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head. How did I get
myself into this mess?
    The doorbell startled me and I let my
legs drop to the floor. Plodding across the tile kitchen to the
tiny entry, I rose onto my toes to look through the peep hole. A
man stood with his head lowered. I bit my lower lip and hesitated.
A soft knock followed.
    Grabbing the neck of a flower vase
with wilted flowers dangling around the sides, I twisted the
deadbolt and inched open the door. When I peered around it, steel
gray eyes met mine and my fingers clamped down on the
vase.
    “ Don’t,” Ethan placed his
hand on the door. He didn’t push against me. “Please. I only wanted
to give you this.”
    He held out a small letter, with a red
wax seal. I glanced at it and saw the letters EK. Looking back up
at him, I realized for the first time that he no longer wore the
mask. He was unveiled before me, and just as I suspected, he stole
my breath away.
    Three stitches lined the angry cut
over his eye and as bizarre as it was, I felt a moment of
remorse.
    Ethan nodded toward the letter. “All I
ask is that you read it. Nothing more.”
    I slipped my hand out and seized the
letter, and then draw back into the safety of my home. A perceived
safety that could easily be shattered with a heavy shove that would
topple me backward and allow him entrance, but he remained
motionless. Non-threatening.
    “ Well…” He shuffled his
feet, looking like a young boy who was suddenly and painfully
unsure of himself. He backed down a step. “Goodbye,
Ava.”
    He turned and marched down the steps,
leaving me alone and confused. I closed the door and peered through
the peep hole, breathing a sigh of relief when I saw he had
gone.
    Clutching the letter to my chest, I
hurried to my dining room and sank into a chair. I tapped the
letter against the glass top, wondering if I should feed into his
delusions. He was obviously wrong for me, but if that were entirely
true why would I have allowed myself to get in his limo in the
first place. Why did I spend all those hours crying in my bed,
knowing that a part of me still longed for his touch? That it would
be nothing more than a dream that I could wake from and still have
a chance to see him again the following week.
    We both knew I agreed to go along with
his desires only because some part of me wanted to be. After being
in his arms, I knew a part of me would always want to be there
again.
    I slid my finger beneath the seal and
tore open the letter, unfolding the tri-fold. The script was
handwritten in blue ink, a personal touch that I had not
expected.
    Dearest Ava,
    I know that my actions
last night caused you alarm and for that I am deeply sorry. It was
never my intention to make you afraid.
    I can’t tell you how many
times I have started this letter. A dozen would hardly be close to
the real number. What do I say to the woman I have admired from a
distance for years?
    You asked me last night if
you knew me. That answer was yes, though you knew me as Ethan
Kline. Even now that name most likely doesn’t ring a bell. Let me
go further and tell you that I was Levi Willis’
step-brother.
    I spent the two years you
dated Levi in high school watching you, wishing that I’d met you
first. Levi was crazy about you, and I knew you felt the same about
him. I tried not to notice you. Not to fall in love with your laugh
when Levi would say his usual stupid quips. I tried not to wish
that I was the one in your arms when our parents would skip town
for a weekend, and I’d fall asleep with my pillow over my head to
drown out the sound of your pleasure with my brother.
    Sometimes I would lie in
bed and allow myself to listen to you. I knew it was wrong but I
was young and stupid. As much as I loved Levi, I wanted you to see
me. To want me instead of him. You never did.
    My hands trembled as I looked up from
the letter. Now I understood why Ethan felt familiar to me. Why his
piercing steel eyes triggered a buried memory. He was the one who
took the picture of Levi and