The Love List

‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ Although, if she was being perfectly honest, didn’t she love the idea of him being as distracted by her as she was by him? Don’t tell me a simple vase of ties is preventing you from having a good night’s sleep?’

‘Little bit, yeah. How about you? Having trouble getting your work done?’

She looked at herself in the mirror. The blush was still there, and now that she peered closer, she could tell her eyes had just a touch more sparkle. How honest should she be? It’s not as if he could see she was primping, or that she needed extra coffee to get her mind off him and onto her work.

Self-preservation kicked in. ‘To be honest I’m kind of swamped with the Moorfield account.’

‘Yes, but are you having trouble getting any work done?’

Damn the man.

‘Little bit, yeah,’ she responded in kind.

‘How about coming out to play, for a while?’

‘Absolutely not,’ she answered quickly. ‘I have far too much to do.’ It was for the best. She’d already issued herself with a written warning containing an embargo on Ethan Love fantasies, which were, she had told herself in her strictest most super-stern voice, all the things inappropriate.

‘Shame. So what did you think of the goodie-bag contents?’

No way. Her gaze flew to her feet in the mirror. ‘I haven’t got around to looking yet.’

‘Liar.’ His soft chuckle had her flushing scarlet. His voice dropped an octave lower, ‘So what did you think? Did I get you right?’

‘I have to go now. I’m incredibly busy. Goodbye.’ She ended the call on the sound of more deep laughter.

Had he got her right? Had he ever. If she’d had to guess, she’d have said that Ethan Love wasn’t a man drawn to the obvious, so she wasn’t surprised he’d avoided black. Instead he’d chosen the most sinfully gorgeous deep wine-coloured patent peep-toe stiletto sling-backs she’d ever laid eyes on. They fitted her feet as though they’d been specially made for her and in them she felt, confident, capable, utterly in control…and the tiniest bit wicked.

Wearing them so wasn’t helping her not to think about him. Did he know that? He’d laughed as if he knew that.

Her phone beeped to signal an incoming text: I’m staying at The Grand. Meet me in the bar for drinks at 8pm. Wear the shoes.

Nora was tempted to tell him she’d wear whatever she damn well wanted to wear, if she was so inclined to meet him, that was.

Her phone beeped again and she looked down at the new text: Little Joke. The shoes are optional. But I do need to discuss Ryan with you.

Oh. Of course he did. Why did she keep forgetting that? She needed not to do that again. Ethan had something he needed to run past her about Ryan and she needed to be alert for that in order to look out for Sephy. Piqued at her ability to keep turning their interaction into something more she texted back: It’ll have to be 9pm. There. That was less like “date” time and more like simply meeting-up time.

At seven minutes past nine that evening Nora walked into the hotel’s bar, wearing the same designer business suit she’d put on after her gym session at 6a.m. that morning. It had been hard enough concentrating on exercising knowing Ethan owned the private leisure club in the basement of her building, but she wasn’t changing for Ethan Love. This wasn’t a date.

Okay, so she’d kept on the shoes he’d picked out for her, but he could read into that whatever he wanted. She knew she was wearing them because they were beautiful and comfortable. That was absolutely the only reason.

Probably.

She spotted him immediately. He was seated at the gleaming ebony bar, watching the TV screen and either oblivious to the number of women casting their eyes over him, or so used to it, he no longer noticed when he was being checked out. Her gaze flickered to the screen and she saw that he was watching a news report on the earthquake in northern Italy. She slowed her pace so that she could study him while he watched the news report. To anyone paying loose attention he seemed utterly relaxed and only vaguely interested. But, to Nora, those magnificent shoulders of his got a little tighter and sat a little higher the longer he watched.

Suddenly he turned, his gaze zeroing straight in on her and she could see nothing of the news report behind his blue eyes, only a sort of lazy warmth with a streak of sexy intensity that set off a seductive sense of anticipation in her and pulled her the rest of the way across the room to him.

He rose from his bar stool when she drew up alongside him. His head tipped in greeting and when his gaze dropped to her feet and she registered the appreciative look on his face, there was an absurd little loosening within her.

