Natalie was all high teas, fancy lunches, and staff.
I was the guy she’d have to hide.
So, she wasn’t for me.
Even if she made my mouth water.
Three
Natalie
My head hurt, but I only had myself to blame. I had told my mother that I didn’t have time to do lunch with them this afternoon as I had a paper due in two days, multiple books to read, and was only halfway through. However, a Blake always made time for others. And they always made time for family.
So, when my mother told me to come to lunch, even if I didn’t have time, I did. I jumped when she said jump.
It hadn’t helped that lunch hadn’t been exactly what I had planned. No, it had turned into a matchmaking session. Again.
If I did my calculations right, I had now met every available son in my parents’ social circle. I had even met a few daughters because my parents were open to whatever choice I made, as long as I made a choice. Having to explain to my mother that I did not have time to date, and that while the people they introduced me to had been lovely in most cases, I wasn’t going to marry them and make my mother proud was always hard.
It wasn’t that she wanted me to get merely an MRS. She wanted me to get a degree to be proficient with my MRS.
You would think it was the 1950s instead of the twenty-first century.
However, I couldn’t do anything about what my mother wanted. She would figure it out eventually. Realize that I wasn’t going to walk away from the job I wanted to get. That I wouldn’t walk away from social work.
It would be hard and grueling, and while I was grateful for the trust funds I had, that privilege wouldn’t be the only thing I relied on.
It would be nice to find someone, though. Someone to share that time with. To share the burdens and happiness. To fall in love with.
My friends had all done that. They had found their happiness and their forevers, even if nobody was engaged yet in my group. It would come. I knew it, deep down from the bottom of my heart—even if Nessa and Miles were only moments into their relationship and hadn’t yet declared themselves.
I wanted to fall in love, get married, and have children. I wanted to have that life. But I hadn’t found my person yet.
I hadn’t even had sex yet, which honestly was the bane of my existence. I wished I could just get it over with and have fun. That way, it wouldn’t be this heavy weight on my shoulders, a label that I kept putting on myself even if I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t mean to end up a virgin at my age. It had just happened. I had dated a boy at the beginning of high school, and it hadn’t ended well, to say the least. I had even dated a girl my junior year. Heather had been sweet and kind, but we hadn’t fit.
I had gone on a few dates in college, even more if you counted the family dates my mother kept forcing me on at lunches like today’s, but nothing had clicked.
The only person I ever felt any kind of pull towards was probably the last person I should. He was the final roommate, and even though we would complete a fabulous matching set in some people’s eyes, it was something I couldn’t do because dating Tanner would lead to so many bad decisions. Not because of who he was, but because he was intoxicating, and I knew I could become addicted if I weren’t careful.
If I gave in, what would happen when he walked away?
He would have to walk away because he had plans and was working so hard towards them. This late in the game, I would only be a distraction, so that’s what I kept telling myself.
I pulled into my garage and noticed that the other girls weren’t here yet. I didn’t know their schedules for the day, but I could probably look them up on the online planner we all shared so we knew where we were at nearly all times of the day. It might seem like overreaching to some, but with what we had all been through as a family? No, we needed to know those kinds of things.
I grabbed my bag and could not wait to take off my makeup, get out of my soft silk dress, and into some sweats so I could enjoy myself. I might be a girly-girl, but my mother’s idea of lunch attire wasn’t my favorite thing.
I walked into the house and frowned at the sound of someone banging a hammer.
It could be Mackenzie—she was the handiest among us, but we weren’t that great at household things. We tried, but Mackenzie was the only one who could bang a hammer with that much force. Whatever they were doing, that much power was not for simply hanging a photo.
We all could do that much.
I frowned, suddenly worried that I was home alone with someone violent. I looked around for a weapon and picked up a rolling pin. It would have to do.
I held it tightly, my pulse racing as I slowly walked upstairs. I froze and swallowed hard as I realized that the banging sound was coming from my bedroom.
I probably should have called the cops or at least called out. Done anything but what I was doing. However, it had been a long day, and I wasn’t thinking clearly.
I slowly made my way to the door and peeked around the edge.
The scream that erupted from my mouth really shouldn’t have been a surprise.
Tanner whipped around, pulling out his headphones, and gripped the hammer tightly. Sweat poured down his naked torso, and I did my best not to look down, but I couldn’t help it. I had seen him stripping before, and he hadn’t been wearing a shirt then. I had run before he had taken off everything else, and I tried not to feel the anger I did over the fact that my friends had seen him strip while I had run away like a little girl.
“What the fuck, Natalie?” he growled. “You just run around with a rolling pin? What were you going to do with that?”
“I thought you were an ax murderer or something,” I blurted. I knew right then and there that I would likely never say the right thing when it came to Tanner. I didn’t know why, but I lost all sense when it came to him, and I hated myself a little bit more each time I spoke.
He looked at the rolling pin, then at me, and growled.
I snarled right back.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now? You thought I was a murderer? And you were going to come at me with a rolling pin? No, you call me. You call the cops. You call anyone. You don’t get your pretty little ass up here to fight whoever it is off with a fucking rolling pin.”
“I didn’t think you were a murderer. I just wondered what was going on upstairs. In my bedroom.”
“Then you call me, Natalie.”
“Why would I call you?” I asked and immediately knew it was probably the wrong thing to say.
His jaw tightened. “Fine, call Dillon. Call anyone else. Just don’t come around here and think you can fight off an intruder with a rolling pin. Jesus Christ, Natalie.”
“Don’t Jesus Christ me.”
“You don’t like me cursing?”
“It’s not that, dumbass,” I cursed right back. “Stop yelling at me. I was trying to take care of myself.”
“So, you picked up a rolling pin? That’s what you learned in the self-defense classes you took?”
After Elise had been attacked, we had all taken self-defense classes. I still took them. I was doing better, and I wanted to kick myself because, yes, I had pepper spray and should’ve used that. But, no, I was an idiot.