Chapter Nineteen
Nate
Branch and Brew looked almost exactly the same as it had when Nate and Lottie walked out of it earlier that day after their quickie in the hidden closet, but something about the place felt different.
The atmosphere was just as electric as it always was on Friday nights, patrons already buzzing from the alcohol they’d consumed and eager to show off their knowledge or have a good time with friends, but it wasn’t why the air felt charged or why every muscle and fiber in Nate’s body felt as if it were filled with enough potential energy to power the entire town.
As he gazed at the woman next to him, the one who fit so neatly under his arm and played with his fingers like they were the most fascinating thing in the world, Nate had the feeling he knew the reason why tonight felt different.
Lottie laughed at something Willa said, continuing to occasionally lace her fingers with his as his hand dangled over the side of her shoulder.
They hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other all night.
Constant touches between the two of them were his new normal, and he couldn’t get enough.
Nate smiled as he continued to gaze at Lottie.
She fit in so perfectly with his family, just as he always knew she would.
It had never been a fear of how much his family would accept Lottie that had kept Nate at a distance.
If anything, he might worry that they would love her more.
She was so effortlessly caring for others, so ready to smile and lend someone a helping hand when needed that he was shocked that a plethora of admirers weren’t permanently lined up outside her front door.
If they were living a historical romance, the number of gentleman callers she had would fill even the largest of drawing rooms, and yet she’d remained single.
Nate knew that was by choice. The dating pool in Applewood may not be as big as one in a major city, but it wasn’t tiny either, and he’d seen her out on enough dates and witnessed countless men flirting with her at the bar to know that Lottie would never lack for male attention.
The fact that she chose to let him be the one to provide her with that still blew his mind a little.
That she saw something worthy in Nate after he’d worked for so long to prove to her otherwise was a miracle, one he hoped to never squander.
Unable to stop himself from expressing that, Nate leaned over and placed a kiss just under her ear. “Love you,” he whispered.
Lottie beamed up at him and squeezed the hand she’d been playing with for the last twenty minutes, her gaze flicking to the rest of the table for a second before coming back to rest on his face.
“Same.” She looked down at his empty glass.
“Want me to make you another?” Despite no longer working at Branch and Brew, it seemed Lottie still had behind the bar privileges from his brother and had made him the one of a kind cocktail that he’d polished off a while ago.
Nate nodded, not letting go of Lottie’s hand until the last possible second, and even then letting his fingertips linger on hers until he had to release her. His eyes moved with her, and he felt the corners crinkle as his smile widened when Lottie winked at him from behind the long wooden bar top.
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” Beckett remarked. Nate struggled to pull his attention away from Lottie, but managed to glare lightly at his brother. Beckett held up his hands in defense as he chuckled. “Just kidding, Nate. I’m actually really happy for you two.”
Willa nodded sleepily as her head lolled on her husband’s shoulder. “Me too.” Her head perked up for a moment and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t hurt her though, because then I would be decidedly unhappy and that won’t work out well for you.”
Nate looked to his brother for back-up, but Beckett shrugged. “Sorry, bro. Blood may be thicker than water, but Baby Mama trumps all.” Willa bumped him with her shoulder but smiled up at him nonetheless.
Nate rubbed his hand over his beard, looking to Travis for back-up, but his other brother merely shook his head sadly.
“Don’t screw it up. Won’t have nothing to worry about.
” He wrapped his arm around Parker’s shoulders, smiling down at the woman who hadn’t brought him out of his shell so much as joined him inside and helped him make a home of it. “Or apologize when you do.”
Parker leaned up and kissed his cheek, making his brother blush.
Travis had always been a bit of a big softie, but seeing it come out even more now that he had a fiancée and soon-to-be stepdaughter in his life made Nate wonder how he’d changed over the last few weeks.
In some ways, he felt like the exact same person he’d always been, but in others he felt like he was seeing the world with new eyes.
Colors were brighter, the air seemed fresher, and everything in his life seemed better.
Some of that may have been from his still riding the high of getting his project approved, and submitting the permits to the city planning office had been extremely satisfying when he’d done it a few hours earlier, but Nate knew it had more to do with Lottie than any of that.
The air next to Nate stirred a moment before her cinnamon apple scent hit him, comforting him in a way that only it could.
As she slid his drink to him, Lottie resumed her place tucked under his arm and started to play with his hand the moment he rested it over her shoulder instead of the back of the chair.
“Sorry it took a minute, but I got caught up talking with Autumn while she was taking a break from admiring your brother.” She smiled at everyone around the table. “What did I miss?”
“Oh, not much,” Willa said, immediately hiding her mouth with her water glass. “Just congratulating Nate on a job well done today.”
Lottie smiled and launched into telling the story about his greatest victory. “You guys should have been there. It was like the scene out of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington where he does the filibuster.” She turned to Nate and cupped his cheek. “Though you are much better looking than Jimmy Stewart.”
“Why thank you, Charlotte.” He took the hand that was against his face and kissed the palm. “I will take that as the highest form of compliment since I know how much you love your old movies.”
Parker played with the straw that sat in her drink. “I don’t know, Jimmy Stewart was kind of cute in that earnest, awkward sort of way.” Travis grumbled and she turned to him with a smile. “Don’t worry, Baby. I think you’re better looking than him, too.”
Travis grunted happily. “Better.” He pulled Parker closer to him and kissed her temple.
Willa scoffed. “Well, I am sorry but I disagree. I think none of you are better looking than the man who played Atticus Finch and you can’t get mad at me for saying so because I am pregnant.”
Beckett kissed his wife’s cheek and smiled indulgently at her. “That’s Gregory Peck, not Jimmy Stewart.” His head took in the disbelieving looks around the table and he shrugged. “What? There’s a lot of downtime at the station and the chief likes old movies.”
