Chapter 14
Rain patters against the windows as we spread out on the living room floor. The air feels heavy. The storm’s waiting to crash down any second. Or maybe it’s just me noticing how Nate keeps sneaking looks at me when he thinks I’m not paying attention.
The grown-ups are out on the porch under the gazebo, sipping wine under string lights while the wind plays with the screens. Their laughter drifts through the open door, warm and easy, as if the sky isn’t about to crack open.
Leo dumps board games on the middle of the rug. “We’re doing Monopoly.”
From the couch, Ryan groans, full don’t-make-me-move energy. “That game takes forever.”
“Because you cheat,” Leo fires back.
“Allegedly,” Ryan says, not even blinking.
We start playing, and I’m quietly crushing everyone, buying up properties while the boys argue.
Every time I collect big rent, Nate grins, and that makes me happier than winning the game.
Meanwhile, each lightning flash makes my chest coil tight, but I try to hide it, focusing on my colorful money instead.
When I slap a hotel on Boardwalk, Leo groans and Ryan rumbles about beginner’s luck. Nate’s laugh is so contagious I can’t stop smiling, even as the wind howls louder outside. Then the power flickers, and we all freeze. When it stays on, Leo exhales. “Just a little rain.”
But the next flash of lightning lights up the room as bright as daylight, and I flinch so hard my game piece topples over. I keep my head down, hoping no one saw, but my hands shake when I right the thimble.
Nate’s dad, Antonio, appears in the doorway. “Okay, little people, wrap it up. This is going to be a wild one.”
Leo pulls on his hoodie. “I’m gonna head to Max’s for a bit.”
“I don’t think so, young man,” Antonio says sternly. “You stay put.”
Leo huffs but flops back down. Ryan yawns dramatically. “I’m out. Double shift tomorrow.” He steps over the scattered pieces, patting my head in a condescending big brother gesture. “Good game, kid.”
The house feels different once they’ve both gone to bed—quieter, the kind of quiet that makes you notice every creak and groan. The lights are on, but my stomach still twists.
“You okay?” Nate asks from across the rug.
I nod too quickly. “Yeah. Just...I dislike thunder.”
He grins, teasing. “Good thing you’ve got Greenbeary to protect you.”
I huff, hiding my smile. “Good thing.”
I retreat to my room, trying to convince myself I’ll sleep through it. But as the rain pounds harder, the wind screaming against the house, I know I won’t. Every crack makes the walls rattle and my chest clench along with it.
When the first crash shakes the house so hard my teeth clack, I’m sliding out of bed, Greenbeary clutched in my arms. I pad across the hall on bare feet and push open the boys’ door.
Inside smells of salt and sand and whatever boys smell like after a day at the beach. Ryan’s on the bottom bunk, curled away from me, dead to the world.
“Ryan?” I whisper. Nothing. Another thunderclap booms, and I flinch so hard it hurts.
Then a low, sleepy whisper comes from the other bottom bunk. “Trouble?”
My heart leaps. Nate’s sitting up slightly, the blanket slipping from his shoulder, hair sticking up everywhere. His eyes—sleepy but alert—meet mine. “You okay?”
Another rumble rattles the house, and I just shake my head.
He lifts the blanket without hesitation. “Come here.”
For a second, I think it would be better to go to my parents’ room. Mom would hold me, tell me everything’s fine, and I’d fall back asleep. But then the lightning cracks again, and my feet move on their own.
I crawl into Nate’s bunk, and when he tucks the blanket around me, warmth settles in my chest. This is different from all the other times he’s comforted me. More important. As if the ground’s shifting and I can’t figure out why.
His body is solid. The tempest keeps raging, but his breathing is steady, and it calms mine without me even trying.
“As long as you’re with me, nothing bad can happen,” he murmurs, words rough with sleep. “I promise.”
I believe him completely. I curl closer, his arm draping lightly over my shoulders. The thunder fades to a distant rumble, the rain to a lullaby. His heartbeat under my cheek is steady and strong, and I wonder why I never noticed before how safe his arms feel. How right.
