Between Us (18+)

53| 'I Want To See You, All Of You.'

***\ETHAN'S P.O.V/***

Hollie sat up in her seat, head facing the road ahead as I drove, eyes tracing the raindrops as they ran in hurried trickles down the windshield. She was sat upfront next to me, Josh spread out in a relaxed position in the back.

"My Mum wants to meet you properly for a lunch." I turned to look over at Hollie for a brief second, waiting to see her reaction.

"She does?" She squeaked in surprise, eyebrows nearly touching her hairline. "Even after how I was introduced to your father? I thought that I would be exiled from Watson property for the eternity of time."

"Nope, She wants to meet the girl who nearly gave her husband a heart attack." I was only teasing but Hollie's scowl cut me off.

Josh snorted in amusement, "At least I wasn't introduced naked, I think that would have truly been heart stopping, 'Hey, Nice to meet you Mr Watson. Your son is gay', I don't quite think that would have gone down well." Josh shook his head and I hid my grin.

"My foster Mom would have liked you both. Always told me that love is not a choice, do what makes you happy and don't apologize for your happiness. She was kinda kick-ass." Hollie tried to hide her smile as she spoke, the words obviously being hard hitting to her. She doesn't tend to do the mushy emotion shit, leave that to Josh.

Hollie's use of the past tense 'was' hung heavy in the air and I tried to reassure her that her Mom sounded great, but she seemed understandably distracted and standoffish.

"I just wish that I still had a family to introduce you to." She let out a small sigh, tracing shapes against the window. "Whenever you talk about your family it makes me sad to think of how things could have turned out."

"They are my family Hollie. Do you expect me to just not bring them up at all?" My voice was far more brazen than I had meant it to sound and she subconsciously flinched away from me. I didn't mean the wanted to reach out and apologize but found myself scared to say the wrong thing and simply make it worse. I don't do women and I certainly don't do mushy emotions; I don't know how to make this better.

As the car sped swiftly along the highway, I could see Hollie's visual unease at the prospect of staying in my parents house after how she was last introduced to my father. I could tell that she was distracted with bad family memories and instantly felt guilty. She twisted her hands in her lap meticulously, trying to wring out the nerves. She obviously thought the gesture was discreet enough that I wouldn't notice; as she jerked in surprise when I placed my free hand in her lap, covering both the hands she had been twisting together.

I saw her dart a questioning look over at me from the passenger seat, but my eyes were focused on the road ahead. My hand covered both of hers, which had now stilled beneath my strong grip.

Once the car had temporarily stopped in a traffic build up, I took the opportunity to look over in her direction and mouthed, "Sorry."

Her head was still facing in my direction, and she smiled back at me, a small peace offering. I had been distant and distracted by work for the remainder of time after the show, even needing to head back to the car early so that I could take a pressing work call. Work had been beyond stressful lately, but I hadn't meant to take out my impatience on Hollie, and felt immensely bad that I had accidentally let my guard slip.

"You didn't do anything wrong, you don't ever have to feel guilty for talking about your family." I was relieved to find no hint of the previous tension in her voice or her features, her shoulders now more relaxed into the car seat.

"Work is making me an asshole lately, you know that I didn't mean it." I finished with a gentle squeeze of her hand.

"Now that we have your bickering out of the way," Josh leant forward, resting his elbows against our seats, "How about we make plans for later?"