Page 41 of Fate Forever and Always

He nodded in agreement, but his disappointed look still lingered.

We both finished getting ready. Before we headed out the door for dinner, Nick stopped me and turned me toward him.

“First of all, you look beautiful tonight.” He lifted my hand and kissed the back of it. “Second, I won’t tell you what to do or who to talk to because I have no right to do that, but I want to reiterate you can not lie to me again.” He pulled me into his chest. “And I will kill anyone who tries to hurt you…Even Jake, got it?”

His curtness turned me on. I went from thinking aww, that’s sweet to being turned on real quick. I swallowed the lump that had been forming in my throat.

“Thank you, I think,” I said with a hesitant laugh.

He smiled and didn’t say another word. He put his arm over my shoulder and guided me out the door.

Chapter seventeen

Nick

We finished dinner and made our way to the beach for a walk. I was pretty quiet the entire dinner. I know she noticed because she kept bringing up silly random things to get me to laugh or talk.

She grabbed my upper arm and leaned her head on me as we walked.

“It’s beautiful here, huh?” she said with a relaxed sigh.

I looked down at her and then back at the ocean. “Yeah, it really is. It makes our beaches at home look like swamps.”

She chuckled and shook her head, almost as if she was trying to clear a thought, then stared out in the same direction as I was.

Although we talked about it already, I still can’t get this Jake thing off my mind. When I was in the gym, I started questioning everything Callie had ever told me. I started wondering if she had lied to my face like that before. It gave me a real sense of uneasiness.

I know I acted like a jealous boyfriend. Yes, she lied, but I didn’t even give her a chance to talk to me about it. I justassumed the worst. I don’t know if she read my mind or it was just impeccable timing, but she stopped us and looked up at me.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I knew she was talking about Jake, and I knew this was her reaching out in a way, but all I could say was, “Do you?”

“Well, no…not really, but you deserve an answer as to why I lied to you. If you want, we can talk about it.”

“Sweets, you don—”

She covered my mouth, and I smiled against her hand.

“I do. Sit with me?” It was a question, not a command. She gestured to the sand, and we sat. She took off her sweater so she could sit on it instead of directly on the sand.

We sat down, and she leaned her head onto my shoulder again. I couldn’t help myself; I kissed her head before looking out in front of us. No matter how mad I was at her, it changed nothing about my true feelings for her.

“He's been calling me a few times every day,” she mumbled.

“What’s a few?” I asked.

She looked up at me and smiled. “Ten or Twenty.”

I looked at her in disbelief. “How long has he been calling that much?”

“Daily since I left.” She looked down and kicked some sand with her shoe.

Of course, I was angry that he was bothering her so much, but damn, she was distracting. “Cal—”

“I know, I know,” she said in an ashamed tone.

“Why haven’t you blocked him? What could he possibly want?”

---