Page 35 of A Certain Step (Midnights at Pemberley #1)

ETHAN

E than stood behind the curtains and isolated backstage. His head throbbed, and he didn’t have painkillers left on him. He sat against one of the prop chairs that wouldn’t be coming out for two more numbers as they ran through a block of rehearsals since Naomi’s return.

Willa approached him carefully. She drifted her fingers slowly along his shoulder. “You all right? You seem off.”

He nodded. “I’m fine, I just have a headache but ran out of meds.”

She drew her fingers lower, brushing them along his biceps now. “Is it really bad?” she asked.

“No. It’s annoying as hell, though. It’s not going to let me bring my best to the show if I don’t get it under control.”

“Shit. And I’m pretty sure I only have Aleve and Advil on me, but you’re allergic to both. I’ll need to start making sure I pack extra Tylenol. Sahar might have some in our dressing room; let me check.”

Something as simple but substantial as Willa remembering his allergies despite not having the best memory made his heart squeeze.

As s he swerved to walk toward her dressing room, Ethan stood up and stopped her mid-turn, pulling her into his chest. Two seconds.

No one was around. It was dark enough in here to hide for a beat.

He needed to hold her. Plus, this was normal.

This was fine. They weren’t strangers to hugging.

“It’s okay, beautiful. I’ll ask around when we’re done, or I’ll pop into a store real quick and grab it,” he hummed against her ear.

Her hands caressed his back in soothing circles. He shut his eyes for a second, giving himself a moment to appreciate her touch. He maybe lingered for a minute too long because he opened his eyes to see Declan smirking from center stage, standing at the right angle to notice them.

Willa pulled away from him, noting the expression in his eyes, then turned to catch Declan, too. She looked back at Ethan, her eyes widened.

“Don’t worry. I’ll ask him for some meds. It’ll throw him off,” he whispered.

Willa nodded, parting from him.

In an unsurprising turn of events, despite how close they’d been before they began dating, sneaking around was more challenging than either of them imagined.

First, when Naomi returned, she took one look at them and stated that something had changed.

They denied it. Then there was the incident with Declan three days ago, and they weren’t sure he bought their excuse.

Ethan leaned against the vanity in his dressing room while Willa sat cross-legged on his couch.

“Naomi knows, babe. She one hundred percent knows. She’s just not saying anything because she loves us both too much to pry. I’m pretty sure they all do at this point. Dec’s not buying the fact that you needed pain killers,” Willa commented.

Ethan laughed, shaking his head. “It’s your call, beautiful. I’d shout about us being together from the rooftops if I could.”

“No rooftops yet, but let’s do it. Let’s tell the cast. They’d keep quiet if we told them we didn’t want it getting out yet. I trust them all fully,” she replied.

“I’m good with that,” he concurred.

She moved her lips in thought, then picked up her phone and started writing something. “Done,” she said, putting the device down. He caught the sight of his lighting up on the coffee table.

He arched a brow at her. “Did you just text it in the group chat, or is that something else on my phone?”

She dipped her chin up and down. “Give it a minute. They’re all going to barge in here screaming.”

He reached for his phone and quickly read the text:

WILLA

PSA: Ethan and I are dating. Please keep it solely between us. We’re very tired of sneaking around all of you. ??

Sam charged in first. “I knew it!” He took Ethan into a headlock.

Ethan pushed him off, stifling a chuckle. “Fuck off. No, you didn’t.”

“Bro. Bro! You know Dec and I made bets. My wife and I made bets. Dec and Carmen have one going. We’ve known longer than you two have.”

Willa gasped with a sardonic huff. “Would’ve never thought our romantic lives would be so exciting.”

Naomi ran into the room with a big, goofy grin spread across her face. “What did I say? Something had changed between you two. It’s cute how you tried to hide it and failed.” She bounced toward Willa, sat beside her on the couch, and hugged her. “I’m so stinking excited for you two!”

Sahar stood by the doorway. Declan came in and turned to her. “You obviously knew,” he remarked.

“I live with her. Of course I knew,” she answered.

Ethan’s dressing room had become a circus; oddly, he didn’t mind it. He turned to Willa, holding her gaze for a beat. He winked at her. She scrunched her nose and smiled.

It was the sweetest sight, a picture to frame deep in his most sacred memories: the love of his life, looking up at him and all their friends thrilled for them.

Miles peeped into the room. “I swear I was going to say something the other day. Did you idiots not realize you’d been holding hands for a solid ten minutes at one point? I straight up counted.”

Willa barked out a laugh. “When did we do that? We thought we got caught because Naomi was onto us, and Dec saw us hugging three days ago.”

Miles nearly howled and shifted his body toward Sahar to demonstrate by playing with her fingers. “Legit, you were standing in the wings pulling this shit repeatedly. I almost said something, but I let it go.”

Oh shit. They thought they were in early on that day, carelessly assuming that no one had come into work yet.

Christian nearly bolted into the room with Innila. “I had to text Dan to tell him it’s official. His response was ‘finally!’” he affirmed, patting Ethan on the shoulder. He already knew, but it was different now that it was out in the open.

“Who wasn’t taking bets on our relationship?” Ethan huffed.

They all laughed, answering his question without any words.

Miles took out his phone and snapped a photo of the entire room. “This is only for our eyes,” he clarified before continuing.

“But rea l talk, I didn’t think anything of it at first, and I’m kicking myself a bit because it means my telepathy with Wills is floundering.

We gotta get our game back. The thing is, we’re all super close, so your vibe felt normal to me.

But the night of my birthday, Clyde turns to me when we get to his place and goes, ‘You forget to mention the thing between Willa and Ethan.’”

He started cackling. “And I’m thinking I’m drunk as shit ‘cause what is he talking about? I’d given him the rundown of who was coming, your partners, etcetera, and he goes, ‘Babe, are you serious? Something is going on between those two,’ so I started paying attention, and what do you fucking know!

Even my boyfriend, who’d known us all for a few weeks at that point, could read you two like an open book. ”

Laughter erupted in the comfortably crowded space again.

In truth, Ethan relished knowing that his love for her was on full display, and he didn’t have to hide it.

Knowing that their friends were all legitimately happy for them, thrilled even, and had been waiting for this moment because of what they’d noticed and decoded.

Sam put Ethan in another headlock and then quickly released him. “Why the secrecy though? Parade this news around. You two are hot as hell together.”

Ethan noticed fear engulfing Willa. She shook her head forcefully. “We wanted to tell you lot because we trust everyone here, but I don’t want this to be public knowledge right now. There’s a lot we need to figure out, and I want to be able to do that without any outside noise.”

He felt Sam nod in understanding. “Makes total sense. We got you two, then. It won’t leave this theatre,” he affirmed.

Willa got up off the couch. “Okay, the party’s over now. We love you all. We need to go get ready.”

They all left his room, one by one, leaving him and his girl, her cheeks tinted and eyes sparkling. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rocked against his frame.

“That went well. I’m glad we no longer have to hide our relationship from them.”

He kissed her nose, the tiny mole under her cheekbone, the curve of her jaw, then pressed his mouth to hers, brushing her lips quickly and reverently with his. “So am I.”

She drew her lips to his neck and lingered for a beat before hopping out of his arms. “Okay, bye, getting ready applies to me, too. See you out there.”