Page 48 of Jaime
I looked up at Ethan, wondering what he would think. Sympathy clouded his eyes.
“To be honest, I basically followed suit. Stopped going to school when I was sixteen.”
“What did your dad have to say?” he asked gently.
I snorted.
“Honestly, I’m not sure he noticed. He just went to work, came home, and sat on the couch every day with his bottles... but I guess he kept the automatic life insurance payments going.”
“How did he die?” Ethan asked.
“Liver failure,” I said quietly.
Ethan looked away, his gaze falling somewhere across the street.
“Jesus,” he finally said.
I chuckled humorlessly.
“Yeah.”
For a long moment, silence dragged between us. I took the opportunity to toss the last of my ice cream into the bin next to us, not wanting it anymore. Ethan followed suit.
“All because Mom got hit by a car. Dad drank himself to death... Liz hasn’t been able to pull herself out of that hole and I don’t even blame her. It’s so hard. She managed to get sober for a bit when she was pregnant, but then she fell right back in. You have to leave everything you’re familiar with, the lifestyle, the friends...”
Ethan’s hand found mine on the bench and he clasped it tightly.
“Jaime,” he whispered. “Do you have any idea how strong you are?”
The tears I’d been successfully managing to hold back immediately stung my eyes.
I shook my head, turning away.
“You are,” he insisted, and I could hear the conviction in his voice. “I can’t imagine. I had all the support in the world. My dad was like a rock to me. My extended family did everything they could. Plus I had therapy, years of it, to deal with what happened to my mom.”
I looked at him and saw the way he had to swallow down the pain, even now. My heart ached for him.
Ethan understood.
“What happened to her?” I asked in trepidation. No answer would be good enough. There was no reason in the world that would make losing a parent so young okay.
He took a shuddering breath.
“When I was four, she took my baby sister,” he whispered, voice suddenly quavering, “and she drove into the bay with her.”
Shock and horror ran through me in turns.
“Yeah,” Ethan whispered at my expression. “I still don’t know why I wasn’t in that car with them.”
I squeezed his hand tightly, at a loss for how to comfort him. What could I even say?
“When I saw you there that day, I don’t know why it all came back to me.”
And with that admission, Ethan’s entry into my life suddenly shined in a different light.
CHAPTER16
ETHAN
