by T. L. Haddix
~ * * * ~
Beth dashed down the hall at a near sprint, forcing herself to slow as she reached the door. She didn’t want to appear too eager, but then she decided that was a lost cause and she laughed, pulling the door open. Ethan stood on the porch, holding a single lush, pink rose in his hand. He snapped to attention as she opened the door, quickly hiding his nervous expression behind a mask. When he saw Beth, his shoulders slumped with relief, and he smiled. For a moment they just stood there and stared at each other through the glass of the storm door. She reached down and unlocked the door, and pushed it open.
“Hey. Come on in.” She moved back to let him inside. Her heart melted at the sight of the rose. “Who’s that for?”
“Who do you think?” Handing it to her, he took a step toward her. A loud shriek of laughter from the kitchen stopped him before he could kiss her, and uncertainty flared briefly in his eyes.
“Gang’s all here?”
Beth nodded as she grabbed his hand and clung tightly. She brushed her mouth over his for a quick kiss. Not satisfied, Ethan pulled her back to him for a deeper kiss. After she pulled back, he nuzzled her face with his. “I could just kidnap you now.”
She shook her head. “No. I helped cook lunch, and we have to get this over with. Better now than later. Are you ready?”
Ethan rolled his shoulders. “Honestly? I think I’m going to throw up.”
She touched his face, then let her hand trail down his arm to capture his fingers with hers. “Let’s get this over with.”
Keeping his hand in hers, she started down the hall toward the kitchen, too nervous to tease him about his comment. She tugged him behind her, and paused ever so briefly before she led him through the door into the kitchen.
As they walked into the kitchen, all activity ground to a halt, with the exception of Jackie and Hannah, who went about their tasks and ignored the tension levels that had just shot through the roof. Chase, who had been opening a jar for his mother, slammed it down on the counter. Anger flared in his eyes, and he started toward Beth and Ethan, but Jason stopped him by stepping in front of him.
Chase’s eyes didn’t move from Ethan’s. “What the hell are you doing here?” he snarled around his brother.
Everyone jumped when Jackie sat the metal bowl she was carrying down with a loud crash. She turned to Chase with a wooden spoon in her hand and pointed it at her firstborn with a fierce glare.
“I’ve had enough of your attitude, young man. For your information, he was invited. That’s all you need to know. Now, I expect you both to conduct yourselves like adults, or else. Am I understood?” She shot a quick look at Ethan before she brought her gaze back to rest on a seething Chase.
“Yes, ma’am. Excuse me.” He turned on his heel and stalked out the back door.
They all watched him go, then looked back at Ethan and Beth. With a heavy sigh, Ethan moved around Beth. He brushed his hand along her back as he passed, and stopped to press a quick kiss on Jackie’s cheek before he headed out the door after Chase. As he went outside, he stopped and looked back into the room.
“If we’re not back in fifteen minutes, somebody come pick up the pieces?” Without waiting for a response, he hurried in the direction Chase had gone.
There was stunned silence in the kitchen. Beth moved to the other side of the island and sat down heavily on the bar stool next to Hannah with a groan. “That went exceptionally well, don’t you think?”
“I guess it’s a good thing there’s a doctor in the house.” Jason looked at their father. “Think we should give them the full fifteen minutes?”
Richard shrugged. “They’re pretty evenly matched physically. Chase has a couple of inches of height on Ethan, but Ethan’s a trained law enforcement officer, and he’s a little heavier than Chase. Ethan probably has the edge, so yeah, I’d say give them the full fifteen.”
Jackie rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust as she continued preparing dinner.
“You’re forgetting that Chase kick boxes religiously,” Beth said. “That probably brings the odds right back to even. I say give them ten minutes.”
Hannah was bemused by the family’s lack of concern. Glad Paulo was in the sunroom with Sampson and had missed the drama, she spoke. “Aren’t you all the least bit concerned they’ll hurt each other?”
