Chapter 33
Nate
THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE IS
I look out the window at the trees in the distance. Sitting back in my chair with my feet on my desk, I rock back and forth. I don’t even know how. The knock at the door makes me look away from the window I’ve been staring out of for the last hour. “Nate.”
“Hey.” I lean back and look at Chloe, who comes in with Whiskey behind her. “I’m about to head out, so I thought I would make sure that Mr. Whiskey was with you.”
“Thank you,” I say as Whiskey walks over to his bed in the corner and plops down on it.
“How was the wedding?” Chloe asks me.
“Beautiful,” I tell her. “Everything went off without a hitch.”
“I’m sure Joshua was happy about that.” She laughs. “He was a bit of a mess the last time I saw him.”
“Good news is that he should be calmed down. They leave to go on their honeymoon on New Year’s Day.”
“That sounds like fun.” I nod at her as she lingers in my office. “Are you doing anything for New Year’s Eve?” she asks me and I shake my head.
“To be honest, I didn’t plan anything because of the wedding.” I fold my hands on my lap.
“If you want,” she suggests softly, “we could maybe catch dinner and a movie.”
Shit, this is about to get as awkward as it can be. “That sounds like fun,” I say with a smile, “but I’m going to have to pass. Us working together and everything, I would hate to get things crossed.” She looks down, trying to hide the rejection on her face.
“Of course, I get it.” She shrugs. “Thought I’d extend the offer.”
“Thank you for that,” I say. “Have a great night.” I cut the conversation before it gets more awkward.
“See you after the New Year, Nate.” She nods at me and turns to walk out of the office.
I look back out the window and all I can do is think about Elizabeth. The phone rings on my desk and I see it’s Jack, and I send it to voicemail. It doesn’t take much longer for him to text me.
Jack: Are you fucking screening your calls?
I laugh, knowing that he would know. He’s not only been one of my closest friends over the years, he’s been like a big brother I never had.
Me: Not screening per se.
I press send and the phone rings instead of him texting me back. I know if I don’t answer it, he’ll either come and find me or he’ll call Joshua, who will then call me or then get Zack. Needless to say, I can’t run away from it.
“Yo.” I put the phone to my ear.
“Yo yourself,” he says. “Where are you?”
“At the office. Why?”
“I just passed by the house to see you and you aren’t there.”
“I am not,” I confirm. “I came in to make sure everything was okay,” I explain, even though the minute I got in, I sat in this chair and didn’t do anything. My head was whirling after Elizabeth left.
“Funny.” I hear the car door close on his end. “I was doing the same.”
“You were checking to see how my clinic was going?” I ask him, trying to get him to divert from the real conversation he wants to have.
“Funny,” he repeats, not biting, “I was coming to see how you were doing.” His voice trails off as he starts his car. “You seemed out of it last night at dinner.”
I was out of it. It was a crazy, emotional day when she gave me a gift that means more to me than anything I’ve ever gotten in my life.
It was then and there I knew I was so madly in love with her that I would be broken once she left.
I tried to hide it, tried to bury it, but it’s bigger than even I know what to do with it. “Yeah, I’m fine, guess I’m just tired.”
“Yeah, but you looked like someone stole your dog.”
“It’s complicated,” I finally admit.
“Oh my God,” he barks and I can hear the laughter in his voice. “Are you in love with Macy, and now that she married Joshua, you came to terms she’ll never be yours?”
I can’t help the laughter that roars through me. “Yeah, that would be it.” I chuckle. “You got me.”
He laughs with me. “So you going to tell me what’s wrong, or are we going to play twenty questions?”
“That’s just wasting everyone’s time,” I huff out, and he doesn’t say a word to me. He just sits there on the phone and waits for me to give it up. “It’s…” I think about it. “Fuck!” I run my hand over my face.
“I don’t know why, but something tells me this has to do with Elizabeth and that truce you guys were talking about.”
I look out the window. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Ugh,” he groans, “I was afraid of that.”
“It’s fine,” I say softly. “It’s all good. In a week she’ll be gone and it’ll be fine.”
“You are just going to let her leave?” Jack barks out.
“What the fuck are you saying?” I sit up. “What am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know. My uncle Matthew once handcuffed my aunt Karrie to the bed when she was going to go on vacation without him.”
The gasp that comes out of me makes even Whiskey jump. “I’m not handcuffing her to bed, Jack. To some that would be considered kidnapping.”
“It was an option.”
“It was the wrong one. Can you imagine what your father would do to me if I handcuffed your sister to my bed?” I get up.
“Well, considering the two of you have hooked up, he’s going to be kicking your ass for a whole bunch of reasons.”
“He loves me like a son, he told me,” I remind him.
“Yeah, but that was before you fell in love with his daughter,” he tells me. “You can’t just let her go.”
“There is nothing I can do to stop her. I told her I was in love with her—”
“But did you ask her to stay?” he cuts me off with his question.
“No”—I shake my head—“and I’m not going to. I won’t do that to her. I won’t have her choose me or her job. I would never do that.”
“You could always leave.” I look around my office.
“I could but I’d miss your ugly face too much.” I smirk and only when he bursts out laughing do I exhale deeply. “I’m going to get going and go home.”
“I wish I had the answer for you, buddy,” he says softly.
“I wish you did too. Call you tomorrow.”
“Call me whenever. I’m here when you need me.” I close my eyes and disconnect the call, looking over at Whiskey.
“You ready to go home?” I ask him and his ears go back on his head, his eyes open, and he watches me get up. Only when I’m around my desk do his two front paws get up. He waits until I’m by the door before he saunters off of his bed. “Let’s get going.”
