Chapter 63 Olivia
SIXTY-THREE
olivia
Downright indulgent. It was the best way to describe the rest of the night. Where we usually rushed to completion, we took our time.
“Are you sore?” Nate asked.
“Not enough to stop.” I stared down at him as I rocked against him. And it felt great, until my hip seized up and a leg cramp took over.
“What’s wrong?”
“Leg cramp. And hip. I’m an old lady.”
He rolled me onto my back and pulled out. We both winced. Eek, maybe we were trying too hard to make up for all the lonely nights?
“Hold on. You need electrolytes if you’re cramping.”
“Leave it to the athlete to know how to treat a cramp.”
“Well, I’m also gonna make you get up and move, too.”
Nate got out of bed, filled a glass with water, and opened a packet of powder that he had stashed in his overnight bag. After mixing it, he passed it to me. “Drink up.”
I sipped it and set it down on the nightstand. “Come back to bed.”
“Up, and don’t put down the glass until you finish it.”
“Have I told you I’m terrible at following directions?” I acted like a petulant child.
“I’m persistent. Get up, it’s for your own good.”
So instead of spending the wee hours of the morning with Nate buried to the hilt inside me, he forced me to stretch and rehydrate.
“Remind me never to work out with you.” I yawned, ready to collapse into bed.
“Oh, come on. It’ll be fun.”
I flopped onto the bed, pulling him down next to me so we could burrow into the covers. “I’m sure you’ll have fun—your body is like a machine—mine? Not so much.”
“You’re perfect,” he said. I felt his lips press against the top of my head, and I curled into him.
“I didn’t know what I was waiting for all those years. But now I know. It was you.”
* * *
My phone vibrated on the nightstand, and I ignored it—the first two times.
“Expecting a call?”
I sat up, letting the sheets pool around my waist, and reached for my phone, settling against the headboard. Nate had sat up, his antenna up thanks to the constant vibration of my phone.
Six missed calls from Austin. Forty-two text messages. Instagram DMs, notifications, and tags.
“Fuck. Everything’s blown up.”
Nate reached for his phone and started scrolling. “Yup.”
My phone rang again. “It’s Austin.”
“Answer it—on speaker.”
Ugh. What would Nate think when Austin pulled his usual shit? I swallowed and accepted the call.
“Hello?”
“Liv, what the fuck is going on?”
“I’m going to need you to back up a bit. Your call woke me up.” God, how did we sleep so late? It was almost noon.
“It’s noon. What the fuck are you doing that’s got you sleeping until noon?”
“Hey—enough. You don’t get to talk to her like that.” My stomach dropped as soon as Nate spoke. If there had been a chance to deny this, it was gone.
“So it’s true?” Austin asked, his voice shaking with anger. “You’ve been fucking around under my nose?”
“We’re not fucking around—” I said.
“We’re together.” Nate’s answer earned a laugh from my brother. God, I loved my brother, but he didn’t get to judge me on this.
“Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? Jesus, Olivia. He’s barely more than a teenager—you’d get fined for giving him a fucking beer.”
“Enough.” When Nate spoke, he commanded control of the conversation, ceding it from Austin.
“I respect you a lot, as a teammate, an uncle, a supportive brother to Olivia—but don’t you dare fucking say anything that will make me forget that.
Your sister is my goddamn world. Whatever you think is going on—it’s not a fling. She’s my endgame.”
A tear slipped down my face as I listened to Nate put Austin in his place. God, he did it in a way that was just so Nate. He left no room for debate. But left no doubt that he respected my brother.
“How did I miss this? Shit. How was I so blind?” I pictured Austin and hoped he wasn’t as defeated as he sounded.
“Well, you’ve had a shit year, Aus. I think it’s normal to be distracted when your life is turned upside down. But this—it’s between Nate and me. What we have—I’ve never had this before. Never. And as Nate said, no one is going to get between us.”
“I hope you’re ready for the shitstorm. Someone posted a photo of you two last night.”
My phone beeped with another call. Cooper.
“Fuck. Do you think Cooper saw it?”
“Only one way to know. Go talk to him.”
I accepted the call. “Hi, Coop.”
“Mom, can you pick me up? Dad’s being a jerk.”
“I’ll fucking kill him.” Nate mouthed in the background.
“I can be there in about 45 minutes to an hour. I’m in the city, so there might be some traffic.”
I hung up the phone and started running around the hotel room, grabbing my things. When I noticed Nate doing the same, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going with you.”
“Nate—”
“Not a chance, Livvie. Together. We go together.”
I swallowed, images of just how bad this interaction with Jason could go. “Okay. But whatever you want to say to Jason, it can’t happen in front of Cooper.”
“I hear you loud and clear. But if the dickbag is saying shit Cooper doesn’t need to hear, I’m going to put a stop to it.”
Austin called Nate, but I only heard part of the conversation. There was a lengthy pause as Nate let my brother speak. “Yeah. He’s okay. We’re headed to pick him up from Jason’s,” Nate paused again, then said, “Good idea.”
“What’s a good idea?” I asked.
“Austin is going with us—just in case.”
Pressing my fingertips to my temples, I squeezed my eyes closed. “Okay. Will you drive? I want to see what all these other notifications are.”
“Of course. Take my phone too. Let’s get it all on the table.”
I glanced in the mirror on the way out of the hotel room.
I looked exactly how I felt, like I’d been run over.
Thank God, I’d remembered to take my makeup off before I went to sleep.
My hair, on the other hand—looked like I’d stuck my fingers in an electrical socket.
Oh well, Jason was going to insult me even if I showed up there perfectly polished.