Chapter 22 Pretty Mutual
PRETTY MUTUAL
Ethan stretched his neck from one side to the next on Saturday afternoon.
As much as he wanted this weekend to be just for the two of them, he had to deal with something that couldn’t wait with the purchase of what his brothers were calling the future “donut franchise.”
That was what he wanted it to be. He had big plans to expand into Massachusetts, then neighboring states.
So while he was on his laptop, Nora was sitting on the deck with her Kindle in her hand, the sun on her bare legs and toes, which happened to be perched on the railing.
There was a bottle of water at her side, sunglasses on her face.
She looked so at ease. So laid back and carefree.
None of the things he’d felt on the drive here.
A phone rang, she turned and looked at hers, then shifted as if she was looking for him, but he put his head down pretending he hadn’t heard her.
“Hi, Mom,” she said. It wasn’t loud, but the glass offered little protection from the noise.
Though this place was quaint, which was the best word he could come up with, it was lacking in certain things he’d taken for granted. Like quality windows to keep the noise out when they’d heard the rain lightly falling last night.
He was reading the emails in front of him but not really paying attention.
What he heard was that Nora was in Plymouth with him, then he noticed her turning her head out of the corner of his eye again, but he was good at pretending he wasn’t around.
He did it enough when he was a kid and was spying on his brothers.
He overheard the words, ‘confused’, ‘moving fast’, and ‘concerned’. Yikes. Maybe eavesdropping wasn’t the best.
Was he confused? Yeah. Kind of. Things were definitely moving fast, but he wasn’t concerned.
Now he was though!
He let her talk another ten minutes, finished up what he could with the little he was concentrating on, then turned when the glass doors opened.
“I thought I’d put some lunch together,” she said. “Are you getting hungry?”
“I am. I’m done for now.”
“Anything I need to know about or can do to help?”
“No,” he said. “You’re not here to work. Neither am I, but some things need more attention than others.”
“I understand that, but if you’re going to give it to me on Monday, might as well let me get some of it done now.”
“Nothing for you to do, I promise.”
He shut his laptop and moved to the kitchen with her. She had the sandwich rolls out and grabbed the turkey, ham and cheese they’d picked up on the way yesterday. He’d made a sandwich last night too, as he hadn’t eaten dinner like she had.
She put two plates on the counter, they made their lunch side by side, then both dropped some chips next to it.
They returned to the deck to eat. “It’s so pretty out here. The weather is great. Not hot enough to make me sweat, but I don’t feel as if I’m burning.”
“Your nose is getting a little red. Should probably put some sunscreen on it.”
“I will after. Did you want to do anything this afternoon?”
“There are canoes here. I thought we could go out.”
“I’d love it,” she said around a mouthful.
“Hopefully, I don’t dump us. Have you ever done it before?”
“I have. Have you?”
“A few times,” he said. “I’m better on a jet ski.”
Her elbow shoved at his lightly. “I bet you are.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Always.”
“What are you concerned about?”
She stopped chewing, her mouth open, then held his stare, chewed quickly and swallowed. “You heard me talking to my mother?”
“Bits and pieces.”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.”
“Is it me? Do you think I’m just using you for sex?”
“If you are, then I’m doing it right back. I mean last night was pretty mutual.”
It wasn’t just what they’d done when they first entered the place, but later in bed.
The two of them never seemed to get enough of each other when they were alone.
As if the week they were pretending it was nothing more than work built their desire to skyscraper peaks and the minute they could do a free fall off the top they were.
“It is, but you didn’t answer me.”
“Since you heard what I said, I might as well tell you it.”
“I’d like that.”
“This is moving fast for me.”
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Too fast?”
“Is it for you?”
“Do you always answer a question with a question?”
“That’s what you’re doing.”
“We could go back and forth like this all day and miss out on the water fun,” he said.
“It’s not fast in a bad way, just a confusing one and that has me concerned. That’s what I was telling my mother. She’s concerned if I am. She doesn’t want to see me get hurt or lose my job.”
That laid it right out there for him.
In the past if any woman he was with talked like this, he sidestepped it and shut it down fast.
With Nora, he couldn’t do that.
Could be because he was feeling it just as equally as she was.
“You’re not going to lose your job. We talked about that.”
“I know. I told her that.”
“And I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I want you to hurt me.”
She laughed. “Now you’re just joking.”
“Why?” he asked seriously. “Because I’m a guy and guys don’t get hurt this early in a relationship? Or is it because I’m a Bond and people think I can do and get what I want and just move on quickly if I lose interest?”
“Sounds as if you’ve heard that a time or two.”
“And then some. But those people don’t know me well. I’d like to think you do.”
“I’m learning, Ethan. But we haven’t known each other that long.”
“Sometimes the time doesn’t matter as much as the quality of time with that person.”
“You make a good point. We spend a lot of time working together. I think how people work with others says a lot about them.”
It wasn’t exactly where he was going with this, but he understood.
“How would you feel if I told my parents about us?”
“We said no one at work.”
“Nora,” he said, his hand reaching for hers. “I can’t not tell my parents because my father is our boss. Give me some credit here. He’d keep it a secret for as long as we wanted it.”
He also knew his father was going to have an issue with this. The sooner he brought it up, the better.
Best to ease everyone into it. Get them to come around to what was going on.
That also could mean telling them about his first meeting with Nora and she wasn’t going to be so happy about that. But it’d come out since Eli knew and he was positive Egan must.
“I don’t know.”
“Nora. I’d like to take you to the island.
Meet my other family members and stay there.
It’s faster and easier than driving here.
We go to the docks and catch a flight when there is one going there.
There almost always is space for us at some point if we aren’t fussy. Or we take the ferry. Either works.”
He could see she was processing what he was saying. “You said you don’t have a house on the island. Where would we stay? The casino? I’m not sure I want to do that.”
“We could, but we won’t. We could be seen there.” Her head went down again. “Listen, I’m not embarrassed and when you do that little movement there, you make me feel like shit.”
Her shoulders dropped. “I know. I don’t mean it. I’m the one who doesn’t want anyone to know more than you.”
“That’s right, remember that.”
“It feels as if this is a no-win situation.”
“You’re making it into that. But let’s make a deal. No more talk of it today. Or this weekend. We’ll revisit it again.”
“When?” she asked. “Once Monday hits, we won’t have a chance until Friday night.”
“That’s you sticking to that time again too,” he pointed out. “After work during the week works for me, so just another thing for you to think about.”
She put the last bite of her sandwich in her mouth. “Let’s finish lunch and get out on the water.”
Which meant conversation over.
He shouldn’t be upset over it. He was the one who said no more talk of it today.
Yet he wanted her to continue. To push and maybe show she was just as much into him as he was her.
She wasn’t the only one with insecurities thinking he wanted sex. Which he did, but not just that. Not with her.
What he wanted was someone not hung up on the Bond name.
And those things were just hard to find. Guess because you don’t know you’re wrong until you find out how wrong you were.