Nate drummed his fingers against the table while he waited for Piper to show. He hadn’t felt this nervous about seeing a girl since high school.
He had been avoiding Piper since the wedding. But that was because he knew it was going to be hard to be with her like they had been before. Except, this time, there would be even more rules. No cuddling, no hugging, no touching, and absolutely no sex.
It was going to be torture.
But Nate had made two promises to Jordan. He’d promised to take care of Piper, and he’d promised he would fix their friendship. Piper didn’t want to be with him, and while it hurt, he understood. She still loved her husband, and she didn’t have room for Nate in her life like that.
And, while he’d been fine with partial relationships in the past, he wouldn’t settle for being a consolation prize with Piper. He didn’t want her love scraps. He wanted everything. Marriage, kids…a family. Something she didn’t want. At least, not with him.
And that was why they needed to go back to being nothing more than friends. She could continue to love Jordan, and Nate would go back to meaningless sex. It was a lose-lose situation all around. But, hey, that was life, right?
A minute later, Piper breezed through the door, and his heart squeezed in his chest. This was going to be harder than he’d thought.
The real punch to the gut was seeing the smile on her face and the light in her eyes. She obviously was just fine with their breakup.
Ouch.
He stood when she approached.
“Hey, Nate.”
She leaned into him, so he quickly grabbed her hand and shook it.
No hugs.
“Hi, Piper,” he said as nonchalantly as possible. “Do you want to sit?”
She looked at him weird but said, “Yes.”
Nate pulled out her chair, helped her get situated, and then sat back in his own seat.
She cleared her throat. “First, I want to apologize to you. I said some horrible things to you.”
He had known an apology was coming because Piper had never been purposely cruel to anyone. This he had prepared for. “Thank you. And I understand you were upset. You were overwhelmed.”
“Does this mean you accept my apology?”
“Yes.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Oh, thank heavens.”
“Piper, I could never stay mad at you.”
Roll back the sap, Hall.
“That’s a relief.”
The server came over at that moment to take their drink orders. Perfect timing because it helped Nate reel in his feelings. He needed to stay strong.
He really wanted alcohol, but he had to go back to work. “Just water for me.”
“Water for me, too,” Piper said.
The server left, and she looked at Nate.
“I think we need to talk about us.”
“I agree,” Nate said. “I think it’s best that we go back to being just friends.”
Piper sat back in her chair in shock. “You do?”
“Yes. I think it’s for the best, don’t you?”
This was not how today was supposed to go. Not at all.
“So, you’re just going to go back to acting like you’ve never been inside me?”
Nate flinched, and she thought maybe she’d reached him, but then he shrugged. “I can if you can.”
Ouch.
She’d come here, so optimistic that she’d been unable to keep the grin off her face today. And, now, Nate was taking her heart and stomping on it. If he hadn’t made the statement about never staying mad at her, she would think he was being very aloof.
The server came back over at that point and asked them if they were ready to order.
“We need a couple more minutes,” she told him. She’d suddenly lost her appetite.
“Good idea,” Nate said. “I need to use the restroom real quick.”
He didn’t even wait for her response. He just got up and left. It was like he couldn’t wait to get away from her.
He’d been gone only twenty seconds when his phone buzzed. She told herself not to look at it, but it was sitting right there, face up, and she was only so strong.
It was a text.
Vanessa: Hey, Nate, now that you’re back on the market, what time are we meeting up tonight? I miss that big dick of yours. Call me.
Piper felt like she was going to puke.
Nate had already told his old fling he was single again. It hadn’t even been a week. All that talk about being in love with her hadn’t meant a thing.
Piper was staring at the table when Nate came back from the restroom.
“Piper?”
“Huh?”
“You okay?”
No.
“Sure.”
“Anyway, as I was saying, I think it’s best that we go back to being friends. Is that cool with you?”
She looked up from the table. “No.”
His brows furrowed. “No?”
Piper pushed back her chair. “No. I can’t go back to being friends with you. I’m sorry.” And, with her last ounce of strength, she got up and left the table.
Nate watched Piper walk out of the restaurant in a daze. He couldn’t believe that she didn’t even want to be his friend. Within a week, everything had gone to hell. He’d had the greatest girl in his bed, and now, she didn’t even want to be his friend.
He’d never felt more unloved in his life. Not even after he’d lost his mom.
His phone buzzed, and out of instinct, he picked it up.
Ty: So, I might have let it slip to Vanessa that you and Piper were on the outs.
Nate checked his other messages.
Vanessa: Hey, Nate, now that you’re back on the market, what time are we meeting up tonight? I miss that big dick of yours. Call me.
He groaned. He really didn’t want to deal with her right now. He should have never introduced Vanessa to Ty, and he should have never told Ty about his fight with Piper.
Nate: I told you not to tell anyone.
Ty: I thought you meant not to say anything to Ethan. Sorry, man.
Nate had meant that, too, because Ethan was dating Kayla, and Kayla was friends with Piper. But he hadn’t meant only that.
