28. Nate
TWENTY-EIGHT
nate
“Aww, come on.”
Lucas was not shy about sharing his displeasure with the referees. We sat at the bar at KC’s watching the game, and though I wasn’t a huge Jets fans, enough people around me were that I mostly kept my mouth shut.
“How’s it going?” Owen asked me, refilling our beers. We hadn’t spoken to him much. The place was slammed. But it seemed like a new bartender had just come on to her shift, freeing the owner up a bit.
“No complaints here,” I said, amusing myself watching Lucas lose his mind.
When the new bartender, a pretty woman with long, dark hair, slapped Owen on the ass as she walked by, I took a stab at her identity.
“Your girlfriend?” I asked.
“Fiancée,” he said, smiling.
“Shut the hell up.” Lucas finally tore himself away from the game. “When did that happen?”
“When we realized we were having a baby.”
If Lucas was surprised by the fiancée announcement, the baby one really hit him. “Congratulations, man.” He reached across the bar to shake Owen’s hand. “That’s great.”
I did the same. “Congratulations.”
Owen’s girlfriend came back to him. “You told them?”
“I did.”
“Congratulations, Lusanne,” Lucas said just before cursing at the TV once again.
“Lus, this is Nate Collins, Lucas’s friend from the army. Nate, this is my fiancée, Lusanne DeLuca.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said. “And congratulations on the engagement. And the new addition.”
Her hand moved to her stomach, which didn’t show any signs of having a baby inside there just yet. “Thanks so much. We’re thrilled.”
“I bet.” Zoe and I had talked about kids a few times. We both wanted them at some point.
“Owen,” Lusanne said, “I can stay for the game but have to head to my aunt’s house for dinner after. I told her there was no way you could make it.”
“Yeah,” he said, seemingly apologetic. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“Nice to meet you,” Lusanne said, moving to the other side of the bar to take an order.
“Have you been to Grado Valley Vineyards yet?” Owen asked me.
“We have, last weekend. Hit the brewery,” I said. “I’m not much of a wine guy.”
“You and me both. Tough sell around these parts.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Then you met Lus’s family. The owners of Grado are her cousins.”
“No way? Small-town dynamics,” I said, more than familiar with everyone in a town either being related or at least knowing each other. My own wasn’t quite so small, but it wasn’t a metropolis either.
“Exactly,” he said. “So you thinking of sticking around these parts?”
That was the question of the day. “Maybe. The original plan was to head home to take over my uncle’s restaurant when I got back, but that fell through. Now with Zoe here. . .” I shrugged.
That seemed to pique Owen’s interest. “You have experience in the restaurant business?”
“Only if you count working for my uncle as a kid and a bartending gig or two before I left for the military.”
“Hmm. Interesting.”
“Why’s that?”
Owen looked as if he was about to answer when his fiancée called him to the other side of the bar. When Owen left, I turned my attention back to the game.
“They’re pathetic,” Lucas said, nodding at the TV.
I admired his ability to care. There was a time I might have said the same. Yelled at the television screen too. But now it just seemed so. . . trivial. Nothing but a game when there were still men and women out there risking themselves as we sat here. Third-world countries where mothers struggled to feed their children.
“Hey, buddy, you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said.
Lucas swiveled his stool toward me. “It gets easier. Trust me.”
“I hope so.”
My phone buzzed.
Whatcha doin’?
Lucas laughed. “Wonder who that is.”
And with that, all my attention was on my phone.
Watching the game. You?
Missing you
That’s all? Not drinking wine with the girls?
That too
What are you missing exactly?
Having you inside me.
This woman. Smiling, I gave Zoe exactly what she was looking for.
In that case, how about when we’re both done, we meet back at your place.
And?
And I pin you to the bed, my legs spreading yours with my own, my fingers working you. By the time I bury myself inside you, you’ll be begging for me. Calling my name. SCREAMING my name.
OMFG
Zoe girl.
Yes, Nate?
You are mine.
When we get home?
I think she misunderstood.
That too.
Pause.
Yes. I am yours, Nate. All yours.
“Come here.” I pulled Zoe into my side. She curled up, head on my shoulder, and not for the first time I cursed the fact that I wasn’t still staying here permanently. My call. One I’d questioned every day since making the decision.
“That was nice,” she said, tilting her face to look up at me.
“Nice? Not the word I’d use but okay.”
It was hard to imagine I’d gone so long without actually seeing Zoe’s smile in person. It was my favorite feature of hers, although fifteen-year-old Nate might disagree. But I liked to think I’d matured at least a little bit.
“Yeah, that’s probably not the best word,” she admitted. “So anyway, I wanted to tell you something that happened today.”
I pulled back to get a better look at her, not a fan of Zoe’s tone. Something was up.
“Everything alright?”
“Yes, but. . . Erik was at the winery.”
I didn’t mean to tense up. In all honesty, I wasn’t typically a jealous guy, and the last thing I wanted was for Zoe to hesitate to tell me something. And clearly, she was nervous.
“Alright,” I said as nonchalantly as possible.
“He. . .” She grimaced. “He asked to talk to me.”
Resisting the urge to tell her to spill, and quickly, I waited.
“Anyway, he sort of. . . well. . . asked to get back with me.”
What the fuck? “He’s engaged.”
“Apparently not anymore.”
I whistled. “Man, he’s slippery. Maybe the guy just wanted a bachelor party.”
Zoe laughed. “You’re not upset?”
I looked back down at her. Naked in my arms, Zoe was mine. Like I’d said earlier. No, I wasn’t upset. “I would be if you agreed to go back with him. Did you agree, Zoe? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” I teased.
“No, silly. Of course not. I told him to go pound sand.”
I raised my brows.
“Well, in not so many words.”
“Good.”
“I’m glad you aren’t upset.”
“And I’m glad you told me.”
“I’m glad you’re still naked.” Her hand slid from my waist downward.
“And I’m glad you are too,” I said. Before her hand could reach its destination, I grabbed Zoe by the waist and hauled her on top of me. She shook out her hair, lifted her chin, and smiled, knowing what was about to happen.
“You are so fucking hot, Zoe girl. Do you know that?”
“When you say it, I do.”
She knew it either way, but I wasn’t going to call her on it. Ignoring the vision of Erik that popped into my head, the one of him sitting next to me on the plane looking very much like the rich, wine-drinking doctor that he was, I reached between us to see how ready Zoe was for me.
So beautiful. And smart. And poised. The fact that she and Erik seemed like the perfect couple? Irrelevant. Did I care that he was running around Kitchi Falls wanting her back? I shouldn’t. But the truth was. . .
I did.