My stomach feels like there is a lead weight in it as we pull into the driveway. All the lights in the house off. When I enter the code and open the door, I see she’s not here. I try to fight off the pain in my chest but it’s beyond my control.
We walk in and I take off my boots while Whiskey walks to the kitchen and then comes back, looking around.
“She’s not here, buddy,” I tell him. I walk to the kitchen and go straight to the Christmas tree to turn on the lights before opening the door and letting him out while I get his dinner in his bowl.
I’m filling his water bowl when the doorbell rings.
I look over, turning the water off and drying off my hands before making my way to the door.
I don’t even check who it is before opening the door and stop when I see Elizabeth standing there.
“What are you doing?” I look at her and then look over her shoulder. “Where is your mother?”
“She left,” she tells me, her voice soft. “Can I come in?”
I shake my head, confused, and move away from the door to let her in. “Of course you can come in,” I tell her, trying to get my breathing down to normal before I start panting.
“I have to let Whiskey in,” I tell her, walking away from her instead of kissing her like I want to.
I walk away before I get down on my knees and beg her to stay with me.
I walk away before she walks up the stairs probably to pack her things.
Something I don’t think I can take right now.
I let Whiskey in and he bypasses me right away, going straight for her.
“Hello, my prince,” she coos. I slide the door closed and lock it before walking back to the kitchen, while Whiskey basks in her hugs and tries to lick her face.
I place the water bowl down next to his food and he comes over.
I stand with the island between us. It’s exactly the same position we were in this morning when I blurted out I am in love with her.
I know I shouldn’t have said anything, but I just couldn’t not say it.
It was like I told myself not to say it, but my mouth completely ignored it. “Good day?” I ask her.
“That depends.” She looks at me and I wish we would be having this conversation with me touching her. My hand on her neck so my thumb could feel her heartbeat.
“On?”
“Well, on you, really.” She gazes into my eyes and all I can do is look at her.
My eyebrows pinch together in confusion.
“You laid out a pretty big declaration this morning.” She puts her hand on the island.
I see one of them is shaking a bit and I want to hold it to make sure she’s okay.
“And then my mother sort of came in and derailed it a bit.” I swallow as I just listen to her.
“Which might have been the perfect thing.” All I can do is take a deep breath in.
“Right time, right place.” I look down and my heart feels like it’s literally going to explode in my chest. “You see, when we left here, instead of going shopping, we went to have coffee.” I look back at her.
“We had a little bit of a heart-to-heart.”
“Is that so?”
“That is so.” She smirks. “It was a good talk. You see, she asked me a question that made me violently ill.” I stand up straight, wondering if she is sick.
“Not physically, metaphorically. You see, she asked me how much I love you.” My mouth opens but not a sound comes out, not even a breath.
“Then asked me how I would feel if I stepped on that plane and walked away from you. She asked me if I loved you so much, would I be okay with you having a family with someone else.”
“Elizabeth,” I say her name, my voice cracking.
“I told her that it made me sick. Just the thought of leaving you and you loving someone else, it makes me fucking ill.” She swallows down and she lifts her hand to wipe the tear from the corner of her eye.
“So I had to make a decision.” I walk around the counter to stand in front of her, but not touching her.
“What?” I swear all I can hear at this moment is my heartbeat echoing in my ears.
“I made a decision and my mother sort of helped me with it.” She smiles and her tears start to pour down her cheeks. “Well, I made half the decision, the other half stands with you.”
“I don’t know what you are saying right now.”
“I went to see Dr. Torres,” she explains and a gasp leaves me, “we sat down and had a nice talk.” My head spins.
“I wanted to know if she would think about handing over her practice to me.” She smiles even bigger.
“She said I was the only one she would think of giving it to. Which was good since I had called the hospital and told them I would not be renewing my contract that ends in two months.”
“What?” It comes out in a whisper.
“I have to go back for two months, but that will give me enough time to pack up whatever I need to pack up and sell what I don’t want and then come back.
” She taps the counter. “Which now leads me to where the other half of my decision lies with you.” I tilt my head to the side.
“I’m going to be moving back home,” she says the words I’ve been waiting to hear for the past seven years, even if I didn’t know it, “and if it’s okay with you, I would like to move in with you. ”
“I dare you to try to stay somewhere else,” I tell her and she looks down and giggles. “Are you sure about this?”
“Am I sure I want to stay with you and I love you? One thousand percent,” she confirms and I charge her.
My arm wraps around her waist, another one gets lost in her hair.
“I love you, Nate,” she declares as I put my forehead on hers.
“I’ve loved you since I can remember.” Her hand lies on my chest. “I think I’ll love you until I breathe my last breath. ”
“You think?” I question. She smirks and looks down at her hands on me, her index finger tapping my chest.
“I know I’ll love you until I breathe my last breath,” she corrects herself. “Is that better?”
“Yeah.” I nod my head. “That’s better. Jack knows about us,” I tell her, “he told me to handcuff you to the bed to get you to stay.”
“Of course he did.” She snorts. “He’s a bit dramatic.”
“I might have given it more thought than I should have,” I admit to her, “but I shut it down. I love you, Elizabeth.”
“Is that so?” She looks up at me, her hands going from my chest to around my neck. “Are you finally going to kiss me?”
I grin. “Yeah.” I nod my head and turn it to the side. “I’m going to do more than kiss you.” My lips touch hers and her tongue slides into my mouth. “It’s always been you.” I pick her up and her legs wrap around my waist. “It’s always going to be you.”
“It better fucking always be me,” she snips at me before she kisses me and I walk up the steps with her, taking her to my bed.
* * *
If you think Christmas is crazy, find out what happens with Nate & Elizabeth on New Year’s Eve here!