I roll my eyes at him, but I also smile. I look around the room for the first time since entering it. Nathan and I were so immediately wrapped up in each other that I didn’t spare a glance for the room.
In the center is an enormous bed covered in pillows that is definitely a new addition, as the rest of the room is filled with things it seems like he’s had since high school. There’s a guitar in the corner, a few posters on the walls, and a closet propped open that is stuffed with old flannel shirts and dusty boots. A twin bed would fit in better with this stuff.
“This is cute,” I tell him, holding up a Magic 8 Ball I find on his desk. “Did you ask it about your high school crush every night before bed?”
“I didn’t need to. I already knew she wanted me. Pass it to me,” he says.
I toss it over and he looks down at it and says, “Will I make Candice Wilson come three times tonight?” He shakes it and then reads, “ ‘Outlook good.’ Told you so.”
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. But seriously, why is all this stuff still here? I mean, I get it. I still have all my high school stuff, but you’ve actually gone out and done things in your life, unlike me.”
“I never cleaned my room out, and then once I started training and competing in reining, I was hardly ever here. A few years ago, I replaced all the beds in the house and gave my mom money to redo the kitchen and the living room. But I never got around to doing anything with this space.” He shrugs, like it’s nothing that he was able to do all that for his family. Like his financial support isn’t important.
A few things about who Nathan is finally click together: he’s worked so hard to collect buckle after buckle and endorsement after endorsement because it helps take care of his family. Yes, he wears thousand-dollar boots and has a collection of jeans to rival a shopping mall, but he’s clearly supportive of his family. He’s been supportive of me, too. He’s offered me help when I needed it and took me up on my crazy proposition.
“Hey Nathan?” I say quietly.
“Yeah?”
“You don’t have to uh, teach me anymore if you don’t want to. I mean, I want it to be as pleasurable for you as it is for me.”
Nathan tips his head back and laughs his great big, charming laugh. “Honey, that breath of a kiss we shared a minute ago has me hard as a rock. I’m enjoying it plenty. More than you know.”
“Well, okay,” I say. “That’s good.”
“It is,” he says. “Our rela—our arrangement suits both of us.”
His words strike me as odd, but I guess he’s right. This is an arrangement, not a relationship, and I should be happy it’s working out as well and as mess-free as it is.
“Great,” I say. “Would you mind if I took a nap in here? I’m tired from freaking out in the car. And I should call Beau.”
“Of course,” Nathan murmurs.
He dips out of the room and leaves me alone. Normally, I’d be happy to see Nathan leave a room. I’m able to think better, and more clearly, when he’s not around.
But for some reason, I feel strange. Like now that he’s gone, I don’t know what to do with myself.
24
NATHAN
By the timeCandice emerges from her nap a few hours later, my brothers are both home and everyone is packed into the eat-in kitchen.
“So you’re the sister Beau has been hiding away all these years,” my younger brother Riley asks Candice as soon as she walks into the room.
She’s washed her face and put her hair back and she looks startlingly young. Many people would be intimidated by a room full of Booth siblings, all of us tall and with even bigger personalities.
But the girl’s got a spine of steel so she says, “I wasn’t hiding away. I didn’t care about meeting any of you.”
Riley whistles and looks her up and down appreciatively.
“Stop looking at her like that,” I grit out. My younger brother is a flirt—an even worse one than I am.
“Like what?” he asks innocently.
“Like a piece of meat, Riles,” Cassandra supplies. “Candice is a guest, so stop being an ass.”
“Yeah,Riles,” Candice says, somehow knowing instantly that he hates that nickname. “I’m a guest. And if you look at me likethat again I will introduce your throat to my fist.” She gives him a cheerful smile, but her eyes are all business.
