AN: I am so sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long. I hope this chapter was worth the wait for you guys, and I promise to update again by the end of this week, and perhaps sooner. Got to make up for my neglect. Much apologies to my readers.
Chapter 15. No One Measures Up
Ethan had been awake for over an hour, but he could not will himself to leave the room. Curled up on his bed with her lips slightly parted in the most tempting fashion, Leah slept soundly. Though it pleased him immensely to see her finally resting when he knew she spent many nights, or at least the ones he had spent here so far, pacing in her room doing tasks in the dead hours of the night, he knew that staring at a woman while she slept surely could not constitute as anything desirable.
How did he plan on telling her? How was a man supposed to tell a woman in her deepest hours of sorrow that he wanted her solely for himself? Would she think him rude for only thinking of his own feelings in a time where it was she who needed him, and not the other way around? If only she knew… that though he has always loved her, nothing before had prepared him for this.
"Is this love?" Ethan walked towards the door of his room and turned around, taking in the sight once more. "I do not even wish to depart with you for a moment, Leah Lewis-Hall."
"Where are we going?" Ethan asked, seeing Leah descend the stairs as she threw on a thin jacket. "You did not tell me you had plans today."
"I just realized that I have been neglecting Mrs. Hendrickson." Leah's grin faded to a look of worry. "I'm sure you have had your fair share of hospitals at this point, and I'll spare you the trip."
"I do not mind, Leah." Ethan stood. "If anything, you should never again have to enter such a place. You spent enough of your life there."
"I owe this home to Mrs. Hendrickson," Leah explained. "It would not be right of me not to visit her. I won't take long, I promise. Just a quick visit to check up on her and let her know that I'm still alive and well. I just hope she's improving."
"With someone like you watching over her, and praying for her well-being, I am sure she will recover soon enough." Ethan smiled, but still did not wish to depart from her side. "You will not be gone all day, will you?"
"Of course not," Leah laughed. "There is only so much for me to do at the hospital, and the less time I spend there is always the better for me. Besides, I wouldn't want to be away from you more than I have to. Don't want to leave you here waiting all day."
"I do not mind the wait so much, if this means something to you."
"You know, even now you are the most civil and compassionate person I have ever encountered, Ethan Longacre."
"And, even now, you are still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life, Leah Lewis-Hall."
"If any other man in the world had said it, it might have been cliché." Leah laughed as she walked out the door. "But I know you tell no lies, Ethan, and anything you say is nothing but pure sincerity. I love that about you."
"I love that about you too."
"I promise to be back as soon as I can," Leah waved before closing the door.
"Leah? Leah, darling?" Jay burst through the door, shouting up the stairs. "Hope you don't mind I grabbed the spare key under the flowerpot. I couldn't resist myself. Hope I'm not interrupting anything between you and a certain… special someone. My Lord, Leah, what is that smell? You decide to order breakfast without me?"
"Hello?"
Ethan walked to the foyer, in Mrs. Hendrickson's pink, floral apron, beating a bowl of batter, and stared at Jay in perplexity. She stood clad in a hot pink strapless dress made of leather, her hair piled atop her head, and her face painted with dark eyes and bright lips. Never had Ethan beheld a sight such as that which stood before him.
"What do you know? We match, hun," Jay entered and ran a polished nail up his chest in her usual flirtatious air. "So I finally get to have some alone time to chat with Mr Perfect."
She moved past him and sat herself at the table, and her eyes went wide at the large array of breakfast items displayed before her. There were more styles of cooked eggs than she could count, and waffles with biscuits and gravy. As far as Jay was concerned in the matter, the man seemed more like Betty Crocket than anything else.
"You may eat some if you would like. I am not that hungry."
"And ruin the feast for Leah? The girl needs the food more than me," she smiled wide. "I'm just packing on the pounds, ormaking up for the weight Leah loses, if you would prefer. But, if you insist that I eat something…"
"I insist you eat if you are hungry; I can always make more for Leah before she returns."
"Where did she go off to?" Jay questioned as she buttered a biscuit. "Not off to mourn her life once more, I hope."
"Leah is like that?"
"Darling, before you came, Leah was crashing harder than the Titanic," Jay shook her head. "I can only imagine where she would be if you had not decided to randomly come back into her life when you did."
"Tell me," Ethan sat down across from her. "Tell me what Leah was like."
"You want me to describe Leah to you?" Jay arched an eyebrow in bemusement. "Sweetie, if anything, I should be asking you to tell me about her. This girl I see now is a completely different person, and all because little old you waltzed into her life again."
"I wish to know how she was before I came," Ethan explained honestly. "I have always known her as I see her now. I cannot imagine her being anything else, and yet I know she was. Please tell me of the Leah I do not know."
"Okay, honey, but only because you're kinda cute." Jay laughed and indulged herself in some French toast. "Leah was the quiet little girl in college, probably the sweet thing my parents would beg me to act like. I was the party girl who enjoyed her fair share of attention and fun, and I guess not much has changed in that department since college for me. I took Leah under my wing. She is a good girl, and it was amazing how she could carry herself so low when she was one of the most gorgeous gals you will ever find in your life."
"She's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen," Ethan agreed full-heartedly.
"You are perfect, Lover-boy." Jay sighed and went straight back to the story, not to be side-tracked completely. "Not sure what to tell you about her. In the beginning, she could be just as crazy as me, which is saying a lot, considering the things I do at parties could get me locked away in the loony-bin. And, being the gorgeous gal she is, she had quite the line of fellows ready to follow her every call. It was almost like she was a completely different person when she was with me. In classes, she was the same reserved, quiet beauty, but one step out of the class and she was the firecat I had known her to be. Kinda hard to think of little Leah as a wild woman?"
"I never knew her to be like that."
"And I suppose if I had met her around this time, I would never have thought it possible of her either," Jay shrugged. "I loved the girl to death then, and I still do today. Not sure what made her decline. After college, I was so sure she would go off to graduate school. We were all so sure she would. She had some full scholarship somewhere, I never was good with remembering anything related to school, and she surprised everyone when she decline.d We all thought of her as a party gal, but we knew she was more of the studious one. Naturally, we all questioned her decision and asked her what her plans were from here, if not to pursue more books. I'm not sure if she just broke under the pressure or what happened, but from there, she just went downhill. She was living with a friendat first andplanning on moving back in with her mom, but then met Mrs. Hendrickson and the lady was too much of a doll to resist. Leah moved in with her, and has been living with her since. She's the world's grandmother, and if you meet her you'll understand why she got such a rep.
"For a month or so no one got word from Leah. She became such a stranger to the world that most of her men from college let her go. Personally, if I were a man, I would think Leah would be worth the world to wait for. I guess that's what went through Will's head, at least."
"Will?" Ethan's heart stopped at mention of another man in Leah's life. "Is he… together with Leah?"
"Oh…" Jay laughed. "No, honey, sorry to make your poor love-filled heart stop for a moment thinking Leah had another man. She used to date him in college, and the fellow never really stopped loving her. He's been trying to be patient with her, and the poor man deserves a medal for all that he's put up with in pursuit of her. But, like every man that tries to get Leah for themselves, you just can't get her that close." Jay grinned and looked him dead center in the eyes. "I guess it's probably because the girl has been gaga for you all her life, and no fellow measures up."