’t lie to me, so yes, I’d opt for truthfully,” she told him.

  Ethan thought back over the course of the entire almost five-year relationship. Now that it was behind him and the shock of the breakup was in perspective, he could be honest with himself.

  “What I’d call it,” he answered, “was an unfortunate waste of four years.”

  “Hmm.” Liz mulled over his choice of words. “I take it you’re referring to a relationship and not to the time you spent in medical school.”

  Ethan laughed softly. She had hit the nail right on the head. “Beautiful, an extremely good driver and really sharp to boot,” he said, assessing the woman sitting in the passenger seat. “From where I’m standing, you’re a triple threat.”

  She definitely didn’t see herself as anything remotely like that. “Trust me, I’m not a threat to anyone, triple, double or single.”

  “And she has a sense of humor as well,” Ethan added with a smile. Not to mention that the woman was apparently modest, he thought. She was so different from Catherine. “I might have to beat my friends off with a stick just to keep you to myself today.”

  That caused Liz to think. “Are they the same friends who had such incredibly liquid limbs when I picked all four of you up in front of Bar None?”

  He nodded. “The very same ones,” he answered. “They’re all going to be at the wedding.” A thought suddenly occurred to him. “That won’t be a problem for you, will it?” Although he couldn’t for the life of him see why.

  “No. To be honest, considering their conditions, I really doubt they’re going to even remember me.” She smiled at him. “You were the only one who was sober that night.”

  About to make a right at the corner, Ethan glanced in her direction just before he made the turn. “Luckily for me.”

  Liz made no comment; she merely smiled at him. It was the kind of smile that was enough to light up every fiber of his being.

  After having gone through and survived almost five years with Catherine before she had walked out on him, he had seriously doubted that he would even so much as notice another woman, much less find himself actually attracted to one. In light of the evening that promised to be ahead of him, he was very glad that he had turned out to be wrong.

  “Listen,” Ethan began just as they were approaching the Evergreen Country Club, where Joel and Stephanie’s wedding and reception were being held, “if you find you want to leave at any time during the reception, all you have to do is let me know and we’ll go.”

  That caught her off guard. “Just like that?” Liz asked.

  She had assumed that he had to be there for the duration, since he had thrown the bachelor party. In her opinion that meant he and the groom were close friends. Maybe she was wrong.

  “Yes,” Ethan told her. “I don’t want you feeling uncomfortable. The whole point of attending the reception is to have fun.”

  Given his relationship to the groom, she didn’t quite see it that way. “I thought the whole point of this was to watch your friend and his wife start a brand-new life.”

  Parking his car fortuitously close to the reception hall, Ethan got out and circled around to Liz’s side. Given what she was wearing, he thought she just might need help getting out of his car.

  “Trust me, they started enjoying that new life almost a year ago,” he told Liz with a smile. “This is just the symbolic celebration and fanfare that goes with it.”

  “Interesting way to put it,” she commented.

  “Well, you’ll find that I’m an interesting kind of guy.” Ethan offered her his arm. “Ready to blow off a little steam?”

  She slipped her arm through his just as she sighed contentedly. “Ethan, if you want to know the truth—”

  “Always,” he assured her, beginning to escort her toward the entrance.

  “—I have been ready to blow off some steam for months, possibly even years,” she amended.

  “Then I’d say we’d better get to it,” Ethan said as he ushered her to the massive doors.

  * * *

  Although Ethan wound up telling her at least twice during the first couple of hours that they could just pick up and go the second she wanted to, they wound up staying at the reception for the entire four hours.

  Although she didn’t know the couple, Liz found the wedding ceremony to be sweetly touching.

  In contrast, the partying that followed was nothing short of frantic. When she scanned the large reception hall, it seemed to Liz as if everyone there was throwing themselves into having the very best time they possibly could.

  Even the older guests got really caught up in the partying.

  And right from the start, Ethan apparently was not about to let her hang back.

  “Would you like to dance?” he asked Liz after the bride and groom had had their first dance together and the band had started to play another song.

  “Maybe you should ask someone else,” Liz suggested modestly. “I’m really not much of a dancer.”

  He shrugged as if that was no big deal. “Funny, neither am I. Maybe between the two of us, we can come up with one good dancer,” he told her, taking her hand and leading Liz to the dance floor.

