“I want her. I want her in my life. And I want to see where this thing between us can go.” Because she brought him joy where he’d had none. She made him smile. She made him want to step up and be the guy who she admired, not the asshole who asked her to stay hidden. “And not because she’s pregnant with my child.”

Sebastian placed his hands behind his head and leaned back against the sofa, a gleam in his eye. “Then I guess you have your work cut out for you, don’t you?”

“No fucking kidding,” Ethan muttered to himself, his mind already whirling with ideas about what he could do to romance Sienna and convince her she meant more to him than he’d shown her so far.

Not the way he’d expected his life to go. Then again, very little in the last couple of years had been what he’d anticipated. With some due diligence and planning, just maybe he could turn things around and make them work out for a change.

* * *

Monday morning, Ethan walked into the stadium like he had every right to be there and headed directly to Ian’s office. He arrived early because he knew the other man did the same, and if at all possible, he wanted to avoid Sienna witnessing another confrontation between him and her brother. He even got there before Ian’s secretary, which enabled him to take the other man by surprise.

He knocked once and walked into Ian’s office, coming to a stop when Ian rose from his desk.

“I didn’t think I’d get rid of you that easily,” Ian muttered.

“No. I went home for the weekend to get my head on straight and give you time to cool off.”

“And if I haven’t?” Ian folded his arms across his chest, defiant and still pissed off.

“Ask me if I give a shit,” Ethan muttered. “Look, I respect you both as a businessman and as Sienna’s brother, but the fact is, what goes on between her and me has nothing to do with you.”

The other man frowned. “She paid me a visit Friday night and said pretty much the same thing. Then my wife laid into me when Sienna left and I’m lucky I didn’t sleep on the couch.”

As much as Ethan didn’t like the idea of Sienna getting worked up confronting Ian, he appreciated the fact that she went to bat for him. For them. Not that she knew there was a them yet, but that would come.

“As far as the stadium contract,” Ethan continued, wanting to make all his points before Ian could gather his own thoughts, “legally you can’t throw my company off the project. You don’t have a leg to stand on, so I’m back and we’re working together.”

Ian’s scowl deepened.

The one thing Ethan didn’t want to do was be on opposing sides with Sienna’s brother, so he stepped forward. “Look, for Sienna’s sake, I want us to get along. And I’ll even admit that I don’t blame you one bit for how you’re feeling. But you can’t change things. It is what it is and she’s my responsibility now.”