“Hey, you ready?” He returns, preparing to knock on the door.
“Yep.”
He knocks.
Dad pulls the door open, not a second short of Nathan knocking, seeming to be standing there already. “Good evening, you two.” He looks me over, noticing the change in clothes.
I quickly explain. “Taylor spilled her slushy on me, and I needed to change. I had to borrow an outfit from Taylor. Mom’s sleep?”
Dad nods, turning his attention back to my boyfriend. “We missed you tonight, Nathan. Taylor explained you got held up at the office?” he questions awkwardly.
“Yes, sir. Doing some work for a new building we’re opening in DC.”
“You and your father, correct?”
Nathan tenses up and there’s a falter when he answers, “No, sir. My father removed himself from my company. It’s just me for now.”
Dad nods slowly, taking it in.
“Um, Dad.” I cut in. “Are you going to invite us in to talk or make us stand outside?”
He stammers. “Oh, sorry, Ladybug.” We pass him when he steps aside. “Nathan, where’s your car?” Dad asks, closing the door behind us.
“My cousin stays a few blocks away from your house. I was coming up the sidewalk when Tracey got dropped off.”
“Well, that was good timing. You weren’t aware she hadn’t arrived yet?” Dad sits on the arm of the couch in the family room.
We follow him into the room and stand near him. “The last time I spoke with my sister, she’d insinuated she was on her way to drop off Tracey, so I assumed she was already here. I wanted to stop by to apologize to her, you, and Mrs. Warren, for missing dinner.”
“Nathan, I’ll be honest with you.” Oh crap! Dad folds his arms, eyeing us. “I have missed many dinners dealing with work. It’s terrible at the moment, but pays off in the end. Especially when you can have days off and take your family out, doing whatever they want and getting them whatever they need, or think they need.” His eyes narrow as he looks between us. “Not saying I think you two should have a family,” he hurries to add.
“We didn’t take it like that, Dad,” I say, rolling my eyes. What is with adults and this whole baby- making, starting a family thing? I have no intention of having children anytime soon.
“Just clarifying, Tracey.”
“You’re right, sir. Tracey and I aren’t ready for a family. The thought hasn’t crossed our minds.” He would know.
“I’m glad to hear it. You two have been dating for such a short time, have you introduced Tracey to your family yet?”
“Yes, sir.” I like the way Nathan uses his deep voice when he speaks to Dad. It’s stern and direct, leaving no room for question or Dad’s inquisitiveness of certainty for Nathan’s responses.
Dad’s eyes widen, and his eyebrows crease as he directs his attention to me. “And?”
“I don’t get it. And what?” I say to them.
“How do you feel about my family?” Nathan explains in a softer tone.
Dad notices and the corner of his mouth twitches.
“Oh, okay. Just say that, Dad. And is not a question.” I want my response to sound good to Dad, but I also want to be truthful with myself. “Well, I love Nathan’s family. His mother is the sweetest, and his sister is loving. What pulls me to them is that they’re all together. Like, live together and support each other. And they love each other.” Well, now they do anyway.
“All of you?” Dad asks Nathan.
“Yes, all eighteen of them,” I answer for him.
“Wow. Eighteen? How big is your house?” Dad asks in awe, nervously chuckling.
“The house is huge,” I answer. Nathan smiles, his gratification sewn in his chocolate eyes. I nod, letting him know I got it. “His family is amazing, Dad. They’re all very welcoming and are sewn together in a way that makes you want to be stitched in with them. I’d love to be a part of it one day.”
Dad’s wary gaze flicks from me to Nathan. In my peripheral vision, I see Nathan shove his thick hair back, blowing a stressed breath past his lips.
“Why don’t you two sit down?” Dad offers. We sit on the love-seat behind us, and Dad moves from the arm of the couch to sitting on it. “Now, Nathan,” he starts. “I have to be honest with you. My daughter loves you. I see it in her big brown eyes when she looks at and talks about you.” My mouth falls open. It is true, but that doesn’t mean he needs to tell Nathan that!
