Page 61 of Win You Over
I startle when the patio door opens and Nadine steps out, dressed in pink tartan pjs.
“Can’t sleep?” she asks as she takes a seat next to me, mirroring my position.
I shake my head.
“Me either.” She looks out to the horizon, where the sky is waking up, turning the same shade of blue as the sea.
Blowing out a lungful of air, I clear my throat, then turn to face Nadine.
“Are you nervous?” I mumble, forcing myself to keep eye contact with her.
Nadine smiles.
“About the wedding?”
I nod.
“No. The wedding will be fine. It’s the marriage I’m nervous about.”
She rests her head on my shoulder, the move making me tense for a moment. Outside of Theo, and now Remi, I don’t have any friendships where people are affectionate with me – not in the way that seems to come so easily to the Langfords. And whenNadine’s soft hair brushes my cheek, and she sighs loudly, my body relaxes against the sofa, realising how nice this connection is, how amazing it is to have one more person in my life who makes me feel comfortable. If I’d have had someone like Nadine in my corner, maybe I would have felt less alone growing up.
“Why?” I ask in a whisper.
“Because what if I’m not very good at it?”
I laugh, then place a hand on her knee. She’s just like her brother. These Langford kids need to learn that you cannot excel at everything. You can be mediocre, you can exist without people liking you, you can fail and still survive.
Not that I think she won’t be a great wife. I’ve seen her and Rupert together these past few days and they are the picture perfect image of love and respect.
“Cold feet,” I say in reply.
Nadine chuckles. “Yeah, you’re right, that’s all this is. I’ll be a fucking incredible wife.”
God, two peas in a pod, the Langford siblings.
Nadine turns my arm over, tracing a finger over a heart drawn on my forearm.
“He is determined to mark you, isn’t he?”
I follow the path of her finger, taking in the tiny yellow, blue and black hearts on my skin. He’s been drawing them on my body every day since that night I finally let him see all of me. Those, along with the teeth marks on my thighs and the purple love bites on my hips, are the scrapbook of our time together this summer.
Her finger stops at an indecipherable image in the fold of my arm.
“What is this?”
“A bee.”
Nadine sits up, scrunching her eyes to get a better look before belting out a laugh.
“It looks like a flying cookie! Oh my gosh, do not let him convince you to get this as a tattoo.” She covers her mouth with a hand, then places her head back on my shoulder.
“Hey Holden.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t break his heart, okay?”
I shake my head, watching as a gecko flits along the wall leading down to the pool. I’m certain he’d break mine long before I could his.