Nate took out his wallet and threw a five on the table.
He no longer felt like eating.
Piper could barely see the road through her tears. She swiped the back of her hand over her eyes as her phone rang. She took a sniffle to try to clear her nose.
Then, she picked up her cell without even looking, hoping it was Nate.
“Hello?”
“Piper?” It definitely wasn’t Nate.
“This is she.”
“Oh, good. It’s Dr. Palmer. I apologize for not getting back to you until now. I had a conference all morning.”
“That’s okay.” Piper hadn’t gone to pick up her prescription yet. And, now, with Nate screwing someone else, it wasn’t like she needed birth control anyway.
“It looks like the only thing I’m concerned about is your low iron.”
“That’s good.” At this point, she’d take any good news, no matter how minimal.
The doctor said something else, and Piper had to swerve not to hit a car. Dr. Palmer continued to speak, oblivious to Piper’s near-death experience. She quickly pulled over to the side of the road and barely managed to say good-bye before the doctor hung up.
Piper’s heart was racing from the adrenaline spike, and this time, she knew she was going to vomit.
She barely got her car door open before she threw up.
Two weeks later, on Saturday afternoon, Nate was having lunch at his parents’ house. He was sitting outside with his dad, enjoying the first day of September and the beautiful weather. His dad had steaks on the grill, and Nate’s mouth was watering. His dad had many faults, but grilling steaks was not one of them.
Nate took a sip of his beer and rested his head back against the Adirondack chair.
His dad checked
the steaks and sat down next to Nate. “So, how are things going with that backyard you’ve been working on? Piper’s backyard?”
Nate picked up his head. While he and his dad were putting in an effort toward a better father-son relationship, he still held things back. It wasn’t necessarily on purpose; it was just from years of doing it.
“Oh, um…we aren’t together anymore, so I never got to finish the project.”
“Oh,” his dad said, surprised. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Me, too.”
His dad’s surprise turned to shock. He probably hadn’t been prepared to hear Nate open up like that.
His dad cleared his throat. “What—can I ask what happened?”
Nate shrugged. Why not? “Piper wasn’t ready to move on from her husband. I told her I loved her. She didn’t feel the same. We fought. I tried to stay friends. She didn’t want to.”
“I’m sorry, Nate.”
Nate took a drink of his beer. “Me, too, Dad. But what can I do?”
His dad rubbed his chin. “Can I offer a different perspective?”
“Sure.”
“I don’t like to talk about this much, but you know I’ve been in Piper’s position before.”
Oh, yes, Nate knew that well.
“When Sofia—your mother—passed away, I was devastated. I didn’t know what to do without her. I had no idea how to take care of a five-year-old by myself. Your mother had always done everything because I worked while she stayed home. I was very fortunate that Nathan and Maria—your grandparents—stepped in to help. My parents were too far away, and I would have been lost without Sofia’s mom and dad.”
Nate shifted in his seat but didn’t say a word, for fear his father would stop.
“Looking back, I know that you felt neglected. I never meant for that to happen, Nate. I never meant to make you feel alone or like I didn’t care about you. I ignorantly thought you would be fine because Nathan and Maria took such good care of you.” His father turned to Nate. “I’m so sorry, son. I know I can never make up for what I did, but I want you to know that I have regrets. If I could do it over differently, I would.”
Nate swallowed. He actually felt a tingling behind his eyes. Besides Jordan’s death, he hadn’t cried since elementary school.
His father continued on, “I know this has nothing to do with Piper, but it’s something that I’ve needed to say to you for a long time. Tricia has been urging me to talk to you for some time, and I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t want you to push me away.”
“She has? You have?” Nate asked, surprised.
“Believe it or not, yes.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say much. Tricia told me she talked to you at the restaurant and tried to make her own peace. She knows she did you wrong, too. I’m sorry I didn’t pick a better stepmother at the time for you, and I’m sorry I didn’t stick up for you more.”
“Thank you,” Nate said with a choked-up voice.
“No, son. Thank you for giving me a second chance.” His father looked away, and Nate thought he might have glimpsed tears in his dad’s eyes. “Anyway, I felt like all that needed to be said before I gave you my advice.”
Nate smiled. “Okay,” he said with a nod.
His father took a deep breath, maybe to keep his voice from shaking. Maybe not. “As I said, when I lost Sofia, I was heartbroken. But, when I finally started to move on from my grief and met Tricia, I felt incredibly guilty.”
“Funny you should say that. That’s the very word Piper used.”
“She probably didn’t use it lightly. We’re taught from an early age that, when you get married to someone you love, you are faithful. So, when your mom died, it was very hard to think of myself as a widower. I was married, yet I wasn’t. I still loved my wife, but she wasn’t with me anymore. And it’s so different from a breakup because you didn’t leave this person, and this person didn’t leave you. Not willingly anyway. So, when I first started opening myself up to another relationship, I felt like I was cheating on her. Even when I told myself she was gone, I felt like what I was doing was wrong.”
