Amazed (Tempted Book 3) (10 page)

“She’s going to hate me,” I said, running my hand over the imaginary wrinkles in my dress.

“Grace, she knows you. It’s not like you’re meeting her for the first time,” Ethan said, rubbing my face.

I knew he was right but still. I was freaking nervous.

“But this is the first time I’ll be meeting her as the girl who’s dating her son,” I told him, trying my hardest not to have a panic attack.

“Calm down,” he said, opening the door, “Mom, Lucy, we’re here.”

Walking into the living the room we were greeted by the other two women in Ethan’s life.

“Grace, you look beautiful,” His mom, Ava, said, pulling me in for a hug.

My nerves began to ease. Ava Charles was the world’s most gentle woman. Her eyes alone made you feel at home.

“How about me?” Ethan asked, doing a little twirl.

“You look handsome, Honey,” she said, chuckling at her son.

Lucy flung herself into Ethan’s arms and he spun her around. Ethan was Lucy’s favorite brother and you tell by the way he looked at her that she held a very important place in his heart.

“Hey, Princess,” he greeted her, giving her a big squeeze.

Placing her on her feet, he walked over and slipped his arm around my waist.

“I hope you guys are hungry,” she said, grabbing Lucy’s hand and leading us out the back door.

Ava always had these amazing cookouts every year and that year I was lucky enough to snag an invite.

“Starving,” Ethan said, patting his stomach.

Well, his nonexistent stomach. He actually had a cut six pack.

“Me too,” I said, smiling at her.

“Roman, Emma, and Kate should be here any minute,” Ava said, checking on the delicious smelling food in the grill.

“Don’t forget Maddie and West,” Ethan said, setting the table.

Looking at him putting plates in front of each chair, I noticed two extra seats.

“Who are those for?” I asked Ethan, pointing at them.

“Roman and West decided to invite Luca and Holland,” he said as if it was no big deal.

It took a minute for what he said to register in my head,

“What made them do that?” I asked, waiting for him to tell me he was just joking.

“You’re a part of my life, so that makes you a part of their lives and Holland is a big part of your life. And it seems like Luca is going to be a big part of hers, so we’re all going to make an effort.”

“For me?”

“For you,” he said, kissing my temple.

That made my heart smile and do back flips. We could all get along, right? I sure hoped we could. As Ethan and I took our seats Emma, Roman, Kate, Maddie, and West walked in.

“Mrs. C, where are the strippers?” West asked, pulling Ava into his arms.

She had always been like a mother to him because he wasn’t blessed in the mother department.

“They won’t be here until dark,” she said, winking and playing along with him.

“Mom, that’s just wrong,” Ethan said, looking like he was going to throw up while Roman covered his ears.

Looking at their reaction at their mom talking about strippers, I had to laugh. Everyone went silent and I saw their eyes shoot to the walkway leading to the back yard. Turning to see what had their attention, I saw Luca and Holland standing hand in hand. In Luca’s other hand I saw a beautiful bouquet of daisies and tulips.

“Hey, everyone,” Holland said, smiling.

She was uncomfortable, I could see it all over her face but I could also see that she was happy. Happier than I had ever see her. Happy looked good on her.

“Holland, Luca, welcome,” Ava said, walking over to them.

“Thanks for having us,” Luca said, handing her the flowers.

“That was so sweet but you didn’t have to do that,” she said, staring at him in awe.

“I wanted to,” he said, genuinely.

It was like Holland had made him want to be a better person. Maybe she was just what he needed.

“Let’s eat,” West said already piling his plate sky high.

“West, have some manners,” Ava scolded him as Maddie rolled her eyes at him.

Everyone fixed their plates and gathered around the table. The breeze that was coming off of the trees made the heat bearable and so did Ava’s homemade cherry lemonade.

“What’s everyone’s plans for tonight?” Ava asked, rocking baby Kate in her arms with Lucy cooing at her.

Judging by the look on her face everyone knew hers. She was granting Roman and Emma another night of freedom.

“Me and Holland was planning on spending the night at my lake house and then spend the day at the lake tomorrow. You guys want to join us?” Luca asked, chewing on his burger.

He could be nice when he wanted to. I could tell he was honestly trying to bury the hatchet. I hoped everyone else wanted to do the same thing. I saw Roman, Ethan, and West exchange a look but I couldn’t tell what they were thinking.

“We’re in, right Grace?” Ethan asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Right,” I said, smiling at him.

I was so proud of him for giving Luca a second chance. It proved to me the kind of man he was and I gave myself a mental pat on the back for having such good taste.

