Read Online Ethan, Who Loved Carter by Ryan Loveless - Free Book Online

Alice smiled at them. “Oh, this is Alice. My boss.”
    “And his friend,” Alice said. She extended her hand to Ethan, who looked wary. Carter imagined it must be quite a shock to never see anyone else over and suddenly here’s a strange girl. But Alice soldiered through, keeping her voice pleasant without dipping into condescension. “Carter has told me a lot about you.”
    “He has?” Ethan sounded amazed.
    “I know you’re his best friend here,” Alice said.
    Ethan’s hesitance faded as the statement sank in. He clasped Alice’s hand and shook it, his smile once again shining. “Yeah,” he said, “I am.”
    “So, Carter tells me you like music too?” Soon Alice had Ethan’s full attention as she showed him the box she’d brought. Ethan sat enrapt as she explained what Carter did as a transposer. She walked Ethan through the plot of the show Carter would work on next, showed him the major songs, explained where they occurred in the story, how they moved the plot along (or in some cases how they “let the lead show off a little about being, you know, head over heels”) as Ethan nodded and took special care to look at each page as she handed it to him.
    “You’ve never explained anything that thoroughly to me,” Carter said.
    “You’ve never shown this much interest,” Alice said. Carter bit down a rush of jealousy as Ethan scooted closer to her like they were best buds.
    “Carter is going to transpose all these songs?”
    “Yep.” Alice saluted Carter with her soda. “That’s why he’s the best.”
    Ethan turned to Carter. “Can I have a soda?”
    “You don’t have to ask.” Ethan was probably just being lazy, or he didn’t want to leave Alice’s side. Most of the time Ethan headed for the refrigerator as soon as he arrived to help himself. Carter went to the kitchen and got one for himself too. He sat down on the couch and allowed himself a smidgen of satisfaction when Ethan scooted over to be next to him.

Chapter Six

     
    “Y OU and Ethan seemed pretty close. Something going on there?” Halfway through Alice’s phone call the following night to check how Carter was doing with the new work, she switched topics. It had been boiling up; Carter could tell she’d wanted to ask during her visit, but she’d restrained herself, probably because Ethan had been there.
    “We’re just friends.”
    “You were sitting in his lap.”
    “I fell into his lap, and then I got up.” Carter had been maneuvering between the coffee table and couch with his arms full of papers and lost his balance.
    “Yeah, after you guys cuddled for twenty seconds.”
    “Ethan’s affectionate.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “He is .” He tugged the sole of his shoe. It was coming undone at the heel.
    “Carter, if you’re worried you’ll be taking advantage of him, didn’t his mother pretty much give you the green light?”
    “It’s not because of him.” The conversation could end. Any second .
    Silence from Alice. She was probably reviewing all the reasons for Carter to lose his temper. Bob. Shawn. Oleander. He didn’t have a long string of exes like some people (Alice), but they’d impacted him nonetheless. Bob, short story, had cheated. Shawn was already involved with someone; Carter was the other man there and hadn’t known it. Oleander was perfect after those two, until Carter walked in on him entertaining his work friends with a dead-on, mocking impersonation of Carter’s tics. Oleander hadn’t tried to apologize or acted like he should. He’d shrugged like Carter was the one with the problem, like Carter should lighten up, and that was that.
    “Oh. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
    She sounded so apologetic he started to feel bad. None of his past relationships were Alice’s fault. “It’s all right. Sorry I snapped at you.”
    “Honey, you have to let someone else in sometime. What are you scared of?”
    “Everything.”
    Alice sighed a few times as if she were gearing up for a speech,