Inferno Part 2

~171~ Promise You Won't Say Anything?

"This is my sister, Ellie," Jake says gently.

"This is Taylor, her husband."

"Hey guys," I say with a soft smile.

"I hope you're hungry. I ordered way too much pizza. Can I get you guys a soda or something?"

They both just shake their heads.

Nolan comes down from his room then, and immediately Ethan has to do a double-take.

"Hey Ethan," Nolan says with his breezy smile.

"What are you doing here?" Ethan asks, shocked.

"I live here. Jake is my uncle."

"Seriously?" Ethan says with a little life in his voice.

Nolan smiles big and nods. "Yeah. This is gonna be sweet."

Ethan gets a serious look on his face. "You can't tell anyone I'm in foster care, Nolan," he says seriously...Sadly.

"I won't. I was adopted too."

"Really?!?" He asks, sounding a little relieved.

Nolan nods. "They're actually my aunt and uncle. My dad is their brother."

Ethan just nods.

"Let's eat, guys," I say, going over and kissing Jake's cheek.

Jake nods and squeezes my hand. "Zoe, you don't like soda, right?"

She shakes her head.

"Ok. What do you usually drink with pizza? I can run and get it if Ellie doesn't have it."

I inwardly smile. Something tells me Jake is going to be a freakin' pro.

"Just water"

I smirk. "It's your lucky day lady, I have lots of water."

She just looks at me.

Taylor chuckles and whispers in my ear. "I thought your joke was funny, baby girl."

I snort as I throw a napkin at him playfully.

"Ethan, what do you want? She has every soda imaginable here. My sister is a nut," Jake jokes.

"Dr. Pepper?"

Taylor nods. "Not only does this soda-addict have regular Dr. Pepper, she also has this weird cherry vanilla stuff that one of our boys drinks. Which one would you like?"

"Just regular Dr. Pepper," he says softly.

Taylor smiles as he hands him the can. "I like you already."

"So you wouldn't have liked him if he wanted the cherry vanilla?" Nolan snorts.

"Oh yeah, he'd still be swell. I'd just be questioning his taste buds."

Nolan chuckles as he grabs a Pepsi out for himself.

Normally with pizza, we eat in the living room. I'm going to have us eat at the table tonight. There's a lot of us, and I don't want to make these kids more uncomfortable.

We sit down and start eating, and Zoe hasn't said a word. I look over and see Ethan grab her hand under the table, and hold her hand as they eat. That warms my heart, and I immediately like Ethan. That's what Luke would have done for Emma.

I asked Luke, Emma, and Shay to find somewhere else to be tonight. They went to Megan's to eat. We're trying to be gradual about this. This family is a lot.

"So you're the nurse at school?" Ethan asks after a few minutes.

I nod. "Yeah. I don't recognize you, though. Have you ever been in my office?"