Page 35 of Somewhere Only We Know
New patterns, I tell myself and I blink as I lock my car doors, stepping out and rounding to the passenger side of my car.
“Hi.” I greet as I meet him at the end of my car and tuck my hand on the straps of the bag on my shoulder.
“Hey, Bee.”
God, that nickname falling from his lips. With Trent he never gave me one and I never bothered to give him one either. Because as much as I can admit it to myself, nicknames and pet names were always reserved for Nate. But maybe I was always one foot out with Trent and I just needed a reason to bring the other foot.
“What are you doing here?” I ask softly. It’s not that I hate seeing him here. But Nate disarms me in the best and worst ways. He always has. And the years between us hasn’t lessened that in the slightest.
His hands tuck back into the pocket of his hoodie and my eyes greedily follow the movements before I move back up to his face. He shrugs before looking off to the side and then back at me. “I wanted to see you.”
Yeah. He definitely disarms me in the worst way.
I shift my bag on my shoulder and move from one foot to the other. “Have you been here long?” My question must shock him because his eyes widen just slightly before he’s replying.
“About ten minutes. I rang your doorbell and only heard Sully barking.”
“And you decided to wait around?” I ask, but not in an accusatory way. Any other guy would’ve left after no response. But not Nate. He’s always been patient when it comes to me.
“Like I said. I wanted to see you. So I waited.” He tells me. One brick falls down from the simplicity of his statement.
“I was in meetings all day.” I tell him instead and move towards the front steps, but turn and look at him. “D-do you want to come inside?”
He tilts his head as he surveys me and is probably wondering if I’m joking. I’m not. But I am scared shitless about bringing him into my space and my life again.Baby steps.
“Only if you want me to.”
I nod my head and turn towards the door. I hear the clacking of nails against the floors as I push the key into the lock.
“Hi, Sully girl,” I greet when I walk inside.
She leaves me when she notices I’m not alone. I turn and bite my bottom lip to stop the smile from covering my face as she gives Nate all of her attention. When I adopted her, the shelter workers said she was fearful of men. But animals, as I’ve come to learn, are a great judge of character and with the way Sully gravitates towards Nate, that has to mean something. I slip off my heels and stifle a groan when my feet are no longer in an upright position and then set mybag on the entryway table. I head towards the kitchen, thinking I can’t handle watching the man I’ve always loved, loving on the dog who practically saved me.
Heading to my wine fridge, I pull out a bottle of red. And as I’m reaching for a glass, a whistle from Nate spooks me.
“Nice place,” he says as he continues to take in my home.
“Thank you. Do you want a glass?”
He furrows his brow and shakes his head. “No, thank you.”
Right. He’s in season.I nod and slide him one of the bottles of water I keep on my counter. I use the uncorking and pouring of my wine to avoid looking at him. When my glass is almost filled to the top I have no other reason to avoid him.
“I think I want to be friends. With you.” I tell him and I move over to the kitchen island.
He regals me with those eyes that I have purposefully avoided. “You think?”
“Yes. We were friends before, right?” Friends is such a tame word to describe how we actually were with one another.
I don’t miss the slight widening of his eyes because even Nate knows that calling us friends is too tame, but he recovers quickly.
“Yeah. Right. So, tell me, friend. What have you been up to?”
“I work with my sister on the marketing end. Plus, I dabble in the back end of her website to see where customers are clicking the most…”
His hand resting on mine stops me. “I didn’t mean about your work, Jax.”
“What do you mean?”
