Page 73 of Summer Heat
Didn’t it?
“I’ve loved every minute here,” Lia said honestly.
Melanie smiled, her eyes crinkling in places they hadn’t years ago, when Lia had first started here. “There’s a classroom waiting for you.”
Relief filled her at the vote of confidence. “God, I hope so.”
“I’m sure of it. And you’ll do great.”
Lia left the school a few hours later, covered in brown and black paint. Her hair was tied in a messy bun. She must have been a mess, but she cou
ldn’t stop. Couldn’t wait to see Ethan and tell him what she’d decided.
Couldn’t wait to ask him to join her.
She wasn’t sure how it would work out—or if it even would—but she was damn well going to try.
The parking lot of the duplex where Ethan lived was deserted, but that didn’t mean anything. He didn’t have a roommate, but the guy renting the other unit hung around all the time. He had joked that he was Ethan’s foster friend, someone to hang out with when Chris and Lia were busy. She’d always hated that joke.
But he sometimes borrowed Ethan’s truck, so maybe Ethan was home. Even if he wasn’t, she knew where he kept the spare key. She’d wait inside.
Knocking met with silence. She pulled the key from under the basic Welcome mat and stepped inside.
To an empty apartment.
His lumpy couch was still here and his gouged dining table with the mismatched chairs. On the surface it could have been any other day, but she felt the difference. The emptiness was more than his absence. It felt… permanent. Which was crazy, of course. Ethan wasn’t going anywhere—especially not without telling her.
Unless he really was really mad at her, far more than she had suspected. Unless he hated her. Unless he thought their friendship was over, which seemed worst of all.
She crossed the threshold to the other unit and banged on the door. “Hey! Open up!”
A few minutes later, a bleary eyed bachelor opened the door. “Seriously, it’s eight in the morning.”
“It’s four in the afternoon,” she said impatiently. “And I need to talk to Ethan.”
“So call him.”
She had, last night. And again this morning. He was clearly more than busy. He was avoiding her. “Do you know where he is? It’s important.”
Ethan’s neighbor scratched his head. “I know where he’s not.”
Lia blew out a frustrated breath, tempted to give this guy her drugs-are-bad lecture just because he was annoying her. “Yeah, he’s not home.”
“Nah, that’s what I mean. He left. Packed his dog and his shit and hit the road.”
She’d never quite understood the expression of the jaw dropping. Until now. Her mouth opened, in shock, in horror. He’d really, actually gone without a word to her. “Where’d he go?”
“No idea. But I heard him talking to the landlord. I don’t think he’s coming back.”
Chapter Five
Ethan hefted the ax over his head. It landed with a satisfying crack. Wood flew on either side, skipping over the brittle grass like pebbles on water. Shards of wood dotted the frosted landscape.
He made no move to pick them up.
Christmas was yesterday—not that it mattered. The firewood pile beside the cabin already reached his shoulders.
That didn’t matter either.
