Nate(62)

“Thank you,” I added, softly.

Nate still seemed torn, not knowing what to say to me.

He raked a hand over his face. “I have to admit, this is not how I thought this talk was going to go down.” His hands went to his armrests. He pushed up. “Want a drink? I’ve been tense, thinking about how to tell you this, and now I need a drink.”

I tipped my head back. “I’m good.”

He looked down at me, smiling back. “Water?”

“No, thank you. I’m good. I’ll keep you company, though.”

He went inside, and I remained, knowing this felt good.

This. Being here.

I felt like I finally had a home, and I now realized I never had one before.

And yeah. I was tired.

I rested my head down, a yawn leaving me. I was going to close my eyes, just for a bit.

Just until Nate came back…





*



I was being carried through the house.

It was the best feeling ever.

That was new to me, too.





35





Nate





The next few months went by fast.

And not a good fast. A grinding tension-filled type of fast. The bad kind of fast.

I let Logan know that Quincey was up to speed on everything, and there were meetings. There were lots and lots of meetings.

Interviews.

Every member of her family was interviewed.

Quincey herself underwent a voluntary psychological assessment, and Logan wasn’t fucking around. He got the top officials to come in for this, and just in case one opinion wasn’t enough, he had two to back it up. As he explained one time that they needed to walk into that meeting with so much against Duke Royas that everything would get tossed out in the first attempt.

He used legal jargon, but I wasn’t following. I just wanted to know our chances of getting everything thrown out. Logan responded, “We’re not going to just win. I’m hoping to do a rain dance on his ass.”

“That’s good?”

He only grunted. “Stop doubting me. I kick ass, and you know it.”

The result, we won. Kinda.

Social services needed to check out the house, do a walk-through, and it would be fine. A caseworker needed to sign off on us as well, and it was just a formality so Royas’ lawyers couldn’t come back later and claim anyone had been negligent.

It was after our last meeting as the caseworker was leaving when Quincey asked, “That’s it?”

Logan glanced over, chuckling. “That’s it.” He’d been flying back and forth the whole time. I didn’t like the reason he was here, but I enjoyed being able to see him on a regular basis again. I missed being in Boston with them all.

“We can travel with Nova? There are no restrictions on that?”

“Nope. You’re in the clear. You are Nova’s father, legit. Duke can’t come after you anymore. She’s yours.” His eyes went to Quincey. He shifted back to me, narrowing when he saw my face. “You’re thinking of visiting, aren’t you? You miss us.”

I shot him a smirk. “I think you’re the one missing me. You keep flying out here. You won’t stay away.”

I expected a smart comment back, but Logan laughed. “I do miss you. It’s not the same. I also miss being on the West Coast, too. There’s just something about this side of the world. You know?”

I did. “Mason’s team is there.”

Logan frowned at me. “I know.”

He was confused.

Hell. So was I. Why had I said that?

Quincey was giving us both a tentative and nervous smile. “I—actually—need to head in for rehearsals. Are you…” She trailed off. “You know, never mind. I’ll be back tonight.”

Logan watched her go. She was heading back in to say goodbye to Nova. Emily was here today, and then she’d head to the city.

“During all of this, she started dancing again?”

I nodded. “Yeah. She explained that it’s a new type of production. She seemed excited about it, but with her dad, we’ve not been fully focused on that. You know?”

“Dierek did sign her?”

“He did.”

Logan was still staring in the direction she’d gone before turning speculative eyes my way. “You want to fuck her, don’t you?”

“Jesus, Logan. Tact.”

I wanted to fuck her, but I wasn’t going to talk about it. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to think about it. But fuck, yeah. I wanted to pound inside of her and I wanted to do it hard. Goddamn. I wanted to do it long, and then do it again, and again. I wanted to keep going until both our legs gave out, and then I wanted to thrust back inside of her one more time.

Fuck, though. Fuck.

He looked around. “No one else is here. Are you going to fuck her?”

“She’s Nova’s mom, or the one most likely to fill that role.”

“If you’re not going to fuck her, what are you going to do when you fuck someone else?”

“Would you shut up.” It wasn’t a request.

He wasn’t fazed. “That’s an issue. If you do fuck her, and you don’t want to keep fucking her, she’s a chick. That’s going to be a problem.”