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“I didn’t want to bring you a bunch of speculation. I wanted proof first.” I twist my body around to face her. “Bentley, it’s just rumours. I haven’t found anything so far that points to a potential hit.”
“Okay,” she whispers.
“Okay?”
“Well, if there is a slight chance that what Mr Gallah says is true, there must be evidence of that somewhere. I’ll help you. If we don’t find anything, well, then, it’s just a bunch of rumours amongst rich old men who have nothing better to do with their time than gossip.”
“You are a remarkable woman, Bentley Johnson. Almost perfect. In fact, there’s only one little thing that I would change about you…”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” she questions.
“Your last name.” I smile wide at her shocked expression. “I’d replace it with mine.”
TWENTY-FIVE
My hands sweat. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I’m bringing the people I love the most in the world together. This is a good thing. I keep mentally telling myself that it will be fine.Wewill be fine. My mum and Nathan will like each other, Jules will limit her desire to embarrass me, and dinner will be great.
“I’ve never seen you so stressed. We can turn around if you’re not ready for this,” Nathan offers.
“No, it’s fine. I just… I don’t even know why I’m so nervous. I just want you guys to all get along, I guess.”
“I will be on my best behaviour, Bentley. Scout’s honour,” he says.
“Were you even a boy scout?” I ask him.
We’ve had a few conversations about our childhoods—his was the polar opposite of mine. His parents struggled with addiction. Nathan was an orphan at seventeen when his mother and father both overdosed on the same night. He was quick to shut the discussion down, not wanting to go into details. I can’t even pretend to understand the challenges he had to overcome to get to where he is today. I may have been dealt my own life-altering hand, but I always had my mum and Jules.
Nathan was alone. What he’s accomplished, he’s done it by himself. He doesn’t have to do that anymore, though, because now he has me. As this thought pops into my head, I’m questioning why I haven’t just caved and moved in with him already. I don’t want to be apart from him. That one night I spent at home this week was hell. Although the breakfast date he took me on afterwards was heaven.
“I was never a boy scout, but for you, I’ll be whatever you want me to be.” Nathan winks in my direction.
“I bet you would.” I laugh. “Just don’t listen to Jules too much. She will be going out of her way to embarrass me. Anything she tells you will be highly exaggerated or just plain fiction.”
“Noted.” He nods his head. “You know I’d still love you anyway, right? No matter what anyone else thinks, Bentley, there are two people in our relationship. You and me. And what we think is all that really matters.”
“I know. I just… I want you to like my mum. I want my mum to like you,” I tell him.
“You’re mother raisedyou. I’m sure there’s not much tonotlike. Also, it’s me. She’s going to love me. Most ladies do,” he says with a grin.
“Arrogance is not a good look on you, Mr Miller,” I tell him.
“I object. My arrogance has won me many cases.”
I shake my head and smile. He’s right. His confidence is attractive, and I’ve seen it work in meetings and depositions. He really is amazing at what he does. “So, are you going to tell me what you and the other partners have been working on in the conference room for the last few days?” I ask him.
He glances at me in his peripheral. “Work stuff,” he says, evading my question.
“Anything I can help with?”
“No.”
Okay, I guess whatever they’re all working on together is on a need-to-know basis. And I’m not someone who fits into that category. I get it. I’m a first-year. I don’t expect any kind of preferential treatment because I’m Nathan’s girlfriend.
“You don’t have to tell me what it is,” I say aloud. “But know I’m here if you do need to talk about anything. I just want to be there for you as much as you are for me,” I tell him.
Nathan is quiet as he pulls to a stop out front of my mum’s house. Turning the ignition off, he twists in his seat to face me. One of his palms cups my cheek. “You are fucking amazing, Bentley Johnson, and I love you,” he says.
“I love you too.” I smile before crashing my lips to his. “Come on. Eat quick, because I already can’t wait for you to take me home and fuck me into a coma,” I tell him.