Nate was starting to understand how hard it had been for Piper to be with him.
“To help compensate for this guilt, at first, I told myself that Tricia and I would just be friends. Of course, then I started to have feelings for her, so then I told myself it was just sex.”
Nate wrinkled his nose.
His dad laughed. “I told myself, as long as it was just friendship and sex and that I wouldn’t fall in love with Tricia, I could justify the relationship. Because falling in love would be the ultimate betrayal. See, when you’re young and you lose a spouse, you already feel guilty for being alive when your wife or husband is dead. It took me a little bit of time to forgive myself and allow myself to love again.”
Could his dad be saying what he thought? He was almost afraid to ask.
“So, are you saying that Piper loves me, and that’s why she pushed me away?”
His father shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. I wasn’t there. But I do know how she looked at you at the restaurant. And I suspect that you telling her you loved her freaked her out. Not because she doesn’t love you, but because she does.”
Nate took a long drink of his beer and sat back in his chair. “Whoa. I don’t know what to do with all this information.” He looked at his dad. “What made you finally forgive yourself?”
“Maria.” His father took a sip of his own beer.
“Abuelita? Really?”
Nate’s dad laughed. “Don’t sound so shocked. That woman missed nothing. She knew I was struggling.”
“How do I lead Piper to her own version of Abuelita?”
“That is something I can’t answer for you, son. But she went to see her mother, right? And her mother just got married?”
Nate frowned.
“She talked about it at dinner that night.”
“Oh…yeah.”
“Well, maybe her mother is her abuelita.” His father lifted his bottle to his lips again. “As long as she likes you. The mother does like you, right?”
Nate laughed. “I’m pretty sure she does.”
“Then, I’d say you’re golden, son.”
“So, why haven’t I heard from her in two weeks?”
“Maybe she’s waiting for you.”
Nate finished off his beer and thought about what his dad had said. “Maybe.” Maybe she was.
“I’d better check the steaks.”
And, with that, the conversation was over. But Nate felt lighter than he had in two weeks.
Because, now, he was filled with hope.
“Oh, and, Nate,” his father said from in front of the grill.
Nate put a hand over his eyes to shield the sun. “Yeah?”
“You ever decide to finish Piper’s backyard, you give me a call. We don’t have much time until the first snow falls if we’re going to finish.”
Nate smiled. “Will do.”
“I think I’m going to move.”
The table around Piper exploded.
“What? You can’t do that.”
“No.”
“He’s not worth it, girl.”
“But I’ll miss you.”
“Men suck.”
Piper laughed. “Whoa, whoa.” She held up her hand to get her friends to stop. “I said, I think I’m going to move. I didn’t say move away. I’ve been toying with the idea of selling my house.”
Everyone quieted.
Piper was out to eat with Simone, Kayla, Lainey, Elise, and Rachel. She had decided the best way to get over Nate was to surround herself with friends. She was getting to know Rachel through Elise, and she had introduced those two to her work friends.
“Why?”
Piper pushed her food around on her plate. “Just because.”
She got five you’re not fooling anyone looks.
“Has anyone ever told you tha
t you’re a bad liar?” Lainey asked.
Piper stuck out her tongue. “Maybe. Fine, it’s because of Nate.”
“What happened now?” Simone asked.
“Nothing. That’s the problem. Everywhere I look, I see him. And let’s not forget my backyard. Even if I hire someone to finish it, I’ll think of him every single time I’m outside.” She shook her head. “No, thank you.”
How ironic her life had turned out to be. One of the reasons she’d stayed in that house was because, after Jordan died, she didn’t have very many memories of him there. And, now, she didn’t want to live there because there were too many memories of Nate. She was already going to remember him for the rest of her life.
Speaking of which, she really needed to figure out what she was going to say to him. She’d been putting off that conversation for two weeks now.
“I can set you up with a good realtor,” Rachel said, pulling Piper from her thoughts.
Elise smacked her in the arm.
“Ow. What was that for?” Rachel asked, rubbing her arm.
“Don’t help her. She and Nate are meant to be together.”
Rachel looked at Piper and shrugged, as if to say, Sorry, I tried.
“I just said I’m thinking about it. It’s not set in stone. Let’s talk about something else.”
The conversation moved on, and there was no more mention of Nate. The rest of the evening was fun, although Elise and Kayla did make a weird trip to the restroom together. Piper hadn’t even realized they were that good of friends.
They all said good night at the restaurant. Elise was going home to Luke, Kayla had plans with Ethan, Rachel was going home to Sean, and Simone and Lainey were going out drinking. Meanwhile, Piper was going home alone.
Lainey and Simone tried to convince her to go with them, but she declined. Not only could she not go, but she also didn’t want to. She’d rather go home and go to bed.
Once she got to her house, she noted how dark it was. The days were getting shorter, and the lack of lights on looked so uninviting. She missed having Nate around. Hell, she even missed Fred. It was undeniably time to make an appointment with a therapist if she was missing Nate’s cat.
Nasty (Naughty #2) Page 21
