Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(105)

Footsteps approached, breaking the quiet around us. I bumped into Dr. Green, keeping close. My paranoia was at maximum. He clutched the food containers and took a step in front of me, not going too far from the door to where we could retreat.

Kota appeared around the side of the diner. He had on a green hoodie, and he looked up as he approached.

Dr. Green turned to him, holding the containers. “Oh, it’s just you,” he said. “I almost threw this at you. Wait, I thought I was taking her.”

“I’d like to bring her back with me,” he said. “If that’s okay.”

“Well,” Dr. Green said, appearing to study Kota for a moment before turning his attention to me. “I guess. That okay with you?”

Part of me was rattled through with the idea of returning to the house. Not because I didn’t trust Kota or anything like that. It was returning to the scene of what happened. However, the concerned face Kota had told me he needed me with him. “What did you tell Erica?”

“I told her we’d talk to her in the morning,” he said. “She took the day off for it. But, I kind of want you there. If that’s okay. She may have a few questions. But I made her promise to let us sleep first. Give us a chance to calm down after all this.”

“So this is it,” Dr. Green said. “We’re telling her? How much?”

Kota shrugged. “I’m going to play it by ear. She’ll want to know about why they were after Sang. After that...I might tell her about Nathan.”

“You should,” I said. I crossed my arms across my stomach, bracing against the cool air outside. “After everything Nathan has done for all of us this week, he doesn’t deserve the reputation he’s built up...and he did it to protect us.”

“You don’t know what he’s been up to,” Dr. Green said, looking down at his feet.

Puzzled, I waited for an explanation and when he didn’t come up with one, I turned to Kota. “What is he talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Kota said, an eyebrow cocked. “What are you talking about?”

“We heard about Nathan asking you to visit Lily,” Dr. Green said. He picked his head up, his expression grim. “He’s on my naughty list at the moment.”

I shared a look with Kota as we tried to figure out if he was talking about something else other than what we already knew. “You mean when Kota went to ask Lily about me?” I asked.

Dr. Green reeled is head back in surprise. “What? You know?”

“I knew a week ago,” I said. “Kota told me.”

“Yeah,” Kota said. “Wait, is that why the others were kind of off this week? And Nathan’s been keeping to himself? They found out about that?”

Were they off about Nathan? Mad at him about it? And maybe with Kota, too?

“I didn’t know she knew.” He turned to me. “Look, we didn’t like that he went behind our backs and basically asked her to break us up.”

“He didn’t ask that,” Kota said. “He asked to be sure...she was into it.” He turned to me and I nodded in confirmation. “We didn’t do it with the intention to break anyone up.”

Dr. Green juggled the containers so he could hold them under one arm. “Maybe we were more tired and angry about other things and we took it out on him. I might have hit him a few times...”

“Doc!” Kota sputtered.

“With a notebook. He could take it.”

Kota pushed a palm into his face and held. “My god...”

Dr. Green looked Kota’s way sheepishly. “I was only trying to get him to understand we don’t like feeling like you all are looking for reasons not to even try without giving it your all first. I’m all in. And I guess those of us who are in don’t understand why you’re not all in, too.”

“You can’t ask people just to be in on it,” Kota said. “Feelings don’t work like that. Not everyone is the same.” He motioned to him. “You should go see her. Nathan and I were considering long term. Future plans...”

“I was, too,” Dr. Green said.

“Maybe,” Kota said. “Not everyone was. But we didn’t understand what you all were asking us to do. I had to go see it for myself, get a grasp of what I was facing. I never knew anything about relationships like this. I had to figure it out.”

“I didn’t know what we were doing,” I said. I hated to see them struggle like this. “I’m still getting used to the idea.”

“Which is why we didn’t want Nathan prodding Lily to get to you,” Dr. Green said.

“She’s not discouraging us,” I said. “I’ve already talked to her. I’d like to go see her again. You know, when we’re not busy.” I waved a hand shortly to refocus and put us back on the main point. “But Nathan didn’t ask to break us up, he asked to make sure we were doing the right thing, that I’d be happy with it. He doesn’t deserve any of you all making him feel bad when he’s risked himself so many times trying to maintain what we have. He stepped up for us and used himself as the bad guy to protect us. Erica and Jessica had him ostracized for this long because he was willing to lie to protect every one of us from exposure.”

Dr. Green lowered his head and toed the gravel below us. “You make a good point. Once I was mad at him, I was being stubborn about it. He scared a lot of us with what he was doing.”