53. Ethan
fifty-three
Shannon and I convince Grace to go home and get some sleep. Even though the main threat to her business is now gone, she’s not canceling her clients tomorrow. Not after the loss the spa took when people canceled right after the storm, plus the day she just took off when I got back.
She needs her rest, and I’m making sure she gets it.
The next morning, we get good news from the hospital. They’re keeping Dennis under observation one more day, then sending him home. Grace is relieved, and although the dark marks under her eyes say a different story, she maintains she wants to get to the spa early.
I follow her into town on my bike. While she’s at work, I’ll make my rounds of goodbyes so I’m not rushed when the time comes. I’m bound to leave anytime now.
Someone tied balloons on the front porch pillars like it’s a birthday party. I pull up behind Grace’s car to kiss her goodbye, and Randy comes out, having just dropped off a bouquet, “compliments of Alex and Chris.”
It’s only eight in the morning, and clients won’t start coming in before nine or ten, so I walk Grace up the stairs. There’s a vibrancy in the air, and I’m curious about it.
Shanice, Fabrizio, and Cheyenne are dancing to loud, fun music coming from the hidden loudspeakers—not the spa kind of music. Grace hugs Hope and Claudia, who are beaming. While they’re all aware that Dennis is in the hospital and they express their get-well wishes to Grace, I’ve never seen all of them so happy.
This business is truly their life. And it’s all because of Grace. Shanice grabs Grace’s hand to dance with her just as the phone rings.
Claudia picks up, cheer in her tone. “Now is great!” she says, then hangs up and announces, “Chris is bringing croissants and doughnuts.”
I pull out my phone and ask Millie to whip up an order for… twelve people, and manage to kiss Grace on the temple as I snatch her car keys. “Be right back.”
At Easy Monday, Ms. Angela calls out to me from her couch. “Good job keeping her spa, Ethan!”
Several people agree, one person even hoots. I put my hands up. “I didn’t do anything.” I really didn’t. “Collective effort,” I concede.
“Hear there’s grandbabies on the way for Dennis?” someone else calls out.
I have to laugh at that. And maybe blush a bit. I raise my hands. “Not that I know of.”
“Yet!” someone else hollers.
“Give the guy a break!” a third person cries out.
Millie hands me a large, heavy bag. “On the house today. Tell them congrats. I have everyone’s favorite with their name on it, and some specials for whoever else I forgot. Did you bring one of Grace’s mugs?”
“I forgot,” I confess. “Didn’t plan this.”
“Good,” she beams. “Now go.”
I don’t have time to ask her what’s good about that. I rush back to the spa. Chris is there with Alex and Skye, delivering breakfast for everyone. “Oh look, there’s even a hot chocolate for you!” I tell Skye as I’m unpacking Millie’s order.
“Thank you, Ethan. Millie makes the best hot cho-colate. She adds ci-na-mum to it.”
“Oh yeah?” I store that info for when Skye will come over. She likes cinnamon. I pull out a pink and gold mug with A Touch Of Grace engraved on it. “Oh my god, that’s beautiful,” Grace gushes. “Did you order this?” Her eyes shine even brighter.
“I wish, but no. It’s from Millie.” Shit, Millie did good. Real good. Even I can tell the mug looks awesome, and if I couldn’t, all I would need would be to look at Grace’s reaction.
Alex glances at me. “Millie’s smart,” she says under her breath. “These would look awesome in those display cases. I wonder how long it’s gonna take Grace to—”
“We should totally sell these!” Grace shrieks. “D’you think she’d be offended if I ask her to bulk order some for the spa?”
Alex smiles. “I don’t think she’ll be offended,” she tells Grace. “That may have been her idea all along.”
Grace’s eyes widen. “We should do a joint mug! An Easy Monday Starts With A Touch Of Grace. Something along those lines.”
“I love it,” several people exclaim.
Chris sidles up next to me. “You think you’re ever gonna be able to leave?”
