5
Amelia
“I can’t believe he just left,” Mia says from the other end of the line with a huff in her voice. I’m lying in bed with my laptop open and her on speaker phone. My mind is racing in a million different directions, thinking about what happened with Ethan.
Nothing has changed in the three months since I last saw him. He’s still as handsome as ever and my body is still drawn to him. The problem is that I want way more than that with him and even though he said all the right words, he doesn't know that there’s a baby in the mix yet, which changes everything.
“What’s wrong, angel?” I hear Max ask in the background. I’m sure Mia has a huffy look on her face to match mine, which isn't normal. She’s always smiling even when we are in the middle of a spy mission.
“Men are weird. That’s what’s wrong,” she snips at him. Mia never snips at anyone and I know her pregnancy hormones are in full effect. I don’t think I’ve experienced any real hormonal effects yet from this pregnancy, but I could be wrong.
“I’ll get you an ice cream sandwich,” Max offers, knowing that will do the trick. Mia can’t resist one of those.
“Those are my favorite.” Her voice goes sweeter than ice cream. I melt a little inside at their interaction, wishing that I had someone to go through this with me. Mia is lucky to have a loving husband at her side every step of the way during her pregnancy. Don’t get me wrong; I’m happy for my friend. I don’t say any of these things from a bad place.
It’s just that every time I’m reminded of where she is and where I am in this whole thing, I realize how little I actually have planned. Especially after tonight and what happened with Ethan. All he did was say that I was his, kiss the crap out of me and then leave. What does that even mean? “Do you want one, too?” Mia asks, like I’m sitting right next to her and not across town.
“No,” I lie, because if I say yes she’ll want to bring me one and Max will end up sending one of his staff to bring over one single ice cream sandwich, which is ridiculous.
“I came to bring you this,” Max says, followed by a kissing sound. “I’ll be back with your ice cream.”
“I got the file.” I can hear Mia rustling through the papers. “There isn't much.” If there is something to be found on Ethan, Max is our best bet in finding it. He and I have grown close since he and Mia got married. We have a great relationship and I know that he would spare no expense to get all the information he could for me.
“We can’t catch a break on this guy.” We’ve been searching the internet to find out everything we could on Ethan King. There really isn’t a lot to be found. He took over the hotel business from his father. From what we did find, it seems that it was handed to him when it was on the brink of bankruptcy but Ethan turned it around. His net worth could rival Max’s.
“It only has him being connected to his mom and brother as far as any social stuff. There are no photos of him with any women, ever.” Again, these are all things that we pretty much found out on our own. I let out a sigh, feeling a little defeated.
“His brother used to be a little wild but he seems to have calmed down, too.” There had been a lot of pictures of Ethan’s brother Sean out in the clubs partying it up. As I scrolled through some of the page six gossip magazines to see what else I could find, I would catch a glimpse of Ethan here or there.
It was always at one of his brother’s openings of a new club. In almost all of those photos, Ethan would be in the background, usually looking bored. I’m guessing social functions aren’t really his thing but he goes to be supportive. It’s a stark contrast to the man I met at the bar that night.
He looked as though he was a bad boy that loved to party and have fun. I would have never pegged him for a wealthy businessman. It just goes to show you that you can never judge a book by its cover. It’s really ironic when you think about it. I had run from the same thing that I’d always thought I wanted and it changed me.
Ethan made me realize that what I had been searching for was shallow and now he turns out to be the same type of man I went for in the past. I continue to struggle with this. Would I be falling back into the same patterns, or could Ethan be both?
“He doesn't match the sexy bad boy that took me to bed that night.” All those tattoos. The wild sex and the need to get inside of me. I’d pegged him all wrong. I really have no idea who Ethan King is and I’m not going to learn it from reading it from a file or online. I shut my laptop and fall back into my bed to stare up at the ceiling.
“I’m pregnant.” I rest my hand on my stomach.
“You’ll be the best mom. Don’t get in your head, Amelia.”
I worry my bottom lip between my teeth, not so sure I agree with her. I know nothing about being a mom. The last time I was even around kids was when I was a kid and I’d help out in one of the foster homes I was staying in. I close my eyes thinking about those times, trying to get my feelings under control. I never let my mind go back there but here I am.
“I’m with you.” Mia breaks into my thoughts, knowing where my mind has gone.
“I know.” I roll to my side. “What if he tries to take the baby from me?” That random thought pops into my head. He has the wealth and power to try it.
“We’d never let that happen.” Mia’s tone is almost deadly. I’ve never heard her sound so mad. “What if he wants to be with you? What if he loves you? Have you even thought about that before you get all worked up about the negative stuff?”
I know she’s right about me being negative and he did come looking for me, but that was only after I stalked him at his building.
“What if he only wants his license back and to get a little lucky in the meantime?” That’s what I say out loud because I can't bring myself to ask what happens if he doesn't want me or the baby.
“What’s the matter?” I hear Max say in the background. I’m sure he's back with her ice cream sandwich.
“Amelia thinks we’d let someone take her baby from her. She’s being totally irrational. I think it's the pregnancy hormones.” She pauses for a moment. “Wait, did you only bring me one ice cream sandwich? I thought I said two.” Sure, I'm the one being irrational over here.
“Right here,” Max says with laughter in his voice. I’m guessing he was holding it in other hand while she ate the first one. “He said you were his. Also said you’re not single. Men don’t just say that shit unless they mean it. It’s not like he couldn’t—” He stops talking when I hear a small smack. “Why did you hit me? You could hurt your hand.”
“Why is your stomach so hard?” Mia complains.
“He could get another woman if he wanted.” I finish what Max was about to say before Mia cut him off. Ethan isn’t only handsome; he’s filthy rich and can probably have any woman he wants.
“That’s not true! You’re one of a kind. Could you get another one of me, Maxwell?”
“Never,” he responds instantly.
“He could be her other half,” Mia says whimsically, believing in soulmates and true love. I never have before, but Max and Mia have swayed my opinion a tiny bit. They fell in love in no time at all.