Chapter 26
Rory
Asweep of electricity goes through me as I look at Nate’s outstretched hand, sending tingles all the way to the base of my spine.
Giving me a wink, Stacey picks up her drink and wanders away, and the room shrinks to just me and Nate. The air grows thick around us.
“Will you dance with me?” he asks again, the corners of his lips turning up in a smile.
It makes all the stress of talking to Yvonne fade away.
God, Nate is so handsome. I’ve gotten used to him in jeans and a T-shirt, and even seeing him in his police uniform, which is hot, of course.
But the sight of him in a button-down shirt and a suit jacket?
It makes my heart flutter in a whole different way.
His broad shoulders stretch the fabric of the jacket, and the shirt tucks in at his tapered waist. And the fact that I know exactly what’s under that outfit heats my entire body.
Tipping the glass upward, I take a large sip of my wine, the crisp taste of the riesling making its way down my throat.
It does nothing to cool the inferno raging inside me.
I set the glass on the table and place my hand in his. The heat makes its way up my arm and spreads through my body in a warm flush as Nate leads me out to the makeshift dance floor and pulls me closer.
Maybe it’s the alcohol helping this heated sensation along, now that I think about it.
Nate’s driving, though, and even if he wasn’t, we’re within walking distance of his house. If anything, what I need to worry about is the fact that I tend to overshare when I’ve been drinking.
Oversharing may be putting it mildly. The time Allie and I stole wine coolers from my parents’ fridge and drank them under the bleachers, I told her, in graphic detail, about my period and how I didn’t know that you were supposed to stick the pads to your underwear, and instead stuck one to my skin.
Pushing that less-than-stellar memory away, I lean into Nate as “Wonderful Tonight” starts to play. He spins me around, the world blurring until it’s just the two of us dancing in this space, and as the melody rises, my mind spins, too.
“You’re the one who looks wonderful tonight, Ror,” he says, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear. “I can’t believe I get to take the prettiest girl in school to the homecoming dance.”
I rest my head on his shoulder, smiling. Nate and I have been together for almost a year, and he says the same thing every time we go somewhere, whether it’s the homecoming dance, the football game, or the coffee shop.
We move around the gym floor together as the classic song’s music surrounds us.
This is the best part of high school—anything I get to do with Nate. I hope it stays like this forever.
“You okay?” Nate asks, twirling me around again.
He pulls me back against him, and the room spins for another second around me.
I give him a smile, letting him lead us around the dance floor. “The song made me think of high school. I remember dancing to the same one. It was an old one even back then.”
He laughs and pulls me closer with a hand on the small of my back. “I remember. It’s still a classic.” He pulls back just enough that I can see his face clearly, his eyes searching mine. “We had some good times back then, didn’t we?”
I nod. “We had some great times, Nate. I think about it all the time.” I swallow against the lump in my throat, and before I can hold it back, I hear the words come tumbling out of me without a filter. “Did I ruin everything back then? I know I hurt you, but…”
Our breakup set us on the courses we’ve each been on over the last decade, and it makes me wonder what life would have been like if I made a different choice.
Would my life look like this, working at Lonesome Acres and being with Nate?
I thought I moved on. I knew what I did back then, what I put him through, but before coming up here for the reunion, I figured we took different courses in our lives. That there wasn’t a way to go back and pick another path, one that would lead to where we thought we’d be.
Maybe fate has a hand in the way our lives turn out after all.
“I’ve said it before, but I’m sorry, Nate. I really am. And I probably deserve the curse or whatever I got as a result. Maybe it’s karma. That’s got to be it, right? Karma.” I’m not sure anything I’m saying makes sense to anyone but me.
Actually, I’m not sure it even makes sense to me. The alcohol is doing funny things to my brain.
Because now my brain is starting to wonder if it’s just always been him, and nothing has worked out with anyone else because I was supposed to end up back here with Nate.
My head feels heavy, all the thoughts weighing it down.
I rest it against Nate’s chest. He’s the perfect height for me, a few inches taller than he was back in high school, and now when I set my head here, his chin rests right on the top of my head, fitting together like we were meant to be, two pieces of a puzzle.
“Easy,” I mumble, because it is.
Being with Nate is easy, safe. Right.
“What’s going on in that brain of yours?” Nate asks, his lips moving against the top of my head.
If there was any question that I drank too much, all doubt has now vanished. All of this spinning is not only making me dizzy, it’s starting to border on nausea. I pull back slightly, just enough to look up into Nate’s face. And to try to stop the room from spinning.
“I wanted to be married by now.” I look past him at several of our classmates who stand in twos, clearly coupled off. “The whole family thing, you know? I think that’s why I brought Spam home. To have someone waiting for me when I got home.”
His eyes search my face, his expression serious. “That one’s easy, Rory.”
I smile and let out a short laugh, waving my hand dramatically.
“Sure it is. That’s why every single guy I’ve dated has broken up with me.
” A pang of sadness goes through me at the reminder.
“Maybe I’m just not relationship material, you know?
Or not the kind of girl that guys want to marry. Anyway, it’s fine. I’m fine.”
Nate stops moving entirely, both of us standing still in the center of the dance floor. He sets his hands on my shoulders. “You’re exactly the kind of girl that’s marriage material. You’ve always been that for me. Why do you think I had you make that pact back then?”
I swallow hard. “No one meets the love of their life in high school, Nate.”
“I did.” He brings one hand to my face, cupping my cheek with his palm, the pad of his thumb caressing my face. “It’s always been you. Always.”
I shouldn’t have had so much to drink today. My brain is fuzzy, and I can’t process his words.
Worse than that, my liquor-addled brain is starting to think this may be a good idea.
“Your birthday is tomorrow, Rory. You’ll be twenty-eight. We promised. This is our second chance.” His thumb traces a line along my jaw. “Let’s see where it can go. Because you’re it for me, babe. Forever.”
“Okay,” I whisper.
It feels so much more momentous than the soft, barely audible word.
Nate pulls me close, his fingers pressing into my back. I lean into him and inhale deeply.
Maybe it’s the scent of his cologne, or the heat of his body, or just the fact that it feels like we’re at prom all over again, and everyone knows what high schoolers do after prom.
But my nipples harden into tight peaks as they rub against his chest, and heat gathers between my legs.
Yep, I’ve definitely had too much to drink today because I’m about to climb Nate like a tree, and finally, the rational part of my brain decides to show up.
A new song starts, but I don’t wait to hear what it is before pushing back from him.
“I have to…” I’m not sure how to explain the thoughts swirling in my addled brain.
I need space. I need more of him. Most of all, I need to do something about the ache at my core, and it’s not going to happen on a dance floor, although that would give people something to talk about for the next eight years or so.
Suddenly, I’m eighteen again, the thrill of taking chances making my heart beat a little faster. “Our spot. Meet me there.”
I head for the gym doors, toward the locker room, feeling Nate’s heated gaze on me the whole way.