Chapter 16 #2
“Yeah.” I hesitated. “Why don’t you stick close to the bar and me, huh? Just in case Joey is still around. I know you don’t want to file a complaint or make a scene, so let’s just make it impossible for him to corner you.”
The look of profound gratitude on her face almost brought me to my knees. “Thank you.”
An ache formed near my chest. She looked so vulnerable. “Don’t thank me for doing the bare minimum. We’ve talked about this.”
“I can’t help it. I’m grateful.”
She was frustrating without even realizing it. “You should expect more for yourself than the bare minimum.”
She beamed, and my entire world lit up. “I’ll work on it.”
“Good idea.”
“THERE’S TOILET PAPER ALL OVER your front yard.”
That was the statement I woke up to the next morning, and when I shifted in bed, I found a shirtless Nathan eyeing me from the doorway. He was in boxer shorts, his hair standing on end, and he had a coffee mug in his hand.
“What?” I asked dumbly.
A quick look at the clock on my nightstand told me I’d slept a full two hours longer than normal.
That was because, upon arriving home the previous evening, I’d spent two hours pounding out more words on my book.
Actually, both books. That was after pouring Nathan, who was a little tipsy, into bed in the guest room.
“There’s toilet paper all over your front yard,” Nathan repeated.
Other than looking a little pale and speaking a little slower than normal, he didn’t appear to be suffering too much from the previous evening’s shenanigans.
He and Hayley had been drinking together, and the latter had been just as drunk when Bree loaded her into an Uber at the same time as I shoved Nathan into a separate one face-first.
I still wasn’t understanding what he was saying.
He seemed to grasp that, so he pointed toward my bedroom window.
On a grumble, I swung my legs out of bed and went to the window.
Sure enough, when I peered through the blinds, I found a white wonderland of tissue paper spread from one end of my front yard to the other.
The ancient weeping willow, which had been the major selling point when I bought this house, had taken the brunt of the damage.
“Huh,” I said as I scratched my cheek.
“Have you pissed off any teenagers lately?” He took another sip of coffee.
“Not last time I checked.” I cocked my head. Somebody had gone to town with the toilet paper. “This is so weird.” I allowed the blinds to fall shut and looked at him over my shoulder. “Why would somebody toilet paper my yard?”
He lifted one shoulder. “Why did you toilet paper people’s yards when you were a teenager?”
“I never did that.”
“Never?” he scoffed, clearly doubting me.
“You’ve met my father. Under what circumstances do you think he would have allowed me to go out in the dead of night to do something like this?” I gestured toward the window.
“Fair point.” He was quiet a beat. “It’s probably just teens in the neighborhood.”
That was possible. Still, for some reason, niggling worry filled my stomach.
“Unless you’ve ticked off an adult,” he clarified. “Didn’t something go down between you and that guy at the event last night?”
I was surprised he was even aware of that. He’d been too busy partying it up with the readers to pay too much attention to me. “It wasn’t a thing. Bree is just uncomfortable around him. I helped her out of a sticky situation.”
“Yes, and then you kept yourself glued to her side for the rest of the evening.” The way his smile spread even as he sipped his coffee told me he was enjoying making me uncomfortable.
“I wouldn’t say that.” I averted my eyes. “I can’t believe I slept so late.” That seemed like a safe conversational topic to shift to.
“You stayed up writing, didn’t you?”
“I did. How did you know that?”
His smirk was back. “I had to go to the bathroom around two o’clock, and I heard you typing away on your laptop.”
“Oh.” I pursed my lips.
“You seem to be pretty inspired these days.”
I shrugged. “I think I’m just finally over my writer’s block.”
“It takes inspiration to write after a night at the bar. Have you considered who is inspiring you?”
And there it was. Nathan wasn’t subtle. He was poking at my relationship with Bree.
“Don’t take this to a weird place,” I warned.
“I’m not.” He was guileless. “I’m simply pointing out that ever since Bree moved here, things have been getting easier for you.”
I snorted. “Easier? I wouldn’t call anything in my life easy.”
“You’re writing again.”
“It was time for me to start writing again.”
“You’re writing a lot,” he insisted. “I think you’re working on more than one project.”
I looked at the floor. “I should get showered so we can go out and clean up the mess.”
“We?” Nathan chuckled. “It’s not my house that was toilet papered.”
I glared at him.
“Fine,” he conceded after a beat. “I’ll help if you acknowledge that Bree is inspiring you.”
That was too steep of a price to pay for a little toilet paper. “She’s just a friend.”
It wasn’t true. I didn’t look at Bree and feel friendly feelings. I felt more. It was not, however, something I could put into words.
“I’m not saying anything has to come of this,” Nathan said. “Maybe you should give it a shot, though.”
“Give what a shot?”
He pinned me with a look that told me not to play dumb. “You don’t have to marry her,” he said in his calmest voice. “But there’s no reason not to figure out if you really like her. It could be a chemical thing.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning you two might bang like loose shutters during a tornado for two weeks and then fizzle out. You can still be friends after something like that. It will be fine.”
“And what if we don’t fizzle out?”
“Then maybe you’ll get something more out of the deal.”
I didn’t want to like that idea. My traitorous heart felt otherwise. It threw its arms up as if we were at a Taylor Swift concert. Woo-hoo!
“I’ll take it under advisement,” I said dryly. “I’m not nearly as invested in this as you think I am though.”
He merely shook his head. “You’re smitten.”
“What a stupid word,” I complained.
“You’re still smitten.”
Smitten? Sadly, that was the exact right word.
“Let’s clean up the toilet paper first, then shower,” I said. “If you help, I’ll buy you breakfast before you head home.”
Nathan perked up. “Now you’re speaking my love language.”
“Somehow, I knew you were going to say that.”