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And I don’t fail.
I win.
Chapter 16
Charlotte
“So, how is this supposed to go?” Nate asks, eyeing me nervously.
“What do you mean?”
“You know? This. You and me. Us. Dating.”
I ignore the unexpected warmth that spreads to my cheeks with the way he says the wordusand plant a professional, courteous smile instead.
“Well, we’re not dating, per se,” I quickly rectify. “As I said before, this is more practice than anything else. Just think of me as your stand-in for when the real thing comes along.”
“Stand-in. Right,” he grumbles despondently, throwing the ax in his hand.
I watch the blade cut through the air with such speed and force I’m surprised the chunk of wood remains intact after such a powerful impact. My brows furrow as Nate mumbles incoherently under his breath as he easily plucks the ax from its target.
“You don’t look very enthusiastic about it,” I state inquisitively.
“Can you blame me?” He scowls. “How would you feel if someone told you that you suck at something?”
“No one said you suck, Nate,” I try to deny, but we both know I’m just being polite.
Nathan Wilder might have game on the ice, but that’s where it ends.
After the disastrous date that I witnessed, I’m not one bit surprised that his past relationships have consisted mostly of one-night stands and quick hookups. His good looks alone might pique any woman’s interest, but his unpolished, brash demeanor makes it hard for him to keep their attention.
Pity though.
We’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks, but I already know that his grumpy, prickly exterior is just a front to hide the truth—Nate is an introvert by nature, which makes it very hard for him to connect and be around people for a long time.
And if I were to venture another guess, I believe Nate might be painfully shy, too.
You wouldn’t know it by the look of him, though.
Aside from his strong physique and skyscraper height, Nate just has this presence about him. He takes up all the space in a room, unintentionally drawing you in, like a moth to a flame. The perfect example of this was when we first stepped into Maury’s Ax Throwing Bar & Grill, it felt like every person here just stopped what they were doing to stare at him, completely in awe of such a force of nature. But by the way his shoulders slumped, doing his best to make himself smaller than he is, there’s no denying he hates the attention.
I can only imagine how agonizing it must be for him to always be in the public eye.
Especially since that video came out.
“I’m serious, Nate. You don’t suck,” I try again, this time meaning it wholeheartedly.
“Yeah, right,” he mumbles, head hung low. “Tell that to the five women you set me up with. I bet they beg to differ.”
“Are you always this hard on yourself?”
“When most of the city hates your guts, it’s pretty hard not to be,” he retorts with a frustrated exhale.
The highlights of Saturday’s hockey game spring forth into my mind, and I chastise myself for not being more sensitive to his plight.
Of course, he feels like everything he does isn’t good enough. And me having to help him out on something as simple as dating must be doing a real number on his already fragile self-esteem. But this won’t work if he spends most of the night in his head, wallowing in everything that has gone wrong in his life instead of focusing on what can go right.
With new resolve, I walk straight up to him, craning my neck back to look him directly in the eye and nip this pity party of his in the bud.
