Evelyn could have sworn she'd never felt such peace as she had in this moment—laying in Ethan's bed with her eyes shut, her chest slowly rising and falling as she neared the brink of sleep, but still not quite there yet. She could hear Ethan's movement from beside her, the bedsheets bustling as he stood. She couldn't guess what he was doing. All had been said and done, and she was sated and ready for bed, but maybe this added to the comfort of the whole situation. She didn't need to know what he was doing, as long as he came back and held her as she drifted away.

The sound of his voice surprised her as he settled back into bed. "I know you're awake."

A soft smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she quietly responded. "I'm sleeping," came the teasing, barely-there comment as she stayed where she was, not even bothering to open her eyes.

Ethan let out a breathy chuckle as his hand moved to trace soothing lines down Evelyn's flushed cheek. He watched as she somehow relaxed even further at the feel of his touch and snuggled into his bedding. "Well, it'd help if you could wake up all the way so we can talk," his soft comment was spoken so carefully, Evelyn almost didn't feel the need to be worried. Almost.

Evelyn huffed and slightly furrowed her eyebrows. "Why do we need to talk? It's like... three in the morning," She kept her eyes closed and didn't move. She ignored the forming knot in her stomach.

Ethan's hand found its way to her hair. She was being avoidant, and he couldn't have that. "I promise it's not anything bad, beautiful. And it's actually almost five," he nearly whispered as she melted into his touch.

That got Evelyn to open her eyes. What a long night it had been. She raised her eyebrows. "We need to go to sleep," she spoke with as much of an alarming tone as a sleepy girl like her could muster.

Ethan sighed as Evelyn continued to be avoidant, even if she didn't mean to. "We will. After we talk," he urged, looking down into her heavy eyes.

Evelyn softly pressed her lips together and nodded. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?" She looked up at him, doing her best to push the slight worry down.

Ethan looked down at her and stayed silent for a long moment. Just as she was about to open her mouth and urge him to spit it out before she fell asleep, he spoke. "Are you okay?"

The question took her aback for a second. Sure, he had every reason to ask her that question, but after the night they'd just had, it did come as a bit of a surprise. Evelyn nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. Very okay."

Ethan couldn't hold back the smile as he processed the underlying meaning in her statement. "Oh, I know you are now, but that's not what I mean," he stated teasingly before going back to seriousness, "did something happen tonight?"

Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows and looked up at him. "What do you mean?" She reached up to thumb at his forearm as he did the same to her left cheek.

Ethan pressed his lips together as he searched for the proper wording. "I mean, I'm worried. You showed up at my door in the middle of the night and you threw yourself at me. Usually I'm the one to initiate that kind of stuff, but suddenly you're at my doorstep ready to go all the way. We should've had this conversation before we did anything, but I was distracted. You have proven to be very distracting," he finished his voiced worries with a playful jab, just to lighten up the atmosphere. It worked.

Evelyn quietly scoffed at his finishing statement and joked in return. "Don't blame this on me," just as Ethan's demeanor had done moments prior, her lightheartedness had turned to seriousness. For a moment, she wondered if she should tell Ethan about her and Troy's escapades from earlier in the night, but something was holding her back, even if she'd gone fully against her will. What would she even say?

After being taken off of the ranch in the middle of the night by my so-called ex who'd torn my heart to pieces and left me with lifelong trust issues, I got so frustrated (in more ways than one) that I needed to come to you to fix it.

That just didn't sound right.

"Nothing happened," she snaked her arms around his shoulders and tried to pull him closer, "all of it is overwhelming, and this, being here with you, makes me forget. Even if I only get to have you for an hour or two."

Ethan allowed himself to be pulled down to her, but he didn't relent all the way. He leaned down to press his lips to her forehead. "I'm sorry, Ev. Do I say that enough?" Evelyn felt like she could drown in the pity from the way he was looking at her. She huffed.

"I'm done feeling sorry for myself. I don't need you to be sorry for me," she spoke firmly.

He nearly pouted and nodded. "Right. I'm sorry."

"Ethan!"

He chuckled and shook his head, the mood of the dark room flipping almost completely. "Okay, for that, I apologize, but now I'm done apologizing."

She hummed as he placed a lingering kiss on the apple of her cheek. "Good. Now can we go to sleep?"