  She didn’t resist, but she felt it only fair to tell him, “You
’re going to be sorry.”

  “The only way I’m going to be sorry is if I wind up dancing alone.” Saying that, he wove the fingers of one hand through hers while holding Liz close to him with his other.

  Ever so gently, he began to sway to the beat of the slow song that was playing. It took only a second for them to be in sync with one another.

  “I thought you said you couldn’t dance,” he said softly.

  “I can’t,” she answered without any false bravado.

  “Well, then, someone should tell your feet and your hips, because they clearly are doing just that.” He smiled into her eyes, thinking that if he wasn’t careful, he could very easily get lost in those same mesmerizing blue-gray eyes. “You dance even better than you drive,” Ethan whispered against her ear as he drew her even closer to him.

  A hot shiver wiggled all through her, created in the wake of his warm breath caressing her cheek. Liz drew back her head to look at him. “Now you’re just making fun of me.”

  “At this close proximity?” he questioned, amused. “I wouldn’t dare.”

  She didn’t understand. “What does proximity have to do with it?”

  “Well,” he said pointedly, “from that position, you could easily make me pay for any remark I uttered that wasn’t to your liking.” His eyes lowered for a moment to illustrate the point he was making.

  She caught on instantly and frowned. “I am not a street fighter,” she insisted.

  “But you are street-smart,” he told her. “I would have thought that being one would automatically make you the other.”

  Caught up in the music—and the realization that despite what he had initially said, Ethan was a really good dancer—Liz let him whirl her around for a couple of moments before she answered.

  “Not necessarily, no.” She smiled up into his face as she told him, “Never take anything for granted or you might wind up being very unpleasantly surprised.”

  Almost against his will, he thought of Catherine. In the beginning, he had just taken it for granted that she wanted the same things out of life that he did. But he’d quickly found out differently. She didn’t want or value any of the same things. She valued material things, while he had a tendency to lean toward moral and spiritual victories.

  In the end Catherine had called him a naive fool, among other things, for clinging to his values. That was just before she had haughtily informed him that he didn’t deserve her.

  Lord, she didn’t know how right she had been about that, Ethan now thought. He felt like an idiot, but only because he should have realized that fact way before he actually did.

  All the clues had been right there in front of him. He had just needed to piece them together.

  “Why are you smiling like that?” she asked him.

  “I’m just enjoying your company,” he answered. “And you also just said something that I completely agree with.”

  “Oh. That’s good, I guess,” Liz responded. Although she was slightly at a loss as to what it was that she had said that he found to be so agreeable to his own philosophy.

  The song they were dancing to ended, but another one was beginning, this one with a faster tempo.

  Ethan was still holding her in his arms. “Up for another dance, or would you rather sit this one out?”

  He knew what he was hoping she would answer, but he wasn’t about to pressure her if she had had enough for now. Although, he had to admit, he did like having an excuse to hold her like this.

  “Oh, I think I can manage another dance,” she answered whimsically.

  “All right then,” Ethan said, throwing himself into the dance in earnest.

  * * *

  “That was fun,” Liz cried, trying to catch her breath as the fifth dance in a row ended. She leaned against Ethan, trying to brace herself. “But I think we could use a break.”

  “Oh, are we tired?” Ethan asked her, amused. He kept his arm around her waist, enjoying the contact while he could.

  Liz drew in a deep breath. She wasn’t in as good condition as she had believed, even with all the constant running around she did.

  “Definitely,” she managed to get out.

  “Say no more,” Ethan told her.

  Taking her hand, he led Liz back to their table. As it turned out, Jimmy and Pete were now seated at their table. They were each there with their own plus-ones.

  Jimmy glanced in their direction as Liz and Ethan approached the table. He grinned broadly at Ethan, and a look of mild recognition passed over his face. He squinted slightly as if he was trying to focus not just his eyes but his mind as well.

  Rising, Jimmy nodded at Ethan. “Glad you could pull yourself away from that clinic of yours to come to Joel’s wedding,” he told Ethan with a good-natured laugh. Then, turning his attention toward the woman with Ethan, he put out his hand. “Hi, I’m Ethan’s best friend.” He cocked his head, studying her more closely. “Have we met?”

  The woman who was sitting beside him and was apparently his date for the wedding groaned. “Now that’s original,” she murmured dismissively under her breath.