I peel my eyes from the group to look at him. He has a content smile, watching Alex and Skye chat and twirl around with Fabrizio and Shanice, who are still going to the beat. “Fuck, it’s gonna be hard.” I look back at Grace, who’s across the room, her dreamy smile on me.
I can’t believe how lucky I am. My heart shatters at the idea of leaving all this in maybe just a few hours.
That evening, when my phone chimes and it’s my C.O., I put the phone back in my pocket. I know what’s on the text. It’s time to go.
But Grace just got back home, and I’m not ruining this moment just yet. We get in the shower together, and after some sexy lathering that I’m going to fucking miss like hell when I’m gone, she tells me all about the new mugs she and Millie will be designing. They’re even going to sell them at the general store, and Noah is going to contact other businesses to come up with other designs and tag lines.
“What’s up with the bookstore name? The Shy Rabit with one b?”
“It’s ‘Shy Rabit’, no ‘The,’ and it’s anyone’s guess why it’s misspelled.”
“Really.”
“Yup, really.”
She tells me all this while we’re toweling off and putting on minimal clothing to just hang out on the deck with our drinks. “Selzer and lime, honey. Too much has been happening lately. My liver can’t handle all the excitement. Dad is better, by the way. The hospital confirmed he’s being discharged tomorrow.”
I swung by the hospital today to say goodbye to Dennis, on my way back from the farm where I hung out with Dad. And I finally got to visit with Coach Randall. Funny, he hasn’t changed a bit. He actually looked younger to me. “You’re just getting older, while he’s stuck in time,” Colton and Justin pointed out when I grabbed what might be the last beer in months with them.
Grace and I sit on the deck, and she pulls her phone out. “I’ll post an update on Echoes about Dad. People have been asking.” Her thumbs fly across the screen.
“What’s that Echoes everyone keeps talking about?” I pull her feet on my lap so I can give her a foot massage.
“Oh—that’s good,” she moans. “It’s our social media. Noah and his club started it a few years ago. It’s just for us in Emerald Creek. You should install it! Stay in the loop when you’re—oh wow!”
“What?”
She frowns. “The high school—” she begins, then moans as I increase the pressure on the ball of her foot.
“What happened at the high school?” If I let her moans guide my instincts, I’m bringing her to bed right this minute. But I want to hear her talk first, want her to tell me all about her day, all about those little things that’ll be so hard to hang onto once I’m gone.
“They got hacked! Noah seems beside himself.”
My blood freezes. “Hacked how?”
“Admin can’t access the system, all the grades are gone, and the students are getting weird messages. You know, through their portals? It’s awful.”
“Did they call the FBI?”
Her frown deepens as she reads through the post. “I dunno… apparently, they don’t have the resources to figure out the hack. Like—for real? The state needs to help out, and from what Noah is posting, it’s not looking good.” She raises her eyes to me. “He didn’t call you, did he?”
I check my phone, just in case. My C.O.’s message is still there, unopened. Nothing else. “No.”
“He won’t want to bother you. D’you think you could, like, take a look?”
You don’t take a look at a hack like you would under the hood of car that’s stalling. Also, you don’t exactly walk into a high school that’s been hacked and say, Move aside, lemme fix this.
I certainly can’t fix it. The only thing I’d be qualified to do, is probably assess the threat, and then recruit and organize the team who would be able to fix it.
“I’m sure they’re working on it.”
“Yeah but—not like you could.”
“Of course they are!”
Grace tilts her head like she’s talking to a stubborn child. “Honey. There’re less than six hundred and fifty thousand people in the whole state. Do you think they have the kind of cyber-thingy wiz like you on the school payroll? They don’t.”
“They’ll find people.”
“And why not you?”
I smile at her perseverance. “No one’s asked me.”
She pulls her feet from my hands. “So—I’m no one?” she says, looking downright offended.
“I mean, no one at the high school.”
