Epilogue #2
My eyes shut to hold down the look of love he’d just handed me, knowing I’d need it to get through the rest of today.
Forgetting to care how it might look to my mother who barely knew Ethan and I as a couple for more than 30 seconds, I let myself rest against his wide chest and find support in him.
The weight of his head settled atop mine, and I couldn’t even begin to describe how happy I was not having to hide how much I loved and needed him.
“You know—” My mother’s voice snagged my focus.
“I toyed with the idea of being aloof with you for a total of three seconds before you just reminded me how it is you look at Alice, and I just can’t do it.
” My grin spread as wide as my mother’s arms as she opened them up to Ethan, gesturing her head forward. “Come here.”
Glee pierced my heart at the sight of my mother welcoming Ethan in, and it darn near exploded when they embraced. Ethan unwound from their hug and placed himself back at my side, his confidence showing as he snaked a hand around my waist and held me just like he would at home.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
Hesitation skipped across her expression, and any peace I’d found in her acceptance of Ethan was snuffed out. “Your father is in his study, and Monica and Steven are upstairs in her room.”
Ah.
“So they’re hiding?”
“Your father is.” She turned to Ethan. “He’s not going to be as easy to win over as me, just as a heads up.”
Ethan gave a curt nod. “Appreciated.”
“What about Monica and Steven?”
“Well, your sister might have gotten a little tipsy waiting for you guys to get here, so Steven is sobering her up as we speak.”
“Oh…”
She must have sensed the internal spiral my brain was gearing up for because her hand covered mine, squeezing to keep me grounded.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it. She was trying to loosen up before you both got here since it’ll be the first time she’s seen you two together, and she just got a little too loose is all. ”
I nodded, breathing hard through the unfortunate understanding I had of precisely why Monica felt the need to ‘loosen up’. This was going to be bizarre for us all, but none more than her. “Maybe I should go up and see her first?”
My mother parted her lips to respond when a door on the second floor creaked open and interrupted whatever she was going to say.
“Babe, I’m fine.” Monica’s voice trailed down the stairs, dabbing through my ribcage to shake my heart off its hinges. Next to Ethan, I stiffened as clacks of heels resounded off of the hardwood hallway.
Dark, brunette hair tightly piled on top of my sister’s head came into focus as she drew near the top of the stairs, eyes rounding as she spotted us all gathered at the bottom.
“Oh. They’re here!”
Monica threw her hands up and shot a quick glance back to Steven as he towed in behind her.
She headed down towards us without waiting for Steven to catch up, watching her shoes as she bounded down the stairs.
My heart thumped with each of her heels impacts on the stairs until she made it safely to the ground and right in front of us.
Her lips spread wide across her face as she stopped in front of me, eyes blinking rapidly and jumping only once back to Ethan who’d edged in just behind me. His hold on my waist had not faltered.
“There she is!” Monica sang out, pushing her excitement a smidgen farther than it needed to go. A bitter hint of wine lingered under my nose as she swept her gaze over me. “You look incredible, baby sis. Did you dye your hair?”
“Ah, no.” I forced a laugh. She waved me off.
“Well, then I guess happiness just looks spectacular on you.” And then she winked at me, popping yet another bout of uncomfortable chuckles from me.
How the heck am I supposed to respond to that?
“Thanks. You look great, too. I love your shoes.”
“Oh, aren’t they great?” She shuffled her heels out to display one by one, red-bottoms peeking underneath. “Steven let me treat myself.”
“And by ‘let’ she means she dragged me into the store and showed me the exact pair she had already picked out.”
Laughter from us all mingled and weaved to create a quilt of warmth for the atmosphere as Monica spun back to Steven and shrugged with a rising smirk. He slunk his arm around my sister and cushioned her body in his in a loving embrace.
Ethan behind me was an imposing, silent presence, waiting patiently to be addressed or ignored. After a few more seconds, the amusement drifted into silence, and Monica gave her wide-eyed attention back to me.
“ So , Alice . Are you going to introduce us to your new boyfriend?”
Any warmth our group laughter had infused into the air was sucked dry to a stale puff. Everyone paused. No one blinked or breathed or spoke. Even Monica felt the frigid awkwardness she’d tangled around our group as she openly cringed, shaking her head like she’d tasted something foul.
