Page 52 of Somewhere Only We Know
“Could they be any more obvious?” I ask. I’d be offended if Nate and I weren’t on speaking terms. Because as it stands, I’ve gotten more comfortable around him as the night has progressed. Or maybe that’s the alcohol.
“I don’t know, Bee. They might need a skywriter to spell it out,” Nate teases. “Come on, let’s go do what Bryce said and have some fun.”
“Are you a gambler?” I ask as we walk into the pit.
He shakes his head. “I can’t say I picked that up. Unless you count playing Go Fish or UNO with Kayla and bartering Oreo’s.”
“Cute.” I tell him, although I feel a bit of melancholy when he mentions the sister that I never got to meet. It’s going to be tough to move around this elephant that’s taking up space with him. It’s hard knowing that we missed out on so much. But I want to. Move past this, that is. I just haven’t told him yet.
“She was a tough opponent,” he says and our feet take us in the direction of the slot machines.
We walk down the row of machines, determined to find one that’s not occupied. I’ve never been a big Casino fan. What I’ve seen has been solely in movies or TV episodes. It seems time can pass people by the longer they sit in front of a machine and tap incessantly on a button. Luck is on our side when we turn down the next row and find an open one.Luck is not onmyside when we only see one chair in the area.
“You can sit on my lap. I won’t bite,” Nate says and there is no hiding the smile in his voice.
“Sure you won’t.” I say and follow him with my heart beating a mile a minute.
Nate takes a seat on the chair and pats his leg with a smirk, a raised eyebrow, and an unspoken dare. Shaking my head, I move to stand between his legs, his eyes meet mine like they did all of those years ago, before I turn and take a seat on his leg. His hand automatically wraps around my waist and I will myself to not turn and meet his eyes. This position is already intimate as it is and all it would take is the slight turning of my head to fuse our lips together. Add on the dim lights of the casino, save for the lit up machines, and yeah. My thoughts are running before I know I’m ready to walk.
I jolt when he moves and I have to wrap an arm around his shoulder to keep from falling. Although I know he would never let that happen.
“One dollar in and then we pull the lever. Seems easy enough,” Nate says and I barely hear him over the blood rushing through my ears. Is it from our proximity or the deep tone of his voice hitting me in the chest? I don’t know. “Ready?” He asks and taps me on the hip when I’m slow to respond.
“Yeah,” I think I tell him loud enough but I can barely hear a thing over the sound of my heart beating louder than normal.
We play the game for the next thirty minutes, or maybe it’s an hour. Time really has flown past us. I’ve gotten looser around Nate. My body has sunken into him and my hand brushes along the exposed skin of his neck. Drinks havebeen flowing since we sat down and before I know it we’re calling it quits and heading to the next spot in the casino which happens to be the bar.
“You’ve changed,” Nate notes and I turn to him with my eyebrows furrowed.
“Good change or bad change?”
“A bit of both.”
I take a sip of the margarita and look out onto the floor. “I don’t know how to get the other me back. The happy me. The fun me. The one who never second-guessed her moves.”
After Nate and Trent, my mind and who I used to be in general, went on a vacation. I used to jump into everything head first, damn the consequences. Now I do a lap, before dipping my toe in, and then taking the stairs to lower me down.
“Maybe you just need to remember what brought you joy,” Nate notes as we continue to sit at the bar.
I finish the rest of my drink and place it on the bartop behind me. “And you have a plan for that?”
He finishes his own drink and stands, holding his hand out for me. “I do. Let’s go.”
Tentatively I place my hand in his and let him pull me off the chair and he leads me to the entrance. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere only we know.” Nate says with a wink.
26
NATE
Idon’t know what prompted me to take Jax to the gardens. But in my mind, taking her places that brought her joy, the gardens, is the key to Jax becoming her again. We walk through the casino and head towards the double-doors and I brace myself for the cool Vegas night air because it’s gotten chiller the later it gets. Through the alcohol induced haze, I retrace our steps back to the Bellagio. When we stopped to watch the water and light show, I kept my wits about me and looked around. And seeing the Botanical Gardens sign felt like fate.
“Here again?” Jax asks skeptically when we get closer to the fountains.
Still holding her hand, I turn and walk backwards. “Not quite.”
Jax starts to drag her feet. “Nate, where are we going?”