“Babe, I didn’t ask anyone to give my brochures to Richardson’s mom. I didn’t ask anyone to look for another location for me. I didn’t ask anyone to bring croissants and coffee this morning. And I didn’t ask anyone to design a cup for the spa.”
Yep. I get her point. I rub the sore spot between my eyebrows. “Lemme call Noah.”
“He’ll be at the school.” She looks up at me hopefully. “He might be too busy to answer his phone.”
I pull my phone back out. “I’m gonna text him I’m on my way.”
My thumb hovers over my C.O.’s message again. If he wanted an immediate response, or this was an emergency, he’d be blowing up my phone. Plus, everybody knows coverage sucks in Vermont, right? I leave his message unread for now and text Noah.
Grace walks me to the door and grabs my arm. “You know I’d rather spend the evening with you, right, especially since…”
Since I’m going to leave. We both know it; we just don’t want to talk about it.
“I know.” I cup her face in my hands. “Thanks for telling me about the hack. They probably need me right now, you’re right.”
She gives me a small nod and kisses my lips.
“You better be sleeping when I get back,” I whisper, trailing the dark circles under her eyes.
“Going to bed right now,” she whispers back.
I give her one last kiss, then text Noah, give Damian a scratch behind the ears, check that my keys are in my pocket, and I’m out the door.
At the high school, Zach, one of the kids I met in Noah’s Coding Club, is waiting for me at the entrance, under the awning. He whips his wheelchair around to open the door for me. “We’re working on quarantining the infected endpoints,” he fills me in as we swiftly move to the admin offices.
“Do we know what the attack vector was?”
“Not sure yet. Could have been a phishing email. Admins here aren’t really up to speed on those kinds of things—no offense.”
“How did they first find out?”
He coughs. “I saw some weird activity on the network.”
That doesn’t sound right. I’m going to play stupid for half a second, but not more. “Was your portal hacked?’
“Um—no. Not exactly.”
“So you were in the system, and you saw you had company.”
“I’m so fucked,” he mumbles.
“Ah, I wouldn’t worry too much about it at this point. They’ll be able to identify what you did and didn’t do. And if all you did was hack the system just to see if you could, and that helped catch a cyberattack before it could do too much damage… Who knows.” I can’t speak for the school administration, or Zach’s parents. “How long did it take you to speak up?”
“I texted Mister N. soon’s I found out.”
Good kid.“What’d he say?”
“To leave it with him.”
“Those guys in there know what you did?” I whisper as we approach a windowed office where Noah is huddled with a man and a woman over two monitors.
He shrugs as he swerves into the office. “Mister K. is here.”
They turn their faces to me, then back to the screens.
We keep the introductions to a minimum, then I get to work.
Five hours and a gallon of Coke later, I summarize it for them. “It’s gonna take an A-team a few weeks to fix this.”
“We’re fudged,” the woman says.
“Lemme see if I can do something more. Give me a couple-three hours.”
We leave before the sunrise, and I get home quietly, remembering to kill the engine so I don’t wake up Grace.
I settle on the deck, elbows on the railing, facing Woodbury Knoll, and finally open my C.O.’s message, which is, in essence, that I need to report in tomorrow. Not too bad. That explains the no follow-up phone call when I ghosted him.
I open the secure, encrypted app we use for sensitive information.
Me
I identified an opportunity for the Air Force to gain more points with the local community.
CO
What now?
I start typing, The local high school is under a Cipherstorm ransomware, but another text comes in.
Sasquatch on the loose?
… system is contained for now but threat extended to students via portal…
Maple syrup laced with poison by the Russians?
… TTPs point to foreign intrusion, rollbacks DOA as of now…
Cheddar cheese pirated by the Chinese?
… Advising FBI be brought in but would strongly advise Joint Task Force…
Canadians illegally crossing the border?
… Suspect this might be a test for broader attack. While this might be for CISA, would suggest we keep a finger on it
Emerald ash borer attacking the covered bridges?