“If I may be honest with you, Mr. Warren, I mirror those feelings. And I would be more than honored if she chose to join my family―in the future―and my family would too. But, that is in due time, and not something we need to discuss right now. Tracey needs to finish school before we make things official, or walk down that road.”
“Okay.” Dad shifts uneasily. “That took some of my speech away. Are you in school, Nathan?”
“No sir, not currently. But I’ll be returning when Tracey goes to college.”
Dad narrows his eyes, wearing his skepticism heavily on his face. “Returning?”
“Yes, I’ve already graduated with my degrees in business. I was”―He stalls―“advanced growing up.”
Dad crosses his legs, digging into twenty-one questions. “How old are you?”
“Twenty.”
“You look older than that. When will you be twenty-one?”
Nathan rubs his hand over his beard, saying, “It’s because of the facial hair. I’ll be twenty-one in five months.”
Five months? I cannot wait to plan his birthday!
“Well, Tracey’s eighteen. That makes your relationship legal. You two share a visible affection for each other, but I don’t want you moving too fast and someone ends up getting hurt or worse. . .” Dad fixes me with an ‘I dare you’ guise. “Pregnant.”
I roll my eyes, putting my head down in my hands. “Dad, not cool.”
“I’m just having an adult conversation with two adults. Here’s why I pulled you two in here. We’re planning on moving and I wanted to get a feel for how serious this was.”
I scowl at him.
He blows off my silent resentment. “Your mother has already discussed this with you.”
“Yeah, but that conversation was void, not happening,” I say spitefully.
Nathan grabs my hand. “Just hear him out.” I take his calm and slump back on the couch.
Dad’s gaze shifts to Nathan. “Thank you.” He half-nods with a slight rise to his left brow. “Tracey, we are moving, but we are waiting until you graduate from school.”
“That’s, like, in three months,” I say high-pitched, palms up. “This is March! We graduate in June.”
“You need to find a school you want to go to or you will be a part of the move, Ladybug. You can’t stay here with Nathan. They have enough people living in their home.”
“No!” Despite Nathan’s calm, I grow more upset. “I could if I wanted to,” I say, low and aggravated.
Dad glares at me. “Excuse me, Tracey?”
Why does he want to have this conversation in front of Nathan? After the night we’ve already had, I don’t want Nathan to see me play gullible girlfriend and get all pissy at Dad for trying to steal me away.
Dad’s daring glare cuts right through me, and my next words flood out without my wanting them too. “Dad, if I wanted to move in with Nathan’s family, I could! They would accept me with open arms!”
Nathan slips his hand from mine as he scoots away from me. “Don’t, Tracey,” he utters under his breath with an edge to his voice. Not tonight, please.
“No, let her get it out.” Dad folds his arms and crosses his legs. An edgy display of comfort I’ve always hated.
By their warning glances, I reconsider my argument, and instead say, “I’d prefer if you all didn’t force me to move. It’s not just because of Nathan. Of course, I don’t want to leave him, but I want to stay here. We’ve been looking into schools. Just give me a week, and I’ll have a plan. Don’t do this. Moving in with Nathan
’s family would just be a last resort and if I wanted to. . .” Which I do, now that serial killer dad is gone. Nathan shoots me a look, and I shrug, thinking, Seriously. “I could move in with them.” I pull the card Dad will hate. “Just like Mom did with you and your family. The only difference is her family didn’t want her anymore. They moved away. And she lived with you until you two got on your feet, finished school, and got your own place.”
Dad scratches his chin and takes an exaggerated pause. “I think each of us has had a busy day and we should go to bed. Your mother and I are leaving for a couple of days, and I’m hoping I can trust you two to be responsible and not do anything I wouldn’t approve of. Nathan?” He gives him a threatening yet promising glare.
“Yes, sir. Of course.” Nathan rises. “I’ll get going, Tracey. Sorry, again, about dinner, Mr. Warren.” They shake hands and each nod once before Nathan asks me, “Can you walk me to the door?”
