Chapter 13 - Adrian
Adrian
I stretched across Ethan’s brown leather couch like I owned the place, which, in fairness, I practically did.
At least when he was spiraling and I was entertaining myself with a running commentary on his phone call.
Ethan, as was his custom when he fixated on something, paced his office.
Jaw clenched, phone pressed to his ear, hands waving like he was conducting a symphony.
Except in this case, the only music was his growing frustration with his brother.
“…I told you, Gabe, I need a date. Just a date, not a full itinerary. Yes, the kids are fine, they’re fine, you don’t have to— Gabe! Listen to me—”
I smirked, because let’s be honest, watching Ethan try to extract anything resembling a straight answer from his brother was peak entertainment. Especially while actively hiding from Miles and his growing task list.
“And yes, I know you’re busy, but you’re not the only one with a job,” he went on, voice getting sharper. “No, it’s not just about that. I need to know when you’ll be back! I deserve that at least.”
“You tell him, Ethan. He’s not the boss of you,” I said, soft enough to keep it between Ethan and me. He glared at me over his shoulder.
“Adrian.” That was the warning shot. I was skating on thin ice.
I ignored it. Because really, what was he going to do? Scowl? Pout? He was already doing both anyway.
“I’m hungry.” I pushed up from the couch and stretched. “Can you put him on hold while you make me a sandwich?”
Not funny to him, but the look on his face had me in silent stitches. The best kind, when it came with Ethan’s irritation as part of the package.
“…I just don’t understand why you can’t just tell me.” His voice hit a new high, like he was on the verge of detonating on the spot.
And that made Maren’s appearance that much more serendipitous.
Her steps were careful, obviously having heard his heated discussion from the next town over.
She had that look… half of her saying she needed to talk, the other half saying she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to say yet.
She paused mid-sentence as the tail end of Ethan’s yelling cut through the office.
I placed my finger over my mouth in a silent “shhh” and motioned for her to join me on the couch. She hesitated, then sat down on the other end of it, careful not to draw the full blast of Ethan’s conniption by getting too close.
“What’s gotten him so wound up?” she whispered.
“He’s trying to get his brother to make the kids’ indefinite vacation a little more… definite,” I said with a shrug. “Spoiler alert: I don’t think he’s gonna get anywhere.”
“But they’re fine,” she said slowly, a flurry of thoughts clouding her usually bright green eyes. I was about to ask what was wrong, but she wasn’t finished. “They’ve finally settled into a routine. Emma’s been a little off, sure, but Will’s warming up. I don’t see why—”
She cut off abruptly, eyes widening just slightly, like something had dawned on her. I kinda guessed at it immediately, and scooched across the couch until I was next to her. She stiffened when my knee brushed against hers, her gaze flashing over to Ethan for a second.
“I know what you’re thinking,” I said.
“You’re a mind-reader now?” she muttered, and moved further into the side of the couch to create more distance between us.
Like I would let her get away with that.
“Maren…”
“Can you not see I’m on the phone?” Ethan snapped, holding his phone away from his face as if that would save his brother from the spontaneous outburst. “Whatever this is… Can’t you do it somewhere else?”
He glared at Maren, and she kept eye contact, refusing to look away out of sheer stubbornness. Eventually, he was the one who caved when Gabe’s voice filtered through his phone.
“Yes, I’m still here.” And he started pacing again, but the endless back and forth faded into the background.
“Wait.” She shook her head, frowning at me. “This is… because of what happened, isn’t it?”
My easy smile faltered just a tad. I could see her mentally backtracking, and it surprised me how totally my body reacted to it. I didn’t want her feeling that way. Not when we’d barely scratched the surface of what this could be.
“What? No. Nothing like that,” I said, trying to keep it light, to thread my way through the minefield she was tiptoeing. But of course, she didn’t buy it.
She crossed her arms, looking at me like she’d figured out a particularly tricky puzzle. “I’m not stupid. All of this coming on after everything that’s happened… makes it kinda obvious.”
