Ethan's POV (Bonus Book)

Chapter Twenty - Ethan's POV

On my final inch closer to her, I lingered, feeling the warmth of Mia's light breaths against my lips. My heart thumped wildly away, so overwhelmed by anticipation. 

This was truly going to happen. After all these years, Mia Collins was going to kiss me. She was forever going to go down as my first real kiss.

Just as Mia's eyes were fluttering closed, the door to my room let out a click before it suddenly burst open. 

I barely got a chance to get my wits together before I heard a sharp gasp. "Jesus Christ!" A feminine voice cried out in shock.

Mia and I both jumped in surprise, nearly knocking heads. Mia's eyes sprung wide, and she muttered out some kind of profanity before pushing me back hard. Not accepting the movement, I rolled off of her roughly and landed off to the side of her with a thudded bounce.

Irritated, I snapped my head over to the door to see what had just ruined the luckiest, and let's face it, what was going to be the best moment of my life. My irritation soon shifted to horror as I found my mum staring down at the two of us on my bed with a highly raised brow.

"I see you guys are very busy studying," she snapped sarcastically.

Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit.

Realizing that I was in deep trouble if I couldn't figure out an explanation for why I was on top of Mia and fast, I coughed awkwardly and sat up.

"Yeah, we were just taking a break, I was-" I paused and scanned the room for inspiration. Think, Ethan, think. Why would you be on top of her? Why would you be on top of- "-I was showing Mia some judo moves," I finished with a nervous laugh after spotting one of my old judo belts in the corner.

I knew it was a pretty shitty excuse, but it beat telling what I really was going to do.

From beside me, I saw Mia start to vigorously nod her head in agreement, clearly as desperate for an excuse as I was.

"Wow," my mum said, letting out an incredulous breath of laughter. "Judo certainly looks a lot more intimate than I remember. Do you put your face that close to all your male opponents too Ethan, or is Mia just a special case?" She teased, her eyebrow raising interrogatively.

Feeling my face burn up at her words, I froze and dipped my gaze away from her. One of the things that always annoyed me about my mum was that she could always see right through me. She and I both knew that the last thing I'd had on my mind was teaching Mia to fight. Quite the opposite.

"Well...," I drawled as I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck. "I might not have been practicing it in the exact same way I normally do," I mumbled, still unable to hold her gaze.

My mum's eyebrow merely plucked up higher as a silent way of saying: 'Why the fuck are you even still trying.'

After a couple silent seconds of all of us just staring at each other, my mum finally cleared her throat. Turning to Mia, she smiled. "Well, anyway, the reason I came up here was to ask if Mia wanted to stay for dinner?"

"Are you sure?" Mia asked hesitantly. "I wouldn't want to intrude on your family dinner."

My mum laughed. "No, don't be silly; I'd love for you to stay. I have so many questions to ask you," she said, taking her gaze off Mia to send me a mischievous glance.

My eyes flew wider open in a panic. "No!" I said quickly. "No questions, Mum. You'll ask her nothing," I snapped in warning.

 I wasn't stupid. I knew the look in my mum's eyes meant trouble. She had been dying to meet Mia for years. I swear if I left them in a room alone together, she'd likely start reminiscing about all the shitting embarrassing crap I used to say about Mia.