Richard answered her question. “Of course we are, but one way or another, they’re going to do this. We might as well let them get it out of their systems and hope it starts to heal the breach. It’s how they became friends in high school, actually. We should have thought of this sooner.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this,” Jackie said. “I’m not holding dinner. We’ll get it on the table and hope they settle things.” She started assigning tasks, determined to treat the afternoon as normally as possible.
As the men did as Jackie asked, Hannah leaned over and put her hand on Beth’s arm. “Are you really okay?”
“I’ll be fine once they come back.” Hannah gave her a quick hug before she headed into the sunroom to get Paulo. Beth watched her go and turned to the door to look out across the back yard. It was took every ounce of restraint she had to not run outside and follow her brother and Ethan to wherever they had gone to settle their differences.
Chapter Sixty One
By the time Ethan left the house to follow him, Chase had made it almost to the barn, and Ethan had to jog to catch up. He called out, but Chase ignored him, and Ethan called again, thinking Chase might not have heard him. The second time he called out, Chase stopped and his entire body went rigid. Slowly, he turned around. His face was dark with fury, and when Ethan saw the intent in his friend’s eyes, he gave a resigned sighed and shifted his weight to a defensive stance.
With a snarling growl that would have done a particular sideburn-wearing superhero proud, he launched himself toward Ethan, who caught him and locked his arms around Chase in a bear hug. The momentum took them down to the ground, and they rolled several times, each man trying to gain the upper hand. Chase managed to land several hard punches before Ethan could stop him, and after one particularly stunning blow, he managed to get on top of Ethan. He pressed his arm across Ethan’s throat.
“I won’t let you hurt her again,” Chase snarled as he leaned in, his face dangerously close to Ethan’s. “Do you honestly think I’ll let you put your hands on my sister? After what you’ve done?”
The pressure on Ethan’s windpipe was starting to affect his ability to breathe, and as much as he hated to do it to a man he loved like a brother, he raised his knee sharply and caught Chase in the groin. With a grunt, Chase rolled off Ethan and folded up beside him on the ground.
Ethan sat up gingerly, his body aching from where Chase’s punches had landed. He could feel bruises that had already started to form. He waited until Chase sat up before he spoke.
“Are you finished? Can we talk now?”
Chase didn’t respond, and Ethan stood up, taking his silence as an answer. He offered Chase a hand up. As soon as he stood up, Chase swung with his other fist and caught Ethan on the cheek. As Ethan reeled from the blow, Chase used a foot to sweep his legs out from underneath him. He laughed as Ethan hit the ground with a thud. It wasn’t a sound of humor, but rather a cold laugh, one that let Ethan know Chase was far from finished with the fight.
Until that point, Ethan had thought he would be able to get his friend to see reason, but the laugh told him it was going to take something more to get through to Chase. The only other thing he knew to try was to force Chase to confront his real demons, which Ethan felt had less to do with him and Beth, and more to do with Kiely and her death all those years ago. The idea of using Chase’s pain against him turned his stomach, but his friend hadn’t left him any other option. With great reluctance, he climbed to his feet and faced the man who was determined to beat him to a pulp.
“Is this really how you want things to be?” Ethan asked as they circled each other. “How far are you going to take this? You rea
lly think Beth is going to forgive and forget if you kill me?”
“She’ll get over it, eventually.” He lashed out with a sharp kick toward Ethan’s head, his foot barely missing its target as Ethan ducked.
“Besides, she’s already halfway gone on Gordon. If you had any decency, you’d just walk away from my sister now and find one of those sluts you usually hook up with. We can end this right now if you’ll agree to do that.”
Ethan’s gaze narrowed at Chase’s words, and he felt his annoyance start to slide its way into anger. “Whether Beth chooses me or someone else isn’t up to you.” He danced around his friend, staying just out of his reach. “If she wants me, she’ll have me, and you can go to hell. I won’t let you push her off on some other guy just because you can’t deal with your own past.”
“What the hell do you mean by that? My past doesn’t have anything to do with you and Beth.”
