“Nice to meet you,” murmured Nathan, though he didn’t seem to think so.
I couldn’t blame him when everyone was staring at him like a bad piece of meat the butcher was trying to pass off as fresh.
“It means that every sinner gets their due in the end,” Lea clarified, instead of saying hello like a normal person. I mean, really. How anyone could look that imperious in faded skinny jeans and a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt? But that was Lea’s magic power.
“Sort of God’s way of saying ‘fuck around and find out,’” Kate added with a mischievous grin that only expanded when I shot her a glare.
Shut it, I mouthed.
Make me, she mouthed right back.
To his credit, Nathan didn’t seem to be disturbed by any of it.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said while he took the duffel bag from me. “I would have come down to help if you had called.”
“I didn’t want to bug you,” I said.
Nathan only shrugged. “I set aside my day to help. It’s no problem.”
“A true gentleman,” Kate remarked behind me.
“You can still help with the furniture, Prince Charming,” Lea called. “Mike can’t move it on his own. Now, can you let us in so we can put these things in Joni’s room and inspect the place properly?”
Looking more than overwhelmed, Nathan stepped aside to let my family in, and instinctively, I stepped with him until we were the last to enter.
“Sorry,” I said. “They’re kind of like bulldozers. It’s better not to stand in their way.”
His mouth quirked again in that way that told me he thought something was funny but wasn’t sure why. “It’s all right. I have brothers too.”
“You do?”
Huh. Nathan Hunt had brothers along with overbearing parents? The plot was certainly thickening.
“How’s your knee?” he asked as we followed my siblings back to my room. “I restocked the ibuprofen if you need it.”
Why, oh, why did a man buying me a Costco-sized container of painkillers make me blush?
“I’m all right,” I said. “It’s mostly back to normal if I’m careful. But thank you.”
We walked down the hall and into the empty bedroom, where my sisters were opening and closing closet doors while Mike inspected the windows.
I snorted. What were they planning to do? Bring me home if they found a speck of dust or a rusty hinge?
“So,you’rethe roommate,” Lea said when she emerged from the double closet on the far side of the room. “Are you gay?”
“Lea!” I gasped. “What the hell?”
Nathan looked like he’d been slapped. “What?”
“It’s fine if you are,” Kate supplied. “We just need to know what’s what between you and Joni.”
Nathan blinked and pushed his glasses up his nose. “No. I’m not.”
I wanted to squeeze his hand.
Lea looked Nathan over, clearly taking in what I and probably every other woman in New York noticed on a daily basis. The fact that the man was a legitimate fox who wore a plain pair of jeans and a T-shirt like a Calvin Klein model, even if he had no idea. I knew where she was going with this. If he was gay, it was one thing for me to be living here. But if he was straight, there was only one reason for it in her mind.
Maybe he’d say he was pan and really mess with her.
