Ethan's POV (Bonus Book)

Chapter Twenty-Four - Ethan's POV

"We're here," I called out with a smile, sparing a look to a half-dazed-looking Mia who sat in the passenger side seat beside me.

Having been peering curiously out the window at the blossoming lawn of my grandmother's home, Mia jumped cutely at the sudden sound of my voice. My lips spread wider with amusement, always enjoying the feeling of catching her off guard.

"Wow, that was a quick drive," Mia breathed out with a genuine laugh of surprise. "Didn't feel like three hours at all," she commented as she sat up tall to stretch out her arms.

She was right. It definitely hadn't felt like three hours. Normally, I was counting down every last agonizing second of the long three-hour drive to my grandma's, but this time with Mia, I would go as far to say it felt short.

Really fucking short, come to think of it. If I'd had more sense, I would have thought to have gotten 'accidentally' lost on the highway, so I would 'accidentally' have to spend an extra hour alone on the road with her. I mean, we had stopped at McDonald's for a bit which on loose terms could be considered a date, but there was so much more I could have done than that. Man, I was a fucking idiot.

Riddled with regret, I found myself briefly distracted as the bottom of Mia's shirt lifted to expose a little of her stomach as she stretched.

Suddenly remembering there was currently a conversation at hand, I blinked rapidly and returned my eyes to hers swiftly before she could notice.

"Well, that's because some of us spent two of those three hours sleeping," I hummed, sending a playfully pointed look her way.

Mia gave me an amusedly daggered look before rolling her eyes.

"Sorry, is there a problem with that?" she laughed as she popped open the car door and climbed out.

Eager to follow her, I shut down the car and followed suit, climbing out of the car after her.

Smirking, I leaned over the top of my car to stare at her. "Actually, no it was great. I took a picture of you while you were sleeping. Drooling and all," I teased, waggling my eyebrows for effect.

As creepy as it sounds, I had taken one small picture of Mia sleeping before I woke her up for our pitstop meal. And, of course, she wasn't drooling at all; she looked annoyingly perfect and cute as per usual (hence why I took it), but it was much more fun to convince her otherwise.

Mia's face instantly took on a picture of horror, and in the next second, she was lunging for me.

I quickly speed-walked around to the other side of the car with a laugh. Mia, let out an adorably low growl of frustration and continued to chase me. Or, more accurately, continued to fail to chase me.

A part of me was just tempted to stand still and let her have at me, and wrestle me for my phone. Because fuck, would it be an experience to get a thorough pat-down by her.

Finally, Mia came to a halt on the opposite side of the car with an exasperated sigh and stared across at me with her head thrown back in an exhausted stance.

"Ethan, just delete it," she snapped.

"No," I snorted with a simple smile.

Mia gave me a gentle, pleading-like stare. "Ethan, please," she asked nicely, blinking softly at me.

She knew exactly what she was doing, blinking those cute brown eyes at me the way she was. Refusing to be weak this time, I used all my strength to firmly shake my head.

"Hell no, this is the perfect material for next year's Christmas card," I joked.

Mia, clearly fed up at this point, let out a low growl again and stomped her foot against the floor childishly like an oversized three-year-old.