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He was playing with fire Ethan decided as he entered Blair’s house an hour later. No matter how much he wanted to convince himself he could have a friendship with Blair and nothing else, he was afraid he couldn’t. He was just too attached to her not to think about the possibility of something more.
Tonight, he’d been furious at Olivia for embarrassing Blair. His feelings had been more than simply those of a friend; he wanted to protect her, to make up for Olivia’s spitefulness.
Which meant he was in serious trouble. He cared about Blair. Oh, sure, he was too smart to fall in love. But even caring about her was bad, especially if Blair came to realize how he felt.
With a groan of self-disgust, he headed toward the kitchen. Once there, he spotted a note on the table from Blair’s friend, Ella. She was running errands and wouldn’t be home for a while.
That was good. He wanted to make dinner so Blair could eat as soon as she got home from shopping. Unloading the groceries, Ethan quickly put everything away except what he needed to make the spaghetti. Although he was hardly a gourmet cook, he could make a few simple dishes.
After the sauce was cooking gently on the stove, he wiped off the counters. As he worked, he noticed the faucet in the sink dripped. He crossed back over to make certain he’d turned it off. He had. That drip would have to be taken care of soon.
After watching the faucet for a few seconds, he admitted defeat. He could never let the faucet drip all night, wasting water like that. Without stopping to consider the wisdom of his actions, he opened the cabinet under the sink. Sure enough, Blair kept her toolbox there, just like Justin had in his last apartment. Looking through it, Ethan found what he needed and set to work.
Once the sink was fixed, Ethan returned the tools to the toolbox. While he was cleaning up, the doorbell rang. Expecting it to be one of Blair’s neighbors, he opened the door—and tensed when he saw it was Olivia. Just what he needed—a visit from the spider woman.
Her smile was tentative. “Mind if I come in?”
Ethan leaned against the doorjamb. Since Blair wasn’t home, he didn’t feel it was his place to invite Olivia into the house. “What’s up?”
The chill in his voice wasn’t lost on Olivia. Her smile faded. “I just stopped by to apologize to Blair. I shouldn’t have been so . . .”
“Mean?”
Olivia narrowed her eyes. “Thoughtless.” She craned her head, trying to see around him. “Is Blair home? I didn’t get a chance to talk to her after rehearsal.”
“She’s not here.” He could tell Olivia expected him to tell her where Blair was, but Ethan didn’t share that information. In his opinion, the people in this town knew way too much about each other as it was.
Olivia took a step forward. “You don’t like me, do you?”
“You haven’t done much for me to like.” He knew giving Olivia the unvarnished truth wouldn’t win him any popularity points, but he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, Olivia needed a good dose of reality.
She drummed her long nails against her purse while she considered him. Oddly enough, she didn’t appear offended by his statement. “Most people like me.”
“Like you or your money?”
With a very unladylike snort, she said, “You’re blunt, but you may have a point there. But I’m not the witch you think I am.”
Ethan ran a tired hand across his jaw. “Look, Olivia, it doesn’t matter to me what you are. I’m only here for a few days. But I think you should consider how your actions affect the people around you. This is a small town, and it wouldn’t be too difficult for these people to turn against you.”
His candor seemed to surprise her. “Maybe that’s where my money comes in handy.”
“When push comes to shove, your money isn’t going to buy you anything that really matters. I would think a bright lady like you would have figured that out by now.”
She laughed, but the sound lacked any sincerity. “Thanks for the twelve-second analysis.”
Ethan shrugged, levering away from the doorframe. “Take it or leave it. I’m only telling you what I see.”
“Regardless of what you think of me, I stopped by tonight to apologize to Blair. I shouldn’t have been mean, and I really am sorry.”
Scanning her face, he realized she was sincere. Olivia did seem to be sorry. “I’ll tell Blair you stopped by.”
Olivia moved forward, placing her hand lightly on his arm. “Also tell her what I said. Tell her I’m sorry. Blair’s a nice woman, and I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
Ethan wasn’t surprised Olivia felt badly. Blair was a nice woman, one who didn’t deserve to be ridiculed.
“I’ll tell her, but you should, too. Tomorrow night you should repeat your apology.”
“Fine.” Olivia sighed loudly. “Tell me, are you always such an ogre?”
Ethan smiled. “Yes, ma’am, I am.”
“Then I’m incredibly glad you didn’t fall in love with me. I’ve never cared for men who don’t find me enchanting.”
He couldn’t help laughing. “I can understand why.”
With a little wave, Olivia walked down the front steps. When she reached the bottom, she turned to look at him. “Let me be an example to you, Ethan Wilson. Blair doesn’t deserve to be hurt . . . by either one of us.”
With that as her parting shot, Olivia walked away. Long after she’d pulled out of the driveway, Ethan stood in the doorway, looking out into the night. He knew Olivia was right—Blair didn’t deserve to be hurt by either one of them.
**
BLAIR FOUND ETHAN ON the back porch, repairing the broken railing. For a moment, she just watched, appreciating the view. Even objectively, he was an incredibly good-looking man. No wonder Olivia kept throwing herself at him.
“Isn’t it too dark to work out here?” she finally asked. The porch light did a poor job illuminating the back patio.
He didn’t appear startled that she was home, so he’d probably known she was standing in the doorway, gawking at him. Great. She could add that to the other embarrassments of tonight.
Ethan stopped hammering and glanced at her over his shoulder. “The overhead light is enough to work by. Let me just secure a few more boards, and I’ll be done. Then I’ll finish up dinner.”
“You don’t have to fix my house and cook for me,” she said, picking up a hammer and coming over to help. “You’re a guest here.”
Even over the loud pounding noise of his hammer, Blair could hear him laugh. “A guest you didn’t invite.”
