She didn’t wait for a reply. She knew there wouldn’t be one.
“He made up a quote just for me, and I’m going to pass this wonderful verse to you because you look like you need it right now.”
She cleared her throat.
“’In every life we have some trouble. But when you worry you make it double.’”
There was a daisy growing up through the grass beside Liberty’s legs. She picked it out of the ground and absent-mindedly began stripping it of its petals. The little white silken segments fell on to her black dress like snowflakes. She shifted her weight, brushing the flowers from her lap, tucking her legs up underneath her. The movement sent pain shooting up from her heels. Blisters were forming where her new patent shoes had been rubbing, made infinitely worse by the heat of the day.
She slipped her shoes off and tenderly poked the blisters, wincing as she did so. There was no noise except for the gentle hum of the bees, but Liberty didn’t feel the need to fill the silence. Instead, she sat enjoying the sounds, losing herself in the calm after the storm.
A weird puffing noise broke the spell. Liberty turned to Nate and saw his shoulders rising and falling. She didn’t know what to do. Normally when her friends started crying she would comfort them and give them a big hug, but Liberty wasn’t sure if Nate was one for physical contact. Plus, if she leant over now to hug him, she wasn’t sure that she’d ever want to let go. Despite everything she thought she knew about Nathanial Parker, despite the lies, there was something in his tears that was heartbreakingly honest.
She took a deep breath, and was about to go for it, when he lifted his head from his hands and looked in her direction. Quickly pulling back so he wouldn’t guess what she was about to do, Liberty noticed that his gorgeous eyes weren’t red with tears after all. In fact, they had a twinkle of laughter in them. The corner of his mouth lifted.
“You know your dad didn’t make that up, right?”
“What?” she replied.
“Your dad didn’t make that quote up for you. It’s from a song.”
Nate stood up, stretching his back. His shirt lifted a little from where it was tucked into his trousers and Liberty caught sight of his toned stomach. It was slightly unfair, seeing as he was stretching right in front of her and his bare skin was directly in her eye line. She didn’t know where to look, unable to tear her eyes away. Then, without warning, he burst into song. It was familiar, but she couldn’t place it, and the fact that he was singing at all made her head spin with confusion.
He held out his hand, and Liberty accepted it. He lifted her with ease, grabbing her around the waist as she stood. He was still singing as he swung her around in a dance that made her head soar and her feet lift off the floor in more ways than one. The more Nate sang the song, the more she recognised it as ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’, but by this time she was in hysterics.
“Seriously, how did I never see that?” she said, laughing as he twirled her around and around. “Dad tricked me into thinking he was some sort of guru.”
Nate stopped singing, and they came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the grass. He was still holding her tightly around the waist and Liberty hoped that he’d never let go. She put her head against his chest, listening to the thumping of his heart and feeling the rise and fall of his breathing. As she caught her breath, Liberty closed her eyes. She didn’t understand what was going on. She didn’t understand what she was feeling. There were still so many unanswered questions.
“Come with me?” he whispered, unlocking his arms from around her waist and taking her hands in his.
Liberty looked up at his face and frowned.
“Do you trust me?” he asked, his eyes sparkling.
14
Her skin glowed pink with the exhilaration of dancing. Nate thought she looked astonishingly beautiful when she laughed, like she didn’t have a care in the world. The gray of her eyes lit up and made them look like diamonds. He wanted to kiss her. Instead he took her hands and asked her to trust him.
“I… I… I’m not sure,” she whispered back.
And he didn’t blame her. For all that he had put her through over the last few hours, he wouldn’t trust himself either. The tightness in his chest made it difficult for him to speak, but he needed to get the words out before he lost his moment.
“Will you give me five minutes to try to change your answer?”
She looked up at him. Her cheeks were calming back to their normal creamy colour, making her lips look pinker and her eyes look darker. Nate’s stomach felt as though it was full of butterflies as he awaited her reply. He couldn’t bear the idea that she would shake her head and leave him, but he had to prepare for that reality.
