It Started with a Snap by Piper James

Chapter Fifteen

Ember

So. Fucking. Bored.

It was my first full day at the ranch without going into work, and I’d spent all morning in my pj’s, watching trash T.V. and playing with Kane while trying not to eat every scrap of junk food in the kitchen out of pure boredom.

Plopping down on the couch after finishing off the sour cream and onion potato chips, I grabbed my phone and decided to scroll social media for a while. Pulling up my favorite site, I clicked over to the notifications page to find and respond to any comments on my pictures.

Several lines down, a familiar name caught my eye, and my mouth dropped open.

Ethan Perry liked your photo.

I clicked on the notification, and it directed me to the picture Dakota took of me at the river early in the summer. She, Sage, and I had headed down there for a day in the sun, but Belle ended up skipping it because the baby wasn’t feeling well. I was wearing my favorite yellow bikini with a pair of jean shorts, and I remembered I was laughing at a joke Dakota had made about my boobs looking like twin suns, shining beacons for all the horny single guys at the river.

It was a great shot of me, but that didn’t explain what Ethan was doing on my page in the first place. Was he social-stalking me? I thought about calling him out on it, but quickly decided against it. He was probably just curious. I was sure I ended up on his “people you might know” list, since I was friends with the girls and his brothers on the site.

He probably didn’t mean to like the photo, and if I brought it up, it would only embarrass him. And while that prospect might’ve thrilled me a week ago, I didn’t have the heart for it anymore. I didn’t know what that meant. Was I finally forgiving him for his hurtful words that night? How could I not?

He was doing me a huge favor, breaking his back to fix my building after I’d basically let it fall to ruin. I still intended to pay him back, somehow, but he didn’t know that. He was doing it out of kindness.

Because even through my anger all these weeks, deep down, I’d always known—Ethan, at his core, was a truly kind person. He might not have liked me very much, if his words that night were to be believed, but that didn’t make him any less willing to take on the job of a whole crew and renovate my entire building, for free, on his own time. While footing the bill for the supplies.

And taking all that into consideration, I realized I really was an asshole.

Nibbling on my lower lip, I made a decision…I was going to try to let go of the past and be nicer to Ethan.

Belle was right. I’d never let what anyone had to say about me affect me in the least. I lived my life with no apologies. So there was no reason to hold a grudge against Ethan. He was in his brother’s home, having a private conversation that no one was supposed to overhear. The fact that he was drunk is moot—I stood by the fact that alcohol was a truth serum.

But it really was none of my business what he thought about me. The only opinion that mattered was my own. I knew that. I just forgot for a little while.

A few seconds after making the decision to let it go, I felt like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Carrying around all that anger had been taking a toll on me. Especially since I was so attracted to him on a physical level.

But I wasn’t going to think about that too much.

Curious, I clicked on Ethan’s handle to bring up his profile. Most of the pictures were of home interiors, highlighting the work he and his brothers had done. A few of Ethan with one or more of his brothers. A few sunsets with shadowed palm trees in the foreground, telling me they were taken back in California.

My finger paused its scrolling motion as I came across a close up photo of Ethan. I tapped on it and the photo expanded to full screen, and my breath caught in my throat. He was sitting in what appeared to be a rocking chair, his gaze trained on something in the distance. His features were relaxed, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised. He was wearing a snug-fitting white T-shirt that did little to hide the muscles rippling underneath.

The picture was a perfect testament to his calm, reserved personality.

My gaze moved back to his face. He looked…peaceful. Content. His blue eyes sparkled behind dark, thick lashes. His softly curving lips looked positively delicious.

What? No. Stop it, Ember.

I had no business thinking of Ethan that way. I didn’t like quiet introverts. I was always attracted to men like me—loud and boisterous. Fun-loving. Assertive. Not afraid to ask for what they want.

And how has that worked out for you so far?

I gritted my teeth against the tiny voice in my head and swiped my finger across my phone’s screen to close the app.

Perfectly. My choice in men has worked out perfectly for me. I had fun, we both got what we wanted, and there were no strings and no hurt feelings when it was over. I had no desire to be tied down. I didn’t do relationships.

Pushing the topic from my mind, I thought about texting my friends to see what they were up to. But it was a weekday, which meant Sage was at school, teaching her third grade class. Belle was most likely back at the office, and Dakota, of course, was in Florida with her family. I could text Mack, but he tended to sleep past noon since he worked nights.

I had other friends, but not really anyone I felt like hanging out with. Heaving a sigh, I tossed my phone down and turned the television on. I couldn’t handle anymore junk T.V., but maybe I could find a good movie to pass the time.

I settled on a sappy romantic comedy even though I generally hated those kinds of movies. They were as predictable as they were unrealistic, and I usually spent the entire movie critiquing the characters and the ridiculous plots.

But I was out of sorts today and somehow let myself get swept up in the romance. And when the main character got her broken heart healed by her love interest in the end? I cried. I fucking cried like a baby. God, I was so glad no one was here to witness that particular humiliation. And Kane slept through the whole thing.

“Maybe I’m about to start my period,” I grunted as I clicked the television off.

It was the only logical explanation for my emotional response to that stupid movie—hormones. Of course, I was on birth control pills, and I was only a week into my pack, so I knew the crimson wave was nowhere close to crashing into these shores. I’d just had the damn thing last week.

Maybe I was hungry. If people could get hangry, there had to be a crybaby version of it, right? Huweepy. Cryungry.

Whatever. I obviously needed some carbs in my life, despite the fact that I’d done nothing but eat all morning. Obviously.