“I wanted to talk to you for a minute.” His voice was low and unsure, nothing like his usual.
She sniffed and rolled her eyes. “Why, when you’ve been ignoring me for three months. Look, I’m ready to get home, I’ve had a long and stressful day,” she said, and then turned towards the door.
“Wait!” he shouted, as he grabbed her elbow and pulled her around.
“What?” She stared down at his hand that held her in place.
He let go of his grip and took a step back. “Well, I do have a good reason why I’ve been ignoring you, but it’s hard to put into words.” They stared at each other as he tried to gather coherent thoughts, and the intensity in her brown eyes was disconcerting. If he wanted a chance to work things out with her, he needed to come clean about everything.
Taking a step towards her, he closed the distance between them. “Do you think you could give me a chance to explain everything?” he asked, hope softening his strong features.
She studied him for a minute and he decided to push his luck even further. He reached out and gently took her hand, giving it a light squeeze. “You might understand where I was coming from if you would just give me a chance to tell you about my past,” he whispered.
He was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t jerk away.
Just as she pulled her hand away, the door they were standing next to pushed open. They both jumped and flew backward as the person pushed through. Stepping to the side, Ethan shoved his hands into the pockets of his black dress slacks just as Mrs. Butcher came into view, annoyance evident from the thin line her lips had formed.
She stopped abruptly, her eyes traveling from Brooke to Ethan before she gave a short nod. “Doctor Harris. Ms. Todd,” she said, disapproval coating each word.
“Mrs. Butcher, how are you doing?” Ethan greeted in a cheery voice.
“I’ll be better when I’m out of this place,” she answered hotly, as she soared past him, never breaking her stride.
Ethan caught Brooke’s attention and they both snickered as they watched her stomp up the stairs. Once they heard the door slam shut, they both started laughing.
“Well, nothing like getting caught by Mrs. Butcher. I was afraid she was going to try and send us to the office there for a minute,” Ethan teased.
“Yeah, she’s such an old prude. But, it’s been hard finding reasons to laugh today, and I needed that,” Brooke said.
“And why is that? I’ve never seen you in a bad mood,” Ethan said.
She fiddled with her braid as her expression faded. “Well, other than my patient passing away this morning, I’m usually in a good mood most days.”
His face softened at her news and he watched her eyes jerk upward, looking like she was trying to control her emotions. Losing a patient was always hard, even on him, and he’d seen it more times than he wanted to. “I’m sorry, that’s always tough to deal with. How are you holding up?”
She nodded. “Yeah, it is, especially when it’s your first one. But, Paige and Kyleigh helped take my mind off the situation for the rest of the day and I’ll be better once I’m out of here and home with a glass of wine in hand.” She tried smiling, but it barely touched her face.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that today. I know how rough it is. I wish I could say it gets easier, but unfortunately it never does.” he said.
“I can’t imagine that it would,” Brooke agreed.
“Well, if you need to talk about today, I unfortunately have plenty of experience in that area,” Ethan said.
A small smile finally appeared as she said, “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” She started to turn for the door but paused at Ethan’s question.
“Brooke, will you just let me take you out for dinner, again, sometime. Start over with everything out in the open and do things right this time?” Ethan offered with eyes full of hope. “If you don’t like what I have to say, then you can walk away and I’ll never chase you down again.” he added.
“Ethan, I just don’t know. I need to think about it.”
He nodded and stepped back, giving her space. “Okay,” he said softly.
She gave him one last look before she opened the door and bolted out, not giving him a chance to reply.
The door slammed shut, the noise echoing loudly in the hall and jolting him out of the shock of rejection. She was hesitant about saying a flat no and that gave him just enough determination to show her how wrong he’d been.
Because, in the span of just two dates, he was the happiest he’d been in a very long time.