She moved her head almost imperceptibly. So imperceptibly, in fact, that Nate had to check that he’d seen correctly.
“Yes?” he asked, quietly.
She nodded again, and he took his cue to move before she had a chance to change her mind. Keeping hold of just one of her hands, he led her down the path beside the motel—slowly, as he’d seen her slip off her shoes and didn’t want to be responsible for causing any more pain.
The sun had started sinking in the sky, throwing pinks and oranges onto the ocean in front of them. Nate picked his way carefully down the path until it started turning to sand. There, he took a turn to the left and started walking along the beach. Not a single soul could be seen. The sand looked as untouched by human feet as the day it was washed ashore, and they left a trail of footprints in their wake.
They made their way across the beach to a small cove, where the sand turned in on itself in a perfect circle. Nate sat down on the rocks at the very tip of the cove and gestured for Liberty to do the same. She picked a flat stone far enough from Nate that she didn’t have to touch him, and for a moment he felt sick, like he was freefalling from a great height. The pair sat for a moment, listening as the waves crashed against the sides of the cove, tumbling over each other as they vied for space.
Nate’s mind was as restless as the water. He couldn’t figure out how to say what he needed to say. It was all so confusing.
“I’m sorry,” he began, thinking that an apology was the best place to start.
Liberty didn’t say anything, she sat chewing her bottom lip.
“I’m sorry for everything. But most of all for not being honest with you from the beginning, I guess.” Nate ran his hands through his hair and stared out at the open water. “This whole day has been an absolute disaster.”
He paused.
“Except for meeting you.”
Liberty started to say something, but seemed to catch herself. He took a deep breath and carried on.
“I know. I know how awful that sounds, given the reason I’m here. But please just let me explain?”
“Why?” she blurted out, pushing herself up to her feet so fast that she kicked out a wave of sand. “I don’t even know why I followed you here. I should go.”
Nate stood too, his heart hammering.
“Please?” he said. “I think you came here because you felt something too. Earlier, in my room, at the window. You felt it too.”
Liberty turned to shoot him a look of anger, and Nate felt his throat constrict.
“If I did, then I was stupid to fall for whatever it was you were manipulating me into. You just buried your wife. And don’t give me that garbage about her not understanding you, or whatever it is that married men say to justify why they cheat. I saw the way that reporter looked at you. You’re just the same as all the other Lotharios who think they’re above human decency.”
Liberty started walking away back down the sand toward the motel.
“She wasn’t real,” Nate shouted, breaking every contract and promise he’d ever made to Tilly and Forevercom. His voice lowered, ashamed. “My wife wasn’t real.”
Liberty stopped. So did Nate’s heart. For what felt like forever she stood statue still, before finally turning back to him.
“What?” she s
aid. “I don’t understand.”
He could barely hear her over the waves. Ever so slowly he stepped toward her, not wanting to scare her away like the seagulls that scattered from the rocks.
“This is what I need to explain,” he said. “It’s not remotely like you think.” Nate was nearly beside her. “But I do need to apologize. I need to explain. I wasn’t honest from the start because I wasn’t expecting to feel this way about you, about anyone. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I thought I’d hold the pretend funeral here, get a few photos for the papers, head back to the city, and be done with Little Norwich and my fake wife forever.”
He reached out and cupped her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb. It felt cool with the spray from the ocean.
“The thought of never seeing you again, now, is devastating.”
Her hand came up to his and she shut her eyes for only a moment.
“You don’t know me, Nate,” Liberty shook her head. “And I, sure as the sun will set, don’t know you.”
Nate could feel her slipping out of his grasp.
“Then let me tell you,” he pleaded.
His hand slipped from her cheek and fell to his side. He started walking, hoping that she would join him. There was no way he could recount the last six years of his life whilst standing still. He needed the motion, the movement of walking, to free up his words.
