Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates (free biff chip and kipper ebooks .txt) 📕

As he passed a particular redbrick house with a white picket fence, he slowed down like he always did. But this time he also found himself stepping on the brake, reversing back and pulling into the driveway.

“Are your parents not home? The house is dark.”

“This isn’t my parents’ house.”

She looked at him questioningly.

“It’s my house. Or I should say, a house I bought.”

She leaned over and placed a hand on his arm.

“Houses rarely come up for sale in this neighborhood, and my father is never selling his, so I bought it to be close to them. But I never moved in. They don’t even know I own it.”

“Why didn’t you tell them?”

He shrugged. “I bought the place right after Pooja left me and I didn’t want to hear my parents tell me that I’d made another mistake.”

He reversed the car and drove back onto the road, his throat tight. Why had he shown it to Divya? The only person who knew he owned it was his accountant. Was he being impulsive in loving her? Did he want to fill this house so badly that he was clinging to whoever came his way? He took a breath to ease the constriction in his chest.

As the car crunched over the gravel driveway of his parents’ house, Ethan relaxed. The sight of the gray siding, stone chimney and the two rocking chairs on the front porch filled him with comforting warmth. The house had looked this way all his life. No matter how hard a day he’d had at school, when the bus had dropped him off at the end of the street, he’d looked forward to walking up the porch steps. He parked beside his mother’s old car so she wouldn’t see the Lexus’s bow from the front porch. He couldn’t wait to give this gift to her.

His mother came outside to meet them. She looked the same as always, dressed in jeans and a knitted sweater. She was a small woman, no more than five foot four with blond hair and tired blue eyes, which reminded him of the fact that she still put in long hours at the diner. He enveloped her in a bear hug.

“It is good to see you, my boy.” She hugged him back, holding on to him tightly and making him feel like everything was okay with the world. “I thought you’d forgotten.”

He kissed her on the cheek. “Happy anniversary.”

“Who’s this?” She looked at Divya.

“Mom, meet Divya.”

Divya held out her hand, but his mother leaned in and gave her a hug. “Welcome.”

Ethan surreptitiously removed their bags from the car, and Divya retrieved the pie she’d insisted on picking up and handed it to Marilyn.

“Now, what’s this?”

“Key lime pie from the Florida Keys,” Divya replied.

His mother’s eyes widened. “Now, that’s mighty thoughtful of you. Well, come on in, Bill is probably wondering what’s taking us so long.”

They walked into a small foyer that led to a staircase to the second floor and a dining room on the right. Divya followed Marilyn into the kitchen, where Ethan’s dad stood to greet them. He had dark hair and gray eyes. He was a thin man with round glasses and a goatee.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Connors,” Divya said.

“Oh, call me Bill.”

“Divya brought a pie for us from the Keys,” Marilyn said as she set the pie down.

“Wow.” Bill looked at the pie as if he was making sure it was real.

“What were you guys doing in the Keys?” Bill asked.

“Ethan took me skydiving.”

Marilyn shot Bill a look that didn’t escape Ethan’s notice. When he’d been a kid, he’d hated how his parents communicated wordlessly; now he compared every one of his relationships to that connection they had.

“Matt and the kids should be here any minute. I made pot roast.” Marilyn looked at Divya. “Are you okay with that?”

“I’ve never had pot roast, so I’d love to try it.”

“Mom makes the best pot roast.” Ethan leaned over and gave his mother an affectionate kiss. “I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.” Marilyn leaned over and tousled his hair.

“So are you and Divya sharing a bedroom?” Marilyn asked.

Divya looked down and Ethan enjoyed seeing the twinge of color on her cheeks.

“Um, no, we’re not staying in the same room,” Divya said.

“We’re not?” Ethan whispered to her and she shot him a look.

Marilyn looked between them and rolled her eyes. “Ethan, why don’t you show Divya to your room and I’ll make up the couch in the family room for you.”

Ethan carried her bag upstairs and she followed.

“Is this your childhood room?”

He nodded, looking at the familiar space. The walls were covered with Star Wars posters. The bookshelf held the memorabilia he’d brought home from college. He knew every inch of this room. One of the first things he and Bill had done together was put the bed together. This had been Bill’s office before he’d married his mom.

Ethan reached to the back of the bookshelf and pulled out a framed photo. It pictured a younger version of Marilyn, Wade and Ethan, when he was about four.

“That’s your real father?” Divya asked.

“Bill is my real father. This is the man who cheated on my mother, drank himself into a stupor every night and took five seconds to sign away his paternity rights.”

She placed her hand on his chest, her eyes shining. He lifted her hand and kissed it. “Don’t feel sorry for this poor little rich boy. Bill loves my mom and he’s been a wonderful father. It could’ve turned out very differently for me.”

“I hope you know that your father rejecting you had nothing to do with you and everything to do with him.”

Ethan nodded. “I know that at some level. But he wasn’t always a drunk. Mom told me his drinking started after I was born.”

“You didn’t drive him to drink.”

“I know.” He hadn’t looked at the picture in years, but he’d needed to show it to Divya, to have her understand that there was a reason