Page 34 of Romancing the Grump
I shove three M&Ms into my mouth at once, finishing them off. “In some ways,” I say through a mouthful of chocolate. Thiscan’tbe attractive, but if I feel repulsive, maybe I’ll stop thinking so manynotrepulsive thoughts. “We like a lot of the same things, but Lucy’s a little gentler than I am. I’m older by seven minutes, and I’ve always been slightly bossier, a little more willing to be confrontational. She’s great with people, though. Her emotional intelligence is really high, which is usually amazing but sometimes annoying because she tends to recognize how I feel about stuff before I do.”
“She’s not in Harvest Hollow, right? Is she close?”
A twinge of sadness fills my chest as I shake my head. “She’s down in Silver Creek. Which isn’t that far. I can be at her front door in less than two hours. But it feels far. What about you? Do you have siblings?”
He nods. “Two. A younger sister, Cassie. She’s married and has two daughters. And a little brother—Blake.”
“Are you close?”
“As close as we can be. Cassie lives in Portland where we grew up and Blake is in Boston, so I don’t see them as much as I’d like. But we do all right.”
“Do you like being an uncle?”
Nathan’s expression shifts in a way that makes warmth surge through my body. “It’s great,” he says. “Her girls are hilarious.” He pulls out his phone and scrolls to a picture, handing it over like only a doting uncle can. “Allie and Caroline. Allie is the oldest, and she just turned four. She has cerebral palsy, but she doesn’t let it slow her down. I can’t get enough of that kid. For being so little, she has this weirdly spot-on comedic timing that I love. Then there’s Caroline. She’s almost two and is just as sweet as she looks.”
I hand the phone back, my heart feeling a little too big for my chest. “They seem really great.”
“They are. And Cassie too. Our mom lives with her and her husband. I’m glad about that. Since I can’t be closer.”
I breathe out a sigh. “I hate living away from my family. Especially Lucy. The only other time we’ve ever lived apart was in college.”
“Which is where you met Gracie, right?”
“Yes! Love her. She was my roommate freshman year.”
“She seems good for Felix,” Nathan says, almost begrudgingly, and I immediately think of our conversation at dinner.
“Sheisgood for Felix,” I say. “Is that hard for you to admit, Mr. No-Relationships?”
He meets my gaze, his expression serious. “No. I’m happy he’s happy. He can do whatever he wants. I just…don’t want to take the same risk.”
The same disappointment from earlier pings around in my chest, but confusion is close on its heels because I have a very hard time understanding why anyone would be against relationships. Maybe I’m too optimistic because my parents are still in love—that, and I grew up on a steady diet of romantic comedies in both book and movie format. Not to mention the insanely epic love story I just saw play out in my sister Audrey’s life. The way she fell in love with Flint Hawthorne reallycouldbe turned into a movie—and Flint could star as himself.
Even though my own dating life has been less than stellar—I’ve had a long string of first dates that ended up being last dates over the past few years—I’ve never given up hope.
I will meet someone. And when I do, we will fall in love and make each other happy, and life will be better because of it.
It’s totally fine if other people feel differently. Happiness doesn’t have to look the same for everyone.
But I do wish Nathan’s idea of happiness looked a little more like mine.
I clear my throat. “So!” I say a little too brightly. “You wanted to ask me something about your brother?”
Nathan’s expression immediately sobers, and he runs a hand across his beard, his whole body tensing.
“You worked for the DA, right?” he says.
When I nod, Nathan launches into a somewhat disjointed story about his younger brother. With a few clarifying questions, I’m able to piece things together. Basically, his brotherBlake is on scholarship at a fancy prep school in Boston and was out, on a Friday night, with some older guys from the team. They broke into someone’s house to steal booze and cash, but Blake was tasked with staying in the car. The getaway car, apparently, but Blake didn’t know what was happening until it was too late.
“I guess these other kids,” Nathan says, “their parents have a lot of money and there’s some big attorney working for them. But—Blake’s the scholarship kid. No one’s really trying to stand up for him.”
“What about Blake’s attorney?”
“His name is Justin Wilkes. I’ve been trying to reach him the past couple of weeks, but he keeps dodging my calls. The one time we actually spoke, he didn’t seem all that interested in helping Blake.”
I pull my feet up onto the bed and tuck them under me. “Is he someone you hired? Or a public defender?”
“The court appointed him,” Nathan says. “I thought about trying to find him someone else, but short of just picking a random name off the internet, I didn’t really know where to start.”