“Yeah, Man, that sounds good,” West said, looking shocked at Luca’s peace offering.

One look at Maddie’s face and I knew that she was just as proud of her man as I was of mine.

“Roman, you in?” Luca asked and for once he wasn’t smirking at Roman, he was smiling.

Roman and Emma looked over at Kate and I knew what they were going to say. They were going to use her as an excuse and apparently Ava sensed it too.

“I’m going to watch Kate and Lucy is going to help. We’ve got her. Go be young,” she said, looking straight at Roman as if she was trying to say you better make peace.

“Yeah, we’re in,” he said, turning his gaze from his mother.

Such a momma’s boy.

When everyone finished eating we said our goodbyes to Ava, Lucy, and little Kate and went to pack our overnight bags.

After thirty minutes of Luca and Ethan talking about football we arrived at the lake house.

“Thank God, I don’t think I could have handled one more minute of that,” Holland said, swinging her overnight bag over her shoulder.

“Babe, give me that,” Luca said, removing it from her shoulder and stealing a small kiss in the process.

I still wasn’t sure how those two ended up in a relationship but at the moment I didn’t really care. She was happy and that was all that mattered.

Laughing and shaking my head, I picked up my bag only to feel someone rip it from my shoulder and tap me on the ass. Turning around I saw Ethan and playfully swatted his shoulder. He winked and then turned around to follow Luca.

Men.

“Could you handle one more minute of that?” I asked as she leaned against Luca’s black Escalade and watched him walk inside.

“Why ask questions you already know the answer to?” she replied, pushing herself off the vehicle and linking her arm with mine as we followed everyone inside.

“How many cars does he have?” I whispered to Holland, looking over my shoulder at the shiny black Escalade.

“Three. Escalade, his bike, and his sports car,” she said, opening the door.

Walking in, I saw Ethan and Luca once again talking about sports.

“Let’s go in the kitchen and unpack the food,” she said, grabbing the grocery bags and bringing them into the kitchen.

The kitchen was amazing. It had a huge window that held a perfect view of the lake and every luxury kitchen appliance you could possibly imagine.

“This looks like a kitchen from a magazine,” I said, looking around.

“I know right?” she asked, stocking the cabinets and fridge.

Hearing voices trail down the hallway, I turned to see Emma and Maddie standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

“Dream kitchen,” Maddie said, rubbing her hands all over the granite.

I knew the minute she seen it she would go bonkers over it. Kitchens were sort of her thing.

Emma, Holland, and Maddie left to go sit by the lake but I just wanted to take a bath and cuddle Ethan in bed. If I could get him away from Luca.

Following the laughter, I ended up in the living room and saw the guys talking animatedly. West was mid story about something stupid he did.

The question was which stupid thing? He had done a lot of them.

“Hey, Baby,” Ethan greeted me, “Where you headed?”

“I wanted to take a bubble bath and needed to ask Luca which room we could take,” I said, looking from Ethan to Luca.

“My room is at the end of the hall but you are welcome to take any other room,” he said, pointing up the stairs.

“Thanks. See you guys later,” I said, walking up the stairs.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I turned to see Ethan looking right at me.

“I thought you were having guy time,” I said, walking down to where he was and wrapping my arms around his neck.

“Guy time or you naked in a bath full of bubbles? It wasn’t really a hard choice,” he said, sliding his hands down to my ass.

Kissing him, I pulled him up the stairs. My body was filling to the top with want. I wanted him to own my body the way he owned my heart.

By the time we got through the door we were completely void of all of our clothing and our mouths were moving frantically all over each other.

Pushing him on the bed, I climbed on top of him and straddled him.

The bubble bath was long forgotten.

The heat from the bonfire danced just like the people dancing around it. Sitting on Ethan’s lap, I laid my head back on his shoulder and watched all the girls trying way too hard and the boys who didn’t care. I was so thankful that I wasn’t one of those girls anymore.

I was completely content in my relationship and I realized how truly blessed I was to have a boyfriend like Ethan.

“Look at West,” Ethan said, laughing.

Looking at West, I saw him doing the sprinkler as Maddie pretended to be mortified.

She secretly loved it.

“Always the center of attention,” I said, shaking my head.

“Not to me,” Ethan whispered against my skin.

“What?”

“He’s not the center of attention to me, Babe. Only ever you.”

That caused chills to run through my body.

“I love you,” I told him, looking at him.

“I love you,” he said, kissing my ear.