Shit, how does he even know about the emerald ash borer?
I hit send on my long-ass text message.
The app dings. Incoming call.
“Sir,” I answer smartly.
“What the fucking fuck did you get the fuck into?”
“Just helping out the community. Totally fine if the Air Force doesn’t see it as their problem.”
His silence is more concerning than his abusive usage of a perfectly satisfying expletive. “Looks like we’re missing paperwork in your file.”
Yup. That would be the Confirmation Orders. Still unsigned by me. I would never have done that a few months ago. Always had all my i’s dotted and my t’s crossed. In fact, it’s been my plan to get that done… I just never got around to it. And now? Looks like it’s giving me options. Leverage.
God, I am becoming a piece of shit.
“Don’t hate yourself,” my C.O. says as if he’s reading my mind. “You’re hitting a milestone. It’s understandable you’re thinking things through.”
I don’t answer. I don’t know what to answer.
“I’m gonna get some heat if I don’t staff Brussels.”
I stay quiet.
“Fuck. That bad, huh?”
I did talk about Grace to my C.O. And about Emerald Creek. “I just can’t watch my life pass me by, sir.”
“Oh—I know the feeling. I’m twice divorced. Believe me, I know.”
When Grace offered to come visit me a week out of the month in Brussels, I was faced with the practicality of what a long-distance relationship was going to look like.
And I didn’t like it.
Not one minute.
Sure, it was fun, that first time, organizing those little surprises. The flowers. The cards. The chocolates in case I wasn’t back yet.
That’s not a life plan, though.
Not to mention, I missed her like hell.
“The Air Force needs you, and that’s not a recruiting campaign, King.” I feel movement behind me. Probably Damian, but this conversation I’m having with my C.O. is too important to let a cat distract me. “I put my neck on the line for you to get Brussels.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“You’re not quitting the Air Force on me, King.”
“With all due respect, sir, I think I can do whatever the hell I want at this point.”
“You fucking serious?”
I’m kind of bluffing. “I do want to serve my country, sir.”
“Are you sure?”
“Did you read my message?”
“Why’d you think I called?”
“We might be dealing with a foreign entity testing shit out.” I look at the sky turning pink over the hill. “The folks here are gonna contact the FBI first thing in the morning. I believe it’s in our interest to be involved. It’s in everyone’s interest. But hey, what do I know.” Sarcasm won’t get me anywhere, but my C.O. is getting on my nerves right now. There’s a real situation at hand, and every minute counts.
“Is Brussels a yes or a no?” is his answer.
At least he’s giving me a choice, and I appreciate that. “Brussel’s gonna be a no, sir. If at all possible.” I may not have all my paperwork in order, but I’m still Air Force. I follow orders. He knows, however, that there’s no point sending someone to a sensitive posting who doesn’t see it as their life mission. A few months ago, I would have done anything to get that posting. But I’ve lost that commitment. My priorities are elsewhere now.
“Fucking fuck,” he mumbles.
“Lots of other qualified guys—and women—for that posting.”
“You think I don’t know this?” he barks. “You’re making me look like an asshole.”
Oh, that’s what it is. Who the fuck cares. “I’m sorry, sir. I really am. Now, about the situation here—”
“I stuck my neck out for you,” he yells.
And I said I’m sorry. Jesus, look at the bigger picture. “We might have uncovered a new type of attack, sir. There’s a good chance this was a test on an unsuspecting victim. If we play this right, we could be three steps ahead of the next major cyberattack.”
“That’s not exactly your expertise,” he reminds me. At least he’s calmed down and listening.
“Correct. But with the right team in place, this could be a big win for us. And we could learn a few things about what’s brewing.”
“What makes you think you’re the right person to lead the effort?”
Seriously, now he’s suggesting someone else take the lead? Fuck that. “Locals are a little on the weird side, sir. They won’t trust anyone that’s not from here.”