‘What would you like to drink?’ he asked, his eyes taking their time to travel back up to her face.

‘Jack Daniel’s and coke.’

He repeated her order to the bartender and swung his attention back to her. ‘Tough day at the office?’ he asked with empathy as he ran his gaze back over her in assessment.

‘Isn’t every day?’ she answered with feeling and definitely without thinking. Guilt coursed through her, leaving a tremor in its wake. What was it her father used to say? If you didn’t have at least one sweaty-palm feeling a week, then you weren’t pushing yourself hard enough. She seemed to have upped the ratio to once a day. He’d have been proud. She frowned at the strange unfurling in her stomach because she loved the work. Of course she did.

To combat thinking about KPC and her father and centre her thoughts back on why she was here meeting with Ethan, she picked up the tumbler the bartender had set down in front of her and brought the short black straw to her lips.

She watched Ethan watching her and couldn’t be certain whether it was the hit of alcohol responsible for spreading fire through her or the effect caused when his blue eyes hooded. Releasing the straw she swallowed dry air.

With a subtle clearing of her throat she fought to get a grip before she made a complete fool of herself and coughed and spluttered her way through the contents of her glass. Breaking eye contact would probably help. She brought the straw to her lips and deliberately looked around the room as she took a second careful sip.

Ethan picked up his own glass and steered them towards a small table for two in the furthest corner of the room. Once again, Nora tried to remember that this was not a date. This was a meeting to discuss his brother.

A meeting that definitely didn’t warrant searching Ethan’s eyes for bonus content while she returned his looks with what she was a little worried could be construed as a hint of puppy-dog adoration.

Ethan pulled out her chair and opened up with, ‘So how’s Sephy these days?’

‘How’s Ryan?’ she countered, not about to give him information on her sister before she knew why he needed her help. She sat down, determined to ignore the heat of his hand as it brushed against her back.

Ethan smiled and lowered his powerful frame into the chair opposite and then took his time lifting his glass before pausing to watch her over the rim. ‘Everything’s fast with you isn’t it?’ he said, enjoying the blush that bloomed on her cheeks. ‘It’s a Friday night. No reason we can’t unwind a little. Do the “How was your day” thing, first.’

He watched her lips purse with impatience at being made to march to another’s schedule, but he liked the fact that she wasn’t able to remain impassive. She’d been sneaking into his thoughts all day and he’d found himself wanting to check on her. See if he could catch the ball of pain he’d seen bouncing at the outer recesses of her eyes and throw it out of sight for her.

‘Fine,’ she said, shrugging her shoulders with a graceful nonchalance. ‘My day was busy. How was yours?’

‘Similar.’ In between putting things in place for his brother, he’d spent hours on the phone trying to find out how things were in Italy. The news showed that there had been another aftershock and more buildings had collapsed. He told himself Pietro was safe and had been reunited with his family. Opting to focus on who he was with and what he needed to say, he began, ‘Given your family’s recent bereavement I wanted to be able to gauge how Sephy was before I gave her the news about Ryan.’

‘Oh. Well. Sephy’s doing fine. She handles everything life throws at her.’

‘Good to know. Still,’ Ethan watched Nora closely, ‘grief visits people differently. I was sorry to hear about your father.’

She went utterly still, as if she hadn’t expected the common courtesy from him and he told himself he didn’t care what she thought about him.

‘Thank you,’ she eventually whispered, her smile determined as she tucked her hair behind her ear and sat up straighter. ‘Let’s get back to why we’re here, shall we? What’s going on with Ryan?’

Fixing his gaze on her, he breathed in, and said matter-of-factly, ‘Ryan is in rehab.’

Nora blinked. Twice. Oh, she had impeccable manners, but between the blinks Ethan caught something else that looked a lot as though her low opinion had simply been confirmed.

‘I…see,’ she said quietly.

Ethan could see a question forming at the back of her mind. She was busy asking herself if this was a brother-like-brother situation; it wasn’t the first time he’d been compared to Ryan – people always felt the need to lump family together – no doubt it wouldn’t be the last.

Still.

Disappointment weighed heavy in his gut before he asked himself why she should be different to anyone else. ‘No you don’t, but that’s okay,’ he returned lightly. What was the point in reacting?

