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

She laughed and read the message several times before deciding Sameer really was okay. The messages from Arjun and her sisters weren’t as comforting. Her parents were taking things really hard. Arjun begged her to come back and promised that he would make sure she didn’t have to marry anyone she didn’t want to. He’d gotten rid of Vivek. There was also an email from her best friend, Hema, telling her how much she missed her. Her sisters had written long messages that spanned pages. Divya closed her eyes, unable to read them.

It was time to go home.

Ethan was not real. He was a fantasy, just like her singing career. What would life be like as a singer? It would be like the last four days. Going from one place to another, with no tether to home. Having to dance onstage wearing skimpy clothes. Maybe she’d been pursuing the wrong goals. She’d thought that knowing she had done something on her own, a success her parents hadn’t bought for her, would be enough. It would fulfill her, close the hole she’d felt in her soul. But then why did she still feel so empty? Why were her thoughts full of an American man with bright blue eyes and sandy-brown hair who owned a house down the street from his parents? A world away from everyone she loved. She lay on the bed but hardly slept.

She was not going to be the woman who would make the dark, empty, redbrick house a home for him.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Ethan rolled his shoulders and stretched his back. The old couch had lived its life. He was tempted to order a new one, but Divya’s words came back to him.

“Coffee, hon?”

He nodded to his mother, who poured him a cup and set it on the small kitchen table. It was still early in the morning, but his father had already left for work. His mother was in her diner uniform and Ethan bit his tongue to keep from asking when she’d quit.

“You know the old McPherson house?”

She looked at him, puzzled, and sat at the table, after putting a plate with eggs, toast and bacon in front of him. She’d gotten up earlier than usual to make him breakfast.

“I bought it.”

She gasped. “That was you? The neighbors were wondering who the mysterious buyer was. Why didn’t you tell us?”

He shrugged. “I felt silly, buying that big old house for just me. I thought I’d tell you about it when I was ready to start a family.”

Marilyn hugged her son. “You don’t need a woman to start a family. We are your family.”

“Then, why does is feel like I can’t do anything right lately?” He reached out and took his mom’s hands and she squeezed his.

She smiled sadly at him. “Oh Ethan, we love you so much. We’re still getting used to your money. I guess we don’t want to take advantage of your generosity. Your dad and I have always provided for our children, and we’re not used to the idea of our children taking responsibility for our needs.”

“There’s something I want to tell you,” Ethan started. It was time he told his mother what he knew. “Right after Matt was born, I went to see Wade, in our old apartment.”

His mother froze, but he continued. “I needed to know why he gave me up so easily. I know he wasn’t a good man, but I was his son.” He paused and took a sip of his coffee. “He told me that Bill only agreed to adopt me because you made it a condition of your marriage.”

His mother gasped audibly. “That awful man. How dare he say something like that to you?” She grabbed Ethan’s hand. “Is that what you’ve thought all these years? Why didn’t you say something?” She shook her head. “It’s not true. I never asked Bill to take you in. He fell in love with you the first time he met you. Remember that day I took you to the park?”

Ethan did remember the day. Bill had shown him how to ride his bike without the training wheels on.

“Bill proposed to me the next day. I still joke with him that he only married me because he wanted you. Oh honey, I wish you hadn’t kept this in your heart all these years.” His mother leaned over and gave him a hug and he hugged her back.

They sat in silence for a while, eating breakfast, then his mother turned to him. “I guess I could use a new car.”

His heart soared, but before he could say something, she held up a finger. “But, I want to go down to the used car lot and pick out something safe and sturdy.” Her eyes softened. “I’m sure the Lexus is amazing, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable in it.”

He nodded. “Anything you want, Mom. How about I pick you up when you get your break between shifts, and we’ll go down together.”

She stood and put her coffee cup in the sink. “About Divya…”

He stared at his plate, ready to hear the litany of things that were wrong with her. “That girl has a good head on her shoulders. She’s a keeper.”

He looked at his mother in surprise. She came over to him and kissed him on the head. “But prepare yourself, my boy. She’s going to break your heart.”

There it was. The alarm that had been blaring in his mind, that he kept silencing.

He poured a second cup of coffee and went to wake Divya. He knocked on his bedroom door, but there was no answer. He opened it to see her curled up in his bed, her dark hair across her face.

She is so beautiful.

He imagined the master bedroom in the redbrick house and waking up next to her each morning, and he couldn’t. She didn’t belong in that house. She didn’t want the life he did.

She stirred and he brushed her hair from her face. Her eyes blinked open. “Hey there,