He was right, of course, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t like having him around. She liked having him here a lot. Too much. Absently, she put part of the railing in place and drove a nail through the wood.
Ethan looked at her again, his blue eyes appearing dark in the overhead light. Beyond them, the backyard was cloaked in blackness.
“Did you find a present?” he asked.
“Yes. Sorry to abandon you.” She studied the board she’d just nailed in place. It didn’t look quite right.
“You didn’t abandon me.” He finished hammering, then walked over to stand next to her. “Olivia stopped by a little while ago to apologize.”
Blair forgot about the board and looked at him. “I bet she really stopped by to see you.”
Ethan shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think she feels bad about what she did.” He studied her intently for several breathless moments. “Olivia knows you didn’t deserve her attack.”
His gaze sent Blair’s heart into an erratic rhythm. She tried to calm down, focusing instead on what he’d told her. Although she guessed that Olivia regretted her hastily spoken words, Blair hadn’t expected her to be bothered by the incident for more than a few minutes.
“I’ll call Olivia in the morning and tell her not to worry.” While shopping, Blair had thought about what had happened. Now that she’d calmed down, she realized it really wasn’t a big deal. Sure, Olivia had been rude, but expecting anything else was like wanting a zebra to swap its stripes for polka dots. It wasn’t going to happen.
Blair became uncomfortable as Ethan continued to study her. She was pretty certain she knew what he wanted to talk about, so she decided to make things easy for both of them. She glanced at the hammer in her hand, then looked at him.
“His name was Marshall Ross. We went out for a couple of years. When I told him I wanted to move to Falling Star and live here, he decided he couldn’t take the small-town lifestyle.”
“That must have been tough to hear.”
“Well, to read actually. He sent me a text,” Blair explained, fiddling with the hammer.
“You have got to be kidding me. The guy ends a two-year relationship with a text? Trust me, you’re better off without him,” Ethan said.
“That’s what I thought,” Blair said, then with a laugh added, “And I still think that. The least he could have done is told me to my face.”
When Ethan laid his hand over hers, she felt a tightness in her throat. Surprisingly, she wasn’t upset about Marshall. It was Ethan’s tenderness that got to her.
“Actually, I’m glad we broke up,” she said. “Marshall was right. We weren’t meant to be together.” Hazarding a glance at Ethan, she found him watching her closely.
“You don’t have to tell me this,” he said.
“I wanted to explain, and it no longer bothers me to talk about it. We were too different and should have figured it out sooner.” She shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. “It really isn’t a big deal. I’m sure all of us have stories like this.”
Ethan leaned forward. “Probably.”
“People often assume others feel the same way they do,” she pointed out.
“Boy, that’s the truth.” He seemed so convinced, she wondered what sort of breakup stories were in his past.
She hadn’t planned on confiding in him, but his quiet calmness and kindness was her undoing. Thinking back, she remembered the kindness he’d shown the boy in the hospital. How was she supposed to resist him if he kept being so wonderful?
“Well, it’s water under the bridge now,” she said.
“So rather than being part of a couple, you decided to be part of a town. It’s why you moved to Falling Star when you did, isn’t it?”
She tucked a stray strand of hair behind one ear. “Maybe. I feel like I belong here. But I was ready to go before we broke up.” Faced with her own decisions, she was honest enough to say, “Truthfully, I was unfair to him.”
“How? No, you weren’t,” Ethan said.
Blair nodded. “Yes, I was. I changed the rules of the game. We were living and dating in Fort Worth. He had every reason to believe that was where I wanted to spend my life. I surprised him by announcing I wanted to move to a small town.”
Ethan made a noise that sounded like a protest, but she let it slide.
“I’m right,” she said. “Yes, he should have told me to my face, and yes, I should have realized I was changing the rules halfway through the game.”
For a minute, they both stood quietly on the back porch steps. Deciding she’d spent enough time talking about Marshal, Blair said, “Do you know that in a few days, there’s going to be a meteor shower?”
Ethan glanced at her. “You mean there will be falling stars in Falling Star?”
With a laugh, Blair said, “Yep.”
Ethan chuckled. “Let me guess—you plan to watch!”
“Definitely. I usually get together with some friends I’ve known since elementary school. Ella is one of them. We were a group of girls who called ourselves the Falling Star Stars, and every time there was a meteor shower, we’d get together and watch them.”
“And make wishes,” Ethan added.
“Of course.” She tipped her head and looked at him. “You’ll still be in town when it arrives. I don’t have time to get together with the whole group, but do you want to watch with me and wish on a falling star? Ella and I will be doing it.”
He smiled at her gently, and her pulse kicked into a frantic beat. Blair knew she should back away, but she couldn’t break the spell settling around them. Instead, she focused on his touch and the kindness in his eyes. She felt as if she’d known him her whole life.
“I would love to,” he said. He moved closer until he brushed against her lightly. “What do you wish for?”
Standing this close, she could feel his warmth, and the temptation to touch him was incredibly strong. “Um, usually just happiness.”
“Nothing more specific?” His voice had a husky timbre that snared Blair in an emotional web. Gazing deep into his eyes, she saw conflict. Like her, he knew they should be fighting against this attraction. But like her, Ethan seemed to be at a loss as to how to combat chemistry this potent. It was like trying to extinguish an inferno with an eyedropper.
“I find that happiness pretty much covers everything.” She looked at his lips, longing for him to kiss her. Whether it was a wise decision or not, she wanted him to hold her in his arms again. She wanted to feel his lips against her own.
By slow degrees, he slid one arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “This is probably a mistake.”
“Definitely.” The word came out as a breathless whisper. “But I don’t care.”
Ethan bent his head. “Neither do I,” he murmured. Then he kissed her.