“No, I wasn’t.” She placed a hand on his thigh again, but that time it was to get him to look at her. “If I meant that, I would have said it,” she stated.
Ethan nodded. It was difficult not to get defensive when she was saying no for some guy she had been with for a few months at most, and he hadn’t said no to her when he’d been married for years.
Willow lowered her eyes then looked up at him, looking ridiculously innocent as she said quietly, “Please don’t be mad at me.”
That effectively knocked the wind right out of his sails. Shaking his head with a slight smile, he said, “I couldn’t if I tried.”
At that, her smile returned. “Good.”
Sighing, he leaned back on the couch. It wasn’t the scenario he’d imagined, but he was still happy to see her. “So, tell me about this guy. Does he deserve you?”
“You want to hear about him?” she asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.
He didn’t, because he already hated the little bastard, but his curiosity got the better of him. “Might as well. High schooler?”
Willow shook her head, scooting back on the couch and curling one leg under her while the other dangled off the couch. “College. His name’s Brian. He’s… in a fraternity, actually—don’t judge me.”
Failing to stifle his smile, he said, “I am in no position to judge you. Is he a good guy?”
“A pretty good guy, yeah,” she said with a nod.
A little more carefully, he asked, “Does he know about… everything?”
“No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “He knows I had a complicated senior year and that I had some issues with my parents, but… no, he doesn’t know what happened. It’s not a super serious thing, he’s kind of… just fun and… nothing heavy.”
“Probably a nice change of pace,” Ethan offered a touch sardonically.
She nodded wordlessly, looking at his shoulder instead of his face.
“Well, good,” he said, forcing a smile he hoped passed for convincing. “I’m happy for you.”
Willow shrugged, her brow furrowing very slightly, as if displeased. “We’re not, like, engaged or anything. It’s just, you know… a normal—It doesn’t warrant an ‘I’m happy for you,’ in my opinion.”
That time he offered a real smile. “You deserve some normalcy after everything that happened.”
“If I would’ve known you were an option…”
He cut her off. “Nah, it’s… like I said, things are still complicated. I’m not dating again anyway. You made the right choice.”
She nodded, but couldn’t quite look at him. “I should probably go.”
“You don’t have to,” he told her. “We could just… watch a movie or something.”
“Yeah?” she asked, her eyes making their way back to his.
“Yeah. I mean,” he began, teasingly rolling his eyes, “if your boyfriend’s okay with it.”
Willow grinned, rolling her eyes and leaning back against the couch. “Please, I do what I want. What movie do you want to watch?”
“You can pick,” he replied, handing her the remote control.
“That’s dangerous,” she said lightly. “You don’t know what kind of movies I like. I could be an avid chick flick fan. We could spend the next 6 hours watching nothing but Katherine Heigl movies.”
“You’re staying for the next six hours? Maybe we should move this to the bedroom, at least get comfortable first. Plus, that way if you have awful taste, I can go to sleep.”
Willow reached over and lightly socked him in the stomach, causing him to laugh.
Willow shook her head. “You’re lucky I like you.”