Serendipity (26 page)

Ethan listened to the PI's summary of his investigation and knew he had trouble, including the fact that Dale Conway was having an affair with Amelia Treadway, Ethan's
married
executive assistant in Washington, D.C.

“I'll take a flight out tomorrow,” he told Franklin.

He hung up the phone, his mind preoccupied with business and all the ramifications of Franklin's news, to find Tess staring at him with wide eyes.

Shit. He'd forgotten he had responsibilities beyond business.

“What about me?” she asked, her voice hard, her jaw set. She was visibly withdrawing back into herself.

“I wouldn't go if someone else could handle it,” he said, but he knew his words were hitting her well-built shell.

Just as his had every time his father left the house on business, Ethan suddenly remembered.

His gaze strayed to Faith's, but she looked as lost as he was, not knowing what to say.

“I'll call Nash and Dare,” Ethan said. “They already said they wanted you to spend time with them. One of them will take you until I get back.”

Tess didn't answer. Instead, she bent her knees and wrapped her arms around them. A rude position at the dinner table, but he couldn't point that out to her now.

He opened his cell to search for Dare's number. His younger brother struck him as the easiest of the two to deal with right now.

“Dare? It's Ethan.”

“Don't bother asking. I'm not staying with either of them. They don't have any more time for me than you do or Kelly did.”

Ethan frowned. “I'll call you back,” he said to his sibling.

He placed the cell phone on the table and leaned on his elbows, closer to Tess. “
I
want you.” It shocked him to admit how true that statement was.

She slammed her feet to the floor. “Yeah, right. And we're going to the beach tomorrow too, right? You're so full of it!” she yelled at him.

He ran a hand over his face, knowing she had every right to feel angry, hurt, and betrayed.

Just like his brothers did.

“I'll make it up to you.”

“Don't bother.” She folded her arms across her chest in that defensive way that made his heart ache.

“Umm, Tess?” Faith spoke up suddenly.

“What?” She glared at Faith as if she too had suddenly become the enemy.

Instead of getting annoyed with her attitude, Faith softened her features. “I can stay with you while Ethan's gone.”

Surprise rippled through him.

“You'd do that for me?” his sister asked, obviously as stunned as Ethan was.

“Yeah, I would. I'm guessing you'd be more comfortable with me than with your brothers—at least until you get to know them better?” Faith asked.

Tess blinked.

Ethan thought he saw a hint of moisture in those dark-rimmed eyes but he couldn't be sure. He knew he had a lump of gratitude in his throat so huge it threatened to choke him.

“At your place?” Tess asked.

“Sure, if that's what you want. Or here if that's better for you. That way you won't have to uproot yourself all over again.” Faith waited, her gaze on Tess.

The girl nodded slowly. “That'd be okay. If you'd stay here, I mean.”

“Then here it is.”

Ethan knew how difficult it would be for Faith to stay in her childhood home that was no longer hers. Yet she'd done it for Tess.

The offer, he thought, was as big as her heart.

 

 

Faith needed to get some perspective and fast, which was why when Kate called and asked if she wanted to meet for a drink, Faith jumped at the chance. She left Ethan's and drove straight to Joe's.

The bar was crowded for a weeknight, but it was summertime and people enjoyed going out.

Faith was numb. “I've lost my mind.”

What else could explain her willingness to uproot herself for a teenager she'd just met and a man she barely knew. Okay, that was wrong on so many levels she couldn't believe the thought had even passed through her mind.

She knew him. Intimately.

Kate raised her glass and touched it to Faith's. “To insanity. You first.”

Faith drew a deep breath. “Ethan has to go out of town on business and I said I'd stay with Tess.” When Kate didn't reply, Faith added, “At the mansion.”

Kate's eyes opened wide. “You're right, you're insane.” Kate drew a long sip of her wine spritzer.

Faith did the same.

“Will you be okay in that house?” Kate asked.

Which was why they were best friends, Faith thought. Kate understood the problems inherent in her offer without Faith having to explain.

“I'm a big girl. I can handle it.” She swirled the champagne-colored liquid in her glass.

“Can you handle sleeping in Ethan's bed?”

Faith raised her gaze.

“Unless there's more than the two beds you once mentioned?” Kate wiggled her eyebrows and took another, longer sip of wine.

Faith tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry and she drew a long gulp from her glass. “I hadn't thought about that.”

“That's what best friends are for!” Kate said too cheerfully.

Faith pressed the cold glass to her forehead. “Okay, your turn. What did you do?”

“Nick asked me out and I said no.” This time Kate stared into her glass, looking for answers.

“Why?”

“Because no man goes from head over heels for one woman, then decides to go after her best friend unless it's rebound. And I'm many things, but I'm nobody's second choice.” Kate tipped her glass and Faith toasted with her once more.

“But I have to interrupt. Nick wasn't head over heels for me. He was curious, we had unresolved issues, and one kiss later and we both realized there was no chemistry. None. Nada. Zilch.” She curled her thumb and forefinger into a zero. “Which makes his interest in you genuine, not rebound.”

Kate frowned. “I didn't know about the kiss.”

“Because there was nothing to know! You know I'm not interested in Nick.”

“Because you're interested in Ethan.”

“Yes. No. Argh!” Faith glanced at her best friend and together they lifted their glasses and finished their drinks in silence.

After which Faith headed upstairs to pack so she could head over to Ethan's the next morning to stay with Tess. And sleep in Ethan's bed.

 

 

Hard rock music blasted from Tess's room. Ethan drew a deep breath—who'd have believed he was afraid to face one tiny teenage girl—and knocked on her door.

No answer.