“What the hell do we care?”
“Like you pointed out earlier, we have no jurisdiction.” He didn’t point that out, but he should have.
He grunts. “What makes you think they’ll let you take over?”
“They came to me for help, sir. They didn’t need to.”
“Alright. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Another grunt.
“And sir, like you said, the F-35s are unpopular with some folks here,” I say, referring to the stealth fighter jets based in Vermont. He knows about that—he mentioned it a few days ago. It can’t hurt to remind him everything that’s at stake. “The Air Force could use some goodwill around here.”
“I said I’ll see what I can do,” he barks again before cutting the connection.
I take a deep breath and pocket my phone.
“What’s that about you not going to Brussels?”
I whip around to see Grace in my jersey, arms wrapped around herself, eyes flaring with… is that anger?
“Babe,” I start, all mushy inside at the sight of her. I close the distance between us and take her in my arms, but she stays stone cold.
“Did I hear you say no to Brussels?” she clips.
I squeeze her. “You did.” I don’t elaborate, wondering why she’s acting like this. She should be happy, right?
“Why?”
Why?“Lots of other people can do it.” I run my nose down the side of her face. “And this way, I’ll be closer to you.”
She huffs. “Ethan—” she starts.
“I had this lightbulb moment, and it’s all because of you. I can do good anywhere. I don’t need to be in Brussels. Other very competent people can do just as well as I would do. But there’s only one place where I want to be.”
She pulls out of my embrace. “I never should have asked you to go to the high school.”
“Why not?” I’m truly puzzled now.
“It… gave you ideas.”
Ideas?
“I heard you on the phone,” she continues. “You’re-you’re-you’re trying to find a reason to stay here, and you think the high school hack might be that—but it isn’t, Ethan. It isn’t. You’re not seeing straight. You’re jeopardizing your career over one little thing I said. God I’m so stupid! I should have seen it coming.”
“I’m not jeopardizing anything!”
She stomps her foot. “You are! Okay. So you’re gonna fix their system. And then what? Brussels will have gone to another guy, they’ll ship you to Florida, and you’ll be miserable there. You’ll have lost everything.” She points to the phone in my pocket. “Call him back. Tell him you thought about it. Or-or-or that you were kidding. Lack of sleep. Anything.”
I take her hand in mine. “Babe, calm down.”
“I’m calm! I am very calm!” she shouts, shaking my hand away. “Don’t you see what you’re doing? You’re acting on impulse, and in six months you’ll resent me and Emerald Creek, and you’ll leave again and never-ever come back.” She’s so worked up, her cheeks are blotchy.
“That’s not what I’m doing. Seriously, listen to me.”
She folds her arms again, and I just want to kiss her worry frown away.
“Can we just sit down? I need to brainstorm this with you.”
“Brainstorm what?”
“Our future. My career.”
She narrows her eyes on me, but when I turn to the couch, she says, “This sounds like a coffee moment.”
“It totally is a coffee moment.”
We both go back into the kitchen. While I make coffee, she fills Damian’s bowl. “What did you find at the high school?” she asks.
I tell her, basically, what I told my C.O. I wasn’t lying when I said I’m strongly suspecting there’s a foreign entity behind the hack, and they’re just testing our defenses on soft targets. “I’d like to have the high school start an entirely new system, on new machines, while we play cat and mouse with these fuckers. Give us some time to figure out what they’re up to.”
“Are you supposed to be telling me this?’
I shrug. “No.” I don’t need to tell her I trust her.
She nods, pensive.
Back on the deck, we sit on the couch, slurping our coffees while I continue. “Remember when I first visited Noah’s coding club?”
“M-hm?”
“I started thinking. There’s a lot of work I could do remote, with the proper security in place. The right infrastructure.”
She frowns.
“Hear me out. Most of the work I do, I’m alone, analyzing shit. More and more guys are retiring and setting themselves up as consultants for the Air Force. The Air Force likes the flexibility. The guys like the flexibility.”
