Romance Me (Boxed Set) (34 page)

Ethan spat out an ivy leaf that had made its way to his mouth. “You won’t let me in and I need to talk to you. I don’t want to do it by yelling at you from your porch.”

“You’re going to kill yourself.”

“Nope. Theo and I used to sneak out this way to go party. This ivy trunk won’t go anywhere.” He pulled himself until he could grasp both sides of the window casing and motioned with his head for her to move out of the way.

“Oh, great. You petty criminals used my room as an escape route.” Sadie’s sarcasm sounded loud and clear, but she backed up and gave him space.

One more strong pull and Ethan’s head and shoulders were in Sadie’s room. He inched his chest across the window frame, pausing partway through. “Here, give me a hand. I used to have a much smaller body.”

“Some cat burglar you’d make.” Sadie reached out, grabbed the back of his white linen shirt, now spotted with water drops and spider webs. With strong hands, she hauled him the remainder of the way into her bedroom.

He bent and dusted off his tuxedo trousers, which had gathered enough leaves and detritus on his way up to start their own forest. A mess formed on the polished hardwood floor. Now, without foliage on his clothing, he stood and gave her a grin.

Sadie crossed her arms over her chest. “How come I never knew about this escape route? Why didn’t I ever see you guys sneak out this way?”

“You were usually over at Chessie’s, but sometimes you were here. You tended to sleep like the dead, so we never had to worry about getting caught.”

“You were here when I was sleeping?” Sadie’s voice sounded small, a contrast to her earlier snark, catching him by surprise.

Ethan cocked his head. Vulnerability wasn’t something he usually associated with Sadie. “Yeah, I used to watch you sometimes. Theo said I was weird, but I thought you were cute. You were so feisty and fiery when you were awake, but like a little angel when you slept. You always had your cat curled up beside you and your headgear on—” Ethan stopped when he noticed tears running down Sadie’s cheeks. “Hey, what’s up, kiddo?”

She shook her head and spread her arms wide. “You wouldn’t understand.”

He stood still, perplexed. He’d been ready for a fight, not tears. What the heck was he supposed to do now? When her gaze dropped to the floor, he figured he’d better do something, and quick. He came closer, then sat down on her bed and pulled her down beside him. The tears were running full bore now. Something tugged at his heart, the same feeling he always got when his little sister would cry. Except there was no way he was feeling like a brother right now. Even with tears streaming down her face, Sadie still was amazingly sexy.

He reached over and pulled her head onto his shoulder, gently rubbing her back. He tugged a tissue from the box on her night stand, then wiped away the tears glistening on her cheeks.

“Try me,” he said, his voice quiet.

“It’s just that, well—” She hiccupped, then the words came out in a tumbled rush. “I haven’t seen you in twelve years and you didn’t even recognize me but I have your face forever burned in my memory and I got soaked in a convertible and I only got to have one martini and I crushed my—never mind.”

“Um, Sadie? I’m really sorry I didn’t recognize you.” Ethan put his arm around her, pulling her close. “You’ve got to understand, it was smoky in that room from the dry ice, and I swear, in real life you don’t look a lot like the pictures I’ve seen of you over the years.” He nuzzled her hair. “And you’ve got to remember, the last time I saw you in person was when you had a mouth full of braces, glasses a mile thick, and a head of massively curly hair.”

Sadie choked out a laugh as Ethan stroked her hair back behind her ears. She let out a short laugh. “And was all of fourteen years old.”

“True. Back then you were stick-skinny and rather flat-chested. And here you are now: silky smooth hair, no braces or glasses, and a good four inches taller in those heels you had on. Plus, you have boobs. I definitely can’t remember boobs on the Sadie I used to hang out with.” He fought the desire to stare at her cleavage, and instead sucked in a breath of her perfumed scent.

She smiled and peeked down. “I’ll have you know I grew them myself.”

Ethan laughed, then cupped her chin and turned her to face him. “It is good to see you again, Sadie. It’s been too long.”

