Landon #2
Dad deflates in his chair, taking Mom’s hand in his again.
“Answer me honestly,” Uncle Benji continues. “Will you protect Landon with everything you have?”
“Of course,” Nate replies, and his tone makes it very clear how silly the question is in his eyes.
Uncle Benji’s grin grows a bit wicked as he leans further over the table, assessing Nate.
“Uncle Ben—” But I can’t get another word out before he’s speaking again.
“Answer me honestly: do you love Landon?”
We all freeze, Nate included. He stares wide-eyed at my uncle, his hands clenching over and over again on the table.
“Hey! That’s not fair! He never agreed to being coerced into answering that!”
“Sorry, champ,” he replies, still grinning. “I just thought you’d want to know.”
I stand so quickly that the chair underneath me scratches against the hardwood. “But it’s not right to—”
“Yes.” It’s a low, muttered sound as it leaves him, but I hear Nate’s response anyway. The whole table does.
“Nate,” I whisper, my own eyes rounding and growing a bit wet as I stare at him. “You… you love me?”
He gives me one sharp nod but refuses to meet my eyes.
Dad doesn’t look particularly thrilled but not angry either. Scarlet is barely paying us any attention at this point, but Uncle Benji looks proud of himself.
“It’s settled then,” Mom chimes in. “Welcome to the family, Nate.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Presley,” Nate finally says, and I fall back into my chair with a defeated sigh.
But I… I can’t really feel anything other than pure, unfiltered joy. Nate loves me? Is it possible?
“You two can sleep here tonight,” Dad adds, though he does seem reluctant about it. “I’d like to keep my son as close to me as possible. We have a lot to go over before you start at Ocean View.”
Oh, right. Ocean View Entertainment. I’m not sure how to break it to my family that I don’t want to be a corporate slave, even for them.
But at this point, after everything I endured, I think it’s time to stand up for myself.
“Dad, I think we need to talk about that,” I reply quietly.
Under the table, Nate knocks his shoe against mine.
“You don’t want to work with us, do you?” Uncle Benji asks, and I shrink in on myself just a bit.
My entire life, I’ve been fighting to make my family proud. To be the perfect son. How am I meant to tell them that the one thing they’ve truly wanted from me isn’t something I want?
Dad sighs, long and loud. “I figured.”
“What?” My head snaps up, our gazes colliding in a whirlwind of green.
“I could tell, Lan,” he says softly. “You’ve been putting it off for so long. But if it’s not something you truly want, I can’t force you to sign a contract.”
“And that’s… You’re okay with it?” I ask hesitantly.
Dad’s blank expression shifts into a soft smile. “Whatever makes you happy. I thought before that you were just playing the wild, twenty-year-old. But now I can see that you’re just not up for it.”
An incredible relief floods me. I’ve been so stressed about this for so long, and yet here the moment is. I’m free. And it was completely painless.
“What will you do if not Ocean View?” Uncle Benji asks, rubbing his hand over the back of my neck again.
“He’ll come live with me,” Nate interjects.
“What?” Dad demands.
“What?” I repeat, awed as I stare into his honey eyes.
“He’ll live with me. I’ll take care of him, and he can get a job in town.” Nate is staring so deeply into my soul that I think he’s taken up shop there, and every inch of me is vibrating.
“You want me with you? Permanently?” I ask.
Nate grins, a small and private expression. “I said I loved you, didn’t I? I take care of the people I love. You’re an extension of me now.”
“Aww,” Mom coos, clasping her hands together as she smiles at Nate.
“That’s settled then!” Uncle Benji exclaims. “Desert anyone?”
“Wait, we’re just going to accept this?” Dad questions, his eyes flickering between the family like we’ve all gone mad.
“He killed three people for me, didn’t he?” I remind him. “I think I’ll be safe.”
Safe from enemies, sure. Safe from him? Fuck no. I wouldn’t want to be anyway.
“Well, yes, but—”
“I’m thinking cheesecake. Can Felicita make cheesecake?” Uncle Benji interrupts.
“The best cheesecake,” Scarlet confirms.
And that’s how dinner continues. Dad’s complaints go ignored until he shuts up, accepting my fate without any grace. And all the while, as everyone chatters and jokes, I keep stealing glances at Nate.
He doesn’t look at me once.
By the time we’re settled into my childhood bed, I’m an anxious wreck. How is it possible to tell someone you love them, invite them to move in with you, and then ignore them?
I understand we have a lot to work through and that we’re moving incredibly fast, but it was all his idea! So why do I feel like a crazy boyfriend right now?
Nate is lying behind me, keeping me pulled to his chest like I might just slip away in the middle of the night. The air around us is full of the stars he gives me every time we fall asleep together, and normally, I would peacefully drift away at this point.
But fuck that.
“Alright,” I snap, sitting up so that I can look down at him. “What the fuck is your problem?”
“Lie back down,” Nate demands, sending me a scathing glare.
“No! You’ve been ignoring me since midway through dinner, and I don’t understand what I did to piss you off.”
He sighs, tugging on my arms until I’m lying on my side, facing him. “You didn’t do anything. I just… fuck, I’m pissed.”
I knew it. I can read him like an open book at this point.
“Why? If you didn’t want to come to dinner, you should have declined. I didn’t force you to—”
“Could you stop talking for two fucking seconds?” he interrupts. “God, I’m trying to gather my thoughts over here!”
He’s such an asshole. It doesn’t matter how close we get, how much emotion we might show each other; Nate will always be a prick.
But I say nothing. Not because he ordered it, but because I want his answer.
“I just… I didn’t want to tell you like that.”
“Tell me what?” I ask. I’m pretty sure I know exactly what he’s talking about, but I’m desperate to hear it again.
“That I love you,” he murmurs, staring at my throat as he traces patterns against it with his fingertips. “That I want you to come home with me.”
“Nate…” I whisper, covering his fingers with my own.
“Being coerced into admitting it was fucked up,” he adds. “But more than that, I wanted it to be sweet or something. Something that would make you happy.”
Nate is not a romantic, but I appreciate the sentiment anyway.
“I don’t need sweet. We’ve never done sweet. I’m more than happy just knowing you want me there. That you love me.”
He finally meets my eyes, searching them for something. “You really want to come home with me?”
“Want me to have Uncle Benji coerce the answer out of me?” I joke.
It doesn’t land. Nate glares at me, pulling me tighter against him.
“You’re a fucking brat,” he sneers.
“I know.” We watch each other for a moment longer before I add, “But I do. I do want to come home.”
A wide, satisfied grin settles over Nate’s features, and he leans in to kiss me. It’s soft and reverent, something so foreign to us that it takes me a moment to kiss him back. But as I do, he groans, low and deep.
“And… I… I love you too,” I murmur, speaking it against his lips.
I feel his breath hitch, his body stiffening briefly before relaxing completely.
“That’s good, babydoll,” he answers, just as quietly. “Everything will be fine now. You’ll heal from all of this, and I’ll help you do it.”
He’s already helping me. Between the stars that send me to sleep and his arms that keep me safe, I am healing steadily and without fear. We may not be in Port Orford, but I’m already home. As long as I’m with Nate, I’ll always be home.
A place where the darkness recedes, and I know that even if I’m hard-wired differently, I’m not broken.
And it occurs to me that just like Atlas and Julian, and Cameron and Atticus, we get our happy ending. Between the secrets and spite, after all we’ve both endured, we genuinely have each other.
I think I’m going to love this devastating defeat of mine.
I can’t believe I ever thought I could win against all that is Nathaniel Barfred.