Page 9 of Gone for You

“I’ll take your complaint into consideration and do an investigation into the situation.”

Lily and I laugh at their ridiculousness and I reach out my hand to Rex. “I’m Liv. This is Lily. The birthday girl.”

“Ahh. Happy birthday. Nice to meet you both.”

Ethan tips his chin in my direction. “Rex, take a wild guess who Liv’s brother is.”

He crosses his arms and widens his stance. Smirks. Damn he’s cute, too. Not Ethan cute but wow. They should rename this to The Flying Hot Guys or something. “Owen.”

We all look at him, confused and he explains, “I’m not deaf. I heard you guys talking about it. How’s he doing? He texted me from the Keys a few weeks ago to brag about some deep sea fishing he was doing to escape the snow.”

“Yeah. He was a total dick and didn’t invite me. I told him we weren’t speaking until he was back in the land of the living where it makes your face hurt.”

Ethan and Rex roar with laughter. Ethan leans an elbow on the bar and faces me. “So rude of him not to invite his little sister along on vacation.”

“Right? I totally thought so, too!”

“I gotta get back to work. Him being such a slave driver and all. I just wanted to meet the woman who’s kept my guy’s interest all night.” Rex smiles wolfishly at Ethan and dodges his playful shove. “And I’m glad I did.”

Then he reaches up and rings an old school bell above him and shouts, “Last call!”

I look at Lily with wide eyes. How the hell did it get so late? She giggles. “Didn’t you wonder why I was the only one hanging out with you for the last few hours? Everyone left around midnight, you dork.”

My head whips around, trying to spot any of our friends and come up completely empty. “Huh? Why didn’t anyone say goodbye?”

“They did but you were uh… preoccupied,” she says quietly, eyes darting to Ethan.

I blush, embarrassed that it’s so obvious that I’ve been staring at Ethan all night. “Oh.”

She tries to hide her smile. “Yeah.”

Ethan is back behind the bar, busy cleaning up but must feel my eyes on him because he turns his head and smiles, winks. Lily scrambles for my hand, squeezes it.

Completely conspicuously, she rests her head on her hand, elbow bent and resting on the bar, turns her face toward me. “Holy crap,” she whispers. “His smile is freaking amazing.”

“Shut. Up.” I shoot daggers in her direction. “You know, you aren’t as quiet as you think you are.”

“Liv’s right.” Ethan says, placing two glasses of water in front of us. “You’re not quiet at all. But, thank you.” He flashes her a bright smile to drive home her point and my stomach clenches.

I take a sip of water. “Thanks for the water.”

“You’re welcome. Will you do something for me?”

“Um, sure?”

“I’d love for you to have breakfast with me.”

I blanche. That’s pretty forward and presumptuous for him to ask. He must notice my reaction because the expression on his face turns from easy-going to worried in seconds.

His eyes widen and he waves a hand in the air. “No! Holy shit. No. Ah, hell, your brother would kill me if he heard me just now. That’s not what I meant! I mean… I guess if you wanted… No. What am I thinking? Okay can I start over?” He’s adorably flustered and embarrassed. I think I see a tinge of pink touch his cheeks.

“I’m honestly not sure you can.”

Ethan’s smirk just makes him look sexier than he already did. And that’s saying something. “Still a smart ass,” he murmurs. “What I meant was actually breakfast. Nothing before.”

“Man down. Man down.” Rex makes a crash and burn sound behind him. “Quit while you’re ahead, man.”

“Shut up,” he growls at Rex then without pause continues on whatever he was trying to say. “I would really like to get to know you and wondered if you’d be interested inmeetingme for breakfast tomorrow morning.”

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