Chapter 6 Bullseye #2
“You shouldn’t. It’s nothing. I cry at the drop of a hat, really. This is basically my fault.” I tagged the end of my sentence with a light chuckle before pulling myself out of Ethan’s hold, swiping the back of my hand over my damp cheeks.
“I’m sorry. If you could just forget this ever happened, that would be great.” I gave him a light-hearted smile that he didn’t return. He still looked upset with himself or with me; I really couldn’t tell.
His lips pressed into a thin line, and the longer he stared at me, the sadder the blue of his eyes appeared.
A ball of tightly wound anxiety grew in my chest as his attention on me lingered.
He looked like he wanted to say more, but there were only so many ‘I’m sorry’s’ that could go between two people.
So, to relieve the swelling tension in the air around us, I offered, “Do you want to go back?”
“To the axes?”
“Yeah.”
He thought it over for a second before saying, “Only if you’ll try it again.”
That ball of anxiety exploded nerves into every inch of my body, fueling it up to run away again. I’d made a fool of myself not once, but twice today. It was a very real possibility that it would happen a third time too.
Though…
Third time, what’s the harm? That’s the saying, right?
“Deal.”
Ethan and I walked back to our space, and he retrieved the axe from the ground. “Okay, so there were a few things wrong with your first attempt, but we can easily fix those.”
“Only a few?” I joked.
He smiled only partly, but in his eyes, there was a definite amusement.
“To start, your foot placement was all wrong for trying to get something to go a long distance.”
“Why didn’t you say anything then?”
He stopped in front of me, forcing me to arch my head back to keep eye contact. “I’m saying it now, aren’t I?”
I felt the urge to argue with him that my entire breakdown could have been avoided if he’d just helped me in the first place, but it didn’t seem like the best idea at the moment.
Ethan placed himself next to me and set the axe down on the floor. “All right, you want to have a staggered stance when you throw it, so move your legs to copy mine.” I did as he said and copied the placement of his feet exactly, putting myself in a much wider stance than I was before.
“Good, now try to keep your body angled towards the target.”
I moved my feet forward to match my forward facing body. Ethan sighed next to me. “No, keep your feet where they were, but face your body to the target.”
“Oh, uh…” I tried putting my feet back where they were before, looking to Ethan’s for reference.
“Hold on,” I heard Ethan mutter beneath his breath before he walked somewhere behind me and out of sight.
A short screech tore from my mouth at the same time my body jerked in every direction as fingers touched my waist. The fingers ripped away from my body as soon as they appeared, and in the following seconds, all that could be heard was my labored breathing.
“What was that?” Ethan’s tone was stolen of emotion and monotone behind me.
“I’m, uh… super ticklish.”
“You’re a dancer. How can you be ticklish?”
“That’s different. I know the touch is coming in a rehearsed dance. It’s when the touch is a surprise that I’m the most susceptible to being tickled.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, and the burn of embarrassment from earlier crept back up my neck.
“Noted for the future.”
I let out the smallest of sighs as he finally replied.
That small sigh sucked back in between my teeth as his fingers dug right back into my waist, and I screamed and squirmed in his grip until he relented.
I spun around as quick as a bolt of lightning to find Ethan with the biggest grin taking over his face. “Why would you do that?!” Without thinking, I lashed my hand out and across his chest in a mostly playful slap.
“Hey!” Ethan backed away and put his hands up in surrender. “I was just testing out your theory.” He shrugged and had the audacity to look victorious as he stood there.
“You’re a jerk.”
“Maybe. But at least you’re smiling now.”
I hated to give it to him, but he was right. I was smiling without thinking about it.
“All right, I promise not to try and tickle you again. Scout’s honor.” He held up his hand in the Scout’s honor salute and I rolled my eyes, but still, my smile never waned. I turned to face the wall that the target was on, getting back into the stance he’d shown me.
“Okay, so these are my hands.”
Suddenly, his arms shot out from behind and were on either side of me, his hands showing themselves off in front of me. “Is it all right if these hands I’m showing you at this very moment touch your waist without you freaking out?”
“Oh my god,” I chuckled. “Just touch me!”
“Wow,” he hummed out right behind my ear. “So forward. Not even going to offer to buy me dinner first?”
“I regret everything already.”
Ethan blew a breath of laughter that tickled the baby hairs on the back of my neck as his hands enveloped both sides of my waist. As he did this, it occurred to me just how long it had been since I’d actually been touched by a man like this.
Sure, that man was my sister’s fiancé, and my thought process was entirely inappropriate, but I couldn’t deny how good his touch felt.
It felt strong. Sturdy. Dominating.
“Jeez, you’re tiny,” Ethan commented, his fingers nearly touching together at my belly button.
“Or you just have really big hands,” I shot back.
“You know what they say about big hands, right?” The suggestive tone in his voice shocked the blood right back into my cheeks, and the rest of my body flushed with the notion he was implying.
“Big hands,” he trailed off, his voice growing deeper with every word that dripped from his lips. “Big gloves in the Winter.”
Oh my God . “You’re so dumb,” I laughed, trying to ignore the heat lapping up my spine.
My waist moved where Ethan’s hands took it, turning in the direction he wanted just as he kicked my back foot out a little more.
“Okay, so now to throwing the axe.” Ethan retrieved the axe from the floor.
“You want to keep your wrist straight and let go of the axe when it’s in front of you.
Don’t flick your wrist and don’t let go too early or too late like last time or else you’re sending all of the momentum straight down like you saw. You’re right handed?”
“Mhm.”
“Perfect. So am I. So, what we’re gonna do is…
” My attention flew down to my right hand as Ethan turned it over in his own, laying it palm up in his.
God, my hand looks so small. With bated breath, I watched as he moved the handle of the axe into the palm of my hand and wrapped his fingers around my own, closing our grips together over it.
