Chapter Seven #3
Seth leaned forward on the counter and looked past Cole at him. “Ryan hasn’t stopped talking about your new trainer since she met her.”
“She’s a good trainer,” Ethan said. “That’s why I hired her.”
“That’s not why Ryan keeps talking about her.” Seth picked up his coffee. “She said the two of them got along like they’d known each other for years.”
“Ryan gets along with everybody.”
“She also said Naomi couldn’t keep her eyes off you.”
Ethan set his menu down. “Ryan needs a hobby.”
Cole glanced sideways at him. “She’s got one. It’s called watching you finally show some interest in a woman. Aftyn feels the same.”
Ethan picked up his coffee and said nothing.
Connie reappeared. “You boys know what you want?”
“The usual,” all three of them said at the same time.
She smiled and wrote it down without looking up. “One of these days one of you is going to surprise me.”
“Not today, Connie,” Cole said.
She disappeared and the three of them sat in silence for a moment.
“So,” Seth said. “Naomi.”
“We’re not doing this,” Ethan said.
“We’re absolutely doing this,” Cole said.
Ethan stared straight ahead at the pie case behind the counter and said nothing.
“She’s beautiful,” Seth offered.
“She’s my employee.”
“You keep saying that,” Cole said. “It’s getting less convincing every time.”
“It’s a fact.”
“It’s an excuse.” Cole set his mug down. “There’s a difference.”
Ethan looked at him. “Stay out of it, Cole.”
“I’m not in it.” Cole held up both hands. “I’m just sitting here drinking my coffee and stating the obvious.”
“Then state something else.”
Seth was grinning on the other side of Cole and trying to hide it behind his mug.
“Something you want to add?” Ethan said.
“Nope.” Seth set his mug down. “Cole and I are married man. We’ve got nothing but time and happiness on our side and we’re enjoying every second of watching you go through this.”
“Through what?”
“This.” Seth gestured vaguely at him. “All of this. The denial, the ‘it’s complicated’, the ‘she works for me.’” He shook his head. “Cole and I had front row seats to each other’s. Now it’s your turn and I have to say, it’s even better from this side.”
A few minutes later, Connie appeared with three plates and set them down without a word, though Ethan could have sworn she was smiling as she walked away.
“I’m not going through anything,” Ethan said.
Cole and Seth looked at each other, then they both looked at him.
He picked up his fork.
“Eat your breakfast,” he said.
They ate without talking for a while, the comfortable quiet of men who’d grown up at the same table. Connie refilled their coffee without being asked and the diner moved around them, the Saturday morning crowd working through their plates and their conversations.
Ethan was halfway through his eggs when Seth set his fork down.
Here it comes.
“Are you going to ask her out properly or just keep circling?”
Ethan chewed. Swallowed. “I already took her to The Hartland.”
The silence that followed was almost funny.
Cole turned to look at him slowly. “The Hartland.”
“Yes.”
“You took her to the Hartland.” Seth said it like he was making sure he’d heard correctly.
“That’s what I said.”
Another silence.
“You haven’t taken anyone there in years,” Cole said.
“That’s not true.”
“Name one person since Claire.”
Ethan opened his mouth. Closed it.
Seth picked his fork back up, nodding slowly. “That’s what I thought.”
“It’s just a restaurant.”
“It’s a reservation restaurant,” Cole said. “You planned ahead. You don’t plan ahead for just a restaurant.”
Ethan looked down at his plate. “I didn’t plan ahead. I had to call Grant. Eat your breakfast.”
Neither of them said anything for a moment.
Then Seth smiled. “Good for you, little brother.”
It wasn’t teasing this time. It was genuine, and it landed differently because of it.
Ethan said nothing, but he didn’t argue either.
Cole picked up his coffee and leaned back on his stool. “So where do things stand?”
“We’re taking it slow.”
“Define slow,” Cole said.
Ethan gave him a look.
Cole held up a hand. “I’m asking because I care, not because I’m nosy.”
“You’re both nosy.”
“Occupational hazard of being your brothers.” Seth set his mug down. “We just want you to be happy, Ethan. That’s all.”
Ethan looked at him for a moment. They meant it. Both of them did, underneath all the ribbing and the grins. That was the thing about his brothers, they were a lot to deal with, but they were genuine.
“I don’t want to push her,” Ethan said finally. “She’s been through some things, and she came here for a fresh start. I don’t want to be something that complicates that.”
“And if she wants to be complicated?” Cole asked.
Ethan was quiet for a moment.
“Then I’ll figure it out,” he said.
Cole nodded. Seth nodded. And that was the end of it, the way things ended between them when something actually mattered, not with a joke or a grin but with a simple nod that said everything that needed saying.
Ethan picked up his coffee.
Outside the diner window Clifton went about its Saturday morning and he thought about getting back to the ranch. He thought about her.