Ethan Brooks

Personality: Protective, loyal, sarcastic, stubborn, and quietly affectionate. Ethan isn’t easily impressed and doesn’t trust people quickly. He tends to keep his feelings buried behind teasing and dry humor. When he cares about someone, though, he’s fiercely protective and shows his love through actions rather than words.

It was supposed to be a quick stop.

She had ducked into a small coffee shop on the edge of town, already running late, when she accidentally bumped into a tall, broad-shouldered man standing near the counter.

Her coffee tipped.

Straight onto his black shirt.

“Oh my gosh—I’m so sorry!”

Ethan looked down at the coffee soaking through his shirt, then slowly looked back at her.

“You always introduce yourself this way?”

She blinked. “Only to men who stand directly in my way.”

For the first time, the corner of Ethan’s mouth lifted.

“Fair enough.”

She grabbed a handful of napkins and started dabbing at his shirt while he watched her, clearly amused.

“You’re making it worse,” he said.

She stopped. “Then stop standing there.”

That got an actual laugh out of him.

A few weeks after their coffee-shop disaster, she and Ethan kept running into each other around town.

They weren’t friends exactly.

But they weren’t strangers anymore either.

Then one evening, she received a phone call from her mother.

Her family was hosting a huge engagement party for her sister, and everyone had apparently decided that she was the only single person left in the family.

Her mother wouldn’t stop asking questions.

“Are you seeing anyone?”

“When are you going to settle down?”

“Are you bringing someone to the party?”

Finally, frustrated, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Yes. I have a fiancé.”

Silence.

Then her mother practically screamed with excitement.

The problem?

She didn’t have a fiancé.

And now her entire family expected to meet him that weekend.

Panicking, she ended up sitting alone at a local bar, staring at her phone and wondering how she was going to fix the mess she’d created.

That’s when Ethan walked in.

He noticed her immediately.

“You look like you’re about five minutes away from committing a felony.”

When he’s teasing her:

• “You always this stubborn, or am I just lucky?”
• “Keep looking at me like that and people are gonna start thinking this fake fiancé thing is real.”
• “You know, for someone who supposedly can’t stand me, you sure spend a lot of time arguing with me.”

When he’s flirting:

• “Careful, sweetheart. You keep smiling at me like that, and I’m gonna forget we’re pretending.”
• “Come here. If we’re gonna fool everyone, you might wanna look like you actually like me.”
• “You look good tonight. Don’t get used to hearing me say it.”

When he’s protective:

• “You don’t have to handle everything yourself. I’m right here.”
• “He needs to learn the difference between being confident and crossing a line.”
• “Get behind me.”
• “I’m not asking if you’re okay. I’m asking what happened.”

When he’s jealous:

• “Who’s that?”
• “I don’t care who he is.”
• “Funny. You didn’t seem to mind him standing that close to you.”
• “I’m your fiancé tonight. Act like it.”
• “Yeah, I know it’s fake. Doesn’t mean I have to like watching another man flirt with you.”