Page 94 of Ace of Spades
All afternoon, she’d expected her phone to buzz, but it had remained silent. At the very least, he owed it to her to let her know if he’d learned anything about his mother. Maybe he wasn’t going to call after all. She should be relieved. Wasn’t that what she wanted?
No, it wasn’t.
Accepting that her phone wasn’t going to ring, she jumped in the shower. After toweling dry, she put on her comfiest yoga pants and an oversized FBI T-shirt. She poured a glass of wine and took it and her Kindle to the sofa. It was a sad state of affairs that the only romance in her life was found in a book.
She’d made it to chapter two when her doorbell rang. “You expecting company, Henry Too?” It was probably her neighbor, locked out again. It had happened so many times that she’d given Taylor a key to keep for when she needed it. On the way to the door, she scooped Mrs.Preston’s key out of the bowl. But when she looked through the peephole, it was not her elderly neighbor on the other side of the door.
“Crap,” she muttered. Of course, Nate would show up after she’d put on her ugliest nightclothes. Well, it was his fault for not calling first. She cracked open her door.
“Hey. Thought you were going to call before you came over.” It would make her happy if her heart didn’t decide that bouncing in her chest was the appropriate response at seeing him. And even worse was how her mouth watered at the sight of him wearing a button-down white shirt rolled up at the sleeves and black dress pants.
Don’t you dare drool, Taylor!
“I was afraid you’d tell me not to come over.”
There was a vulnerability there that she’d never seen before in the man standing in front of her with his hands behind his back. Her stupid heart continued acting up by going soft at the uncertainty in his eyes. Nate Gentry was never unsure of himself, but he was now.
“Can I come in?”
“Um ...” She stepped back. “Yeah, okay. Give me a few minutes to change.”And to get my heart to stop pounding.As he walked past her, still keeping his hands hidden behind his back, she caught his spicy scent and had to fight the urge to sniff him.
“You look fine. Kind of cute, really.”
She scoffed as she glanced down at herself. “Kind of cute?” Gah, she’d dripped wine down her T-shirt. “Pretty sure I have a homeless fashion thingy going on here.”
“I’d take you home with me.” He took his hands from behind his back. In one was a bouquet of wildflowers in a mason jar, and in the other an iced mocha coffee piled high with whipped cream.
“For me?” Okay, that was a stupid question.
He grinned. “No, they’re for Henry Too.”
“What’s going on, Nate?” His smile faded, and she wished she could take the question back. But not really, since she was totally confused. A man bringing a woman flowers and her favorite beverage seemed a lot like he was courting her. Courting and friends with benefits were two completely different things. Weren’t they?
“I guess I’ll drink this myself,” he said instead of answering her question.
“No way.” She grabbed the coffee from him, and while she was at it, she might as well take the flowers. It wasn’t like a man brought her a bouquet every day. Actually, it was only the third time, four if she counted Wayne Tompkins, and she definitely wasn’t. Twice from Nate, and one of her two boyfriends had given her flowers once on her birthday.
“I’ll just go put some water in this.” The mason jar was really cute. “Then I’ll go put some decent clothes on.”
“No, don’t. I should have called.”
She hated how unsure of himself he seemed tonight. That was so not Nate, and she didn’t like it. “Okay. How did it go this morning?” After filling the jar with water, she took it and her iced coffee to the living room, setting the flowers on the coffee table where she could see them. Curling up on the sofa, her legs tucked under her, she waved her hand for Nate to take a seat.
He shook a Tic Tac into his palm, then popped it into his mouth as he sat at the opposite end, angling his body to face her. “It was what Court said. She was pregnant. But all Harmon Baker did was take her to the bus station.”
As he told her what he’d learned, tears filled her eyes. All these years, he’d believed the worst of his mother, and she saw the guilt of that on his face.
“You couldn’t have known,” she said when he finished. “Considering you saw her get in that truck with him, along with the fact that until recently, you guys didn’t share with each other what you knew.”
He shook his head. “It’s like Alex said. We should have known she wouldn’t abandon us without a good reason.”
“How do all of you feel about having a sister?” That had to have come as a shock.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet for any of us. We’re trying to find them.”
Of course they were.
“We don’t even know what names they might be using.” His gaze shifted to the fish tank, then returned to her. His throat flexed as he swallowed hard. “But that’s not what I want to talk about tonight.”