‘Am I allowed to ask what he’s in rehab for?’

He hesitated because he wasn’t yet used to saying it. ‘He’s exhausted, very low and…has a gambling addiction.’

Again there was the blinking, before she said, ‘Did you know he had a problem? I mean, did you put him in rehab or did he put himself there?’

‘He mostly put himself there. I merely helped with the finer details. And, yes, I guess I suspected he had some issues, although I didn’t know about the gambling. More about women and generally living beyond his means—which, let’s say, weren’t inconsiderable.’ Especially if you counted the funds Ethan had unwittingly supplied, thinking he was simply short of cash-flow. When he thought about how he’d given Ryan money no questions asked he was disgusted with himself. Talk about carbon-copy behaviour of how his parents dealt with every problem their sons ever brought to them as children.

He lifted his glass and took a sip. At least Ryan was answering his questions and giving him the opportunity to help him now.

Nora frowned. ‘Not inconsiderable,’ she mumbled his words back at him. ‘Is he in rehab because he reached that lowest point—has he lost everything?’

Ethan inclined his head. ‘Pretty much, yeah.’

Nora whistled softly. ‘That explains that, then.’

‘Explains what?’

‘Sephy hasn’t received any child support for Daisy for months.’

Ethan took the family shame deep into his bones. It was one thing for Ryan to ruin his own life, but his daughter’s? He knew Ryan had never been in Daisy’s life and, given how honest his brother had been with him about how he’d been living, Ethan was actually pleased about that. But to not even pay support? ‘I didn’t know that. I’ll take care of it immediately.’

‘Don’t be silly. Sephy won’t accept any money from me or my brother, so I’m pretty sure she won’t take any from you.’

‘But the money isn’t for her. It’s for Daisy.’

‘Do you think I haven’t pointed that out to her? Neither Daisy nor Sephy go without. But Sephy is very proud. From the moment Ryan ran, she set about coping on her own. She insists she isn’t bothered that Ryan hasn’t paid anything towards Daisy. Of course it might be that she believes that Ryan made his choice. He was either in, or he was out, and if he was out, then it was less messy to make it all out.’

Ethan considered her words carefully. If Sephy didn’t want anything to do with Ryan how was she going to react to his plan? ‘Would she stop Ryan from seeing Daisy?’ he asked.

‘Absolutely not. Like I said, it was always more that Ryan was never particularly interested in seeing Daisy, and Sephy has always believed you can’t force people to love their children,’ she paused and he could see those little cogs of hers whirring and turning. ‘But, surely he doesn’t want Daisy to visit as part of his recovery programme? I have to tell you now that there’s no way I’m going to help you persuade Sephy to allow that. Daisy is way too young to be introduced to her father for the first time in a rehab facility.’

‘Relax. That’s not why I wanted to see you,’ he paused and then decided he might as well lay everything on the table. ‘Ryan is going to need somewhere to stay when he’s completed his programme.’

Nora gaped. ‘You can’t be serious.’

He had to hand it to her. She caught on quick.

‘I’m very serious. I don’t want him living back where he’s been, there’s too much temptation around, too many old friends willing to suck him back into that lifestyle. What I would like is to set him up with a house and a job in Heathstead. I know your sister still lives there. Ryan wants to change. He’s doing all that he can do to change. I figure, give him an environment where the possibility of making a fresh start somewhere familiar is more tempting than the old life he’s working so hard to distance himself from, won’t hurt.’

She leant back in her chair for a second, an assessing look on her face. ‘Have you actually run this past Ryan? Or is he simply another hop on the “Ethan Love Rescue Tour”?’

His fingers tightened against his glass. ‘You think I like playing the hero?’

‘Oh, I’m pretty sure I know you do.’

He took a couple of moments to ensure his breathing evened out. ‘Whatever. This is about my brother. He asked for my help. There was no way I wasn’t going to step up and do everything I could to make it possible for him to lead the life he wants to, not the one he’s been addicted to. He and I have had some pretty tough conversations lately and I know he doesn’t want his addiction to rule his life any longer.’

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