Ethan stepped a little too close, and Chase jabbed out a quick punch that caught him on the chin. He staggered backwards and slammed into the side of the barn with a loud thud. He grunted with pain, but managed to stay on his feet. “When are you going to realize you aren’t fighting me so much as you’re fighting the man who killed Kiely?”
Without waiting for a response, he launched himself away from the side of the barn and tackled Chase. His shoulder hit the other man in the stomach, and as they landed, he managed to grab one of Chase’s arms. He quickly twisted it up behind Chase’s back and held it tight enough to cause pain if Chase tried to break free, but not enough inflict any actual damage. Shifting his weight, Ethan threw his leg across Chase’s to prevent him from kicking out. He could feel the tension in his friend’s body and hoped he was on the right track
“Damn it, Chase, I’m not your enemy. Killing me is not going to bring her back.” He slowly eased his grip. As soon as Chase was able to move his arm, he shot over onto his back and slammed a punch into Ethan’s stomach.
Tired of being used as a punching bag, Ethan responded with an elbow to Chase’s face that caught him on the cheek below his left eye. Chase fell back to the ground with a grunt, holding his face. He glared at Ethan as he spoke.
“You think I don’t know that? Every day of my life, I have to live with the knowledge that I couldn’t protect her. Do you have any idea of what that monster did to Kiely? Do you?” He didn’t wait for Ethan’s response. He jumped up and stalked away a few feet, standing bent at the waist, his hands on his knees. After a moment, he looked back at Ethan with a sneer.
“Last fall I had to sit by and watch while you ruined my sister’s life. You lead Ruby to her. You’re the one who didn’t have the balls to stand up and fight for her. You let that son of a bitch take Beth and shoot her! Ormsby hunted her down like she was an animal. God knows what he would have done to her if she hadn’t gotten away from him. We would have lost her forever. You’re supposed to be my friend, damn you! How could you let that happen? You could have prevented all of it, but you were too damned scared of what might happen if you took a chance.”
Ethan stood and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He was unsurprised when it came away bloody. “I know. I also have to live with the fact that we conceived a child, and that the pregnancy probably ended because of the trauma from the shooting. If you think I’m not haunted every day by that, you’re an idiot.”
Chase finally turned to face him, his face full of anguish. “Do you know what a gift you had? I can’t stand it. You threw my sister away and you get a second chance. I didn’t do anything to cause Kiely to be taken away from me. I’d kill for a second chance, and it will never happen, Ethan. I can’t stand knowing I’ll never have that chance with her, to know whether we would have made it or not.”
Chase moved to the barn without meeting Ethan’s concerned gaze, and sat down on the grass beside it with his knees drawn up. He braced his arms on his legs, and head bowed, he struggled with his emotions.
Ethan plopped down beside him, groaning as his muscles protested. “You’ve learned a thing or two since the last time we did this.”
Chase snorted, and a small bark of laughter escaped him. “Yeah, well, you’ve just gotten soft in your old age. Why didn’t you fight harder?” He looked at Ethan, who shrugged.
“I figured you had the right to land a few punches. Besides, I hit you when I had to. You’re gonna have one hell of shiner.”
They sat for a few minutes in companionable silence, and let their emotional wounds heal. Ethan eventually stood up and held out his hand for Chase. “I told your folks to come looking for us if we weren’t back in fifteen minutes. We’d better head in.”
“Did you really think I’d try to kill you?” Chase asked as they headed back toward the house.
“I figured I had about a fifty-fifty shot at getting you to listen to reason.”
“I won’t apologize. If you’re looking for that, you’re going to be disappointed.”
Ethan snorted. “Didn’t ask you to, and I won’t.”
As they reached the gate that opened into the pool area, Chase stopped. He turned to look Ethan straight in the eye. “Just so you know - if Beth had died, I’d have killed you.”
“If Beth had died, you wouldn’t have had to kill me, Chase. I’d have taken care of that for you.”