Warm. He was so warm.
“All right.” Breathing stopped altogether as his chest flattened against my back, and my mouth went dry. “We’re gonna throw it together, okay? So you can feel the angle, the speed, the force you need to throw it with, yeah?”
“Uh, yeah. Okay.” Probably wasn’t the best idea to throw a deadly weapon when my focus was this distracted, but I was already in it now. There wasn’t really any going back at this point.
“Just move your hand with mine and…” Our arms drew back together, the axe ready to fire from both of our hands, and my heart on a runaway train inside my chest.
“3, 2, and… 1!”
Ethan moved my arm in sync with his, and together, we threw the axe towards the wooden target.
The world went dark around me. All I could hear for a period were the breaths coming in and out of my mouth, and all I could feel was Ethan’s hand around mine.
“Did you close your eyes?” His voice came next to my ear, light with humor.
Holy crap. Whoops.
“No,” I said at the same time I pulled my eyes open.
“Well?” The smile in his voice matched that of the one rising on my lips as I looked to the very end of the room at the target.
“I did it,” I breathed.
It wasn’t in the bullseye like Ethan’s, but it was on the target, and to me, that was a win.
“Oh my god! I did it!” Astonishment poured like a drug through my veins, like euphoria on tap.
“Well, we did it but—”
“Oh, shut up,” I teased, spinning around in place and shoving him back a couple feet.
A laugh that sounded like smooth river rocks rapping together tumbled off of his lips as he watched me, my feet leaving the ground as my excitement pushed through my legs.
Jumping up and down, I cheered in face of my small victory that was very much needed.
“Feels pretty good, huh?” he asked with a gentle smile.
“Yeah!” Tearing my eyes up to his, I asked. “Can I do it again?”
Something lovely entered the lightest spots of Ethan’s eyes, touching his stare with beauty as he nodded. “I’ll go get the axe.”
* * *
“So, I think it’s pretty safe to say that you loved it, and I’m a genius.” Ethan parked the car in the driveway back at the house. We both unclicked our seatbelts and exited.
“I don’t think I’d go as far as to say that you’re a genius, but— ” I spared him a look as I came around the car. “It was fun.”
“Eh, that’s good enough for now.” He tagged a quick wink onto the end of his sentence, and it wasn’t even fair how effortlessly charming he looked while doing it.
Trailing just behind Ethan up to the front door, I let him unlock the door, and he held it open for me to go inside first.
A gentleman, of course.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that this entire interaction felt very first date like and if Ethan was my date, I knew for a dirty fact that I’d all but drag him inside to keep the night going.
Today turned from crap to surprisingly fun with Ethan’s help, and I just wished that I could find any scrap of imperfection in him to focus on.
Walking past him, I allowed myself a brief moment to appreciate him up close like I knew I shouldn’t in search of that imperfection. Skirting my eyes up to his face, not only did I not find a single flaw, but my heart leapt up my throat as I did find a pair of eyes already on mine.
Our eyes landed on each other’s, and his stare dazzled any thoughtful words from my brain.
I fell into a breathy laugh as I tucked a piece of fallen hair behind my ear.
Ethan watched me with a sweet-looking smile twisted on his face, and I couldn’t remember the last time I laid my eyes on anything so wonderful.
Ripping myself away from the moment, I went the rest of the way past him and inside the house, unable to push down the joy aching my cheeks.
“Finally! I was about to text you both and see where you were.” Monica’s voice soared my attention up and over to her. She was standing behind the kitchen counter with a cheerful face and a wine glass filled to the middle.
“Hey, someone’s home early.” Delight was evident in Ethan’s voice as he came around me and walked right up to his fiancé.
“Yeah, I finished up work on the Hanson case earlier than I expected and thought I’d come home and surprise you.” Monica eyed Ethan over the brim of her wine glass as she took a long gulp.
“You coming home from work early?” He laid his hands on both sides of her waist, just like he’d done to me an hour ago. “Are we sure Hell hasn’t frozen over or that pigs aren’t flying around outside?”
“Ha ha. Your humor never ceases to impress, babe.”
Sarcasm dripped from her every word, and I realized then that this was the first time I’d ever had the chance to see them interact with each other. Surveying Ethan’s lazy smile and Monica’s unusually shining eyes as she stared up at him, I could see it.
I could see the connection between them, the chemistry. My sister had fallen in love and in this picture before me, it was as obvious as the jealousy brewing inside of me as I watched them. They were happy.
I was once like them too.
“So, did you guys eat or are we all hungry? I figure we could go out for some Thai?” Monica directed her question at both of us, but Ethan was the one to pick up the answer.
“We didn’t eat. I showed your sister how awesome throwing axes is.” Monica scoffed and sent me a pitying look.
“Oh, God, was it awful? I hated that place when he took me there.”
I shrugged, walking towards my room. “It wasn’t so bad.”
Ethan leaned his weight on the kitchen counter and gave me an appreciative nod. Quickly, I looked away and scooted nearer to my room.
“So, Thai?” Monica asked again.
“Uh, you guys go ahead. I’m not really that hungry.” I was already a third wheel living in their house. There was no way I’d be a third wheel on their dinner date, too.
“You sure? You love Thai.“
“I am. Promise. You guys go have fun.”
I sent Monica one last reassuring look before slipping away and hiding in my bedroom for the rest of the night, even after I heard them leave. I spent the rest of the night laying in bed, trying and failing to fall asleep or to stop my mind from wandering to earlier.
That one insignificant moment of shared, unanticipated eye contact with Ethan plagued my thoughts and visions where sleep and peaceful dreaming should have. How he smiled at me. How I smiled at him.
It was nice.
Ethan was… nice.