And so they walked. Liberty a few paces behind Nate, Nate looking back every so often to check she was still with him. He told her all about his dad’s behaviour, the doubting investors, and the fake wife who helped him launch his company under a ruse of true love. He explained how, now that his business was doing so well, he didn’t need the facade anymore. He’d planned a tragic exit for his fake wife, and it was meant to happen quietly to allow him to move on when the time felt right. It was as he was telling Liberty how lonely he had been that he felt her hand slide into his.
He stopped talking, because he didn’t want to say anything that might make the moment end. With their hands entwined they walked further, the sun now just a sliver resting on the horizon. Nate felt a shiver go through Liberty’s arm and into her fingers, he gripped them tighter.
“Are you okay?” he asked, afraid of what the answer might be.
She didn’t reply immediately, and Nate felt as though his chest was going burst.
“I think we should head back in,” she said after a while. “It’s going to be pitch black out here in a few minutes, and I don’t want to end up in the water.”
That was it? That was her reply after he had just poured out his heart and soul to her? He felt as though she’d stuck a pin in him and let out what little good feeling the day had left him with. Maybe she was right, maybe he didn’t really know her at all.
She slipped her hand out of his grasp and walked back toward Pebble Cove. Further up the beach, little solar lamps shone through the darkness, and Liberty followed them. Nate walked behind, unsettled. He hadn’t wanted to follow Liberty back to the motel, but he didn’t know the area well enough to be out near the ocean in the pitch black. A cold shiver ran through his veins, reminding him of the unpredictable iciness of the water at night. Shaking it off, he increased his pace and caught up with Liberty on the path just as the lights from Pebble Cove were coming into view.
“Check out is at ten,” Liberty said. “But, given the circumstances, please don’t feel as though you have to hurry in the morning. Say the same to Tilly and your dad if they’re still here.”
Nate didn’t think either Tilly or his dad would still be here, but he didn’t want to tell Liberty that. He’d pay for their rooms even if they’d gone home. Liberty stopped by the porch, but she didn’t look at him.
“Okay,” he said. He didn’t know what else to say.
“Right, well, goodnight then,” she said. He watched as she disappeared around the side of the property to the little annex at the back.
He felt his stomach drop into his shoes as he stepped up to the porch, walking into the heat of the lobby. It was over. He’d tried. Now he just had to accept the fact she didn’t want anything to do with him. Maybe this would teach him to be truthful, no matter how difficult that may be.
Inside, the lights were dimmed, and Nate was surprised to see it was nearly eleven. He checked his messages to see that Tilly had left quite a few. His dad had taken off with his brothers, but she was staying. Nate messaged her back to say they’d leave first thing in the morning. He wanted to be up and out before Liberty made an appearance. He’d leave her a note to say thank you, then he’d put her to the back of his mind and move on with his life.
There was bound to be a pen and paper on the front desk, so he crept around the side of the stairs and behind the large table. There he spotted it, Liberty’s apron strewn on the chair. With a quick look to see if there was anyone else around, Nate picked it up and held it to his face. It smelt of flour and tarragon and her sweet vanilla perfume. It made his heart swell. He dropped the apron back to the chair, and something fell out of the front pocket.
He bent to pick up what had fallen and was faced with a pile of bills. Unpaid ones, by the look of it. He quickly stuffed them back in the pocket of the apron and fled up the stairs. He felt as though he’d broken Liberty’s trust even more by seeing the final demands. Was there nothing he could do right?
15
Liberty held it together for as long as it took her to reach the little wooden door of the annex. By the time she had unlocked it and walked over the threshold, she was sobbing. The sobs came in great gulps, her whole body wracked with each one. Tears streamed down her face as she turned and shut the door behind her.
It was a small annex, just a studio space. An open plan kitchen living room with two doors at the very back, leading to the bedroom and the bathroom. Liberty didn’t make it past the sofa. She collapsed in a heap on the soft blue velvet, enveloped by its squashy cushions—which were soon damp with her tears.