He softly smiled down at her and nodded, brushing a piece of untucked hair behind her ear. "I'll let you sleep now," he nearly whispered as he laid back on the bed, allowing Evelyn to roll over and slot herself between his arm and his chest. They relished in the warm moment. A quiet space, filled with nothing but the soft sounds of their joint breathing and their palpable feelings for one another. Evelyn could stay in this bedroom forever and never have any complaints.

Before she could fall asleep, she mumbled in her near unconscious state, "we should do this every night."

Ethan opened his eyes and craned his neck to look down at her. He smiled despite his own exhaustion. He knew the request was impractical, but that wasn't what she wanted to hear right now, so he entertained her. "Whatever you want, Ev," he stroked her hair and watched her slip further into the darkness. Before he knew it, her breathing had evened out entirely, and he felt accomplished. He rested his head against his pillow and closed his eyes.

The next day felt a little unreal. Ethan had woken her up around a quarter to nine in the morning, nearly three hours after the rest of the ranchers usually begin the day. Evelyn pressed her face into his pillow and groaned, prompting Ethan to coax her out of bed with plenty of cheek kisses and the promise of a really long nap later. He'd walked her home in her pajamas and to Evelyn, it felt like the walk of shame. She felt terribly scrutinized, but Ethan reassured her that it just looked like she had yet to get ready for the day. Ethan was a bad liar. After parting from him with a far too short kiss on her doorstep, she entered the empty house to actually get ready for the day, her mind plastered with the memory of certain things like Ethan's lips on hers.

Hours later, Evelyn stood under the shade of one of the few trees in the vicinity. The scorching sun had taken its toll on her, and she really began to feel it as she gulped the warm water down her parched throat.

"Evelyn!" A familiar voice called out to her just as her body had finally started cooling off.

She turned in the direction of the voice and furrowed her eyebrows. "What's up, Katie?" She dropped the near empty bottle of water in the grass and placed her hands on her hips.

Katie stopped in her tracks once she'd approached her older sister and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. In turn, Evelyn raised both of hers.

"Katie? What is it?"

"Where were you last night?"

Immediately, Evelyn had to purse her lips in order to fight off a smile. She began spewing out a lie she knew Katie wouldn't buy into, but said it anyway. "I was in bed sleeping, why?"

Then came the accusation Evelyn had been prepared for.

"Liar."

Evelyn couldn't hold back her smile. "I don't know what you mean. I'm not lying."

Katie scoffed. "I bet you were with Ethan last night," she paused to study Evelyn's face, "oh, you totally were! What were you doing?"

"That I can't tell you."

Katie's jaw dropped. Evelyn laughed.

"Stop," Evelyn lightly scolded, "you're my little sister. You can't know about stuff like that."

Katie scoffed. "Whatever. Ev, oh my goodness."

Evelyn facepalmed when someone else began to approach them.

"Oh, hey, Jake," Katie was the first to greet the man with a badly suppressed, giggly tone that told Jake he'd caught them at a bad time. Evelyn raised her head and was able to address him, but couldn't keep her smile down.

"Hey guys. I was actually looking for you, Evelyn," Jake said politely as he stuck his hands in his front pockets.

     Evelyn turned her attention to him and her smile began to fade into a normal expression. "Oh, what's up?" She crossed her arms and pushed the previous conversation out of her mind.

     Jake gestured at the distance and shrugged. "I was headed down to the range and I was hoping you'd come with. Gotta perfect that shot of yours. You should come too, Katie."

     The sisters both smiled politely. Evelyn felt grateful that he was trying to make her feel about as at-home as she possibly could. She shrugged and nodded, looking over at Katie who did the same.

     As the three trudged down the dirt paths, Evelyn couldn't stop herself from whispering over to Katie. "How'd you even know I was gone?" prompting a quiet cackle from the younger girl. Evelyn rolled her eyes.

     If this was going to be the rest of her life, tuning out the prejudice with the people she loved, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

a/n
this is an ev x ethan fic at
this point let's be real.
i kid buttt you know it's gonna
take some time to get to the
juicy stuff. anyway... happy
belated new year! i hope everyone
had an amazing 2024 and has
an even better 2025 and i also
hope to be more active this year!
sorry for no troy in this chapter
i needed to give ev some peace and
happiness for once. LOL. as always
your comments are appreciated love
u guys!!!
wc: 1831