“You always make me feel better,” I whisper into the darkness, words barely a breath.
There’s a pause, then his gentle, sure response: “Sleep, Trouble. You’re safe here with me.”
My eyes flutter shut. Lying here with Nate feels different from hiding under the covers alone. Different from Ryan’s teasing hugs or Leo’s protective presence. This feels like...home.
When I wake up, the storm has passed. Sunlight pours through the blinds, turning the walls gold, pretending last night didn’t happen. But it did. I remember every second—the thunder that shook the windows, how I grabbed Greenbeary and ran, how Nate didn’t even blink when he let me in.
Now I’m still here, curled against his side, Greenbeary squished between us. Nate’s awake, propped on one elbow, hair sticking up everywhere. His words are gentle, rough with sleep. “Morning, Trouble.”
My face goes hot. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine,” he says easily. “You’re fine.” The words settle me. Then a sound cuts through the room, loud and full of way too much amusement.
“Well, well, well.”
Ryan’s leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, grinning, like the idiot he is. “What do we have here?”
I sit up so fast I nearly fall off the bed. “Ryan, shut up! I was scared!”
He whistles low, clearly enjoying the scene. “Sure, sure. Middle of the night, sneaking into Russo’s bed. Aww, look at the lovebirds. Nate’s got a girlfriend.”
My face is on fire. “It was the lightning!”
Nate’s jaw tightens. “Cut it out, Ryan.”
But my brother laughs harder, stepping into the room theatrically. “You know, Russo, for someone who acts all cool, you move pretty fast. My little sister, huh? Cute.”
I want the floor to open and swallow me whole. That’s when Leo climbs down from his bunk, looking confused and suspicious. “What’s going on?”
Ryan smirks, throwing gasoline on the fire. “Oh, nothing. Just our sister spending the night…in Nate’s bed.”
Leo’s gaze snaps to me, then to Nate. His mouth thins; for the first time I catch a flicker—almost fear—at what he sees between us. “What?”
I blurt out, “There was a thunderstorm! I was scared! Ryan was sleeping like a corpse!”
Nate’s tone is calm, steady. “She couldn’t sleep. That’s all.”
Leo’s eyes cut between us, sharp and assessing, taking in how natural we look together. His glare softens when it lands on me but stays razor sharp when it shifts back to Nate. “This isn’t cool, man.”
Ryan, unhelpfully, grins and layers on. “Relax, Leo. It’s Nate. He’s not gonna do anything—look at him, he’s practically a babysitter.” He smirks, clearly enjoying himself. “Besides, she’s safer with him than with you scowling holes in the wall.”
Leo shoots him a look that could melt steel, but Ryan is undeterred. He claps Nate on the shoulder as he walks out. “Better watch yourself, Russo. She’s trouble.”
Nate doesn’t flinch, meeting Leo’s stare head-on. “I know.”
The words hang there, loaded with an undercurrent I don’t understand but can feel crackling in the room.
Leo stares at him for a beat longer, trying to figure out exactly what it is that’s bothering him, before huffing and walking toward the kitchen.
Ryan’s laughter still reverberates off the walls.
I sit there clutching Greenbeary, cheeks blazing, heart pounding so loud it hurts. Nate looks at me, his eyes steady, telling me Leo’s warning doesn’t change anything between us.
And even with that tension hanging in the air, I feel secure, and.
..something else I don’t have a name for yet.
Something that makes me want to stay in his arms forever, even when the storms are long gone.
Something that makes Leo’s warning feel less like protection and more like a wall I’ll eventually want to tear down.
Years later, I’ll realize this was the night I started falling for Nate Russo.
Not the dramatic, heart-stopping kind of falling you see in movies, but the quiet, inevitable fall that starts with trust and grows until it changes your life.
The kind that makes a twelve-year-old girl believe that as long as she’s with him, nothing bad can ever happen.