Perfectly Toxic (The Sterling Shore Series Book 9) (19 page)

Chapter 37

BELLA

As soon as I get off work, I rush home and pack up all my supplies that I have left. I hid from all the schedulers so that no one could tell me to stay over.

After getting it all packed, I head over to Ethan’s house, and I punch in the code. He really should pick a better code than his birthday. That’s way too predictable.

I put the basket of things on the counter, and I head into the living room where I find Ethan face down on the couch with the blanket tangled around his feet. He looks so pitiful, but it’s kind of cute, because I’m weird like that.

“I thought you didn’t get sick,” I tell him, which has his body stiffening.

He blows out a breath, not bothering to lean up, and he speaks into the pillow his head is on.

“Lies. All lies,” he grumbles, the words muffled a little.

Fighting the urge to laugh, I head over, feeling how warm his body is as soon as I touch his shoulder. He grunts as he forces himself to roll over and look at me.

I looked like a pale nightmare after Carrie’s bloody prom night when I was sick. He looks just as sexy as always. Life isn’t fair.

“I guess I get to return the favor now.”

“I’m not eating that disgusting concoction you call soup.”

I snicker lightly while standing up, noticing the empty bottle of water at his feet. Before I make it to the fridge, I hear the door opening and shutting.

“Ethan?” a woman calls out, causing me to tense. “Ethan, honey, where are you? Wren said you were sick.”

Who the hell is this chick?

I wander out of the kitchen in time to hear Ethan groan like he’s ready to hide, and I watch as a very curvy, regal, older woman walks toward him.

Oh my damn. That has to be his mother.

“I’m fine,” he lies, batting her hand away as she tries to touch his forehead. She came through the front instead of the back, where I parked. Apparently she doesn’t know I’m here.

“You’re not fine, sweaty boy. Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?”

I prop against the wall, thoroughly enjoying this little show. Ethan, the badass, surly, somewhat arrogant man is about to be babied by his mommy. Aww.

“Mom, please go. I have one person here already, so I’m good. I’m not in the mood for—
stop feeling my head!”

“You’re running a fever.”

Ethan cuts his eyes toward me and glares when he notices me leaning against the wall and smiling like I just found the Holy Grail. His mother follows his line of view, and her eyes widen when she sees me.

Damn. Wish I had changed out of my scrubs now.

“You must be Ethan’s mystery girl,” she says, standing as a broad smile crosses her face.

“I’m Bella,” I tell her, moving closer to awkwardly stick my hand out for a handshake.

My breath is knocked out of me when she pretty much throws her arms around me and hugs me like I’m a long lost friend. Ethan mutters something under his breath before covering his head with his arm.

“You’re absolutely perfect,” the hugging woman says as she releases me.

I smile, because she’s totally not at all what I expected. Most of the elite mothers aren’t so… adorable?

Her short hair is bouncy and styled to perfection, but she looks like a little girl who just got her first doll when she stares at me. Her eyes pretty much go over me from head to toe, as though she’s checking for any flaws, but she’s too busy smiling to make me feel uncomfortable. Well, I’m a little uncomfortable.

“Stunning,” she finally says, meeting my eyes again. “Do you want children?”

Ethan curses, and I choke back a laugh. “One day,” I say, smirking when Ethan rolls over and buries his face in his pillow again.

His mother, bless her, is dancing from foot to foot right now.

“And is this serious between you and my son?”

“Mother…” Ethan’s tone is warning, but she doesn’t bat an eye, obviously not the least bit intimidated by him.

“It’s still fairly new,” I say awkwardly.

She looks like I just stole her favorite lollipop and fed it to the dog.

“But you like him?” she goes on.

Why is it so hard not to laugh and mock him mercilessly right now? Oh, I can’t wait until I can.

“Yes. I like him.”

Her smile returns, and she beams at me. “Well, then. I’ll be right back.”

She pretty much zips by me and heads toward the door, and I take a seat by Ethan, grinning like the hippo who just found the perfect mud hole. Damn hippos are even in my conscious state of mind now.

He rolls over, glaring at me like he wants to smother me with a pillow.

“Don’t say it. Not one fucking word, Bella,” he cautions.

“You’re such a closet momma’s boy!” I whisper-yell, barely stopping myself from bouncing around in glee.

“No the hell I’m not.”

“Awww. It’s adorable.”

“Bella,” he growls, still glaring at me.

His mother walks in, and I wipe away my taunting grin, trading it for a sweet and innocent grin. Ethan watches her with a wary eye as she nears us with some sort of scrapbook. The second he sees what it is, his eyes widen and he actually pales.

“Mom, don’t fucking bring that damn thing in my house.”

“Ethan Markus Noles. Don’t you use that language in front of a lady,” his mother scolds, and… yeah… I barely stop myself from losing it.

My entire body is shaking with silent laughter, but she doesn’t notice.

“Yeah,” I say, looking at Ethan as I fight with all my strength not to laugh. “Don’t use that language in front of me.”

He mouths, “Fuck you,” and I snort, then cough to clear the trace of laughter from my tone.

“What have you got there, Mrs. Noles?” I muse, smiling over at his mother as she sits down on the love seat.

I go to join her, even as Ethan tries to grab me before I can get up. Fortunately, he’s currently too weak to react quickly enough.

“Call me Arlene,” she says with a broad grin as she flips the book open and thrusts it at me.

Trying not to burst out into a fit of laughter becomes my primary objective when I see the book is titled “Ethan’s Future Wedding.”

“This is very interesting,” I confess as Ethan groans and covers his head with the pillow.

“I’ve been working on it for so many years. I was starting to wonder if he liked boys the way that sweet boy Leo does, since he never brought home a girlfriend. That’s why there’s an entirely different wedding scenario in the back of the book.”