“But you… the Air Force…”
I know what she’s thinking. “The Air Force gave me a structure when I was lost. This is not who I am now. And prestige doesn’t mean that much to me anymore.” I take both her hands in mine. “Think about it, Grace. I could have it all. We could have it all. I love my job, and I can keep doing it from here. I could help Coach Randall with hockey and Noah with the coding club.”
“You’re not thinking straight,” she interjects.
I continue. “For a living, I would still do nerdy stuff to protect my country. And I’d be home every night. We could even have our lunch breaks together.”
“Honey, you’re just sleep-deprived. Don’t you see?”
I have to smile at that. “I’m used to sleep deprivation. I’m actually seeing very clearly.”
She sighs and shakes her head. “You’d work as a consultant?’
Finally.I got her on board. I need her with me so she can help me brainstorm logistics, like office space and shit. “Yes. I’d need to get myself set up as a business and go through all the security clearance shit again, probably. But it’s all red tape and nothing more.” Well, and a hefty dollar amount in equipment, if I’m an independent contractor.
She shakes her head slowly. “I never should have told you about the hack. It gave you ideas. Bad ideas. This is never gonna work out. I could tell your C.O. was pissed. He’s not gonna back you on this. What if you don’t get the security clearance? And the contracts?”
“I’ll work for the private sector.” Fuck, think about it, the high school hack could just help launch my private services, if it comes to that.
“And now you’ve lost Brussels,” Grace continues, on her entirely different track. “Which is the only thing you ever really wanted. I never should have told you. It’s all my fault. I asked you. Ohmygod, it’s all my fault. I never should have.” She flails her arms with genuine desperation.
“Of course you should have. Thank god you did. Don’t stop doing that.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“There’s no scenario in which it doesn’t work. Look, babe, I want us to make these kinds of decisions together.”
“Really? It doesn’t look like it.”
“Are you gonna tell me you don’t want me staying in Emerald Creek?” Suddenly, the possibility hits me. Maybe Grace is comfortable in her single life. Maybe she was looking forward to the one-week-a-month thing. Maybe she’s not crazy about my stinky socks the way Damian is. Maybe she was generous with calling her house my home and giving me her key because she never thought I’d be a permanent, year-round fixture.
Now she’s the one taking my hands. “Of course I want you staying in Emerald Creek. Just not at the cost of your career.” Her eyes shine, and I can see how wrong I’ve been. She only wants the best for me. Always did.
I lean over to kiss her. “I love you for looking out for me. Don’t ever regret insisting I go to the high school. It set things in motion. It made me see what was possible.”
I run my tongue lightly on her lips. “We look out for each other. Just like me giving Richardson’s mother your brochure set in motion a chain of events I never could have planned.”
She pulls her mouth away from mine. “Oh—that was you?”
“Well, yeah—who else?”
She frowns. “I thought for sure she said it was a handsome carpenter.”
I chuckle.
“No, seriously, she said it was a very hot carpenter. Not a cyber geek rebelling against the United States Air Force.”
“You know, Lucas keeps asking me to go work for them. I could do that, if that turns you on more than the whole geek thing.”
She swats my chest playfully. “Ethan King, don’t you dare.”
“What, you don’t want me fixing your house?”
She runs her gaze down my chest, licks her lips, and sets her coffee mug on the floor.
“Our house,” she corrects me, sending a zing down my cock.
Right. We need to have the money talk now, but with me living here for good, I don’t foresee any trouble.
She leans into me, sex in her gaze. “I guess if you only work for me… and without your shirt on… we could work something out. But what shall we fix?” she adds in a little voice.
I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her to me, then run my fingers over her hardening nipple. “We could start by adding a garage. A three-car garage.”
She chuckles. “Oh, you have thought this through, haven’t you?”
I pull her onto my lap. “Maybe.”