Page 20 of Holiday Unscripted
“Hey.” I held up one of my hands to the guys who are around us. They replied back with a chin lift instead of any verbal words. I was about to move away from Nate and head back to my friends when a guy who was walking past us was pushed into us and Nate wrapped his arm that was holding the beer around my waist and pulled me to him while he extended his other hand to protect me from anyone else that was going to bump into me.
“Watch it,” one of Nate’s friends told the guy and all I could do was look up at Nate.
“You okay?” he asked me and all the words that I learned my whole life were just stuck and jumbled in my head. The only thing that I could do was nod my head.
He smirked at me and the hold around my waist relaxed a bit but it didn’t let me go. “You want something to drink?”
“Sure,” I said and then someone called my name from across the bar, and when I looked up, it was one of the girls that I came with. “I should”—I pointed to the girl, my mouth dry—“get back to my friends.”
He looked straight into my eyes and butterflies took flight in my stomach. “Yeah, you should,” he said, bringing the beer to his lips and then his tongue came out to lick the drop of beer that was on his bottom lip. My hand itched to come up and hold his face and kiss him, but I knew that I needed to get away from him before I did something that I would forever be embarrassed about.
“I’ll see you around.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I groaned inwardly at them and he chuckled.
“Yeah,” is all he said as I slowly disengaged myself from him. I walked back to my friends and the whole time I felt like his eyes were on me. One look over my shoulder when I got to my friend proved to me that I was right.
I spent the night chatting with my friends, in between looking over to where he was, and it’s as if he knew when I was looking at him because his eyes would come to mine and we would share a look. A couple of times it was reversed, and I could feel him staring at me.
I saw him put the beer down on the bar and he got up, shaking his friends’ hands before I saw him walking over to me. My heartbeat hammered so hard, it’s a wonder that it didn’t come out of my chest. His eyes stared into mine as he made his way to me. “Do you want a lift home?” he asked when he was leaving, and I nodded my head, even though I was not ready to go. I said goodbye to the girls who all looked at me as if they knew something was up, but also knew that Nate was like a brother to me.
I smiled up at him. “Lead the way,” I said and he slid his hand into mine and pulled me with him as I followed him out.
I thought once we were outside he would let my hand go, but he didn’t; he kept it in his until we got to his truck and he unlocked the doors. “Get in, Elizabeth.” His voice was tight.
I got in and watched him walk around the front of the truck before opening his own door and getting in. He started the truck and then looked over at me. “You look really good tonight.” His voice was husky. “Actually, you look good all the time.”
“You’re one to talk.” I tried to flirt back but my flirting game was at a solid two. He reached for me at the same time I reached for him, and in the middle of the parking lot, we shared our first kiss. His tongue slid into my mouth as his hand went to the lever under his seat to push it all the way back as he pulled me into his lap. Our mouths never letting the other go as the kiss was everything that I’ve ever thought it would be and more. I shivered on top of him, and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was freezing cold outside and all I had on was a tank top and an oversized zip-up sweater. It had to do with the fact that his hands were now moving from my hips to my ass.
“Fuck,” he hissed out as my eyes slowly peeled open, “Elizabeth.”
“Nate.” I put my hands on his chest, as I felt his heart hammering as much as mine was.
“You want to come home with me?” The question was one that I thought I would never hear. It was also one that I knew the answer to without even having to think about it.
“Yes.” I said the words out loud and then I kissed him again. This time it was me who kissed him first, but it was definitely him that ended the kiss, only to put my ass back in my seat and drive us to his house.
The bathroom door is pushed opened, ripping me from the past, and Macy comes in with another one of her bridesmaids and I just smile at them. “Your performance was so good,” Macy compliments me. “Thank you for doing it for me.”
“Of course,” I reply and then shake the water off my hands, before grabbing a couple of paper towels to dry them off. I pull open the door and step back into the bar. My eyes roam over everyone, but I know I’m looking for him, even if I want to tell myself I’m not.
He and the maid of honor are exactly where they were before, this time the two of them have their heads closer to each other, and I don’t even know why but my stomach sinks. “Hey,” Jack says, walking out of the bathroom, “you okay?”
I swallow down the lump. “Yeah, just jet-lagged,” I tell him and put on a fake smile, trying not to look over at the bar.
CHAPTER 8
Nate
WINTER WONDERLAND
“You could maybe tell a couple of stories of when you were both growing up,” Belinda leans into me to say because the music is so loud. One of the ushers is with his wife, screaming into the microphone. The two of them are dressed in matching outfits so we know they’re together. “And if you have any pictures, we could maybe throw them together to do a slide show while we tell the stories.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” I tell Belinda, the maid of honor, who asked me if I wanted to make a speech with her at the wedding. We’ve been putting it together a bit while we’ve been together the last couple of weeks.
The sound of applause now fills the room, and I look over, clapping my hands with everyone else. My head starts to throb. “The next ones up are,” the emcee says, sticking her hand in the bowl and pulling out the paper, “Belinda and Jenny.”
“It’s your turn to shine,” I say. Jenny rushes over to come and grab Belinda.
“They will be singing”—the emcee smiles at the crowd—“‘Run the World (Girls).’”