A wry smile formed on her lips. Her eyes shifted downward, looking away from him. “I know I’ve changed,” she said slowly. “It just never dawned on me that I changed so much that you wouldn’t even recognize me right off the bat.” She let out a shuddery breath.

He could tell she was working hard to regain control, embarrassed by her earlier bout of tears. He stroked her shoulder with his thumb, encouraging her to continue.

Sadie leaned her head against his shoulder, her hands twisting together in her lap. “Even though you’ve been living so far away, we’ve still been connected—talking on the phone and emailing each other. Texting. I thought you’d be so happy to see me. Instead, you walked up to me at the auction like I was a complete stranger.”

Ethan nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. No amount of apologizing would make this right, but he needed her to forgive him. “In a way you
are
a complete stranger. You went from cute little kid to absolute knockout and I wasn’t around to witness the transformation. Everyone said you’d grown up and come into your own, but I guess I never got what they meant. I thought you just got your braces off.”

With tears finally at bay, Sadie let out a low and throaty laugh. “I think that everyone expected me to lose the glasses and braces and get a better hairstyle, but what surprised people most were the boobs.”

Ethan stole another appreciative look at her breasts, then thought better of it when his body responded. Now was the time to make up for the years of ignoring Sadie, not the time to try and get her into bed. He still couldn’t reconcile Sadie, the knock-kneed girl he’d known as a kid, with the embodiment of perfection sitting by his side. How he had been the only one not to have seen Sadie’s transformation? Surely over the years Lia would have told him what a knockout Sadie had become. Of course, Lia probably assumed he’d known all along. After all, who would be so wrapped up in their own life that they missed out on the lives of their friends?

Apparently him. He’d been so focused on developing his career that he hadn’t bothered to pay attention to the world around him. His sister had lived in an abusive marriage and Sadie had grown boobs, all while he fought to pave his way in a business that demanded more than just his time. A business he’d been eager to take a break from to come back home. Back home to see Lia, and to find Sadie.

The same woman wiping her tears off on his shoulder. He chuckled. She’d done the same thing when she’d fallen off her bike when she was ten and he’d carried her, crying and blubbering, into the house for a bandage. Some things never changed, including Sadie using his clothes to dry her tears.

“What did you mean by the rest of what you said?” he asked. “The stuff about the car and the martini and some mystery thing you said you crushed. Explain.”

“Oh,” she said, then paused. “Well, my plane was delayed, and then the frigging top on my convertible broke so I got soaked on the way up from the airport. I hated that I had to miss dinner with you, and Chessie sloshed one of my martinis all over the floor.”

“I should have given you one of mine,” he said. “Your brother just about force fed them to me. Truthfully, I was just hungry. I was after the olives.”

“Yuck.” Sadie crinkled her nose. “A
real
martini. I like the girlie kind, the ones with sugar on top.”

“Yeah, that you would,” Ethan said. She snuggled against him, her movement sending ripples of want and need through him. Although his mind kept lecturing him about her being off-limits, his body argued back. He wanted this girl sitting beside him. No—not
girl
, he corrected himself.
Woman
. Sadie was all woman now. And the same woman he’d been so drawn to in the crowd. Apology over, he’d probably better say goodbye and make the half-mile trek back to his B&B.

Ethan shifted to get up, but paused in mid-motion, an unfinished thought in the back of his mind. “What else happened? What was it that you crushed?”

Sadie rolled herself back on the bed, fists covering her eyes. Even under the soft candlelight, Ethan could tell she blushed.

“Sadie?” Ethan nudged her side.

She cringed.

Resorting to tactics he’d learned from Theo, Ethan started tickling her. “You can’t escape. I won’t stop tickling you until you tell.”

Sadie squealed and writhed underneath him. “Damn having an older brother who shared all my secrets,” she gasped out.

