Page 30 of If This Was a Movie

I watch him from the doorway of the cottage, watch him close the back door, and shut off the lights inside, leaving the back porch light on low.

It’s not until I take a shower and get in bed and see a text from Jaime telling me Nate is completely spotless that I let myself pull up a calendar and discover the last time I saw Nathan Donovan was three hundred and thirty-two days ago.

TWELVE

JULES

I wake in an unfamiliar bed, and for a split second, I panic.

Where am I?

How did I get here?

And most importantly, as my hand slides across the sheets carefully, am I alone?

When I realize that the answer is, thankfully, yes, it all comes back to me.

The pipe in my place breaking.

The little girl telling me I was her Christmas wish.

Seeing Nate again.

Learning I completely misunderstood everything a year ago.

His sisters meddling, telling me to live with him. .

Nate and me making a bargain.

I’m staying in a cottage behind Nate’s house, and we’re…what? Pretending to be together for her sake? For my sake?

I have no idea what I’m doing.

What made me think this was a good idea? What made me accept his offer?

Clearly, insanity.

Clearly, I’ve lost my damn mind.

Staring at the ceiling, I decide I need coffee, an emergency FaceTime with my friends, and a lobotomy.

Not necessarily in that order, either.

I stand up, use the bathroom, then move across the tiny cottage to get my phone before I see a piece of pink construction paper that seems to have been slid under the door. The words “coffee in the house” were scribbled on it in messy boy writing with a red marker.

While a lobotomy isn’t something I’ll find in Nate’s kitchen (probably, the jury is still out on whether or not he’s an insane mass murderer), it seems I can probably count on coffee, and once it’s a reasonable hour, I can call up Ava and Harper to beg them to knock some sense into me.

With a sigh, I roll off the bed, slide a bra on under my sleep shirt (I refuse to walk around his house free boobing it), and shuffle to the bathroom, where I brush my hair and teeth before slicking on a bit of tinted lip balm on my lips. It’s a bit too early for lipstick, but I refuse to be caught completely off guard yet again with this man.

Slipping an oversized sweatshirt on and a pair of sneakers, I close the cottage door behind me and shuffle to the back door of their house, finding it unlocked. Quietly, I make my way down the completely silent hall, jumping when I see Nate sitting at the island in the kitchen, with a cup of coffee in front of him and an iPad in hand. Instantly, his head lifts, and he smiles wide at me when he sees me walk in, completely ignoring my panic.

“Hey,” he says low. It’s not a whisper, but it’s quiet in a way that makes it obvious he’s trying not to wake Sophie. My eyes flit to the over and catch the time, blinking at 6:41.

“Why are you up?” I ask in lieu of a greeting. “How long have you been up?” If you ask Ava, who would enjoy sleeping until ten every single morning, I am a morning person. But after the night I had, it feels much too early to be awake.

“About an hour. I always wake up before Soph, get some coffee, and have some alone time.” I cringe at his words before biting my lip. He wakes up early for alone time. Should I leave or?—

Before I can even find an excuse to back away, he sets his iPad down and shakes his head, standing from the kitchen island barstool and moving toward the counter behind him.

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