I avoid Dad’s stare as I pass him on our walk to the front door. That is not fair.
It’s okay, Tracey. The move is not happening today or tomorrow. We have time to figure it out. He loosely wraps his arms around me.
I hug him, and he kisses my forehead. I’ll see you upstairs.
Kay.
I close the door after watching him walk to the sidewalk.
“Tracey,” comes from behind me. “I know you think you can move in with that boy and his family, but I assure you, there will be problems.”
Before I turn around, I wipe the distress from my face. I am pretty fed up with dads for tonight. One tried to kill me, and the other wants to steal me away. I’m not winning. But I smile and say, “Okay, Dad. See you in the morning.”
“I don’t want to be the bad guy. I’m being honest and looking out for you while you’re blinded by young love.”
My foot hits the first step before I turn back around. “Dad, honest about things you don’t know. I know you think I’m just a child, talking based on drunken love and emotions, but I’m not.” Plus, I got rid of all the problems tonight. The ones lying in the house anyway.
“Tracey, I―”
“Dad. Sorry. I’m really stressed out right now. I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll talk more then.”
I run up the stairs to my room, closing and locking the door. Dad, unlike Mom, will follow me in here without knocking. I look over to the chaise at Sir Nathan, sitting there in all his goodness. I sit on my bed, and he changes my clothes, then his, and we climb beneath my sheets.
He left the window open, and I lay, taking in the fresh smell of the trees blowing in. It relaxes me. I’ve always enjoyed the fresh smell of the earth during spring’s awakening. And with Nathan here, filling me with his soothing comfort, I should be able to sleep fine. But as I close my eyes, tonight’s events come rushing back.
I open them, fearing nightmares. “Nathan, can you clear my head?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Can you?”
“Yes, Tracey. Close your eyes and sleep.”
I close my eyes, and my mind fills with trees and me walking through a green meadow with yellow and red flowers. It’s beautiful, with mountains in the distance, and the breeze blowing in from the window makes it realistic.
I tangle my fingers with his resting on my waist, and pass out in the plush grass, surrounded by colorful flowers.
I turn into Nathan’s chest, slowly waking up, indulging in his scent early this morning.
Yesterday creeps in, and it’s overwhelming, more than I’m ready to take; something I wish I could forget, but must remember forever. I stare at Nathan’s sleeping face, trying to erase the uninvited images for now.
He needs to shave; his beard’s thickening and growing down his neck. He’ll probably do that today. But the worry line that laid on his brows, is gone. He finally looks peaceful. It makes me happy, seeing him this way. I like him relaxed.
“What are you staring at, babe?”
I crinkle my nose. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“How can I sleep with the damn sun beaming through your window like that?” His eyes remain closed though his brows knit. “How do you sleep in here with that window? Why is your bed on this side?” he fires off, aggravated.
“I used to have curtains.”
Peering at me through the slits of his lids, he retorts, “Those curtains did nothing. It’s like we’re lying in an open field when the sun is at its highest. Hold the heat.”
I want to laugh, but I maintain my seriousness. “What? Do you want to rearrange my room?”
“No. I want you to come with me to my house, and we can live there for a few months.”
“A few months? Not forever?”
“We should test it out first and see how you like it. Or if you like it. If you don’t, we’ll get our own place. We’d just have a lot of visitors all the time. And Nathan, Taylor, and Justin would probably come and live with us.”
I cross my arms over his chest and rest my chin on them. This is a change for him. “You want to move away from your family?”
“No. I’m saying if you didn’t like living with my family, we could do something different.”
“Well, now that they know we’ve bonded, they’ll stop hovering over us, and we’ll have our privacy, right? Not saying we don’t get enough privacy. Anyway, I like your family, and I wouldn’t mind living with them later.”
Nathan pulls my comforter over our heads. “Why are you so accepting of us?”
“Because I love you. And whatever makes you comfortable makes me comfortable.”
He snorts. “What if I said the same thing to you?”
“We would argue over nothing, and still not come to a conclusion.”