She probably couldn't hear him over the music, so he turned the handle and walked inside. Tess lay on her bed wrapped in the army jacket he'd coaxed her out of earlier, sketching. He knew she saw him, but she didn't say a word, not even when he walked over to her nightstand and shut off the iPod.

“Hey,” he said.

Silence.

He sat down on the side of her bed. His hip touched her pant leg, but she didn't move or make more room for him to get comfortable. She'd removed her makeup and looked very, very young.

His heart was in his throat. A few weeks ago, he hadn't known she existed. How had she come to mean so much to him in such a short time?

He knew he'd hurt her and even understood why, but it wasn't enough. There was more. He wanted to comprehend the anger beneath the surface and he sensed it was all tied to how she'd been raised—how her mother had treated her and later her sister.

“Tell me about your life before you came here,” he urged.

Silence.

If she wouldn't talk, then he would. “We share the same father. You wouldn't remember him because you were young when he died, but I do. His name was Mark. You have his eyes,” Ethan told her.

She blinked and raised her gaze to his, obviously interested. Still silent, she watched him from beneath her lashes. But she was listening.

“Since you showed up on my doorstep, I've thought a lot about what I was like at your age. I hung out with the same kinds of kids you did and I was arrested like you were too.” He shifted to get more comfortable.

This time she rearranged herself, giving him more room.

“And you obviously heard everything my brothers said about me. And that's when you started to come around, when you realized we were kind of alike, right?”

When she didn't answer, he nudged her leg and she finally nodded. Her pad fell to the side on the bed and she picked at a nonexistent thread on her purple and black zebra comforter.

“Then today, while we were shopping for the television and playing Wii, I realized that I never went shopping with my mother or father for the games we had in the house. The only times my father brought something home was after a long trip. Want to know why?”

Tess studied the bed, but her hand had stilled.

If he had to slice a vein, at least he was reaching her, Ethan thought. “My father felt guilty because he'd been with your mother, so he'd bring home stuff to make up for it. And guess what? I knew he was fooling around. I heard my parents arguing about it. I figured, I was the oldest, I had to do something. So I went out looking for trouble, hoping my father would have to pay attention and stay home more.” He paused, letting his words sink in. “Is that what it was like for you? Are you running from something there?”

He studied her, patiently waiting her out. He had all night.

Tess began to bite her nails, twisting one cuticle between her teeth. “Hey, you're gonna hurt yourself. Talk to me,” he said.

She expelled a long breath of air. “When I was little, my mom used to go out at night. She said she had to work and she'd leave me with Kelly.” Tess pulled her knees up to her chest.

Ethan clenched his hands into fists. “Was Kelly good to you?”

“Real good.” Tess nodded, her eyes brightening when she spoke of her sister.

“Have you spoken to her since you've been here?” he asked for the first time.

“She calls every night.”

“Let me guess. She talks, you grunt?”

Tess gave him a reluctant smile. “Kelly's twelve years older than me, so even after she graduated high school and went to college, she helped Mom watch me.”

Ethan's admiration for Kelly Moss rose.

“But then she moved in with a friend. Mom said I was old enough to stay by myself at night. She said she had to work.” Tess's voice cracked.

Ethan put a hand on the bottom of her leg for support. “What did she do during the day when you were in school?”

Tess sniffed. “I thought she worked two jobs.”

Ethan caught the terminology.
Thought.
“What was she really doing?”

“Men,” Tess said, her disgust plain. “One after another.”

Ethan curled his hand into a fist around the comforter.

“One night,” Tess continued, “it was dark and raining. I was really scared, so when I heard her in the hall, I ran out to meet her and she was with this guy. He had his tongue down her throat and then he promised he'd pick her up again tomorrow night. She wasn't out working hard for us—she was going out.” Tess studied a point on the wall, holding her emotions tightly inside.

No wonder she was so angry, so troubled. Her mother had basically abandoned her, he thought. “Did Kelly know?”

Tess shook her head. “And when I threatened to tell her, Mom said that if Kelly knew, she'd give up school and her job. She said I'd ruin Kelly's life.” Finally real tears dripped down Tess's face.

So much for such a young kid to handle,
he thought, wishing he could throttle her mother. Ethan reached for a tissue from her nightstand and handed it to Tess.

Embarrassed, she ducked her head and wiped the tears.

“And that's when you started running wild,” he guessed.

She nodded. “I guess I thought kinda like you did. That if I got in enough trouble, Mom would have to come home and pay more attention to me.” She cleared her throat. “But nobody cared where I was or what I did.”

Ethan knew better and Tess needed to as well. “Kelly would have cared, but your mom talked you out of going to her for help. You know that, right?” Because it was obvious to him that Kelly loved her sister.

Tess laid her head on her knees and stared back at him with big eyes. “She oughta hate me.”

“Why would you think that?” he asked, stunned.

“Because I was so bad, it's no wonder my mom left me and took off for a fresh start.”

Ethan pulled in a deep breath, horrified she'd blame herself. “Is that what your mother told you?”

“I came home to a note that said I was on my own. That she needed to get away and this guy could give her the life she deserved. It doesn't take a genius to figure out she wanted to get the hell away from me.” Tess bit down on her lower lip to keep the tears from flowing.

Ethan had a lump in his throat, thinking that Leah Moss had let Tess believe she wasn't enough, wasn't worth sticking around for.

Acid burned in Ethan's chest. “Did you ever tell your sister the truth?” he asked.

Tess shook her head. “Things were already a mess. And Mom had said if Kelly moved in to watch me, it'd ruin her life. Then she up and left, and Kelly got stuck with me anyway. I ruined her life just like Mom said.” More tears dripped down Tess's cheek and he silently handed her another tissue.

He wished like hell he could make her past go away. But he knew better than anyone that was impossible. “You didn't ruin Kelly's life. Would she be calling you every night if you had?”