Chapter 8
BROOKE
The traffic down Lincoln Avenue was almost intolerable, especially after the long day she’d just had, and her mouth was already watering just thinking about the wine sitting unopened in her fridge. She’d had the day from hell, and she completely deserved to drink that whole bottle, if she chose to.
As she waited on the light to turn green, she wasn’t able to stop her thoughts from drifting to how Ethan had chased her down the hall at work today. It had caught her completely off guard. He had said he wasn’t ready to date and had practically ignored her for the last three months, and then all of a sudden, he’s standing in the stairwell in front of her, stuttering and trying his best to spit out his feelings. She didn’t understand it. She never thought she’d see the articulate Ethan a blubbering mess, he always seemed so in control, but he was having trouble expressing himself. Big time. The moment had seemed surreal. It had taken everything for her to say no to another date, even though her heart had been thumping with the notion of a second chance with him. But, her rash decision-making was the reason she was in this mess to begin with.
Inside, it was killing her to keep her distance, but for her own good, she needed to tread with caution.
The honking from the car behind her startled her and she peered in her rear-view mirror as some idiot was waving his hands up at her. Her eyes flew to the stoplight and she saw that it was now green. Sighing, she flipped off the car behind her, and slowly took off through the intersection.
“I’m going, jerk,” she yelled. Her windows were up, but it released a little bit of tension, regardless.
As the car decided to ride her ass, her attention was diverted to her phone buzzing in the passenger seat. She reached over and snatched it up and saw it said blocked call. As soon as she went to hit answer, the call abruptly ended.
“Hmm, that’s weird,” she said, keeping her eyes on the traffic ahead of her.
The idiot behind her honked again, evidently, he was not happy with the lack of speed at which she was driving, and Brooke slammed on her brakes. Screeching of tires grinding against blacktop reverberated outside as the guy’s front end came within inches of her bumper. She hit the gas, smiling at the disbelief that reflected through his front windshield.
Today was not the day to screw with her.
As the sun sank into the horizon, it splattered light pink and blue hues everywhere, looking like it came right out of an oil painting. She stepped out of her car and took a minute to admire the gorgeous sunset. It was the only beautiful thing she had seen all day. She turned and ascended the stairs to her apartment, more than ready to put this day behind her. As she slid the keys into her lock, her phone buzzed again. Pushing around ten different types of make-up, her fingers finally wrapped around her phone, and she quickly put it to her ear before the person could hang up.
“Hello,” she said, as she pushed open the door and headed inside.
“Hey, Brookie,” a soft voice echoed through the phone.
She tossed her stuff onto the table and said, “Hey, Grams. How are you doing?” She had always been close to her Grandma, spending as much time there while growing up as she did at her own house.
“I’m doing good. Just got back inside from the garden.”
Her voice sounded tired and Broo
ke said, “Now, Gram, you need to be careful going out to the garden. It’s like what, 95 degrees today, I’m not even going to talk about the humidity level.”
“Oh, sweetie, I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me. Now, how was your day? It’s been a few days since I’ve talked to you.”
Pushing eighty, Brooke constantly worried about her Gram. She lived alone in a small town called, Rosedale, which was about an hour from Sweet Haven, so Brooke couldn’t get out to visit her as often as she wanted to.
“I’m okay,” Brooke said, tone low as she thought about Miss Ellie.
“What happened?” her Gram asked, seeming to hear the discontent hiding beneath her words.
She leaned back against her counter, staring out the back-patio door and into the dark sky that was now lit with a billion stars. “I had my first patient pass today, so it has been a rough day.” Tears threatened to surface, but she pushed them back, and took another sip of wine instead.
“Oh, hon, I’m so sorry, I know that’s a hard thing to deal with. How are you holding up?”
“You were a nurse for thirty years, any advice on how to get past losing a patient?” Brooke asked.
She heard a sigh drift through the phone, as if her grandma was thinking back to every patient she’d lost.
