Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
Nathan was fun. I always lied to myself that Preston would turn fun if he could just get over himself and relax.
That was never going to happen, of course.
When I’d started telling myself that fallacy, I’d still been young and na?ve.
I kept repeating it—all evidence to the contrary—because the alternative was too much to bear.
Now, seeing someone laugh easily with his friends, give them a hard time, and accept the same back from them with no hurt feelings, I felt as if my eyes had suddenly been opened after a century of sleepwalking through life.
Preston hadn’t been a good choice right from the start.
I’d been wowed by money, which had me giving myself some serious side-eye.
What kind of person was I to fall for money that way?
It was the exact opposite of what my mother had taught me growing up.
Money didn’t mean anything. Neither did the status Preston wielded like a shield.
What was currently stirring in my heart meant everything.
And I could no longer deny it. I was starting to crush on Nathan.
He had an easygoing air about him that pushed every single one of my attraction buttons.
He was serious about his work and wanted to put out the best product he could, but when it came to having fun, he was just…
easy. He was willing to try anything. If things went poorly, like when Bree and Brody fell into the water and cursed his very existence, he laughed off their fury.
He was knowledgeable about a lot of things, not just horror movies.
I liked that about him. He could talk seriously about how the Jason Voorhees’ origin story made no sense in one breath and the pros of green energy in the next.
He had an expansive knowledge base, which he explained came from looking things up for his books.
He wasn’t just smart. though. He was handsome. In a Glenn-Powell-and-Miles-Teller-had-a-baby kind of way. He had a good personality on top of that. It was frustrating because I knew he wasn’t looking for more. Until spending time with him, I hadn’t been looking for more either.
Frustrated with my own inability to be just friends with a guy, I walked to the window and looked out.
I could see Nathan trying to explain tetherball to Brody between the two cabins.
Brody didn’t look impressed. There was no sign of Bree, but she’d been annoyed after falling into the lake—there’d been a lot of talk about the leeches she was convinced were coming for her—so she was probably taking a shower.
Since I had time, I decided to check in with my mother.
I pulled out my tablet and touched her name on top of my contact list to video call. She picked up on the second ring, her blue lips pursing when she saw me.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded.
Confused, I glanced over my shoulder to see if there was something there that might have caused her alarm. Finding nothing, I drew my eyes back to her. “Why would you jump to the conclusion that there’s something wrong?”
“Because you’re smiling, and it’s not one of those ones you force for my benefit. It’s bigger.”
I opened my mouth then shut it. I hated to admit it, but I had been faking smiles for her benefit for months—rather, years—and I made a mental note to stop that.
“There’s nothing wrong,” I assured her. “I’m actually having a great time.”
She studied me a beat then nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Okay.” Her smile turned bright. “Where are you? That doesn’t look like your new condo.”
“That’s a rental until I decide what I’m going to do, but no, I’m not at the condo. I’m at a writer’s retreat.”
“Ooh.” She nodded excitedly. “That sounds like fun. Where are you?”
I gave her a brief rundown, knowing all the details she would want to hear. I left out the part about Preston hosting it. I would get there, but I wanted to set the groundwork before I did.
Before I could mention it, however, the cabin door opened. Mom was in the middle of telling me about some naked dancing she and my honorary aunts had gotten up to the previous evening, and she was enthusiastically reenacting it when Nathan stopped behind me.
His eyes were wide—she had been talking about flopping boobs when he got close enough to hear—and when his gaze landed on my mother, he seemed shocked.
I held my breath and waited. Would this be where he marginalized my mother? I wasn’t going to put up with that again. Not that Nathan and I were going to be together or anything. But I wouldn’t put up with it even from a friend.
Instead, Nathan broke into a wide grin. “You’re Bella’s mother.” It wasn’t a question. He grabbed a chair and dragged it so we were sitting shoulder to shoulder at the table, sharing the screen. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” he enthused.
“Really?”
I could read Mom better than anybody. The shrewd narrowing of her eyes told me she was trying to do some quick calculations.
She would inevitably jump to the wrong conclusions, so I braced myself to be embarrassed.
“It’s funny, my daughter told me about her retreat, but she didn’t tell me about you. ”
“Oh.” Nathan shot me a worried look, clearly wondering if he’d made a misstep.
“It’s okay,” I assured him. “I was about to get to that part.”
