Chapter 46

“Ava? What are you doing?” Ethan looks down at me, amusement dancing in his eyes. I have to lower my gaze to hide my embarrassment.

“Oh I was just passing by,” I wave my hand and raise my voice to sound nonchalant. I sounded anything but at ease.

“Were you listening?” He raised his brows in a teasing manner.

I bit my bottom lip, “I might have heard something about something.”

I shrugged, looking back into his eyes. I was worried he’d be upset or annoyed, seeing as I was obviously listening in on his private conversation, but he looked at me with an understandingly fond smile.

“Come in, then,” He opened the door wider and beckoned me into the office. “I want you to be part of this conversation, too. Since you’re my Luna and all.”

I tried to hide the smile that was fighting its way onto my face, but it wouldn’t go away.

I catch Mars’ eye as I enter the room. I couldn’t get a good read on what he was thinking. He looked conflicted, like he didn’t mind me being there but he also didn’t want me there either.

“Hi,” I gave him a small wave.

He smiled at me halfheartedly and started pacing slowly around the office.

Ethan comes in after me and leans on his desk, rubbing his hand around the spot on his wrist under where his watch sits.

“Since you’ve handled the situation with Dora,” Ethan started, commanding both Mars’ and I’s attention, “I think we’re ready to repair the damage she’s done to both our images.”

“I think you need to double or triple the amount of public appearances you make.” Mars cleared his throat and spoke up. “You can’t say no to anything right now, show everyone how wrong they were, play it up.”

I furrowed my brows, “Won’t that seem desperate?”

“It’s just for a little while,” Mars clarified, “A few weeks worth of multiple statements a day so that you’re back on everyone’s radar again.”

Ethan tapped his chin, contemplating it.

“I think that’s a good enough idea,” He accepted. “Since you aren’t working, Ava, it should be easy to schedule around my own work schedule.”

I tried to keep a straight face and not reveal any sense of displeasure at the plan. I felt as though the appearances were excessive before the situation with Dora, doubling that would be exhausting. For Ethan, too, since he would be working at his company most days on top of doing the appearances.

“Won’t your schedule get confusing?” I asked.

“Tristan will handle it,” He shrugged, “That’s what he’s there for.”

Poor Tristan, I thought to myself. The unsung hero of Blue Moon Group.

“Well, as long as I have time to volunteer as often as I’d like then that is fine with me.” I relented. There was no arguing with them. If Ethan agreed, I would have to too. In my lessons, I learned Lunas don’t disagree with her Alpha in front of other members of the pack. She always has to agree in public, disagree in private.

It was complicated.

“You volunteer,” Mars’ eyes widened in realization. “That’s the perfect place to start rebuilding your image.”

Ethan waited for him to continue, crossing his legs and leaning deeper into the desk.

“I’ll call a few journalists and let them know that the two of you will be volunteering there together tomorrow.” Mars beamed, proud of his own plan. “They can get some candid photos of you, like you do it all the time and they just happened to see you. It’ll make you seem generous - approachable.”

I wanted to tell him that I did do it all the time, I was always volunteering, but I bit my tongue. There was no reason to make that distinction. Mars didn’t like me, he wouldn’t care if I volunteered regularly or not.

--

The next day, Ethan and I got dressed up to go to the orphanage. We were a little overdressed, in my opinion, but not so overdressed to look like we were showing off for the pictures. Mars wanted them to seem as impromptu as possible.

I spent most of the night before baking dozens of cookies to hand out to the kids as gifts. I felt bad that I hadn’t seen them while I was dealing with the Dora situation. Baron always told me the kids ask where I am the days I don’t show up. Since I was gone for an entire week, I was sure they were wondering what happened.

Oh! I completely forgot about Baron.

A cold sense of dread covered my body. I didn’t think about Baron having to meet Ethan and vice versa.

I didn’t want them to meet. I don’t know why, but Baron was just so separated from Ethan in my mind, the thought of them having to be in the same room, working together, felt wrong.

Was it too late to back out of the whole thing?

It was.

Ethan ushered me into the car, we drove to the children’s home. It was just as it always was. although a little early. The children were still inside eating breakfast and tutoring. The yard was quiet, no one was playing.

I spoke to Mrs. Hudson in the front office, warning her about potential reporters coming in. Her only request was that they leave the children out of the pictures, lest there be any drama.

The reporters showed up just as she finished talking to us and introducing herself to Ethan. Ethan ran out to speak to the photographers and lay out the plan for the day.

“So that's your husband?” Mrs. Hudson wiggled her eyebrows, giggling like a little schoolgirl. “My, my, you lucked out didn't you?”

With a chuckle of my own, I held a finger to my lips, shushing her as Ethan came back into the lobby.

“They're ready,” He placed a hand comfortingly on my lower back and led me to the spot where they would be taking the pictures.

Luckily, as we moved through the halls, there was no sign of Baron. Maybe he wouldn't come in.

Ethan and I stood in the green yard against a brick wall. Mrs. Hudson lined the children up to meet us outside. The kids' eyes widened at Ethan’s fancy suit and the floral sundress I was wearing - I almost never dressed up nice when I went to work with them.

The girls played with my skirts while the boys kept asking Ethan if he drove a limo (since his suit was so spectacular). I genuinely enjoyed being there with them, with Ethan.

“If you work really hard, you can get a lot of money like me,” He nodded his head at a group of kids, pretending to give them words of wisdom. My heart swelled and swooped, images of Ethan as a father popped up in my mind.

He would be a good one, I was sure of it.

“Alright my couple,” The reporter put his camera down lightly, I almost forgot he was there taking pictures. “I want one of you kissing for the main story picture. Get us some headlines.”

I looked at Ethan, cheeks flushing. He glanced back at me wearily, as if he was asking permission.

I nodded my head, and when our lips were about to touch, I heard the door to the school open. My eyes shot open and Baron was walking out into the schoolyard. His smile was wide, but fell when he saw me mere centimeters away from Ethan’s lips.

At the last second, I turned my head away so that Ethan’s mouth met my cheeks instead of my lips. The camera clicked, and my stomach dropped.

Ethan’s eyes opened, wide and questioning. He followed my gaze to where Baron stood frozen, and he frowned, “Who’s this?”