THE GIRL ETHAN COLE COULDN’T LEAVE BEHIND
CHAPTER 3
The next morning, Ethan woke before sunrise.
He had barely slept.
Lily’s question kept returning.
Do you have a family?
He made coffee.
Didn’t drink it.
Made another.
Still didn’t touch it.
At six-thirty, someone knocked on his door.
Ethan opened it.
Ben stood there holding a toolbox.
“You coming?”
“Where?”
“Back to Willow Creek.”
Ethan frowned.
“We finished yesterday.”
Ben shrugged.
“Mrs. Miller says her porch still needs work.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You came all the way here to tell me that?”
“No.”
Ben smiled.
“June sent me.”
Ethan knew immediately.
“She sent you because she thinks I’m going to say no.”
“She knows you better than you think.”
Ethan grabbed his jacket.
They returned to Willow Creek before eight.
The porch needed less work than expected.
Which meant Ethan found himself with free time.
He walked toward the children’s home.
He stopped outside.
Then knocked.
A woman named Sarah answered.
She was the home’s director.
“I remember you.”
“Yesterday.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked past her.
“Is Lily here?”
Sarah studied him carefully.
“She is.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“Of course.”
Lily appeared a few minutes later.
She was wearing the same red sweater.
Ethan looked at it.
“You own anything else?”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“A blue one.”
“Why aren’t you wearing it?”
She shrugged.
“I like this one.”
Ethan smiled.
“Fair enough.”
They sat on the front steps.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Lily asked, “Why did you come back?”
Ethan considered lying.
Instead, he said, “I wanted to see how everyone was doing.”
“You mean me.”
He looked at her.
“Maybe.”
She hugged the rabbit tighter.
“People don’t usually come back.”
“I know.”
“You said you didn’t grow up with a family.”
“No.”
“Were you in a place like this?”
Ethan’s eyes moved toward the road.
“No.”
“Where were you?”
He took a breath.
“Different places.”
She waited.
“I moved around a lot.”
“Why?”
“Adults had problems.”
“Did they hurt you?”
Ethan looked at her.
The question was direct.
He nodded once.
“Sometimes.”
Lily’s expression changed.
She looked down at the rabbit.
“My dad used to yell.”
Ethan said nothing.
“My mom was sick.”
Still nothing.
“She tried.”
That was the sentence that hurt.
Ethan knew exactly what it meant.
“She tried,” Lily repeated. “But sometimes trying isn’t enough.”
Ethan looked at her.
“No.”
She glanced up.
“You understand.”
“Yes.”
That was all he said.
But something shifted between them.
Not trust.
Not yet.
Something smaller.
Recognition.
The feeling of meeting someone who understood a language neither of them had learned from books.
Sarah watched them from inside the doorway.
Later, she quietly told Ethan, “Lily doesn’t connect easily.”
“I noticed.”
“She usually avoids adults.”
“I noticed that too.”
Sarah hesitated.
“She’s been waiting for someone.”
Ethan looked at her.
“For what?”
“For someone who doesn’t make promises they can’t keep.”
Ethan felt something tighten in his chest.
He looked toward Lily.
She was sitting on the grass now, helping a younger child tie a shoelace.
Ethan didn’t know what he was going to do.
But he knew he wasn’t ready to leave.
