Just as quickly as they barged in, they were gone.
The kids waved from the backseat, telling him they’d see him tomorrow, and even Amanda offered a tiny smile and a little wave before backing out.
He waited a minute, then turned and headed back into the house, half-afraid of what might greet him on the other side of his bedroom door.
Walking down the hall to retrieve her from the bedroom, he had a weird moment of déjà vu, remembering walking down the hallway nearly a year ago, peeking into the room full of girls, seeing Willow lying curled on her side, staring daggers at him.
Before he could bring himself to open his own bedroom door, he swallowed, hesitated, then finally pushed it open.
Willow was no longer on his bed, but sitting on the floor in front of it, her knees pulled up against her chest as she glared at him.
“I’m so sorry,” he said immediately, trying to hold eye contact as she pushed up off the floor and stood. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Without a word, she brushed past him and made her way down the hall and into the living room. He followed her, trying to think of some way to disarm her since she was clearly pissed.
“She wouldn’t have understood if you were here—they wouldn’t have come in, they wouldn’t have come back.”
Willow bent and grabbed her purse, which he just realized had been sitting by the end of the couch the whole time. Then she picked up her phone and held it up questioningly. “Were your kids going through my phone?”
He was helpless to really explain that, so he stood there and floundered.
“There are pictures in my phone—they could’ve recognized me. There are text messages from you in my phone—they could have read those.”
“She didn’t, she was
looking at some turtle picture… I didn’t know your phone was sitting out.”
“Yeah, well, if you wouldn’t have removed me to your bedroom, I could’ve told you that. My purse is over here, too; unless you secretly carry a Coach bag, I’m fairly certain that’s a dead giveaway that you have a girl over.”
“I don’t think anyone saw the purse,” he muttered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to react….”
Willow just shook her head. “I understand why you had to hide me, but it still pisses me off.”
“That’s completely understandable.” He watched her like a bomb that might detonate at any second.
“At least your wife liked my macaroni salad,” she said, flashing him a razor-sharp smile.
“Thin walls.” He grimaced.
Willow shook her head, looking off to the side instead of at him. “I almost broke my own rule for you.”
“Willow…”
She held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t bother. I’m an idiot. I’ve had a sample of dating a married man, and it wasn’t a great taste, so I’m not ordering the entrée.”
He sighed, letting his head fall back in exasperation.
“Have fun at your kid’s party tomorrow,” she said, dropping her phone into her purse and extracting her keys instead.
Ethan followed her to the door, but wasn’t sure what to say that he hadn’t already.
“What was I supposed to do?” he finally came up with, catching her arm before she made it out the door. “What would you have done?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped. Then, meeting his gaze, she said, “Tell me something. If I wasn’t dating Brian, if I would have been single that first night I came over here, how would things be different?”
He opened his mouth, but no response came. He wanted to tell her it would be different because he could be with her then, they could be just like any other couple.
But that would be a lie. If Amanda and the kids would have shown up unexpectedly on his doorstep, he would have still hid her in his bedroom. He doubted he would want to tell Amanda they were together, because he knew it would start a war.