His fingers went wider and he began tickling harsher as she laughed and sucked in air. She was strong, he’d give her that, but he was stronger. In seconds he had her pinned between his thighs, hands deep in her armpits, tickling without mercy. And, although his mind said tickling was an excellent way to get information from Sadie, his body was telling him it was terrific foreplay. Maybe he’d better pull back a bit.

“Stop, I give, I give!” she managed to get out in breathless pants.

Ethan lay down beside her, folded his arms over his chest, and said one word: “Tell.”

***

Sadie sighed. Tell him about her Ethan Box? Nerves clenched at her stomach as she thought about what a full disclosure of the truth could mean to her and Ethan. Nothing could ever be the same again.

But maybe that’s what they needed. Maybe she needed to confess all to him. Let him know how she’d been unable to let go of her massive crush. Spill all her secrets. Maybe they could move forward once she told him—maybe
she
could move forward.

Was this one of those moments of truth people always talked about?

What was it that the life coach on television had said? Sadie struggled to recall. Something about how a person could either remain static or could channel their energy and go forward. She knew what staying in the same place gave her: she was living that reality. She had no clue what going forward might do, but did she really want what she had now?

Or was she ready to take the plunge and tell Ethan about her secret dream?

She steeled her nerves. Maybe tonight was the night to make a change. What’s the worst that could happen? Ethan would go back to New York and she wouldn’t see him for another dozen years. But to tell him would be huge for her. Gigantic, really. Could she actually confess what she’d kept bottled up for all those years?

Chapter Four

Sadie bit her lower lip, watching the light from the candles dance on her bedroom’s ceiling. Tell Ethan her deepest secret? If she showed him her Ethan Box, the secret she’d kept for years would be out. There’d be no going back. But if she didn’t show him her Ethan Box, there’d be no moving forward. She took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll tell you my secret—and about what I broke earlier tonight. But don’t tickle me again. I’ll pee.”

At Ethan’s low laugh she rapped him lightly on the nose. “Don’t laugh! I’m nervous.”

He stopped laughing and entwined her fingers with his. She watched his fingers stroke hers, his long and dark, hers small and pale in the candlelight.

“You, nervous? That’s a surprise. You were always the assertive one, so confident, even demanding. In fact,” Ethan said, squeezing her hand, “you could be a bit of a brat.”

A faint smile grew, teasing Sadie’s lips upward. “That’s how everyone sees me. At least, that’s how I want them to see me. But really, I’m not. I’m insecure as all get-out. You know how some women fake orgasms?” She watched as Ethan nodded, his eyes still fixed on their hands. “Well, I fake confidence. I’m a big faker.”

Ethan shot a glance at her. “Uh…what else do you fake?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said quickly, grinning. “I swear—just confidence.”

Smoothly, Ethan shifted to his side, facing her. “So tell me what’s on your mind. It can’t be that bad, right?”

“No, it’s not. It’s just…this is something I’ve kept to myself since the first day I met you.”

He held still, soft strokes of her hair his only movement.

She gulped air, preparing herself. “What I’m trying to tell you is that I’ve had a gigantic crush on you since the first day we met.”

Ethan raised his eyebrows but the rest of his face remained impassive. No disgust showed, not bemusement. Instead, he seemed curious.

“Do you remember that day?” she asked.

He nodded. “Lia and I were out at the park for my first day of junior league baseball.”

“I saw you, leaning against a tree, a wild and scared look on your face. And you were beautiful.” Sadie paused. At Ethan’s light touch on her hand she resumed her quiet confession.

“What drew me to you more than how gorgeous I thought you were, was that when you looked up and saw me staring with my jaw on the ground, you didn’t laugh at the ugly, frizzy-haired girl with the bucked teeth.”

Ethan’s low laughter rumbled the bed. “You weren’t ugly or frizzy—you were cute. But you
were
wearing some pretty gigantic glasses.”

Sadie whacked Ethan on the shoulder. “Stop teasing me and concentrate—I’m trying to tell you something deep here.”