I could have sat there forever and a day. Getting tired of him was impossible and I knew that. Everything about him made me giddy. The way he looked at me, how protective he was of not only me but our relationship too. I even loved the small things about him like the way he couldn’t sleep with a blanket over him or the way he always misplaced his phone.

“Hey, lovebirds,” Emma said, pulling Roman down to sit beside us.

“Like you guys can talk,” I said, raising my eyebrows at her.

“So, Luca was a surprise, Huh?” Emma asked and I knew she was trying to feel out Ethan and Roman.

“I think he still hates us. He’s only trying to get along with us because of Holland,” Roman sad, looking at me.

I was glad he cared about Holland enough to try to get along with everyone.

“I think he’s a good addition to the group,” Emma said, squeezing Roman’s hand.

“We’ll see about that,” Roman said, pulling her on to his lap.

“I’m going to get a drink. Anyone want one?” I excused myself.

They all shook their heads no. Walking into the house out of the crowd, I felt someone tap my shoulder. Turning around, I saw Abby Daniels.

“What do you want?” I said, glaring at her.

She had been a nightmare to me ever since I had started dating Ethan. She was the last person I wanted to talk to at a party. She was like my own personal party pooper.

“I need to talk to you about Ethan.”

“What is your obsession with Ethan, Abby?”

“Listen, Ethan was the one that told about you and Professor Conrad.”

She was lying, she had to be. Ethan wouldn’t have done that. This was just another ploy to break us up so she could pounce on him the second out relationship was done.

“How could you possibly know that?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

“I overheard him asking the dean to keep his name private. He didn’t want you to find out.”

“Why are you telling me this now? Why didn’t you do it sooner?”

“I don’t know, okay? I just felt like you needed to know,” she said, turning to walk away.

Leaning against the kitchen island, I tried to keep the voice that was telling me that she was telling the truth to be quiet but it didn’t listen.

It was like the universe didn’t want me to be happy.

Storming out of the door, I walked back to where I left him.

“Tell me you didn’t do it,” I pleaded with him.

He shot up from his seat and placed his hands on my shoulders.

“Baby, what are you talking about?”

“Were you the one who told the dean about me and Talon?” I asked, praying that it was all a rumor.

His silence was deafening. He said everything I needed to know by not saying anything at all. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and removed myself from his grip.

“I can’t believe you. How could you do that? Why would you do that?”

“I did it for us,” he said, running his hands through his hair frantically, “I thought that I was losing you to him.”

“I wasn’t yours to lose, Ethan. You dumped me. I had to try to move on because you didn’t want me.”

“I always wanted you, Grace. I had to get him out of the way.”

“All you had to do was tell me you wanted me back and I would have come crawling. You ruined someone’s career. Do you understand that?”

“Grace, I’m sorry but you just looked like you liked him so much and I knew I messed up with you,” he said, trying to defend himself.

“You messed up again,” I said, looking over at Luca, “Will you drive me home?”

“Yeah, I’ll go start the car,” he said, kissing Holland’s cheek and walking to the driveway.

I knew better than to look at him because if I did I wouldn’t be able to resist him and he would be automatically forgiven.

“Holland, will you help me get my stuff together?” I said with my back turned to Ethan.

“Yeah, let’s go,” she said, placing her hand in mine and leading me toward the lake house.

I was too shocked to cry. I didn’t know that had that in him. People taunted me for weeks and I couldn’t count how many times people at school called me “Teacher’s pet”. He saw what I went through and how guilty I felt because I felt like I cost Talon his job.  I had to get far away from Ethan and this time I had to stay far away from him. I knew that with one look at those eyes I would turn into putty in his hands. Like I always did but that had to change. I couldn’t allow myself to fall under his spell.

“I’ll grab our stuff. Wait here,” Holland said, sitting me down on the couch.

Waiting till she was out of sight, I finally broke down and sobs escaped from my chest. Why couldn’t anything be simple? Why was their always a catch to everything?

I thought we really had a shot but I found out the hard way that we didn’t.

“Baby,” Ethan’s voice rang through my ears.

“Please don’t do this,” I said, burying my head in my hands.

“Look at me,” he said as I felt the couch go down beside me.

That was a simple request but I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it.

“I can’t. Please leave, Ethan.”

“I’m not going anywhere until we talk,” he said, scooting closer to me.

“If you won’t leave I will.”

Getting up, I started to run up the stairs to find Holland but she was already on her way down.

“Are you ready?” I asked, frantically wiping my eyes.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the door.

“Grace!” Ethan yelled, trying to get me to stop.

I pretended like I didn’t hear him and kept walking.

Walking away from him was hard because I was walking away from my heart.