Rising Tides
Page 76

"No, you don't."
"He yelled at her."
"She's yelling, too."
"He's fighting with her. I'm going to stop him."
Anna cocked her head. "Does she look like she needs any help?" His mouth set, Seth glared through the screen. Then reconsidered when he saw Grace shove Ethan back a full step. "I guess not."
"She can handle him." Amused, she gave Seth a scrubbing pat on the top of the head. "How come you don't leap to my defense when Cam and I argue?"
"Because he's afraid of you."
Anna rolled her tongue into her cheek, enjoying the idea. "Oh, really?"
"Half afraid, anyway," Seth said with a grin. "He never knows what you'll do. And besides, you guys like to argue."
"Observant little brat, aren't you?"
He shrugged, cheerful now. "I see what I see."
"And know what you know." Laughing, she edged closer to the door with him, hoping for a better view.
"let's move to thenext step, Ethan." Grace shoved the empty basket out of her way with her foot.
"Fast-forward a few years. Think you can keep up?"
He took a long breath because he didn't want to yell at her again. "You're pissing me off, Grace."
"Good. I mean to, and I hate to fail at something I'm working on." He wasn't sure which emotion came out on top, annoyance or bafflement. "What's gotten into you?"
"Oh, I don't know, Ethan. Let's see—could it be the fact that you think I'm some brainless, helpless female? Yes, you know…" She jabbed her index finger into his chest like a drill into wood. "I bet that's just what's gotten into me."
"I don't think you're brainless."
"Oh, just helpless, then." Even as he opened his mouth she was rolling over him. "Do you think a helpless woman can do what I've been doing the last few years? Do you think—what was it you called me once—delicate, like your mama's good china. I'm not china!" she exploded.
"I'm good solid stoneware, the kind you can drop and it rattles around on the floor. It doesn't shatter. You have towork to break good stoneware, Ethan, and I'm not broken yet." She punched a finger into his chest again, darkly pleased when his eyes flashed a warning. "I wasn't so helpless when I got you into my bed, was I? Which is just where I wanted you."
"You didn't get me anywhere."
"Hell, I didn't. Andyou're brainless if you think differently. I reeled you in like a goddamn rockfish." It gave her pleasure, oh, such vivid pleasure, to see both fury and frustration race over his face. "If you think a statement like that flatters either of us—"
"I'm not trying to flatter you. I'm telling you straight out, I wanted you and I went after you. If I'd left the matter up to you, we'd have been pinching each other's butts in a nursing home."
"Jesus, Grace."
"Just be quiet." There was no stopping now, whatever the consequences, not with this roaring sea crashing in her head. "You just think about that, Ethan Quinn. You give that some good long thought and don't youdare call me fragile again."
He gave her a slow nod. "It's not the word that's coming to mind at the moment."
"Good. I haven't needed you or anyone to help me build a decent life for my baby. I used muscle, and I used guts to do what needed to be done, so don't you tell me I'm china."
"You wouldn't have had to do it all alone if you weren't too damn proud to settle things with your father." The truth of that put a hitch in her step. But she balled her fists and rushed on. "We're talking about you and me. You say you love me, Ethan, but you don't for one minute understand me."
"I'm starting to agree with that," he muttered.
"You've got some ego-ridden male idea in your head that I need to be taken care of, protected, coddled—when what I need is to be needed and respected and loved. And you'd know that if you paid attention. You ask yourself this, Ethan, who seduced whom? Who said 'I love you' first. Who proposed marriage? Are you so nearsighted you can't see I've had to take every step first with you?"
"You make it sound like you've been leading me by the nose, Grace. I don't care for that."
"I couldn't lead you by the nose if I jabbed a fish hook in it. You go exactly where you want to go, Ethan, but you can be so infuriatingly slow. I love that about you, and I admire it, and now I understand it more. You had a terrible period in your life when you had no control, now you take care not to lose it. But you can slip from control into stubbornness in one short step, and that's just what you've done."
"I'm not being stubborn. I'm being right."
"Right? It's right for two people to love each other and not build a life out of it? It's right to pay all your life for what someone else did to you when you were too young to defend yourself against it? Is it right for you to say you can't and won't marry me because you're… stained and you made some ridiculous promise to yourself never to have a family of your own?"
It sounded off when she said it like that. It sounded… stupid. "It's the way it is."
"Because you say so."
"I told you how it is, Grace. I gave you the choice."
Her jaw hurt from clenching it. "People like to say they've given somebody a choice when what they're really saying is'do this my way.' I don't like your way, Ethan. Your way only takes into account what was and doesn't add what is, or what could be. You think I don't know what you expected? You'd take your stand and sweet, delicate Grace would just fall in line."
"I didn't expect you to fall in line."
"Then crawl off, wounded, and pine after you for the rest of my life. You're getting neither. I'll give you a choice this time, Ethan. You straighten yourself out, you go on and think things through for the next eon or two, then you let me know what conclusions you've come to. Because my stand is this. It's marriage or it's nothing. I'll be damned if I'll spend the rest of my life pining over you. I can live without you." She tossed back her head. "Let's see if you're man enough to live without me." She whirled around and stalked off, leaving him fuming.