She lightly swatted him in the side. "I'm serious. I need to talk to you about something."
"Ok, I'm sorry." He shot her a properly chastised look that still managed to hint at mischief. "You have my undivided attention."
“Okay, so you know my dad?”
His smile dropped and his whole demeanor rapidly darkened.
“I know.” She nodded, almost apologetically. “But I had to meet him for lunch one day, he summoned me,” she added, rolling her eyes. “I didn’t mention it because I know how you feel about him, and I didn’t think it was really worth mentioning. But… it turns out that my dad’s… I don’t know, girlfriend? Some woman he’s entangled with, she runs her own gallery and for whatever reason, even though I’m not actually qualified, because of my connection to my dad she offered me an internship. And since they’re really hard to get to begin with, and it seems like a really great opportunity, it’s something I kind of have to consider.”
"Well, yeah. That sounds great, why do you seem kind of down about it?"
"I'm not sure I can take it,” she told him.
"Because it's your dad?"
"No." She paused, looking down at the bed. "Because it's in New York."
It took a couple of seconds to sink in, then he sobered a bit. "Oh."
"Yeah. Like I said, I have to consider it, but obviously there are other things that are important to me that are worth considering, too. My family is here. We're here. And... I'm going out on a limb and assuming that even if I managed to fall into some great position in New York's art world, the likelihood of you ever being able to move there with me, even down the road..."
He was already shaking his head, his face tugged into reluctant, apologetic lines. "Unless you're talking 17 years down the road, no way."
She already knew that, but she nodded anyway. "That's what I figured." Then, with false optimism, she added, "Unless I really luck into something and I could afford to move Amanda and the kids out there, too."
"Yeah, right." He rolled his eyes at her joke. "I'm sure that's what you'd want to do with your hypothetical fortune."
Willow shrugged, not looking at him. "I would. Those are your kids, they always will be. I would never want to take you away from them, even if you were shitty enough to let me."
Lifting an eyebrow, he said, "And my wife?"
She managed not to wince, hearing him still call Amanda his wife. "Is their mother,” she
answered. “And I will always respect that."
Ethan stared at her for a few seconds, then he lightly grabbed her arm, tugging her onto his chest. "You're amazing. Have I told you that lately?"
She shrugged, pushing her long curtain of waves back over her shoulder. "I'm not. I love that you're a great dad, it's one of the things I admire most about you. I wish I would've had one of those." Missing a beat, she grinned down at his bare chest. "Though, I guess if I would've, I probably wouldn't be here with you now, would I?"
He shot her a look, but couldn't keep a hint of a smile off his face. "I think it's safe to say if you had literally any father but yours, even another shitty one, you would not be here with me."
Pretending to consider, she said, “Yeah, that’s a deal I can’t get behind. I guess I’ll just keep the crappy dad I was born with.”
Smirking lightly, he said, “I’m not sure I’m worth the trade-off.”
“Oh, I am,” she assured him, splaying her hands across his chest and lightly dragging them down to his abs. “I wouldn’t trade you for Daddy Warbucks.”
“See, now I’m starting to think you just have bad judgment,” he teased.
She narrowed her eyes at him and playfully jammed her finger into his side. He retaliated by catching her arm, tugging her back down on the bed and neatly bringing his body to hover over hers. In the process, without thought, he caught her wrists, pinning them down.
He couldn’t hear the way her heart hammered in her chest or feel the sinking in her stomach, but he could see the playfulness on her face suddenly die, replaced by an instinctive, stark panic. Her already porcelain complexion paled even more and her pupils dilated until her gray eyes seemed almost completely black.
Realizing the position he had her in, he quickly released her and drew back, sitting back on his heels.
“I’m sorry,” he said, slowly, trying not to feel confused.
Willow made a noise—a helpless, aggravated sound—and pushed up on her elbows. “I’m—I’m sorry, I don’t know… what just happened.”