“Maren—”
“Don’t.” The tension snapped back like an elastic band, hitting me right in the gut. “I can’t exactly blame him. I mean, I haven’t been the best nanny. I lost Sadie, I… I crossed a line with— with all of you…”
I waved a hand, leaning forward, trying to grab hold of her misunderstanding before it tightened into something irreversible. “No, really, you’ve got it all wrong. He’s stressed about work, the holidays being so busy, and all. It’s temporary. You—this—you’re reading it wrong. Trust me.”
Her stony expression didn’t soften like I’d hoped. “You sound like you almost believe what you’re saying. It’s cute.”
I opened my mouth, tried to argue, to get her to see she was all wrong, but she was already moving. Long waves tossed over her shoulder, head high, she stalked over to Ethan’s desk where he’d gone back to sitting, massaging his temples.
“Call him back.”
Ethan looked up, brows knit tightly in confusion. He looked at me, then back to Maren. “What?”
She lunged across his desk and abruptly ended his Kenyan communique before slamming his phone face down.
“What the—? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that man on the phone?”
“I know what you’re doing, Ethan, and I just wanted to say… you don’t have to.”
Even from all the way on the couch, I could tell how Maren was fuming.
If this were a cartoon, there’d be steam billowing out of her ears.
I moved as little as possible in case he noticed me and threw me out so he could have one of his loathed private têtes-à-têtes. Loathed by me, exclusively, but still.
“Care to fill me in on what it is that I’m doing?” That annoyance aimed at Gabe before didn’t go anywhere. He just directed it at her now. “Because according to me, I was having a conversation with my brother about his kids.”
Maren folded her arms across her chest in a huff. “You regret what happened. Between us. But you can’t fire me over it, because… I don’t know, maybe you don’t want to seem like a dick. So instead, you’re getting rid of the kids, because if the kids aren’t here, then I don’t have to be here.”
“Ha, that’s the fatal flaw in your argument.” I strode over, a little too excited to get my point across. “Ethan’s never cared about looking like a dick. Don’t feel bad, it’s a common misconception, but he actually enjoys it. So that proves all he’s doing is—”
“Adrian,” they said at the same time, and I shrunk back with my hands held up in surrender.
“I was just saying.”
“And I’m just saying,” Maren continued, her voice steadier now, “that we’re all adults here. We did what we did, and you don’t have to stoop to lying to get rid of me. You especially don’t have to cut the kids’ vacation short over it.”
She turned to leave, and Ethan reacted before I could, rising behind his desk. Hell, he practically clambered over the thing.
“Maren, wait.”
“It’s okay, Ethan,” she said, pausing at the door. “I’ll save you the bother of long distance phone calls. I’m leaving.”
Her absence was felt in more than the fleeting breeze she left in her wake. The one that smelled faintly of that pomegranate body wash she liked to use.
“What the fuck, Ace? What did you say to her?”
But I wasn’t about to sit pretty as the next target for Ethan’s agitation. “Me? Why is it me?”
“Because I was on the phone with Gabe,” he said. “You and Maren were talking on the couch, and then all of a sudden, she’s quitting. Who else is it gonna be?”
I walked up to him and jabbed his chest with a finger. “You’re the one who freaked out about us kissing at the harvest market. You’re the one who’s been frantically calling your brother all morning which, I mean, how did you think she was gonna take that?”
He drew a sharp inhale through his nose, and let it out so slowly I was sure I sprouted three gray hairs while I waited. “I didn’t freak out.”
“Save it.”
I went after her, because letting her go like that wasn’t an option.
Not for me. Not while she was this close, and yet, just out of reach.
I didn’t care about Ethan and his hangups, or whatever the fuck he wanted to call it.
Mr. Always in Control who couldn’t handle not being in control of a situation for one second…
He might’ve been too stubborn to fix this, but I wasn’t.