Ethan strangles, and my eyes fill up with tears as I hold back the laughter on the tip of my tongue. Leo would so love to be here for this right now.

“You planned my gay wedding?” Ethan asks in disbelief, though his voice is muffled against the pillow.

“Yes,” Arlene says seriously. “Yes, I did. I was hoping the two of you would adopt as soon as you got married.”

She goes back to work, flipping through the pages as though she’s searching for something, and Ethan squeezes the pillow closer to his face.

Me? I’m in heaven right now. Arlene is freaking awesome.

“But since you’re here, you can see the girl version with all the dresses I’ve clipped out of magazines. Hopefully it’ll give you inspiration. I even have some pictures of Ethan as a baby and a little boy in here too, so you’ll see what an adorable child he was. It’s to give you incentive for children, because he really was the cutest kid ever.”

I soak it all in, letting her tell me about every embarrassing detail of this wedding she wants to take place soon. I also get to hear about all of Ethan’s worst moments.

“Oh, but it was adorable when he found out that the Saylor Moon panties weren’t for boys. He loved them so much, and it broke his heart when his father informed him they were for little girls and not boys. I’m not even sure where he found them.”

“That’s the best story ever,” I say with joyous enthusiasm.

Ethan groans numerous times, but he gives up on his incorrigible mother.

I notice, with some appreciation, all the quilts in all the pictures. Handstitched, beautiful quilts are in the backgrounds, seeming to be forgotten articles, but they draw my eye in.

Arlene is a quilter, and my smile grows as an idea forms. It’s been too long since I’ve met someone as open and sweet as Arlene.

After she finally closes the book and finishes with the embarrassing childhood stories, she stands and walks over to Ethan.

He’s pretending to be asleep now, and I’m in miserable pain from all the laughter I’ve held back when I wasn’t supposed to be laughing. She feels his forehead, shaking her head as she straightens and backs away.

“I’ll go grab some water and a sponge. Then I’ll be right back,” she informs me, which again has me restraining the riot going on inside me.

As soon as she leaves, Ethan’s eyes fly open, and he sits straight up.

“If you don’t stop her from attempting to give me a sponge bath, this thing between us is really fucking over.”

My laughter slips out before I can stop it, and I wipe away the tears as I stand and head toward the bathroom where Arlene is filling up a bucket of some kind.

“I’ll handle the sponge bath, Arlene,” I tell her, ceding this much for Ethan, even though I’d absolutely love to see him running from his mother while she tried to bathe him.

Her cheeks turn pink and her eyes widen.

“Oh. Oh my. I didn’t know you two were so at ease with each other’s bodies already. You said this was new.”

Her eyebrows are up in surprise, and I feel like an idiot. It’s not like I can tell her I let her son fuck me up against the wall before he ever took me out on a date. Have we been out on a real date? Now I’m basically admitting I’m sleeping with her son,
after
telling her this was new.

“I’m a bit modern,” I state, expecting that judgment to flare up at any moment.

Instead, her eyes drop to my hips, and she grabs them firmly, even shakes me a little. What the…

“You’re going to have to put a little weight on down here if you ever want to have my son’s babies. He was a big boy when he came out, almost split me in two. He’s also a strong man now. I’d hate for him to accidentally break such a tiny thing like you. Put on about fifteen pounds. That’s what I did when I decided to take on his father. He’s tall and strong like Ethan. The extra weight should help.”

I… Words… Yeah, no.

Horrified, I watch her as she drops her hold on my hips and beams at me again. “I’ll let you get to it then. I can’t wait to tell James what a lovely girl our boy found.”

No words. They’re still stuck somewhere in my throat.

With that, she whirls out, telling her son goodbye on her way out the door, and I sluggishly walk back toward the living room where Ethan is watching me with an amused smirk on his lips.

I drop to the couch beside him, putting myself right in front of his waist, and he pinches my ass, causing me to yelp. “Better grow those hips out,” he pokes. “I’m a big man.”

Now he’s the one restraining a laugh.

“Did your mother really just tell me to gain weight so I could handle you? That’s…
ew…
”

He bursts out laughing, then starts coughing before letting his eyes close and groaning.

“Yeah. Welcome to my world.”

Sex was taboo in my house, and we sure as hell never talked about it. Hell, if my parents had their way, I would still believe babies magically appear in a mother’s stomach.

My hand smooths over his chest, just as he starts shivering and a new coat of sweat breaks across his skin.

“The chills are almost the worst,” I assure him as I move and wrap the blanket around his body.

“Lucky me,” he grumbles as his eyes stay closed.

As he slowly drifts off, I settle down on the floor in front of him, getting comfortable as I cut on a show.

“No girly shit in this house,” he mumbles, letting me know he’s not fully asleep yet.

Grinning, I flip the channel to some sports channel, and he smirks while keeping his eyes shut.

Compromise… Yeah, that’s going to take some getting used to.

After a while of steady snoring, I head toward the kitchen, and grab a banana to eat as I wait on him to need the trashcan—because he
will
need it. His house is so plain and sterile. He has a maid who cleans four times a week, so it’s also spotless.

Moving back to the living room, I study Ethan, watching as he sleeps peacefully. When I reach his side, I sit down next to him, and his arms immediately fold around my waist as he rouses from his sleep just a little.

“Thank you for coming,” he murmurs, pulling me closer until he can put his head in my lap.

Idly, I run my fingers through his short, dark, silky hair. He makes a sound of approval, and I stare at the TV as I continue affectionately stroking his hair. Arlene mentioned dinner between her spiels of Ethan’s most mortifying moments.