“Well, it will always be hard, no matter how many times you go through it. After I had taken care of my paperwork and had the family taken care of, I would take a break and go somewhere quiet, and just bawl my eyes out the whole time. It didn’t fix anything, but it felt good to just get those emotions out. And then I’d gather myself, remember why I went into nursing, which was to help people, and then I’d go back in and head straight into another patient’s room and do something nice for them. It helped to keep me grounded to my cause.” There was a slight pause and then her grandma added, “Sometimes that’s all you can do.”
“I like the idea of going back in and doing something nice for another patient. I’ll keep that in mind next time. Thanks, Gram,” Brooke said.
“I’m so proud of you, you know that, right?” her Gram stated.
Her eyes flew to the ceiling. Her grandma always did her best to find the positive in every situation. Brooke couldn’t help but be thankful that she had inherited some of those wonderful traits. She didn’t come by her cheery personality naturally; it was a gift from her grandma.
“Yes, I know, and thank you.”
“Sweetie, you haven’t by chance talked to Casey, have you?”
She paused, one leg out of her scrubs and the other still dangling mid-air. Why was her Gram asking if she’d talked to Casey; she knew they were not on speaking terms.
“Of course not,” Brooke said, trying not to let her voice sound too bitter. It wasn’t her Gram’s fault that Casey had betrayed her. “Why do you ask?”
“I left her a message the other day, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’m sure she’s fine. You know me, I worry too much about you girls.”
Pulling on a pair of black sweats, Brooke found worry trickling into her thoughts despite her resentment towards her sister. She hated what she’d done to her, but she didn’t want anything bad to happen to her, either.
“Well, you know how she is. Maybe she’s just busy... doing whatever it is that she does,” she said, throwing a hand in the air. She had no clue what her sister was up to these days, and frankly, didn’t care. She never asked her Gram how Casey was or what she was doing with her life. And she doubted Casey did, either.
“She does stay very busy and sometimes it does take her several days to call me back. You know how bad your sister is at staying in touch,” her grandma stated.
Brooke rolled her eyes. She hated how her sister never kept in touch as much with their Gram. And hearing the undertones of worry in her grandma’s voice, made her despise Casey even more. Pouring another glass of wine, she said, “Let me know if you don’t hear from her in a week and I’ll look into it.” At the thought of talking to her sister, she downed half the glass of wine in one shot.
“I’m sure she’s fine. I don’t want you to have to do that. I know how badly she hurt you. I’ll let you know when I hear from her, though. I was just hoping she’d called you or something. I hate that you girls are not speaking, even though I do know it’s all Casey’s fault. I still can’t understand why she did what she did.”
“Well, unless she’s calling to apologize, she has no reason to call me. But, yeah, let me know when you hear from her so I know you’re not worrying anymore,” Brooke said, hoping her grandma wasn’t going to go into the details, again. She wanted to forget about what her sister had done to her.
By the time she’d hung up with her grandma she had finished off almost the whole bottle of wine. Cradling the bottle against her chest, she shuffled to the couch and plopped down. With her feet resting on the coffee table, she tilted the bottle back and chugged the last quarter of wine. She wiped at her mouth and began scrolling through Facebook; the events from today had taken a toll on her.
She put her phone away when her vision became too blurry to read the posts and shuffled down the hall to her bedroom. She had to be up at eight in the morning to be at the nine o’ clock mandatory meeting for work. Since she wasn’t working tomorrow, she could wear street clothes to the meeting. Pulling open her dresser drawer, she dug through a stack of simple tees, and her fingers brushed against something. Pushing the clothes to the side, her body suddenly went rigid with what she saw lying in the bottom of the drawer.
Her fingers wrapped around the last remaining photo, and she pulled it out of the drawer. Somehow, she had missed this one when she had thrown all of his things away. Anger began to surface, lit full force by the wine, and through clenched teeth she said, “I hate you, Sam! You’ve ruined my life and now I don’t trust anyone!”
She was suddenly back in the moment that had changed her whole life...
