“Why do you have Dillan?” He’s supposed to be at nursery.
“If you’d pick up your phone, you’d know exactly why I have Dillan.” Nathan glares at me, his body tense and his lips a thin line.
Shit. My phone! “I must have left it at work.”
He turns his glare onto Eric, looking him up and down before looking back at me. His eyes widen as he takes note of my bare legs and the bottom of the tight grey boxers that cling to the top of my thighs. I pull my coat tighter around myself, praying it gives me the shelter I need from his pained stare.
“The nursery couldn’t contact you. They called your mum but she’s at work. Luckily I was still in the area. I was planning on leaving only twenty minutes after they called.” Nathan’s voice is a lot calmer now, but it’s deceptive. I know he’s trying to put that blank mask back on.
“Give her a break man, she’s been sleeping all afternoon.” Eric frowns, placing his arm around my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me.
I stay stiff, waiting for Nathan to say something else. He doesn’t. He only walks towards me, hands the nappy bag to Eric and hands Dillan to me.
Dillan doesn’t have a temperature. I’m relieved.
“Get inside; you’re barely dressed.” Nathan hisses, giving me a lingering look that screams of disappointment. “I’m leaving. I’m not coming back.”
My lips part with a gasp. “What about Dillan?”
“What about Dillan?” He states, laughing cruelly. “He’s not…”
“Don’t.” I snap, holding up my hand. “You’re about to do it again.” He closes his mouth, his jaw tensing. “Don’t say something I can’t forgive you for. Go inside and we’ll talk.”
“Forgive me?” He breathes the words, his disbelief apparent.
“Why do I feel like I’m missing something?” Eric asks, pulling me tighter to his side.
“Because you are.” Nathan snaps, looking directly at him.
“Nathan.” I warn, but it falls on deaf ears.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” He snarls at Eric, who instantly puffs out his chest in challenge.
I look to Eric, pleading him with my eyes. “Please, I really need to talk to him.”
“I don’t feel comfortable leaving you on your own with him.” He eyes Nathan still, but his body is turned towards me.
Nathan takes a step towards him. I shoot him a look and he instantly stops. “He’d never hurt me.”
Eric sighs, but I see him relent. “Fine. Call me later.” Then he does something that shocks the hell out of me. Being careful of the sleeping baby in my arms, he hooks his hand around my neck and pulls me into him until my lips are touching his. I’m mortified but I don’t have a chance to say so, because as soon as I gasp in shock, his tongue pushes into my mouth briefly. He pulls away just as abruptly, his eyes staring into mine. On another sigh and a slight shake of his head, he gives me a weak smile and walks away.
I don’t have time to assess that reaction as I hear the front door slam. Nathan has gone inside.
CHAPTER TEN
I’m nervous when I walk in and place Dillan in the chair in his room. I’m not sure what to expect. This needs dealing with and it needs dealing with now.
I follow the sound of movement up the stairs and into my room. Finding Nathan pacing should be a comical sight. Nathan doesn’t pace, but he is.
Opening my mouth to speak, I don’t get the chance as he talks first. “It’s the same as before, exactly the same. I’m beginning to wonder if this would have happened last time, even if I had been first. You won’t choose me. I was right when I said it. Guys like me don’t win. Why would they?”
Nathan doesn’t ramble either, but he is. “Slow down. I don’t know what you’re saying.”
“He’s fun, right?” He stops, stares at me and runs his fingers through his hair. “He’s everything you want and everything you need, all wrapped up in one male bundle with stupid dimples and the body of an athlete.”
Well… what the hell do I say to that?
“It doesn’t matter that I saw you first.” He laughs incredulously and I have to repeat his words a few times in my mind to understand them. I still don’t understand them, so I ask. “Saw me first?”
“I didn’t show up in town a year ago to take you in out of obligation to my brother.” He says the word brother with such venom it scares me a little.
“Why did you then?”
He runs his tongue over his lip, his eyes scanning me up and down. I see the flash of pain in them before the shutters come down. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It matters to me.” I say softly, placing my hand on his arm. He pulls away from my touch, turning alarmingly pale in the face. “Sorry.” All of that progress, completely gone. “Tell me.”
“If I tell you, you might never forgive Caleb.” He says, going to sit on my bed, but after looking at my attire once more, he thinks better of it and stands at the window instead.
“Tell me.” I insist, standing beside him with my hands on the windowsill.
“I was going to, but I don’t need to anymore.” He motions to my current attire. “It’s already too late.”
Oh, right, he thinks I’ve done the deed with Eric. I can’t blame him for thinking that. “I haven’t slept with Eric, Nathan. I was tired. He took me to his, I had a shower and I slept. My clothes were covered in flour, sugar and jam to the point where they were more like cake than they were fabric.”
“You’ve kissed him.”
“You saw me.” I clear my throat and look away.
“Just kissing? Is that it?”
“Only twice, once at his, once in front of you.” Why am I explaining this?
He smiles slightly, his brows still furrowed. “Choose me.”
Whoa… what? A one eighty flip just happened.
“I’m serious.” He says, backing me up into the door. “Choose me.”
Is this happening? “What?”
“Choose me.” He dips his head and looks directly in my eyes. “You don’t want him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” He places his hand on my cheek and traces his thumb over my lower lip. “I know that when he kissed you, your thoughts were on me, worrying how I felt, worrying about how I’d react.” Well… “Stop being stubborn and choose me. It’s simple. Just say yes.”
“But…”
“Don’t think about Caleb.” He implores, his other hand gripping my bicep. “Please, he doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”
Blink. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” It’s not like Caleb is here to defend himself, so I don’t appreciate his cryptic sentences about him.
“You don’t know him like I do. You think you do, but you don’t. He wasn’t always a good person, Gwen.”
Eye roll. “He changed. He was very good to me.”
“Yes, so it would seem.” He mutters conspiratorially.