“She lies,” Mom countered. “Whenever something is difficult, she doesn’t tell me about it.”
“What makes you think I’m difficult?” Nathan pointed at his ridiculously attractive face. “How does this face look difficult to you? It’s impossible. I’m far too good looking to be difficult.”
Mom giggled, and I relaxed, just a little bit. “If you say so.”
“Oh, it’s the truth.” He was solemn. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Mrs. Oakley.”
“Ms.,” she corrected automatically. It was a reflex for her.
“Of course. Sorry.” Nathan didn’t miss a beat when nodding. “I apologize. I also have a question though.” He seemed suddenly serious. “Bella told me about her father taking off. Is Oakley your name that you gave to her, or his name?”
My mother was rarely caught off guard. She floated through life and accepted whatever happened as the Goddess’s whims. But the look on her face now suggested she was dumbfounded by what Nathan had just said.
“You told him about your father?” she demanded of me.
For a moment, I was caught. Was she going to lose her mind and start yelling at me for spreading our private business to a virtual stranger? That had never been her way before, but she looked so shocked I didn’t know what to expect.
“I didn’t think it would be a big deal,” I replied, wishing I could make myself smaller for the first time since I’d left Preston. I didn’t want to hurt my mother. I’d done enough of that.
Mom waved her hand. “I’m not angry, Bella. I’ve tried to get you to talk about your father so many times I’ve lost count. I’m just surprised you finally did it, and with a man, no less.”
“Oh.” I cast Nathan a nervous look. “Well, speaking of that—”
“How long have you been dating my daughter?” Mom asked Nathan, seeming to forget I was even on the call.
“Not long,” Nathan replied.
He was smooth when delivering the lie. I was sure he knew better than to tell her we were engaged, although I hadn’t removed the ring before calling Mom. I’d planned to tell her the whole story.
“It’s going well, though,” he continued. “We kayaked today—in a tandem kayak, no less—and we didn’t have a single miscommunication.”
“Is that so?” Mom’s eyes went wide. “Well, that proves you’re in sync on a spiritual level. Did you know that?”
“No.” Nathan’s smile was kind. “I’m glad to hear it, though.” He tossed a friendly arm over my shoulders. “Your daughter is a lot of fun.”
“She used to be,” Mom agreed. “I’m glad she’s getting back to it. Her last boyfriend, well, he was a real goat scrotum.”
Now it was Nathan’s turn to look confused. “Well, that was a very specific insult.”
“He was a very specific guy.” Mom’s eyes moved to me. “I approve. You should bring him up here to meet me.”
“Oh, well, Mom—”
“We’ll try to figure something out,” Nathan interjected. “Salem sounds fun. I want to go there for Halloween.”
I cast him a dubious look. “You have mentioned that.”
“Um, you told me the story about the guy dressed as Michael Myers in ninety-degree heat, and I need to hang out in a town that has a Michael Myers on every corner.”
“Oh, you’re one of those.” Mom let loose a knowing head bob. “It doesn’t surprise me that Bella went that way, finally. She deserves somebody who is interested in the same things as her, even if those horror movies she insists on watching are misogynistic and gross.”
“Oh, here we go,” I muttered under my breath. I could not let my mother go off on a tangent. “Mom, you and Nathan can argue about the merits of horror movies when you meet in person. He’ll love to hear how the final-girl trope is really a purity test.”
“You bet I will,” Nathan agreed. “I love conversations like that.”
He was telling the truth. That meant I had to as well. “Mom, Nathan isn’t my boyfriend,” I blurted. “He’s a good friend, but we’re not together.”
Nathan sent me a surprised look but didn’t say anything.
“I can’t lie to her,” I explained to him. “After everything, I just can’t.”
Understanding gleamed in his eyes. “Sorry.” He rubbed my shoulder. “I thought I was helping. I figured she might melt down about her daughter staying in a cabin with some random guy she doesn’t know all that well.”
Mom burst out laughing at the same time I did.
“Were you not listening to the stories I told you about my mother being Wiccan?” I asked, wiping a stray tear of mirth from my cheek. “She’s all about free love.”
“It’s true,” Mom agreed, her smile rueful. “I told her it was best to give the milk away for free at least three times before agreeing to date somebody, because sexual chemistry is the most important thing in a relationship.”
Nathan’s eyebrows moved toward his hairline. “Excuse me?”