My mind drifted to Nate and how he promised to cook for me one night. In his house. Because that was apparently something he did. I let out a groan, realizing he probably was well aware of my lack of culinary skills. I almost didn’t want to know how good of a cook he was.
I turned off the water and scooped up the phone off the counter, bringing it back to my ear. “Sorry about that.”
“Why don’t you finish dealing with your science experiment and then come on over and I’ll cook you breakfast?” She said the words with delight, as though they weren’t a trap. If I went over there, I’d have no way to escape the questions she had about Nate.
Just as I opened my mouth to come up with some sort of excuse, my doorbell rang. Flustered, I rolled my eyes and wondered who else was trying to invade my peace on my day off.
Getting ready to tell Vic off for barging in, plus gossiping with my mother and sister, I flung the door open. But the words died on my lips.
My gaze traveled down his impressive body, taking in the tight Henley, and I wondered why he wasn’t wearing a jacket. But damn, those jeans really showcased his thighs.
A throat clearing had my gaze shooting back up to Nate’s face. His smirk nearly drove me to my knees. The amusement was clear as day; the asshole knew the effect he had on me, which made it totally unfair.
“Nate? What are you doing here?”
Was that even my voice? Why did I sound so breathless? I didn’t understand how it could make me feel that way. No one else had ever gotten to me the way he did.
His brow crinkled before he leaned in and sniffed. “Is there a fire? Is something wrong? Do I need to call 9-1-1?”
I barked out a laugh at his distress, but my hand flew to my mouth to stifle the chuckles. It wasn’t funny and I didn’t like to see him distressed or worried about me.
“No. It’s fine. I just burned my eggs.” I bit my lip and looked down at the welcome mat under his feet, not wanting to meet his eyes as I admitted that out loud, despite the fact I was pretty sure he already knew how awful I was in the kitchen.
He tutted at me with a slow smile. “Oh, little bird. What ever am I going to do with you?”
“Did you say Nate?” The words in my ear slammed me back to reality. Shit. I forgot I still had Ma on the phone.
“I’m going to have to take a raincheck, Ma.”
“Pssh. Nonsense. You bring that boy over with you for breakfast. I’ll see you in twenty.”
The line went dead and I glanced up at Nate in horror. I wasn’t sure which of us looked more uneasy at the impromptu invite to my parents’ house for Sunday breakfast, but he was definitely the first to recover.
“Apparently, I’m not the only one who had the idea of asking you to breakfast this morning?” He glanced around, unable to look me in the eye. I wasn’t sure what happened to the confident man I’d come to know, but there was definitely something spooking him.
I was pretty sure it was the wholemeeting the parents way too soonfiasco that he’d found himself in. But there was a warning bell going off in my head that was signaling danger ahead.
“You don’t have to come. Trust me, I know it’s way too soon for subjecting you to my Ma.” I let out a brittle laugh that felt too forced and by the strained smile, it wasn’t fooling him either.
Somewhere, we had taken a turn, and I wasn’t sure where things had gone off course or how to get us back on track. Or if I should evenwantto get us back on track.
A worried look flitted across his eyes as he studied my face. “What doyouwant, little bird?”
16
NATHAN
Iwalked up to the front door with a pit in my stomach. Everything about the situation waswrong. I shouldn’t have been there.
Whatever demon had possessed me to follow Aiden’s lead, I should have cast it out, hunted it down and then killed it. Because that was what I did, what I was good at. I didn’t know how to be a normal person, how to be someone’s boyfriend. I didn’t do the whole meeting the parents thing.
My footsteps faltered as Aiden took a few steps ahead of me and went to knock on the door. He turned back and looked at me with a frown. In fact, he’d been looking at me with a lot of worried glanced the whole way to his parents’ house.
I didn’t like it.
“You don’t have to be here.” His voice was soft and steady, the words laced with understanding. He knew a little about my past, what happened with my parents. I hated that he mistook my apprehension for something else, but it was less dangerous for him to think that it was an old hurt over having lost my parents so tragically.
“I drove,” I reminded him. “I would never abandon you.”
