The Cinderella Mission (Family Secrets #1)(42)
Author: Catherine Mann

And he lived above the garage? Her interrogation gig took a surprise turn—not necessarily for the better.

She leaned back and half listened as Eugenie rolled out another story of Ethan the Neighborhood Menace. She didn’t know what to do with all these new images of Ethan. Stories and vulnerabilities—and yes, imperfections—that made him all the more human. Not some bad-boy Adonis dazzling her before he blew out of town again.

This was a man.

And damned if he wasn’t even more appealing in a way that made her envision rings and babies and all those things Ethan insisted weren’t in his plans.

Yet, she couldn’t stop herself from listening.

And dreaming.

Ethan roared into the garage, sliding his Jag in beside Cook’s Beetle and the wall, his aunt’s empty space gaping two cars down. Shutting off the engine, he worked the peppermint stick to the side of his mouth, flipping a second one between two fingers, leftovers from his and Kelly’s day in North Carolina.

Frustration itched through him, thanks to too much unfinished business, first with Kelly, then Hatch’s bizarre references to Aunt Eugenie.

At least Hatch had already reassured him Kelly’s old professor was currently ensconced in an alcohol rehab, so he couldn’t have been responsible. But who was?

Tension stretched within Ethan. Something had to give.

Just as he reached for his keys, the garage door hummed to life, cranking open again. His aunt’s Mercedes pulled into the empty spot.

The passenger door swung open, two very feminine legs swinging out. Brown leather thigh boots wreaked hell on his libido.

Kelly had obviously found her own mark to place on Aunt Eugenie’s fashion advice. She never wore heels, always opting for flats, but in a way that brought a new flash to her clothes. Boots skimmed up slim legs to a dress hem that hiked well above the knee as she scooched out of the car. Kelly stood, her wool coat swinging around her hips.

Why the hell did it take a grown woman so long to stand and shake her dress back down to a decent length? Kelly swept her hand down the loose-fitting slinky sweater dress. Nothing fancy, but the brown dress had hints of gold shimmering in the fabric when she moved.

And she was moving too much.

Her hair glided with each turn of her head like some shampoo commercial and it made him crazy. All of it. The whole package. The whole woman. There wasn’t anything he hadn’t already noticed before the accessories, but the confidence in the tilt of her chin…

That was new.

Sexy as hell.

And he’d found her mighty hot before. Never would he forget the scents and sounds of her pleasure in the mine. He sat in his car and watched her and wanted her and couldn’t decide if his decision to stay put was born of selflessness or cowardice.

He didn’t need his window down to hear. And he listened. Couldn’t make himself stop eavesdropping just for the pleasure of hearing Kelly’s voice.

Another damned blot on his already freaking opaque character. Ethan clicked the peppermint stick to the other side of his mouth.

His aunt stepped from the driver’s side, no chauffeur for her today. “Then there was the summer he learned to hot-wire the neighborhood security systems so he could slip into garages.”

Gee, thanks, Aunt Eugenie. He slouched in his seat like the guilty adolescent he’d been all those years ago.

Kelly shuffled shopping bags in her hands. “Oh, no, please don’t say he—”

“Of course not.” Eugenie slammed the door. “He couldn’t drive yet. He was only twelve.”

“So what was he doing?”

“Shoving bananas in tailpipes. The auto club made a fortune that day on all those stalled $100,000 vehicles.”

Kelly’s laughter bubbled free like French champagne. Sitting in his car, Ethan let it pour over him until it made him drunk with wanting her.

Her laughter dissipated, not that his desire for her faded in the least. His aunt stopped at the door. “Kelly, run on in without me. I left something in the car.”

“Let me help.”

Eugenie waved her away with a jeweled hand. “No need to wait for me. You go on inside.”

“Okay, then. See you in a bit.” The door clicked shut after her.

“Ethan,” Eugenie called without the least question in her commanding tone.

Busted. He opened the door. “Yeah, Aunt Eugenie.”

“You can come out of the car now.”

Hatch should sign her on. Ethan stepped out. He never could run a damn thing past her. Thank God she hadn’t been the rigid sort or he’d have been packed up and sent off to boarding school by seven.

He swung the car door closed. Now seemed as good a time as any to have that conversation with her and find out what Hatch had meant back at the mine.

Ethan called over the car, “The banana thing was funny, you have to admit.”

“Of course it was. But I couldn’t tell you that. I had to be a responsible adult.” She strode across the garage in a swirl of orange silk and the finest faux fur money could buy.

He would have thought she’d stolen the floor-length monstrosity off a pimp if he hadn’t signed the bill. Yet his eccentric aunt somehow made it look regal. “Thank you. I know you would rather have been shoving bananas in tail pipes, too, and instead you had to be that responsible adult for a kid who wasn’t even your own.”

Her smile creased lines on her face he knew he’d put there from worry.

She patted his cheek. “Oh, you’re wrong there. You’re very much my own.”

An odd burn started in his brain. Hatch’s words twisted through Ethan’s mind. The strange emphasis on the word aunt. She couldn’t mean her words literally.

Could she?

Not that it should be earth-shattering. She’d been his mother for almost as long as he could remember.

Regardless, his aunt harbored some kind of secret that he needed to know and now seemed the perfect time. Ethan forced his stance to stay loose, relaxed, in spite of the tightly coiled tension in his gut. “Am I your biological son?”

Eugenie’s blue eyes, so like his, widened. She pressed a bejeweled hand to her heart while Ethan waited for her to catch her breath or gather her thoughts. His own heart thudded more than he would have expected. He told himself it didn’t matter either way.

She gave him a tender smile along with a slight shake of her head. “No, you’re very much your parents’ offspring. Your mother had the labor from hell to get you here, difficult boy that you’ve always been.”