Page 52 of Never With You
“This is your fault,” he snaps as he drags himself up to his seat.
“My fault? What did I do?”
“You booked my parents on this trip without even telling me they were coming.”
“How was I supposed to know the last-minute add-ons were your parents? It was just another Farnsworth name.”
“This is worst-case scenario.” His elbows lean on the table, with his head in his hands. “What am I going to do?”
Lines pull across my forehead as I watch this dramatic display of panic.
“I don’t understand what the problem is. So what if your parents are here? You already said Pureskin hired an in-house event manager, so it’s not like future jobs are on the line.”
His head lifts to look me in the eyes. “The problem,Carly, is that I didn’t know they were going to be here.”
“I see that,Nate.” My brows drop even more. “But now you know. So deal with it.”
“I can’t just deal with it, okay?”
“I get that your dad is some intimidating, scary guy, but just stay away from him.”
“You don’t get it. I told some…” He sucks in a deep breath as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “I told some lies recently to get my parents off my back, and now there’s no way out of them.”
“You told some lies?”
He drags both hands down his face, and it’s kind of nice to see the cocky guy from work in a little bit of distress.
“I may have told my parents I had a serious girlfriend and was bringing her on the Thailand trip with me.”
I fold my arms as I lean back into my chair.
“Oh, don’t look so satisfied and smug.”
“Me? Smug?” I bite back my smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You can wipe that silly grin off your face, okay? I’m already at an all-time low.”
My shoulders drop with guilt. Nate may be my nemesis, but he’s clearly in duress, and I’m not some unfeeling ice queen. “I’m sorry.” With great care, I adjust my expression to something even and unjudgmental. “I’m sure we can figure this out. Why did you tell your parents you had a serious girlfriend coming with you on the trip?”
He blows out a breath. “My dad is always harping on me for being irresponsible and not doing all the expected things, and my little brother just got engaged to some respectable woman, and I don’t know…” His shoulders lift. “I just blurted it out. I guess I thought if I said I was close to getting married too, if I could show that I was settling down a little, he’d leave me alone for a few months. I didn’t think they’d book a flight and show up on the trip.”
“When did you tell them this?”
He shakes his head as he thinks it through. “Friday, just before I came to the restaurant to meet you.”
“I got the email Saturday morning to add them to the trip.”
“Oh, no.” Nate’s head drops into his hands again.
“It’s not that big of a deal. Just tell them that she got sick and couldn’t make it. Or she had to work last minute, or you had a huge fight and broke up. There are a million easy excuses you can throw out there to explain why she’s not here.”
“You don’t get it.” He shoots me a pointed stare. “They know I’m lying, and they came all the way across the world to catch me in my deceit.”
“They did not.”
“You don’t know my father the way I do. And let’s just pretend, for a moment, that I do use one of those excuses. They’ll instantly know I made the whole thing up, and suddenly, I’m back to being the irresponsible son that’s not going anywhere in life. At least, when I had a serious girlfriend, they thought there was hope for me. Do you know how torturous this week will be if I’m back to square oneanda known liar?”
The anxiety behind his eyes is no joke. Clearly, Nate has some serious daddy issues, which were apparent weeks ago when I sat in his office and saw how tense he was while talking about the man. But I had no clue those issues ranthisdeep.