Lottie gasped and pulled out her phone. “How did I not know that?” Her fingers started to fly across the screen as she made a note of some kind. “I’m going to have to bend his ear on which are his favorites. Maybe I can even highlight him in my next issue.”
Nate stilled her hand, trying not to smile when she blinked her big brown eyes up at him.
“Which is your favorite movie?” He knew she liked old movies just as the woman whose house she now lived in did.
Lottie had told him all about Mrs. G and how the two had bonded during their high school years, but he still didn’t know which of the movies the older woman had introduced her to was her actual favorite.
Lottie smiled shyly as her shoulder bobbed.
“Any of them that have happy endings are the ones I like best.” Her eyes sparkled and caramel highlights shone in her hair as the lighting of the bar reflected off her.
Nate smiled and leaned down to kiss her, and suddenly trivia night was the last place he wanted to be.
When he pulled back, Lottie looked slightly dazed as he nudged her from her chair. “Makes sense.” He nodded toward the door to the bar. “We should watch one now.”
Lottie giggled lightly even as she put on her coat. “Right this minute?” She rolled her eyes at everyone else at the table who undoubtedly did not buy his thin excuse for why they were leaving.
“Yes, right this minute.” Nate put on his coat, took a gulp of his drink, and slapped some money down on the table. “Maybe there is one having to do with the prohibition era. I’ve recently become reacquainted with the time and I must say, I find it intriguing.”
At the hint, Lottie’s eyes widened and her cheeks tinged pink.
“Oh, absolutely. I’m sure I can find something or other back at my place.
” She turned to the table, barely waving goodbye as she backed away.
“Good luck with the trivia stuff.” Nate chuckled as she dragged him from the bar and out to her car.
Still giggling, Lottie leaned over to him, her warm breath tickling his neck. “Do you think we were too obvious?”
Nate laughed as he slid into the passenger seat, bobbing his head. “Um, yes, but I don’t care if you don’t.”
Lottie started up the car and pointed it toward her house, reaching over and squeezing his upper thigh.
“Right now, I only care about one thing, and it isn’t whether they bought our story.
” Her hand traveled higher until it brushed against the hard tip of his erection, causing him to fill the car with the sound of his moan.
Every time she touched him, he melted. Lottie chuckled as she moved her hand over him again. “Look at that, you guessed it.”
Nate grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together.
“Just drive, Lovely. Then you can put your hands on as much of me as you want.” Ten minutes later, the two of them crashed into her house, Nate sweeping Lottie up into his arms and carrying her into the bedroom.
When he got there, he laid her out on the mattress, and started to unbutton her coat.
As the sides parted and it slipped from her shoulders, Lottie shivered, the cold air that Nate felt on the back of his neck signaling that it wasn’t because of what they were doing.
“Shit. I forgot to shut the front door.”
Lottie sat up in the bed and reached around to her back, the sound of a zipper descending filling the air before the creamy skin of one of her shoulders was exposed to him.
“Hurry back,” she commanded before laying back on the bed, looking like every wet dream he’d ever had in high school come to life.
Nate smiled adoringly at her and went back out front, shaking his head at his leaving the front door wide open.
Applewood was a safe haven, but you never knew when someone might take the open invitation to come in.
After securing the door, Nate bent over to pick up some papers that had blown onto the floor.
As he gathered the pile, the one on top caught his attention.
A bank statement was easy enough to recognize, but he hadn’t seen one in ages.
Eager to tease Lottie for not doing all her banking online like a normal person, Nate moved to put the papers back, but he couldn’t help himself from looking a little more closely.
Raising the paper to get a better look, Nate’s eyes widened as he saw the large numbers on the page.
Lottie’s financial status had never been explicitly known to him, but he knew she was comfortable enough to spend whatever money she did have on other people.
From the vast amount of wealth she apparently had at her disposal, her status was far more stable than anyone else in town.
Feeling like a snoop, Nate went to place the paper down, only to pause when his eyes snagged on the name of one of her accounts.
As he read the words, his stomach dropped as the realization that he’d been lied to settled over his shoulders, the weight of the despair it brought with it threatening to bring him to his knees.
It felt like the ground beneath him was shaking and slipping away, nothing but a hole filled with hurt left to swallow him up.
The world as he’d known it felt upside down and as he looked around the entryway, suddenly everything felt wrong.
No, he felt wrong. The panic he’d been waiting to show up finally made itself.
Lottie was a lot, so much energy, personality, and light in one person, and Nate loved that about her.
What he didn’t love was that once again, he was disappearing.
He hadn’t earned that money, she’d given it to him, and he was so damn disappointed in himself.
On wobbly legs, Nate approached the bedroom, the paper dangling limply from his hand as he stepped over the threshold.
Lottie looked up at him from where she lay on the bed, a smile on her beautiful face.
“Did you get lost or something?” It didn’t take long for her to notice his lack of joviality, and she sat straight up, her expression uneasy. “Nathan?”
Nate clamped his eyes shut, hoping to fend off the wonderful feelings that always flooded his system whenever Lottie spoke his name.
As he stood there, the knowledge that The Citizens for a Brighter Applewood was really just the single woman across from him had eschewed the feelings of love he had and harnessed onto the resentment coursing through his veins instead.
Holding up the paper for her to see, Nate took no pleasure in the gasp that shot from her mouth or the look of guilt and shame written all over her face.
As he looked at her, his heart squeezed painfully in his chest.
“Care to explain this?” As he watched her face drop, the knife that he’d felt stab his heart earlier twisted at knowing that no matter what she had to say, it might not be enough to stop him from leaving again.