Life was so unfair sometimes. Only that morning Liberty had been in a one-sided relationship with a man who controlled her every move. Then she’d met Nate, and she’d felt so alive and exhilarated around him that she had finally realized how unbalanced her own relationship had been, and how glad she was to be free of it. Never had she imagined that she would fall for the first male she set eyes on once she was single. But she had. Totally and utterly.
Liberty had listened intently to what he had told her. She felt honored to be given an insight into his life. This person, who was from a vastly different world to her, had opened up his soul to her. But she had not been able to reciprocate. The sobs came again with this thought, harder and deeper than before. Eventually, Liberty’s body was not able to fight off sleep anymore, and she fell deep into a dreamless abyss, right there on the sofa.
“What on earth happened yesterday?”
Fred sat on the kitchen counter, chewing the end of a piece of bacon.
Liberty had emerged from her annex later than she had planned. There had been no disguising her bloodshot eyes, it was obvious to anyone who looked at her that she had spent the night crying. Luckily, Fred seemed too caught up in the events of the funeral gathering to care about Liberty’s face.
Liberty ignored his question, she didn’t want to relive what had happened. She never wanted to think about it again.
“Mr Parker in room one will probably be having breakfast later,” Liberty said, trying not to think about Nate. “I gave him a later check out time. Thought he had enough to deal with yesterday, might want a lie in.” Liberty turned and started emptying the dishwasher so that Fred wouldn’t see her eyes filling again. “Can I trust you to look after him, please?”
Fred made a noise that was undecipherable through the bacon.
“Pardon?” Liberty said, not looking up.
“No need,” Fred chewed. “Him and that prim looking woman left early this morning.”
Liberty’s head snapped up. It felt as if her face had drained of blood.
&
nbsp; “What?”
“Yep. They were up and out just as Ginge and I got here.” He pondered for a moment. “Must have been about six, half six maybe. He looked awful. Not surprising really. Did you know the gathering was for his dead wife? What a blow. He looked young, too. And the whole of social media was buzzing, his name was hashtagging all over the place. Twitter practically blew up. I think most people are defending him because of the circumstances, but I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes today. The photos are pretty unflattering.”
Fred jumped down from the kitchen counter and grabbed another slice of bacon from the baking tray on the range. It was on the tip of Liberty’s tongue to spill the secrets she’d been told, but something stopped her.
“I’ll get to work on their rooms just after I finish off the breakfast I made for them.” Fred held up the crispy bacon in his hand. “They didn’t touch it.”
“I’ll do them,” Liberty practically shouted in his face. Fred blanched. “I mean you’ve done enough already. Sorry I wasn’t up when they left. Thank you.”
She hurried out of the kitchen and up the stairs before he could argue with her. She rushed to the small stairs and on to Nate’s room. Her parents’ room. The door stood ajar, sunlight flooding through the gap, highlighting a small strip of carpeted landing. The dust sparkled prettily. Liberty ignored it all and burst into the room.
Fred was right, Nate was long gone. The bed was stripped, the dirty linen neatly folded at the foot. The closet was empty, his large carryall bag missing from the floor where he’d dropped it only 24 hours earlier. Dropped it so he could stand in the window and stare at the view that Liberty so loved. She tentatively walked to the window and looked out. She could feel his warmth and smell his scent. Tears rolled down her cheeks, splashing on the windowsill below.
He had been right. Liberty had felt something as they stood here together. That’s why she had gone to the beach with him, that’s why she had listened to him as he told her all about his pretend wife, his hurt, his loneliness. It was why she had walked away from him outside Pebble Cove last night, though she had desperately wanted to stand on her tiptoes and kiss him. It had taken all of her willpower to not react, to just leave him where he stood despite the hurt in his eyes tearing her apart. They had only just met each other, but Liberty knew he could make her happy with his smile alone.
My Bereaved Billionaire: A Clean Billionaire Romance (My Billionaire A-Z Book 2) Page 7
