Nate(101)

I could hear my brother-in-law’s smirk from across the ocean.

“He’s giving me the look,” Aspen said to me.

“It’s a twinkle. I twinkle.”

“It’s a look. He’s smoldering at me.”

“I think most guys smolder,” Blaise commented.

Aspen laughed but added, “Tell her you love her. It’ll be fine. And Nova was probably just picking up the tension in the house. Kids feel everything and watch everything. It’s their job. Love you, Nate. I want to be the first to know when you need help picking out the ring.”

“The ring?!”

But Aspen hung up, and I pushed that thought aside.

One thing at a time here.

First things first, clean the jar.





57





Quincey





I came out to the kitchen and found Nate and Nova not there. He left a note, but I looked at the food he’d been giving her. None of them were her favorites. They were all her least favorites, so I switched out a few and put her plate back in the fridge. He’d be able to get her to eat just fine when they came back.

Grabbing a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and a wineglass, I took it with me downstairs. There was a sitting room with patio doors that overlooked the backyard. The pool was covered by now, but the landscaping had been top-notch, and all the lights were soothing to view.

I settled in on a comfortable couch with a blanket wrapped around me. The lights were off where I was sitting as I poured myself a glass of wine.

I was a few sips in when I heard them come back.

Nate walked in. Nova’s little pitter-patter of feet. She was in the mood to run. She must’ve woken up from a small nap. She’d have so much energy now.

Nate was talking to himself, but I couldn’t make out the words.

A chink of glasses. The sound of something being scraped against a plate.

Nova’s little pitter-patter again, then silence.

Nate was chuckling.

Nova was talking up a storm. Miss Penguin. Mama. Dada. Batty.

Ass?

Had I heard that right?

Nate’s bark of laughter told me that I had.

I drank more wine. It coated my insides, relaxing me, soothing, and taking away some of the pain from before. For the next hour, I listened to them above.

Nate fed her. Did the dishes.

I could hear the water being run for her bath.

His footsteps in her room. He stayed in there a bit.

Then he was on the move.

He went… He went to my room? Then to his room.

To the kitchen.

Living room.

He went outside, crossing to the pool house. He looked inside, but the light was off, and he turned around. He was coming back around.

Maybe I moved? I didn’t intend to, but suddenly, he turned and looked right at me.

I held my breath, a shiver going through me, and my mouth went dry.

He walked to the patio doors.

I frowned, feeling a drumbeat starting inside me. Slow but strong, it was building, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what was happening.

He came in, closed the door, and moved to sit next to me on the couch. He wasn’t touching me, and he wasn’t turned to face me. He was sitting there, and he leaned back. Then he spoke to the room, “I’m someone who feels emotions. I do, but they aren’t strong. And I know that’s not normal, but that’s me. It’s just how I am. I guess. Maybe I made myself numb, or this is just how I’m built. I’m telling you this because when I do feel things, I know they’re important.” He expelled a small pocket of air. “You don’t know this, or maybe you do because of Mallone’s file, but when I was younger, my parents worried about the influence Mason would have on me. He was angry, and he had reason to be. Me, I wasn’t as angry. Not then. I was more of a go-with-the-flow kind of friend, but my parents didn’t trust me. So they shipped me off. They shipped all of us off. Myself. My sister. My brother.”

I frowned. I had read about the brother in the file, but hearing it from Nate came with more context. I wanted to hear this from him.

“It wasn’t immediate, but my parents decided they wanted to get back to making movies. We got shipped to a boarding school in Canada, and I kinda lost myself for a while. I was mad at my parents because we didn’t have a lot of problems before that. Or I didn’t think we did. Maybe we did, and they never registered with me, but they created the problem. I remember thinking that and just getting so mad because they decided who I should see or talk to or who I shouldn’t. For a year there, I could only focus on getting back to my friends. It wasn’t really just to see my friends. It was more a ‘fuck you’ to my parents. Like, you tell me who you don’t want me to see? Then that’s all I’ll go and see then.” A short laugh, one that sounded bitter, came from him. “I lost sight of my own family during those years. When I was of age, I went back to Fallen Crest, and things had changed in my friend group. The dynamics were different. I was pushed out, somewhat, and yeah… that’s who I had fought my parents so hard to get back to? I don’t know. I was angry and confused, and I didn’t know who I was mad at. Mason or my parents? I think I was just mad at myself.” A pause.

A deep breath.

He said, “And then my brother died.”