18. Jack #2
“Thank you,” Nat whispered as I put my hand on her lower back and guided her to our group.
Leo handed back the redhead’s phone. If I were to guess, he’d been putting his number in her contacts. The man had game even when I thought he didn’t.
Hazel peeled at her beer bottle’s label, looking anywhere but at her friend.
“What did I miss?” Nat questioned, looking at our camp mom.
“Leo’s a mountain man,” Hazel said, but her resigned tone didn’t match her smile.
Luis honked his horn goodbye after dropping us off at Camp Starlight. He and Leo had driven everyone home, which was good because none of us were fit to drive. We’d almost called the local rideshare guy, Herb, but Luis had been kind enough to step up.
Leo and Hazel were the first to peel off, heading to their duplex. Then went Sawyer and Lamar, who had been holding each other up until they reached Sawyer’s cabin. Felicia gave us a peace sign as she headed to her place. And that left Nat and me.
We walked together in peaceful silence from the parking lot to my cabin.
Nat seemed contemplative as she drew my attention on the porch. “I think it’s time for a truce, mountain man Jack.”
I typed in my code and opened the door for her. “You heard that?”
She rolled her eyes. “The whole bar heard that.”
I locked the door. It took a second for her words to register, but when they did, I jumped on the opportunity. “You jealous, princess?”
“Pfft. In your dreams. Which are probably of me, if we’re being honest.” Nat headed to the bedroom, kicked off her shoes, collapsed on her bunk, and let out a groan of comfort that went straight to my dick.
I leaned in the doorway, purposely avoiding a view of her sundress and the way the hem rode up along her thighs. “Oh yeah?”
She rolled over onto her back. “I see the way you wake up smiling.” She pointed to her lips.
I barked out a laugh. She was cute drunk. I’d noticed the emphatic way she spoke with people all night and remembered the look she’d had when she was with that guy. I was glad I’d been there to rescue her. “Do you often get recognized out in the wild?”
Nat tapped her chin. “Sometimes.”
“Doesn’t it make you nervous?”
She shrugged. “Only when I’m alone, and it’s a man. But that doesn’t happen often. I do my best to stay safe.”
I tried not to seethe at the idea of her feeling unsafe. “How do you do that?”
“I’ve taken self-defense classes, and I always travel with pepper spray. A lot of times, I’m with a guide or a friend. And I never post about where I am until after I’ve been gone a few days.”
The idea of an obsessed fan cornering her didn’t sit well with me. Sure, she was self-sufficient, but people could be horrible, and the idea of someone crossing any of her lines had me seeing red.
She must have read it on my face, because she spoke firmly, not lacking in confidence. “I pay attention to my surroundings. I was totally fine. You just helped move things along.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I knew she was famous, in more ways than one, but she was down-to-earth. Her audience, however, was probably the same kind of people she’d run into on her travels, so it didn’t assuage my fear.
“You’re worried about me?”
I hated that she could even question that.
“Yeah, Nat.” I cleared my throat because my words were barely decipherable. “Of course, I am.” I crouched beside her, squeezing her hand in an attempt to prove my point.
Nat looked into my eyes with a serious gaze. “I was surrounded by people, and the guy was harmless. I don’t always have that luxury, but I’m not that famous. I think you’re blowing my status up in your head.”
I’d seen it a dozen times, Nat downplaying her reach, but even my nephew knew who she was. I hadn’t used social media up until now, but her account sounded like something I’d be interested in.
“You have over a million followers,” I admitted. She probably didn’t have a clue that I’d seen her posts. I’d done a deep dive on her account after Jordy told me she followed him back.
“A million friends that aren’t actually friends,” she said wistfully, rolling onto her side with a pillow in her arms. “Just like in real life.”
Ah, so I was getting downcast drunk Nat. I didn’t like it. “People love you.”
She rolled onto her back and stared at the bunk above her. “Until they get to know me. That’s the kind of friendships I make. Short, sweet, and superficial. I know I’m a good time. But I don’t have an inner circle, let alone a group of friends. It’s rare to find people who like me for me.”
I thought back to the way I’d treated her, and it stung.
After too long a pause, I got my shit together. “Nat, I—”
“Don’t worry about it. No more depressing Nat tonight.
” She closed her eyes as if that were the end of it, and it had me wondering, did she often mask her feelings to make herself more likable?
“Maybe I liked that you showed up at my side.” She spoke softly, as if it were a secret.
“But that’s probably just the residual crush talking. I know better now.”
The sound of a record scratching went through my head.
“Wait, what?” Did I hear that right? Nat had a crush on me? Was that what she’d meant? “Nat, hey.”
I waited a long moment, but her answering snore told me what I already knew: that was the end of our conversation for the night. She also didn’t respond when I poked her shoulder three times. Dammit.
I turned out the light and went to the kitchen to fill up two glasses of water and get some medicine we’d both need if being in our thirties had anything to say about it.
Nat looked beautiful, bathed in the light from the hallway, but that didn’t stop me from poking her shoulder one last time, hoping to resume our conversation. I knew she’d be back to being closed off with me in the morning.
I set down medicine and water on her nightstand and turned my back on her, pausing as she spoke, her words garbled. I made out something about too many marshmallows and grinned at her.
“What was that?”
A warm smile spread across her lips. “Okay, if you really wanna cuddle, I’ll be your teddy bear.”
I choked on my laughter, my body shaking from holding it back.
By the time I got undressed and climbed into bed, my brain was wired.
I couldn’t get her unfiltered words out of my head.
Nat Breckenridge used to have a crush on me?
It had to have been last year, back when I’d been someone else’s boyfriend—which she knew.
We hadn’t interacted all that much, but she might have been interested in me. How was I supposed to sleep on that?