  “No, I’m serious. You look kind of familiar—but I can’t place you,” he admitted. “And I really think I would have remembered someone like you,” he added with an appreciative chuckle.

  His date groaned again, more loudly this time.

  Rather than make him jump through mental hoops, trying to recall the exact details, Liz told him, “We’ve met.”

  Jimmy looked as if he’d just caught the brass ring. “I thought so,” he declared, looking pleased with himself for having been right. The problem was, he was still drawing a blank as to her identity and exactly where and when they had met.

  “Refresh my memory,” he requested.

  Ethan picked that moment to come to Liz’s rescue. “I don’t think so, Jimmy,” he told his friend. “If you can’t remember, then that’s your problem.”

  “Ah, c’mon, give me a hint.” He looked from Ethan to the woman with him, much to the annoyance of the woman he had brought to the wedding. It was obvious she didn’t like taking a back seat to another woman, and until just now, she hadn’t had to. “Please, Ethan?” Jimmy asked. “Trying to remember who your date is will drive me crazy all night.”

  “Well, can’t have that, can we?” Liz said, deciding to put the man out of his misery. “I drove you home.”

  Liz watched the other man’s face to see if the proverbial lightbulb went off.

  It didn’t.

  “You did?” Jimmy questioned, clearly still at a loss about the details of the incident—or even the incident itself. “Did I, um, ask you to come in?” He was obviously trying to recreate the event in his mind and getting nowhere.

  “Jimmmmy!” his companion admonished angrily.

  Jimmy hardly spared her a glance as he waved at his date to be quiet. “I’m just trying to pin this down, sweetie.” So saying, he did look at the other woman now, and he wasn’t happy about what he saw. “Don’t get that look on your face.”

  As much as she was enjoying this little drama and drawing it out for as long as she could, Liz had an uneasy feeling that, because of Jimmy’s date, this was going to escalate. It could easily turn uncomfortable rather quickly unless she told Ethan’s friend what he wanted to know.

  She could see that Ethan wasn’t about to butt in. Maybe he thought she liked putting his friend on the spot, but she really didn’t.

  “She was the Chariot driver the night we came back from Joel’s bachelor party,” Pete recalled, leaning in to put his two cents into the discussion. “Right?”

  Instead of answering him one way or another, Ethan asked, “Is that what you think?”

  Frustrated, Pete looked toward Liz for confirmation. “I’m right, aren’t I?” he asked her.

  Liz smiled and nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I di
dn’t think either one of you remembered,” she told them honestly. “Neither one of you was feeling any pain that night.”

  Pete leered at her, then covered his heart as if her answer was physically causing him pain. It was obvious that he was intrigued by her. Far more so than he was with the companion he had brought with him to the reception. The latter, a rather lackluster brunette, seemed to be growing progressively more annoyed. She was shooting daggers at Pete and at her.

  Okay, enough was enough. Ethan decided to come to Liz’s rescue and whisk her away from his two friends. Taking her hand, Ethan drew her back toward the dance floor.

  “Listen,” he told her.

  She did but didn’t know what she was supposed to be hearing. “To what?”

  Ethan smiled at her. “I think they’re playing our song.”

  “Oh? And just what song would that be?” she asked, amused.

  “Does it really matter?” he whispered against her ear as he slipped his arm around her again. They were dancing now.

  Liz laughed. Somehow, this all felt so right, she thought as she allowed the music to seep into her veins and take her away.

  “No, not really,” Liz answered, falling into step with him. All that counted was sharing this with him.

  Chapter Eleven

  Liz really didn’t think that she had any business gathering with the other single women when they all clustered together, each hoping to be the one who caught the bride’s bouquet. After all, she wasn’t a friend of the bride—or the groom, for that matter. Technically, as Ethan’s plus-one, she was an outsider. Outsiders weren’t supposed to be involved in anything so personal.

  But when the host in charge of running the festivities called for all the single women at the reception to get into a group, Ethan had urged her to join the others.

  Since there were so many other young women involved, Liz felt that the odds of her actually catching the bouquet were just a little better than zero.

  Liz had just turned around to face the bride. At that moment, Stephanie, standing with her back to the group, tossed her bouquet into the group with an over-the-head, backward pitch that would have made any major league baseball player proud.