He pries open his eyes, flicking his gaze left then right before re-closing them. “It’s no better under this blanket.”
I giggle, trying to stay quiet.
“Are we supposed to hang around with Glen and Scott today?”
“Oh yeah.” I forgot about that. “But she hasn’t called me yet to confirm.”
“Just you and I are fine. You like fish, right?”
“To look at or to eat?”
He shakes his head. “I want to take you to the aquarium. And we’ll walk under water and check out some dolphins.”
“Is that far?”
“What does it matter?”
I take in his awkwardly twisted face that relays I’ve asked a question with no answer, or the answer to the question doesn’t matter. I crinkle my nose, saying, “It doesn’t.”
“Okay. Can you turn off the sun so we can go back to sleep?”
“If I could.”
Without opening his tired eyes, he pulls me against him, throwing his arm over his face.
I kiss his shoulder and his body shudders. “Mmm, what just happened there?” I ask, smirking.
“You just happened there.” I kiss him again, and he holds me back by my shoulders. “Stop, Tracey. It’s too early for you to be playing.”
I laugh at his distorted seriousness.
My phone rings.
I climb out of bed and grab it off my dresser. “Hello?” Glen is about to go off about something at seven in the morning on a Saturday.
“Tracey, is everything okay? I was calling you all night. I heard something happened with Nathan’s family. Is he okay? Are we still going out today? Where are we going? Oh, hi!”
“Huh?” Someone knocks on my door, spiking panic in me. “Hold on.” Glen yells into the phone, and I have to hold it to my chest to muffle her shouts. “Yeah?” I yell at the door.
“Tracey, why are you up so early?” Mom’s right to check, it’s a Saturday, and I’m up before time should permit.
“Um, Glen called. I’m answering the phone.”
“Why is Glen up so early?”
“Mom, I don’t know.”
“Ladybug, we need to talk. Come downstairs when you hang up with Glen.”
“Okay.” I grumble. I bring the phone back to my ear
. “Glen, hush. Everything is fine. I’ll call you when we’re on our way over there, which will be hours from now.”
“Okay, Cey.”
“Bye.” I end the call and walk back over to my bed, dreading going downstairs. “Can we just leave for your house through the window . . . and never come back?”
Nathan sits up behind me and kisses the back of my neck. “No, Tracey. Go see what your father wants to talk about. I’ll go home for a while. When you’re ready, just call me. Smells like someone’s cooking bacon.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s not your bacon.”
“Mmm, Tracey.” He stands. “I’ll see you in a few. Go see what your parents want. Call me when you’re done. Don’t be so hard on your dad for being a dad. They’re planning a move they want you to be a part of because you’re their daughter. It’s out of love, not authority.”
I rake my fingers through my tangled hair. “I can’t deal. After last night, I’m kind of irritable.” It was way more than I’d ever expected to deal with in my life. For the first time ever, I . . . took a life. It seemed like nothing while I was in the midst of the incident, but today, it’s weighing on me. And I can’t get over seeing Nathan lifeless. I squeeze my eyes shut, blanking my mind.
“It’s okay, Tracey. I can’t lie and say it’s something you’ll get over quickly, but it’ll pass soon. I don’t want to hold you up, but I’m here for you. Call me when you’re ready for me to pick you up. We’ll cope together.”
relieved
Mom’s placed breakfast on the dining table, accompanying it with a pitcher half-full of milk and a coffee pot. I grab a piece of bacon and sit across from Dad. “Good morning.”
“Hey, Ladybug. Good sleep?”
“Good morning, honey,” Mom sings from the kitchen.
“Yes. Can we get on with this? I know you two have plans, and I would like to go back to sleep.”
Dad folds over his paper and glances up from his plate. He sets the paper on his lap and takes a sip from his coffee mug. One I got for him last Christmas that reads his favorite Bible verse, Psalm 37:4-5. “Okay, Tracey,” he says over the rim of the mug. “Last night you got pretty upset when we discussed the move. I didn’t intend to upset you.”
Plight: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Sephlem Trials Book 1) Page 32
