Page 11 of Operation Annulment
I try to play it cool. “What do you mean? I’m eating breakfast.”
She doesn’t buy it and launches into a spiel about how our grandmother would react to someone like Nate. It’s sobering, to say the least, but she’s not wrong.
Nan would take one look at Nate’s tattoos before writing him off entirely.
No tattoos.
No leather jackets.
No motorcycles.
No facial hair.
No nicknames.
Those have been the rules for as long as I can remember. I have always found them more than a little strange, yet I followed them regardless.
“Let’s talk about why you—the queen of self-control—were blushing and stammering like you’d never seen a man before.”
I rearrange the salt and pepper shakers as I mull her words over. “It’s stupid, but it was just nice to flirt with someone, you know? Even if said someone is the very definition of emotionally unavailable.” The lie slips easily off my tongue, but Dakota isn’t biting.
“So, you didn’t give him your number?” she asks, blue eyes narrowing in suspicion.
I turn to face the window, trying to hide the warmth in my cheeks. “It wasn’t like that. I was just saying something to get him to leave.”
She huffs out a laugh. “Puh-lease. You’re going to respond to him when he texts, aren’t you?”
I slyly hold my phone up and take a bite of bacon. “I already have.”
“Of course you did,” she says with a sigh. “Because only you can fix him, right? You’ll tame his wild heart and get him to settle down. Then, y’all will get married and have lots of babies—babies who insist on stick-on tattoos to look like Daddy.”
She laughs, but I can see Nate coming home from a long day at work and building Lego houses on the floor in the living room with the kids. I can picture him stroking my swollen belly as we lay in bed at night and squeezing my hips as I ride him, his deep voice calling out my name as he comes…
I shiver and contemplate telling him I want to meet tonight… or in the next hour if he has the time.
Screw what I said earlier, universe. I want that.
“Kate—no. Snap out of it. You’re the smart one here. I was kidding! There is no way it would play out like that. Dude is still very much hung up on his ex, and that is not what you need in your life right now. It’d be like Benjamin 2.0, except with another woman and not a man.”
“Enough, I get it,” I say, swallowing hard as she takes a proverbial pin to my balloon. “It would never work, so let’s drop it and finish eating. I’ve got my first patient in an hour, and I still need to shower.”
I wait until I’m back at my apartment before reading Nate’s text.
Nate: You’ve got yourself a deal. I should probably mention this upfront, but I’m never wrong.
Crap… I’m in big trouble.
five
COMMANDMENT #6: THOU SHALT KEEP THINE SISTER IN THE DARK
Kate
Nate: I thought we’d grab a bite at the strip club and then get matching tattoos for our date tonight. Sound good?
Igrin as I read the text before telling myself not to read too much into it.
It’s just a one-night stand.
