Page 73 of Nathan
“That’s fine, sweetie. Thank you for telling me. I’ll let your mom know when she wakes up, but you know how she is, she’ll probably want to see you to make sure you’re all right. She’s been so worried about you.”
“Tell her that it’s nothing but a black eye and a concussion.”
“Ouch, concussions are bad, pumpkin. You’ve got to take that seriously. It’s a big problem in the NFL. In fact, they just talked about it on the sports news last night. Apparently, lots of retired NFL players suffer from…”
I recognized one of my father’s long lectures coming on and wiggled my way out of it.
“Dad, you’ll have to tell me about it another time. As I said, I’m calling you from Sweden, and I want to keep it short.”
“Okay. I understand.”
“Love you, Dad.”
“I love you too, pumpkin.”
When I hung up, I saw the number of unanswered messages and calls. It made me put the phone down and push it away.
“Your dad sounds nice.”
“He’s an introverted mechanical engineer who couldn’t care less about my fame. I once invited him to the Oscars, and he said the ticket would be wasted on him.”
“Will your family be all right now?”
I wanted to say yes, but that would be lying.
“What are you not telling me?”
I spun the phone on the wooden table and kept my eyes down. “It’s just that it’s my mother and sister who might be the problem. They tend to be a little paranoid by nature, and they feed into the drama.”
“But your dad will tell them you’re okay.”
“Yes. But they’re still going to call me the minute they wake up, and they’ve already been pushing for me to come home. All those headlines about me being suicidal had them losing their minds.”
Nathan looked down and scratched his thumbnail over a spot on the table. “I don’t blame them. I freaked out myself.”
“I’m not suicidal, and these last days with you were some of the best in my life.... before this.” I pointed to my eye.
Nathan reached over the table and took my hand. “You called me your boyfriend.”
My lips lifted a little. “Isn’t that what you are?”
He stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. “Yes. It just felt good to hear you say it.”
We both leaned across the table and kissed. I kept cupping his face after our lips parted.
“Once we leave this cabin, there’s going to be a crazy world out there with people who all want a piece of us.”
“I know.”
“I wish we could stay here, but with the press knowing where we are, it’s just a matter of time before we have helicopters above us, and journalists in the driveway.”
“So, where do we go?”
“Vegas?” I grinned. “No, seriously, I think I should go home and see my mom and sister. I could take some time to relax and recover from the concussion, and then you and I can figure something out.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I never saw much of Ireland, so maybe I could take a vacation before my next project starts.”