I knew—even though it was still early in the relationship and I’d probably be labeled as presumptuous—that things with Maren had potential.
I caught up with her on the porch steps, where she was pacing like she meant to wear a hole straight through the ground. Her arms were crossed tight, jaw locked, eyes flashing like she’d just bitten into something sour.
“Hey,” I said, easing down the steps. “Take a breath. Preferably before you combust and I have to explain spontaneous human explosion to Sadie.”
She shot me a look but didn’t stop.
“Sit,” I said, patting the step beside me as I sank down. “Come on. I promise not to startle you with any sudden rational thought.”
She hesitated, then sighed hard enough to rattle the railing, dropping down beside me. Her shoulders were still stiff, her knee bouncing like it had its own vendetta.
“I can’t believe I was such an idiot,” she muttered, half to herself. “God, I knew it was a mistake. I knew it.”
I leaned my elbows on my knees. “You’re gonna have to narrow that down for me. You’ve been around us long enough that ‘mistake’ could apply to a lot of things.”
“With you. With Ethan. Miles.” She blew out another frustrated breath. “I should’ve kept things professional. I should never have crossed the line.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “So we’re talking about that line. The one that’s already been thoroughly crossed, erased, and replaced with… something far more fun?”
She didn’t laugh. I didn’t really expect her to. But I noticed some of the tension in her back dissolve just the same.
“Ethan’s just stressed,” I said. “That phone call? It’s not about you. It’s about his brother. Gabe’s been stringing him along, and Ethan’s too responsible for his own good. Always has been.”
Maren rubbed her forehead, shaking her head. “You don’t have to explain it.”
“I think I kinda do, actually—”
“No.” Her voice broke a little, quiet but firm. “I get it. This isn’t about Ethan and his brother. It’s about me.”
That pulled me up short. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” She turned toward me, eyes glassy, voice trembling under the weight of too many thoughts. “I’ve just been overwhelmed. Trying to keep up. Trying to make sense of what this even is. And I can’t. I don’t think I can.”
I wanted to tell her she could. That she already was. But she kept going, words spilling faster.
“I can handle the kids. That’s easy. That’s what I do.
But this?” She gestured vaguely, like she could point to the invisible web connecting all of us.
“This is different. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve never done anything like this before.
In twenty-seven years, I’ve only been with two men.
Ever. My high school sweetheart and my ex-fiancé. ”
“At the same time?”
She stared at me.
“Too soon?” I offered weakly.
Her lips pressed together, and for a second, I thought she might laugh. But the sound that came out was more like a shaky exhale, and then she looked away. And I saw it. The shimmer in her eyes. The way her throat worked like she was trying to swallow it all back down.
“Hey,” I said softly. “I was kidding, alright? Badly. That was me trying to make it better.”
But she was already spiraling.
“I just keep thinking about Sylvie,” she said. “And how you all looked so happy in that photo. Like you all just fit together, and it was so easy and fun. But I’m not her. And I don’t know how to be enough for one of you, let alone three. I’m not built for this, Adrian. I’m—”
That was as far as I allowed her to go.
My hands caught her face, thumbs brushing the heat on her cheeks, and I kissed her. Hard. Hard enough so there’d be no doubt left in her mind. Not about this.
She went still for half a breath, surprised, and then she melted. God, she melted right into me. Her mouth opened against mine like she’d been waiting for someone to stop her thoughts long enough for her to feel something real.
I pulled her closer, until her chest pressed into me and her fingers found my jacket. The world shrank until it was just the taste of her. Warm and sweet. She made this sound, needy but quiet, that hit somewhere low in my gut and rewired every coherent thought I had.
For a minute, there was nothing but the scrape of breath and the faint creak of the porch beneath us. No guilt. No second-guessing. Just her. Just this.
When I finally drew back, she was still leaning in, lips slightly parted, eyes wide. I let my hands fall from her face, but I didn’t move far.
“See?” I said, breathless but smiling. “Nothing to freak out about.”