Chase watched Ethan’s face closely for any sign that indicated he wasn’t telling the truth. When he saw that the other man was serious, he sighed. “You’re in that deep for her, huh?” Ethan nodded, and Chase shook his head as they went through the gate. “Well, I guess I’d better get used to the idea, then. You gonna marry her?”
“That’s up to your sister at this point. I’m going to do whatever she wants me to do.” Chase frowned at him, and Ethan held his hands out to his sides, palms up. “I promised her space. I’m not going to jeopardize everything by pushing her.”
“Do you want to marry her?”
“More than anything else in the world. Are you okay with that?”
“I don’t think it matters if I am or not. Besides, you’ve been a member of this family since you were sixteen years old,” Chase told him as he opened the back door. “You might as well make it official.”
~ * * * ~
Beth had kept one eye on the door and one eye on the clock, and her anxiety level rose with every minute that passed. Jackie directed the others to get the table ready, and by tacit agreement, they had all left Beth to her own thoughts as they worked. Just as she thought someone would have to head out after Chase and Ethan, they walked into in the yard.
“Thank God.”
When Jackie heard the exclamation, she hurried over to look out and saw the two men walking slowly toward the house.
“How do they look?” Richard asked from across the kitchen.
“Well, neither of them is limping, but Ethan’s shirt is torn, and they’re both covered in dirt. Jason, do you boys still have some clothes here?”
He poked his head through the dining room door. “Are they back?”
As his mother nodded, he hurried into the kitchen and watched as the men stopped at the gate. Hannah, Sampson, and Paulo followed him through from the dining room, and Hannah spoke quietly from where she stood behind Jason.
“Do they still look angry?”
He looked back at her and gave her a reassuring smile, then moved aside so that she could see. “They’re talking, so that’s a good sign.”
All conversation in the kitchen died as the door opened and they stepped inside. As Ethan met Beth’s worried gaze, he grinned crookedly, wincing when his split lip protested. She started to get up and go to him, but stopped when her mother cleared her throat. They all turned to Jackie, who stood with her hands on her hips. She was shaking her head slowly from side to side.
“Well, did you settle it?”
Ethan and Chase exchanged a wary look, recognizing the look on her face from when they were young men. They knew they were in trouble.
“Yes, ma’am,” they chorused. Chase s
quirmed a little and shuffled his feet under her stare.
“Hallelujah,” she said in a voice that was full of sarcasm. “Just think, you only had to beat the stuffing out of each other to do it. I’ll bet you managed to not swear once the entire time, too.” She held her hand out, palm up, and waited without saying a word as they each pulled their wallets out. They both winced as sore muscles protested, and silently handed her ten dollars each.
Jackie looked at the pitiful amount with raised eyebrows. She cleared her throat. “Boys, you’re adults now with good jobs, not teenagers on an allowance.”
Chase was indignant. “More? Geez, Mom, it was just a little fight.” He pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and handed it to her. “That’s all I have. Is it enough?”
Ethan’s face flushed as he handed over his cash. “I only have fifteen more. I don’t keep much cash on me these days. I don’t guess you take debit cards, do you?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he grimaced. “I didn’t - that didn’t come out right, Jackie. Sorry.”
Chase and Jason both snickered, and Jackie turned to level a warning glance at her youngest son before looking back to Ethan. “Ethan Javier Moore, don’t get smart with me. You can just owe me. Debit cards.” She rolled her eyes, but was unable to prevent a small smile. “Well, both of you are going to have to clean up before you sit at my table. Either of you need a doctor’s attention?”
“No, ma’am,” Ethan said. “I don’t, anyhow. Do you?” Chase shook his head.
“I’ve got a couple t-shirts upstairs you can wear,” Jason told them.
Jackie turned to Beth. “Take Ethan upstairs and get him cleaned up. There’s a first aid kit in our bathroom.”
With a nod, Beth headed for the stairs. Ethan kicked his shoes off at the door and followed behind her. Jackie pointed at Chase, who was sliding his own shoes off. “You go, too, but you’re on your own. Make it fast, kids. Dinner’s going to be cold before long.”
