“Already thought of that,” he said, helping himself to a serving of cashew chicken. “While you were gone, I called the contractor who did the remodel here a couple of years ago. He’s coming out tomorrow to do the measurements.”
Impressed, Sadie said, “That was quick.”
Wryly, Ethan responded, “I may not know how to diaper a child, but I do know how to keep it safe.”
“Her.”
“Her.” He took a bite, glared at Sadie and said, “What took you so long?”
She dived into her beef and broccoli—that was a point for Ethan. He remembered her favorite from all those times they’d had dinner in his office while they worked. “After I got my stuff, I stopped at my brother’s house to talk to Gina.”
“To tell her you resigned?”
“Yes,” she said, “and other things.” She wasn’t about to admit to him that Gina had suggested using him for hot monkey sex. Although now that the thought had settled into her mind again, the suggestion was sounding better and better.
“And was Gina happy to hear it?”
Sadie looked up and met his eyes. The overhead lamp shone down on his face, creating shadows, but strangely, it also illuminated. Everything inside her turned upside down. It had always been that way with Ethan. One look from him and she was quivering inside. It was humiliating to admit, even to herself, since he seemed completely unaware of her as a person—let alone a woman.
“Yeah,” she finally said, taking a sip of wine before digging into the fried rice. “She was glad I quit.”
“Nice that your family’s happy about you being unemployed.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “That’s because she knows I won’t be for long. What they’re happy about is that maybe now they’ll get to see me occasionally.”
He dropped his fork and it clattered onto the fine china plate. “You make it sound as if you were an indentured servant. It wasn’t that bad.”
“Megan’s wedding,” she said.
“One time,” he countered.
“Hardly. I couldn’t get to the hospital for any of Mike and Gina’s kids’ births, either,” she reminded him.
“And this is all my fault.” His tone clearly said he didn’t think so.
“Partly,” Sadie said, reaching for her glass of water. She took a long drink, then said, “Mostly mine, though.” Meeting his gaze across the table, she continued. “I could have said no to you. I could have told you that I wouldn’t work all hours. Or that I wouldn’t leave Megan’s wedding.”
He studied her and she wished she could tell what he was thinking. But he’d sat back in his chair and now his eyes were shadowed, too, hiding what he was feeling.
“I didn’t, though, because I liked my job, Ethan.” Well, that was true as far as it went. But it wasn’t what had caused her to come running whenever Ethan called. That was something else.
Wanting to be with him, around him, working and talking with him.
She didn’t mind the late nights because she and Ethan were together, solving problems, making plans for the company’s future. She’d fooled herself into believing there was more between them than there was. Her own imagination and desires had convinced her that one day he would notice her.
Well, that had never happened.
“And,” she went on, “since I liked it, I sort of let it take over my life.”
“Thanks for that, anyway,” he muttered.
“Wasn’t finished,” she added, waving her fork at him. “You do the same thing, Ethan. You don’t have a life outside the business.”
“So you said earlier.” He pushed the plate in front of him to one side. “But my life is just how I like it.”
She looked around the kitchen, which was so tidy it could have been in an empty model home. “Really? You like being one man living in a house big enough for ten or twenty people?”
“I like the quiet.”
“Right.” She laughed shortly and pushed her own plate aside. Here in the darkness, it felt intimate, sitting so close to him. With no one to interrupt, she felt as though she could actually say a few things that she’d wanted to over the years. “You’re hiding, Ethan.”