Page 125 of Boyfriend of the Hour
I nodded. “Thanks. I have a feeling I’ll need one.”
Ten minutes later, I reemerged from my bedroom in a more, well, if not respectable, then at least more conservative set of tie-dyed purple sweatpants and a vintage I Love Lucy T-shirt. I found Nathan back on the couch, his brother sipping scotch in the armchair, and both of them half-watching a Knicks game on silent. A neatly made drink was waiting for me on the coffee table—a vodka soda, by the look of it.
I smiled. Nathan really did notice the small things.
“What are you doing here anyway?” Nathan was asking Carrick when I joined him on the couch. “Why aren’t you staying at the house in Westchester with Mom and Dad?”
He was reaching across the back of the sofa, and this time, I let my body curl into his, the way I might if he werereallymy boyfriend. His arm fell naturally over my shoulder, and his thumb brushed my neck as he played with the pieces of hair escaping from my bun.
Carrick’s eyes darted over us, appearing to take in every little detail of our ruse. He didn’t even bother to hide his surprise at the way his brother touched me. Our affection and familiarity must have been uncommon.
My heart squeezed a little at the thought. Nathan deserved affection. The idea that he hadn’t given or received much of it made me sad. And more than a little bit angry.
Carrick just made a face at us. “Mom’s on a warpath. I needed a break. At home and here.”
“Did something happen to the townhouse in Georgetown?”
Carrick took a long slug of his whiskey. “No, but she’s been following me there too. I woke up last Monday with a girl in my bed, listening to Mom making coffee while she yelled at NPR.”
I listened curiously, gathering the small facts about Nathan’s family like Easter eggs. After he’d told me a little about them, I had, like any self-respecting human being, done a Google search. And discovered that his parents weren’t just “investors,” but that his family’s overall worth was more than a hundred billion dollars. And that after a childless first marriage, Radford Hunt and his second wife, Lillian, had had three sons that, yes, he very much wanted to take over his legacy now that he was in his eighties. Specifically Nathan.
One hundred.Billion. Dollars.
It was one thing to see it on Google. It was another thing completely to fathom that my calm, unpretentious Nathan was worth that kind of dough.
Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he’d rebelled more than he let on.
It did make me feel better about accepting all the clothes, though. Talk about a drop in the freaking bucket.
Even so, it had all seemed theoretical until now, listening to Nathan and his brother talk about houses like they were pieces of plastic on a Monopoly board or couches they’d crashed on when visiting from out of town. But we also weren’t that different. They complained about their mother’s meddling the same way my siblings and I bitched about Nonna when we were teenagers. The way I still griped about my siblings even when I yearned for family dinner.
There was a pang in my chest at the idea of those dinners. I hadn’t been to Mass in weeks—hadn’t had my grandmother todrag me there. I’d barely spoken to any of my sisters besides Marie. Hadn’t even gone up to check on my nephews.
My family was messy, yeah. But they were my mess.
“You know, one day, your mom won’t be there to pester you, and then you’ll miss it,” I said before thinking. “Then where will you be?”
Both men blinked at me like they’d almost forgotten I was there. Only then did I think that maybe commenting on my fake boyfriend and his unfriendly brother’s relationship with their mother maybe wasn’t the best way to make a first impression.
Carrick gave me a hard look, then turned back to Nathan. “So, how did you love birds meet?”
I shrank into Nathan, whose hand tightened on my shoulder. We’d discussed a story, of course, but he knew I was terrible with details, and frankly, I didn’t trust myself not to screw things up. In the end, we’d basically settled on “stay as close to the truth as possible and follow Nathan’s lead” if this line of questioning happened.
Looked like that time was here.
“At a bar,” Nathan said. “Joni mixes drinks at a lounge near the hospital. I stopped in after my night shift, and we talked.”
Carrick looked dumbfounded. “Youstopped in for a drink? Andtalkedto a stranger?” He looked around the room like he thought someone might jump out from a curtain with a camera. “Who are you, and what did you do with my big brother?”
I nuzzled into Nathan. “He can be chatty under the right circumstances.”
Carrick snorted. “Like what? The end of times?”
“It was a bad night,” Nathan put in. “I’d just lost a patient. Joni helped.”
“I didn’t know that,” I murmured and reached over to pull his hand into my lap.
Vaguely, I remembered him being upset that night. Now, I was kind of annoyed I’d never thought to ask about it. Too wrapped up in my own stupid self, like Lea said.
