23. Nate
My mom sent a text, asking where I’d gone and saying she was worried because Rylee wasn’t answering her phone. When I pivoted the screen to Willa so she could read the message, she insisted I go placate my mother while she finished taking care of my sister.
I’d told her I couldn’t leave her with the mess—although I had gotten someone else to clean up the vomit, tipping them generously for their troubles—but Willa insisted.
Every couple of minutes, I glanced at the door to the hallway, worried she’d come through it with my sister and worried she wouldn’t. What was Rylee thinking, getting wasted before showing up at the event Mom had been looking forward to sharing with us for months? Lead filled my lungs, leaving them heavier and heavier. I didn’t know what to do with Rylee anymore.
Anytime Dad’s death came up, it took a toll on Mom. Like she could handle life unless she was confronted with the reality the man she loved was gone. In the past, I’d thought of that sort of codependency as more of a hindrance than anything. It felt like a constant tug of war, with compromise and accepting disappointment. For instance, all the times I ended up traveling with Mom because Dad suddenly couldn’t take off work like he promised. Then there’d be tension in the house for a while, and a day or so later, poof. Gone like it never happened.
Dad compromised too. Mostly on house décor and allowing her to host events and parties since it made her so happy. While I hadn’t known it at the time, I’d later found out he’d been furious she’d enrolled me in piano lessons. A chuckle had accompanied his recounting of the day he’d “risked his life” by telling Mom the instrument was for girls. Evidently, it’d been the biggest argument they’d ever had, and he ate every one of his words when he attended the musical showcase and heard me play.
“There are things you were born for, and that, son, is one of your things,” he told me that day, his eyes misty. I’d never seen him express that sort of emotion before, and each time I thought about it, it left my throat too tight.
And yet, that was the same day I’d decided that long-term relationships—and marriage, in particular—involved losing far too often for me to entertain the idea.
Not to get ahead of myself, but Willa was one of those people who’d be good to have through thick and thin, and tonight provided me with more than enough evidence. She probably thought I was joking when I told her she belonged to me, but it’d come out, unplanned and unfiltered. Not in an objectifying sort of way, where I thought of her as my property; more that I felt like we belonged to each other.
“Nathan?”
I jerked my gaze away from the door, searching my brain for any words that’d sunk in during Mom’s introduction to the woman who ran the gallery. All I found was Willa. “Sorry. What was that?”
“Worried about your date?” Mom asked, a smug lilt to her voice. She had no idea. Since I was mostly worried about my date having to deal with Rylee’s drunken disorderliness, I also wanted to keep her in the dark on that subject.
“There she is. Talking to…” Anger soared to the forefront, incinerating every other thought and emotion. “Bobby and Gil. Did you invite them?” I asked, whipping my accusatory gaze at Mom and making myself a hypocrite. Hadn’t I just lectured Rylee on not rocking the boat on our mother’s special night?
Through the whirring thoughts in my mind, I heard Mom’s heavy sigh, signaling, yes, yes, she did. “Dad would’ve wanted you to mend bridges, Nathan. Not burn everything to the ground out of spite. If you’d give your uncles a shot, you’d see how hard they’re trying to make amends.”
Amends, my ass. Dad’s former partners had Willa and Rylee cornered, and if I knew them—and unfortunately, I did—they were sniffing around, trying to dig up dirt. With Rylee there, they’d find some too. I’d made a big show of how quickly I’d wash my hands of her case, but it’d been a bluff. One I’d hoped she wouldn’t call me on since she could almost out-stubborn me.
Almost.
Like a bull who’d seen a waving red cape, I charged.
“Please be nice,” Mom called after me, and I picked up my pace. Nice? Seriously? Should I wipe off the bloody blade they’d lodged in our backs and hand it over so they could stab it in again and again?
Gil flashed me a fake-as-fuck smile as I approached. “Nate the Great. I was just asking your sister about you. And given how quickly you rushed over, I’m assuming this beautiful creature is…” He aimed his smile at Willa, and the blood in my veins froze and burst into slicing shards I planned on using on him.
