Page 14 of Riley
Except as I reached for him, I saw a very surprised Joe watching us off to the side. Oh, shit! How much had he heard?
I heard Ethan mumble something as he passed Joe, but I had no idea what it was. The blood was pounding in my ears as I glared at Ethan’s back for a minute and fumed.
“I’m so sorry you had to walk in on that.” I finally broke the awkward silence between us as I approached Joe.
“I apologize for interrupting.” He was observing me cautiously. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I waved a hand in the air. “I’m fine. Ethan and I have a complicated past. I guess he’s upset because he cares about me in a way that I don’t care for him.”
“But you were sleeping with him?”
“I did, but not anymore. Ethan is old news.” I put my hand on Joe’s arm. “I truly am sorry you had to hear that.”
“It’s okay. I guess we both have pasts. Hell, my past comes with ghosts and two kids, so I can’t say much about yours.” He chuckled slightly and then grew serious. “Just tell me one thing.”
I cocked my head. “Okay?”
“Is it really over between you two? I mean, I don’t want to get in the way of anything. I like you, Riley, but I don’t want to come between two people if they are just having a moment. I can’t afford to do that with being a single father.”
I stepped closer to him, taking Joe’s face in my hands. “Ethan is old news. Whatever we might have had in the past is very over. I like you too, Joe. I’d like to see what happens between us.”
His hands landed on my hips. “I’m glad, Riley. Can I tell you that I’ve been dying to do this all night?” He leaned forward and kissed me slowly. It was a nice kiss—it didn’t make me burn or anything—but it was pleasant and held promise.
“What did he say to you as he left?”
Joe chuckled. “He told me good luck because you were a hot mess.”
I ground my teeth, and Joe rubbed his knuckles down my cheek. “Don’t worry about it. I do happen to think you are hot, and my life has been kind of a mess for a while, so we can figure things out together. What do you say?”
“I say that’s a good idea.” I kissed him again. “What do you say we get out of here, go back to my place for a little while and talk?”
“Sounds like a good idea,” he replied, lacing his fingers with mine as we headed back to the group to say our goodbyes. I didn’t see Ethan, and that was fine with me. He could go off and do his detective thing and have a great life.
Joe and I were quiet on the way back to my place, and that was also fine. I was stuck in my head, replaying everything that Ethan had said to me. He had told me that I loved him, but he was wrong. I didn’t love Ethan. I mean, I did love him, we were close, but I wasn’tin lovewith him. How could I possibly be in love with Ethan? He was like a brother to me—except when we were sleeping together—then he wasn’t.
I thought back to the other day and how he had mixed my coffee just how I like it; he’d even made the bed and rolled back the comforter two inches. He had ordered my breakfast, but if I’d called to order his, I wouldn’t have known what to get him without asking him first. And the fruit cup! He’d made sure that there was no pineapple in it. Was there anything that he didn’t like to eat?
“You alright?” Joe asked as we pulled into my townhouse development.
“Yeah, I was just thinking about what someone said tonight.”
He chuckled. “He sure did say a lot.”
I frowned as I looked at him. “Are you talking about Ethan? I wasn’t thinking about him. He’s not worth the time.”
Joe didn’t say anything else as we got out of his car and headed toward my door. After we were inside, I asked him if he wanted a glass of wine. He said yes as he shifted around my living room, looking over the pictures. I let my gaze slide over the many frames and frowned. Jesus, Ethan was in a lot of them.
“You guysareclose to that family.” He grinned over his shoulder at me.
“Oh, yes, we spent almost every holiday with them growing up. We still celebrate major events and birthdays with them.”
“There are six of them and six of you?”
“Yeah, although we have four boys in our family, and they have four girls.”
He laughed before he sipped from his wineglass after we were seated on the couch. “Almost perfect matches,” he commented, and I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