“That sounded a shit ton more breezy in my head…”
“It was plenty breezy to me,” Ethan cut in, dousing the tension in the room. “Felt the breeze all the way over here.”
Mon tipped her head at Ethan, raising her hand up to him as if there was a glass of wine palmed in her grip. “I appreciate the lie.”
“Any time.”
And then the silence was back. Steven waved a curt hello to Ethan which he returned just as the tension did, twisting tight enough to snap my nerves in half as no one spoke.
Eventually, my mom jumped in to try and resurrect the dead air. “Ethan, are your sister and mother on their way?”
“Yes, ma’am. Mary sent a text that said they should be here soon.”
“And Mary’s girlfriend is coming still?”
“Astrid, yup!” I nodded with vigor, over the moon that Astrid was coming to dinner today.
Ethan and I had only met her last week when she and Mary came to the city for vacation, and immediately, I loved her.
She was laid-back and non-judgemental just like Mary, and her sense of humor was wild.
I couldn’t wait for them to get here to help ease this dinner along.
“Perfect! Now all we need is your father…” My mother tapered off, lending her attention down the hall to where my father’s study sat. “Mr. Monroe! Your children are all here!”
Silence.
“Jerry! Get out here!”
“I’m in the middle of a chapter!” My father’s voice boomed back, the space between him and us not muffling his irritation in the slightest. My toes tried to curl through the bottom of my shoes into the floor, needing to steady myself into the ground to keep from following over.
Ethan’s thumb ran soothing circles over my hip bone, trying to fuse his warmth into the marrow. I couldn’t remember a time where my dad was actually mad at me, or much worse, disappointed. I didn’t like it. In fact, I loathed feeling like such a pariah to him.
“So, Ethan—” My mom spun back around to us all, and looked to Ethan expectantly. “I’ve heard you’re quite the chef. Care to help me out in the kitchen with this bitch of a pumpkin quiche your mother’s roped me into making for today?”
I turned my chin up to see Ethan give my mom a curiously amused glance. “She asked you to make a quiche ?”
“Yeah, we were emailing, and she just slipped it into her last email as nonchalantly as that woman can manage.”
“Since when do you and Stella talk, Mom?” asked Monica.
Our mother raised a set of innocent brows and shrugged. “Since we learned we would be having a ‘Thanksgiving take-two’ as we’ve been calling it in our messages.”
“You have inside jokes, too?”
My mother pursed her mouth at me, a smile twitching behind it. “She likes me. ”
Both Monica and Steven sucked in a fierce breath, and let it out in short spurts of poorly contained laughter as a hot wash of defense poured over my chest. My cheeks quivered as I tried to lock down a fighting grin as they all teased me, making light of what a shit show last year’s Thanksgiving was, and truth be told, I was so glad for it.
It felt normal. It felt like everything could be normal between us all again.
“We all had lunch together last week! She’s… coming around, I think.”
Gentle fingers tipped my head back by my chin, humored eyes and a slanting smile waiting for me. “She likes you just fine.”
“Liar,” I grumbled.
Adoration curled up the ends of Ethan’s eyes, and he dropped a swift peck on the tip of my nose.
My mouth curved up as I gazed at him, tingles dancing on my nose from where his lips had touched.
Through all of our gazing and affection, I’d failed to notice until it was too late that all the light-hearted laughter had fallen away until I handed my awareness back to the group and realized what we’d done.
Monica was staring dead on at Ethan and I, brows furrowed together and eyes squished by unease. Both my mother and Steven watched her with caution.
Oh, god. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Ethan and I had agreed that we’d keep the affection to a minimum while we were here.
He proposed we keep it to kissing and fooling around in my childhood bedroom to create fresh memories for us there, as opposed to the heartbreaking ones from last year.
I suggested we stay at least three feet apart the entire time and only risk touching when we were alone at night.
Our compromise was Ethan could grab me and hold me as much as he wanted, but no kissing until we were behind closed doors.
We’d just broken our one and only rule for today.
“Sorry,” I muttered, dropping my stare to the floor and inching away from Ethan’s body heat.
“Don’t be sorry.” Monica righted her shoulders back and smoothed her hand over her slicked back bun. “It’s just going to take some getting used to seeing it. And more alcohol. Babe?”
“You want me to get the Pino we brought?”
She clicked her tongue. “Good man.”