Chapter 24 #3
Nate’s voice cracks each time he tries to finish that sentence.
I get it. It affected him. In so many ways.
Not only did he have to protect me in a way I know he wishes he never had to, but he lost who he thought was a best friend.
Someone he trusted. Someone I know he considered family at the time.
Nate lost a part of his youth and innocence that day, finding out just how cruel and evil the world could be. The same as I did.
Pushing up from the couch, I move to the oversized chair he’s in. Nate’s big enough to take up most of it, but I drop down beside him and wrap an arm around his.
“I know how it went that day. I understand what you lost. I even understand being taken right back there,” I tell him, dropping the side of my head to his shoulder. “But we both know that while Liam might be a lot of things, he is not that guy.”
I can hear the thick emotion in his voice as he whispers to me, “I know. But Jor—” he pauses, clearing his throat. “He’s my best friend, and I can’t… I can’t…”
“Can’t lose him like you lost Anthony,” I finish for him, knowing where he’s going with this.
I know because I feel the same way about Liam, and yet I already have. I also know that Nate won’t lose Liam because Liam isn’t Anthony. Liam is Liam, and while they may be fighting right now, it won’t always be like this for them. They’re brothers. They fight alongside each other every day.
Nate nods, scrubbing his hands over his face.
It jostles me around as I hold onto his arm, and I lean away from him, studying his profile for a moment.
All this time I was most concerned about breaking my promise to Nate, thinking that’s what would upset him the most. It never occurred to me that his fear of having to give up his best friend is what would really upset him.
Even though I saw and knew what he went through the first time.
“Nate?” I say his name in a way that doesn’t give him a choice but to look at me. When he does, I squeeze his forearm. “I’m really sorry that I broke my promise to you.”
The corners of his lips tug upwards for half a second before they fall flat again. “I know. And I’m sorry I reacted the way I did.”
“I know.”
He pulls his arm out from mine and slings it around my shoulders, pulling me in for a side hug.
I take in the love and strength from my big brother.
I’ve needed this all week. As angry and upset with him as I was, I needed him.
Before Liam, Nate was my confidant. He was the one I went to with everything, even when I was with Paul. Especially when I was with Paul.
“If I can put him back together again, do you want him?” he asks.
Pulling away, I readjust the way I’m sitting until I’m perched on the arm of the chair, facing Nate with my feet up beside his leg.
Do I want Liam? It’s a dumb question. Of course I want him.
But there’s that whole hope thing again.
I don’t want to hope and dream for a future with him if he’s going to run anytime there may be adversity.
I’m willing to be patient with him because I know he’s damn near thirty-one and has never had a real relationship, but I need him not to run.
I need him to face things with me. It’s the only way things will work.
I rest my arms over my knees and give Nate a slow nod. “But only if he’s willing to fight. For me, for himself, for us.”
Nate’s face begins to transform, a wicked smile tugging his lips upward. “Give me a few days, okay? Unless you hear from him first.”
If I was going to hear from him, I feel like I already would have, but I have no idea what’s going on with him. Besides being a mess. Whatever that entails.
“Okay,” I agree but my eyebrows pull together as I frown. “What are you going to do?”
The wheels in Nate’s head are turning. I can see them plain as day as his impish grin widens. “Wage a war.”
There’s a commotion that comes from behind Quinn’s door, causing both Nate and I to look over at it.
When nothing happens for thirty seconds, we glance at each other, curiosities piqued.
I have zero doubt that Quinn has been standing at the door listening to as much as she possibly could.
She warned us, after all. But what the clattering and banging was all about I’m not sure.
Until the door flings open revealing Quinn struggling to pull a camo-colored shirt over her head.
The shirt isn’t the only camo she’s wearing either.
She’s got a pair of baggy pants that sit low on her hips.
When she finally gets the shirt tugged down and covering most of her upper half, she grins at the two of us.
“Reporting for war, Lieutenant.” Standing at attention, she brings one hand up to her forehead, and salutes Nate. “Whatever I can do to help.”
“Quinn?” I question. “You do remember you’re the love-averse one, right?”
Putting her hands on her hips, she nods at me. “Yeah, but this side of Liam sucks. He’s so much better when he’s getting laid, and he’s even better since he started seeing the hellcat.”
It takes Nate all of two seconds to turn stark white, putting two and two together, his head swiveling from Quinn, to me, and back again. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he says, tossing his hands up as he jumps to his feet. “I don’t want to fucking know! I do not want to know!”
Quinn grins at me before she raises both hands in front of her and curls them like she’s a cat with claws. “You already know, Nate. Rawr.”