‘Well, a bit of ice won’t hurt either way, will it?’ I say with a smile.
He winces as I place the ice on his elbow, but then his face dissolves into a soft smile to let me know he’s pretending. I kind of love it when he messes with me.
‘As impressive as you were – and we’ll get into the fact that you’re aStar Warsnerd later – you know that you don’t have to prove yourself to that lot, right?’ I say as I look up at him.
Ethan shrugs.
‘I could say the same to you,’ he replies.
‘Erm, I’m not trying to prove anything other than a point,’ I remind him.
I notice Ethan’s usual playfulness and cheeky smile fade away, sort of like when the sun goes behind a big cloud and everything does dark.
‘Lana, why are you so determined to show everyone what a terrible person you are when, really, you’re anything but?’ he asks seriously.
I pause for a moment, chewing my lip as I think carefully about his question.
‘Because if people think you’re something, and they spend years telling you that you’re something, eventually you just get to a point where you want to prove them right,’ I say with a sigh.
‘Hmm,’ he says, his smile slowly creeping back. ‘Well, a wise woman once told me that living well was the best revenge.’
I can’t help but laugh.
‘She sounds like a dummy,’ I tell him.
I rest my chin on Ethan’s lap for a moment, as I look up at him. He reaches forward and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear as he looks back. It’s like there’s a magnet in his shorts, pulling my face closer and closer – wait, no, I don’t mean that as dodgily as it sounds. Just… I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like I’m quite literally stuck to him, like I don’t want to let him go.
He parts his lips slowly and I don’t know if it’s because he’s going to say something or because he’s going to lean forward and kiss me so I panic and quickly pull away from him.
‘So, I think we can safely say that my fencing career is over before it’s even really got started,’ he jokes.
‘Well, it would be annoying if you were good at everything, wouldn’t it?’ I reply. ‘Sometimes it’s better to just let things go.’
‘Sometimes, yeah,’ he replies. ‘You’re soaking my shorts, by the way.’
‘What?’ I reply.
He nods towards the ice that is rapidly melting through the napkin.
‘Shit, sorry,’ I tell him, springing to my feet.
‘That’s okay,’ he replies with a laugh. ‘At least it’s not a flood.’
That’s true – but I bet it would have been, if I’d given in to my instincts and kissed him.
34
‘You’re going to have to explain it to me again,’ Ethan says. ‘I don’t think I’m getting it.’
We’re currently standing in the back garden – the beautifully sculpted, pristine gardens that lead down to the beach. We’re next to the pool, watching the scene outside the pool house. Dad, Chester’s dad, Chester and Beau are currently un-packaging something.
‘It’s a bench,’ I tell him again. ‘We have a family tradition that the eldest child gets married on this bench, like it’s the thing the happy couple sit on during the seated parts of the ceremony, and then they have custody of it until their eldest gets married. My grandad’s grandad – maybe even a step more than that – handmade it, right down to the intricate little carvings in the wood.’
‘But… aren’t you the eldest child?’ he checks.
‘I am indeed,’ I say with a sigh. ‘Apparently we’re changing the rule, to the child who gets married first.’
‘That’s rough,’ he says.