“None of your concern.” I stepped between him and Willa, cutting off his access while Rylee looked on, her gaze slightly clearer. The scowl she flashed Gil and Bobby was far weaker than mine, but there. Maybe I could count on her to line up on my side, after all.
“What’s going on?” Willa asked from behind me. “We hadn’t gotten around to exchanging names yet.”
“Forgive me,” Bobby said in the falsely charming voice he used to win over clients, judges, and jury members. “I’m Bobby and this is Gil. Nate and Rylee’s uncles.”
Without me having to clarify, understanding flashed through Willa’s features, her warm expression turning cold. It made me want to kiss the hell out of her right then and there. “Oh. It’s them.”
Gil stepped forward, hands raised in supplication. “I’m not sure what Nate’s told you, but?—”
“Enough. That’s what he’s told me.” Willa jabbed a finger at him. “You two didn’t even let the family mourn before you yanked their father’s legacy out from underneath them. It’s deplorable and vile, and I’m sure you’re going to say you’re sorry now that you’re losing so many clients to Nate’s firm. But I don’t think any of us want to hear it.” She glanced from me to Rylee, and back to me. “That’s a hard pass all-around. Now, if you’ll excuse us”—she clamped onto my hand—”we’ve got other places to be. As in, any other place but around you.”
With that, Willa draped an arm over Rylee’s shoulders, and propelled all three of us in the opposite direction.
“Okay, I changed my mind,” Rylee said. “Not only do I know your name, Willa, I’m going to immortalize it somehow. Like, carve it into a wall. You’re a total badass.”
“I can’t stand when people do awful things and use lame excuses for why, or put it back on you, as though you gave them no other choice but to screw you over. They say it’s not personal while making it super fucking personal. If you’re going to hurt the people around you, at least have the balls to own it instead of playing the blame game.”
While Willa was undoubtedly protective of me, and by extension, Rylee, I had a feeling some of that had to do with her asshole ex. Still, no one had ever stood up for me like that. Usually, they left me to handle it. I was the fixer. The person who shut people up with a harsh argument. While I could’ve done so that time too, I could fully admit that she’d decimated them with her words far better than I could’ve done.
“Thank you, by the way,” Willa said, hugging my sister tighter to her side. “I’ve never been called a badass before. I like it.”
“Well, you earned it.”
“Oh shit,” I said, and both women looked to me, their foreheads crinkling. “Clearly, I didn’t think this through when I introduced the two of you. If you go getting friendly, I’m going to end up outnumbered and ganged up on from here on out.”
“It’s too late for that.” Rylee turned, wrapping herself around Willa’s arm like a koala bear. “We’re besties now.”
“That’s right,” Willa said with a nod. Then she flashed me a Cheshire-Cat grin. “What was your name again?”
The two of them giggled, and I found myself laughing along. Since we were approaching Mom, I was glad to see Rylee had sobered up enough to pull off walking and talking—at once, at that.
“Rylee. There you are.” Mom threw her arms around her.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “Now, which piece was the one you couldn’t wait to show me.”
The wattage of Mom’s smile veered into blinding territory, and for all my sister’s impulsivity and occasionally selfish tendencies, deep down, she had a heart of gold. It’d just beat so strongly for Dad for so long that after his passing, she’d struggled to sort through the wreckage of grief. I suspected she also turned to destructive ways to numb the pain, something that’d need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
While I understood that sharp pang that accompanied missing him, part of the deal I was going to personally work out with her for the case would involve counseling. Since Willa had gotten through to Rylee faster than I ever had, perhaps that was what I’d been missing before, someone like her.
No, not someone like her. Just her.
My pulse went to pounding away with the idea my brain had been flirting with all night. I knew a good thing when it fell in my lap, and that was somewhere I wanted to keep Willa for a long time to come.
But commitment was new territory for me, and the idea of ruining what we had already compounded my anxieties over getting in any deeper. For all my talk about always winning, while I was fairly certain she’d be open to it, I also knew she’d been hurt before. That’d open us both up to the possibility of future pain, not to mention mean I’d no longer be the one with full control.
Which added a whole new layer to my dilemma, as the only thing that scared me more than that was the idea of letting Willa go.