Free Unforgettable by Shanna Vollentine Page A

afternoon I didn’t feel as self-conscious talking to Carrie about Ethan. It didn’t seem like she had any problem with me being involved with her brother. Anyway, if I couldn’t ask Carrie I had no one.
      She looked at me with speculation. “No, you went off last year after you started having problems.”
      We sat there for a few more seconds and then she stood up. We walked back out to the living room. The boys were sitting on the couch playing with Lucy who was burning around the living room in tight circles with her toy gripped in her teeth. Ethan looked up when we came in but didn’t say anything. Nigel stood up and handed Carrie her jacket.
      We hugged goodbye and they were gone. It was just the two of us again. We hadn’t cleaned the kitchen after lunch, just set the dishes on the counter, so I made my way to put everything in the dishwasher. Ethan followed me and pulled out a clean dishrag as I started rinsing off the plates and utensils. I was nervous about being alone in the kitchen with him after what happened earlier, but the dishes had to get done and I couldn’t avoid him forever.
      He wet the rag and squeezed a bit of dish soap on it. I thought he would be all anal and pre-wash the plates or something but he walked over to the table and wiped it down instead. I put everything in the dishwasher and Ethan put the leftovers into plastic containers. I noticed we were a good team as far as working in the kitchen. For some reason that made me extremely happy.
      We were done in only a few minutes and I was stressing about how to spend the rest of the evening, but Ethan was ahead of me on that one, too.
      “Want to watch a movie?” he asked as I turned on the dishwasher.
      “Um, sure.” I was actually relieved. That would take up a couple of hours that I didn’t have to make conversation. It was starting to feel awkward again.
      “We can see what’s on cable or we can go rent something if you’d rather.”
      I knew he was being polite, letting me make the choice, but I was painfully aware that I didn’t know any of the movies from the past years, so anything on cable was likely to be new to me.
      “Whatever’s on is fine. I’d like to just veg out.” That actually sounded like heaven right at this moment. I was still dressed in the yoga pants and tee shirt, so I didn’t even need to change into more comfortable clothes. I grabbed a fresh glass since I had just put everything away and turned to Ethan. “Would you like a drink?”
      “Sure, I’ll take a Coke.” That sounded good to me too so I grabbed two cans and filled both glasses with ice. He took the cans from me and started for the living room. I trailed after him with a tingle in my stomach. We were going to watch a movie. Alone. I felt a little giddy. Foolish, I know, but I still have a pulse. Did I mention that Ethan is hot ?
      We settled ourselves on opposite sides of the couch and Ethan picked up the remote. He held it out to me, but I waved it off. This wasn’t the twenty inch TV I was used to, it was a big flat screen behemoth. Even the remote looked too complicated. He turned it on and started flipping through the channels. I was only vaguely aware of what he was doing; I was too busy watching Ethan’s beautiful fingers work the remote.
      “Is this okay?” His voice broke me out of my reverie.
      “Huh?” I jerked my eyes away from his hand and up to his face.
      “ Slumdog Millionaire , it won Best Picture a couple of years ago. It’s pretty good. You like it.”
      Well if I like it, what the heck. “Sure. That sounds great.” I had no idea what it was about or who was in it, but it sounded like some “shoot em up” movie, and I don’t like those. Whatever, I’ll sit through it.
      “It doesn’t start for ten more minutes; do you maybe want to talk?”
      I looked at him. He was looking serious. I hoped this wasn’t going to be anything bad. “Okay. What do you want to talk