Juggling her keys in one hand and the pot of soup in the other, Brooke slid Sam’s house key into the lock, trying her best not to spill the Chicken noodle soup all over her. Sam had been sick with the flu for the past week, and not seeing him for a week was killing her, so she had decided to make him some soup to help him feel better. She opened the door and when she didn’t see him on the couch, figured he was lying in bed watching TV, like he did when he didn’t feel well. She set the pot down and headed down the hall to his room, being quiet because she wanted to surprise him. As she came upon his closed bedroom door, she paused when she heard a woman giggle. She narrowed her eyes at the sound and pressed her ear to the door. Moans echoed through the door and, shocked, she took a step back, her hand going to her chest. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Maybe it was the TV. Even though she knew in her heart that wasn’t the case, she still clung to that hope when she opened the door.
Her eyes stung with pain when she saw the back of a naked woman in bed with Sam. His hands were gripping her waist as groans filled the quiet room. The gasp that came from her mouth startled them and, in a blur, she saw Sam jumping out of bed and pulling a t-shirt on as he began defending himself. The woman was scrambling to cover herself, and when she finally turned around, Brooke’s knees almost gave way at who the other woman was.
“Casey?” She whispered the name, even though her mind was still trying to figure out what was happening. When the shock finally wore off, she lunged at her sister. “You bitch!” she yelled, as she cornered her sister against the wall. “How could you?”
“Brooke, I’m so sorry,” Casey said, as tears streamed down her face.
“You’re sorry?” Brooke bit out. “You’re sorry?” she repeated, and then turned her attention to Sam who was grabbing her shoulder and trying to pull her away. She spun around on him, smacking him in the face as she let her anger completely go. “How could you?” she said, as she pushed him away from her.
He stumbled backwards, and when he regained his bala
nce said, “Brooke, let me explain.”
“No, I don’t want to hear your lies.” She turned to Casey and said, “And as for you. You’re no longer my sister. Don’t ever call me again.” She stormed out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
She ripped the picture in half, and a feeling of satisfaction shot through her when she realized the picture had torn perfectly between them. It was nothing more than a lucky tear, but to her it signified a dividing line between her past and her present.
She needed to let that part of her past go. She needed to move on instead of letting him keep her weighed down with all that resentment. It was done and over with, so why was she giving him power to ruin the rest of her life?
But if she decided to move on, did it mean giving Ethan another chance? That thought hit her hard. Giving Ethan another chance also meant opening herself up to get hurt again.
Did she dare risk that?
He was obviously leery at any kind of relationship, but she could relate to that apprehension. It was evident with the way he had chased her down today that he had feelings for her, and it’s a scary thing when feelings begin to surface for someone. She could relate to that as well. Could she let herself trust again?
The only way to find out was to open her heart and take a chance.
With angry tears streaming down her cheeks, she tossed the side that had a smiling Sam into the trash, exactly where she thought he belonged. He was why she now shied away from relationships. She had never really known true heartbreak until Sam, and it had made her never want to risk that feeling again.
She crawled into bed and stared at nothing on the ceiling. Tears still flowed down her flushed cheeks in a slow stream. It was ridiculous to still be mad at the situation after all these years. She didn’t want Sam back, but deep down she did want her sister back, even after everything. Her sister had never apologized, and that hurt the most.
But more than anything, she wanted the old Casey back. The one who was there for her through thick and thin. The one who would show up at her door with a container of Haagen Daz whenever she had broken up with a guy, or when she’d just had a really bad day. The old Casey who would tell her cheesy jokes as they sat on the couch eating the ice cream by huge spoonfuls, talking about everything but the current problem. And somehow, after the ice cream was gone, her problems didn’t seem so big, after all. She knew it wasn’t the ice cream itself that eased her worries, but it was the comfort that knowing her sister was there for her. That, had eased her troubles.
When Love Ignites Page 7
