Page 29 of Love and the Laws of Motion
“If Daddy Drake is flying home, too, maybe you guys can double date tonight,” Gemma said with a smirk.
“Oh hush.This is already awkward enough.”
Livie turned to Nick to explain again.“Alex is Jess’s boyfriend, and his dad is dating her boss, the editor at the paper.”
Nick felt like he’d been dumped headfirst into the deep end of the Romano family.“Oh.That would be weird.”
“You’re telling me.”Jess rolled her eyes.“But no matter how much Dan scrambles Mariel’s hormones, she’s still going to give me grief if I’m late to the morning editorial meeting.Gotta go.Nick, nice to meet you.Even under these particular circumstances.”
“Same,” he lied.There wasnothingnice about meeting a house full of strangers with a raging hangover.
After she’d hurried out and the front door had slammed behind her, Nick’s vodka-numbed brain finally registered something from the past conversation.Dan.Drake.Acquisitions.
“Wait...DaddyDrake?”
“Dan Drake,” Livie confirmed.
“ThatDan Drake?”
“Media mogul Dan Drake?”Gemma said.“Yep.”
He looked at Livie in shock.“Your sister is dating Dan Drake’s son?”
“You know him?”
“I knowofhim.Most people do.He’s pretty well-known.You Romano girls are full of surprises.”
“And don’t you forget it,” Gemma muttered at the stove.
Livie leaned closer and murmured, “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been turned inside out and steamrollered.”Although breakfast was improving that situation marginally.Bacon was some sort of magical hangover cure, for sure.And the eggs were perfect, flecked with herbs, fluffy, and delicious.
“No, about...you know.”
“Oh, right.Poppy.”Nick dropped his eyes to the scuffed Formica tabletop as he poked at his eggs.Honestly, he’d barely begun to process what had happened yesterday.It hardly felt real.Were they really over?Forever?Or had Poppy thought things through after he didn’t come home last night and changed her mind?When he felt his pockets, his phone was missing.
“I plugged it in to charge last night.”Livie slid it across the table to him.
“You’re a lifesaver.Maybe she texted—”
She hadn’t.
There were a whole lot of texts from people about the various projects he was working on, but not a single word from her.
Guess she hadn’t changed her mind.
He put his hand over his eyes and leaned forward on the table, pushing back against the bleakness inside.
“Nick?”
Right.He wasn’t alone.
He pushed back in his chair.“Looks like I’m apartment-hunting.Fun times.”
She didn’t buy his weak attempt at a joke, and a little frown line furrowed between her eyebrows.“I’m sorry.”
He ran a hand through his hair.“It’s fine.Really.I’ll be fine.Um, I need to...”It was overwhelming.He had to find a new apartment.Even assuming he found something right away, he had to pack up all his gear and move.He could get a hotel room for a while, but that would only solve the problem of a place to crash.He’d also lost his home office, and he was in the middle of half a dozen projects on deadlines.For that, he needed his computer setup, space to work, and a better internet connection than he’d find in any hotel.
