The Three-Week Arrangement (Chase Brothers) Read Online Free Page B

for almost as long as conditioned air had been a thing.
    The second was an obituary. She read through, her heart sinking. Ethan had lost his wife, and Rue had just claimed to be dating him. Onthe anniversary of his wife’s death.
    What had she done ?

Chapter Two
    Ethan paused on the porch just long enough to yank his wet shoes onto his feet. He felt like a jerk, but Rue shouldn’t have used his name. He’d told her his mother was on the committee of the Von Adler charity. He and his brothers were always involved. Even if he never saw Rue again, there was no way news of his reemergence in the dating pool wouldn’t get back, most likelyto his mother. The woman would be thrilled. Right up until he shut her down. No matter how quickly he set her straight, he knew he’d disappoint her. But he meant what he said to Rue.
    He wasn’t ready.
    Amy had been gone three years. Long, horrible years, but she was still so close. There were mornings he still half-expected to see her sleepy grin across rumpled sheets. The scent of herperfume lingered, forever a part of him, even though he no longer lived in the house they’d once shared, or with any of her things. The memory of her smile haunted him as much as it brought him comfort.
    He looked at his arm where Rue had touched it. Still, the feeling of her soft skin against him burned. He’d been so stunned by the contact that he hadn’t realized until now how very longit had been since anyone had touched him, at least like she had. Guilt slammed into him, taking his breath.
    Get a grip. It’s no different than a handshake . Only it was. Because in three years, no handshake had made him feel like that. He still carried the heat of Rue’s gaze. The utter appreciation in it. No one had looked at him like that for a long time, either—at least not that he noticed.He was poor Ethan, the widower. Almost everyone these days looked at him with pity.
    Like Rue had as he’d fled.
    His steps slowed when he realized he was back at the main road. He turned and stared down his old street, the world he’d once known and loved basking in the cruel sunshine. Small lawns, some brown, most green. Kids living the exuberance of summer. Heat coming off the pavementin waves. The chime of an ice cream truck in the distance. Details most people seldom noticed, but they’d been his life.
    And he’d lost it. He’d lost everything. Nothing could ever change that.
    Not even a bombshell brunette with a kick-ass car and the softest hands he’d ever touched.
    His heart felt a little heavier than usual as he left the old neighborhood behind, but it wastime. Past time.
    He had music to face.
    In the Chase family, Sunday afternoons meant family dinner. The tradition went back as long as Ethan could remember, back to his grandmother when she was alive. It hadn’t always made sense to him for the family to spend the week working in close quarters at Fusion Air and still feel the need to spend Sunday afternoons together, but mostly, heappreciated the downtime with them.
    This was not one of those occasions.
    The second he walked through his parents’ front door, seven faces turned to him and stared. His oldest brother Crosby and his wife Estelle, older brother Sawyer and his fiancée Kelsie, his only younger brother Liam, and both of his parents all watched, most trying to bury smiles, while he stood in the threshold,letting in flies, as his grandma would have said.
    “What?” he asked. As if he couldn’t guess.
    His mother beamed. “I got a call today from Elaine Campbell.”
    Campbell . Barely two hours had passed since he left Rue’s house, and already word had spread. He wasn’t entirely surprised, but he’d banked on having a chance to explain the situation to his mom before…well, this. Everyonein his family was looking at him as if…as if they were happy.
    For the first time since Amy’s diagnosis, they weren’t looking at him with pity.
    Ethan swallowed. Keeping his expression guarded, he