Ethan in Gold by Amy Lane

Author:Amy Lane
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2013-09-23T11:55:14+00:00

Step 7—throw away the fucking handbook

HIS father was the only one up when Jonah got home.

In spite of the fact that sometimes it seemed like Seth Stevens sort of up and deserted them, it was hard to hold a grudge, especially when he came over on the weekends and let their mom sleep, and made sure they had groceries, and played Nintendo. Jonah had memories of a mostly happy childhood. Who wanted that to go away, in spite of the pain that came with it?

So when he got home and his dad was up, sitting in the recliner and reading quietly from a tablet, Jonah was able to forget that horrible, huge mix of frustration and ache in his chest and smile at him.

“Good book?” he asked, pulling off his sweatshirt almost before the door closed behind him. They kept the apartment warm, for Amelia, but he actually didn’t mind the cold. November, December, January—those were his favorite months of the year.

“Jack Reacher—he always leaves the girl. Asshole. Anyway, how was the”—Dad blushed—“not date? Was that what your mom said? You weren’t out on a date, but it was really a date, so I wasn’t supposed to ask you about a date?” He shook his head. “Whatever. Did you have a nice time?”

Jonah laughed. That was his dad’s superpower. He was sort of ordinary to look at—slightly built like Jonah, sand-colored hair and gray eyes like both Jonah and Amelia—but he was really good at making people smile. Jonah thought that might have been why his relationship with Amelia broke him. He wanted to make her smile, and he kept making her cry.

“I did,” Jonah said quietly. After kicking off his shoes, he moved to the corner of the couch nearest the recliner and curled up, resting his chin on his elbow. He set the bag full of manga next to him. “And all things considered, I think we’re going to call it a date.”

His father grimaced. “Do I want to know details?”

Jonah half laughed. “Not all of them, no. But….” God, his dad had always been so easy to talk to. This would be a really good time for that not to fail.

“But what?” Seth closed the case on his tablet and pulled his knees up so he and Jonah could look at each other and talk. Seth had an open beer on the end table between them, warm enough that all of the condensation had evaporated, and Jonah picked it up and took a swallow. They weren’t big on alcohol, but twenty-two should have its perks, right?

“Dad, I’m a twenty-two-year-old virgin.”

His father snickered. “Wow. That’s sort of fucking awesome, did you know that?”

“Yeah. But see, Ethan is… not.”

Seth’s eyebrows were darker than his curly hair, and he raised them now, inviting the confidence, and Jonah was grateful. “How much ‘not’?”

“I get the feeling he’s done some… some bad stuff. Stuff that, you know, you don’t tell parents and little sisters about.”

Seth made a little O with his mouth and gnawed on his lower lip thoughtfully.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.