“Woah, woah, woah,” Nate responded, standing and gripping my shoulders to halt my marching. “You’ve got this all wrong. I want to live here, Alex. I want my girls to grow up the same way you did. And if your father isn’t able to sell me any land, then I’ll look elsewhere. It’s not a big deal.”
I shrugged out of his hold and wrapped my arms around my waist.
“And to your other comment, I’m not throwing around money. I’m investing in my daughters’ future. Think of it that way.”
Damn, why’d he have to be gorgeous and intelligent?
Nate stared at me, his arms hanging limply at his sides as his eyes held mine. “You don’t like me very much, do you?”
Swallowing against the lump in my throat, I replied, “I like you just fine.”
“Could have fooled me.”
Like a petulant teen, I rolled my eyes and moved back toward the door of the bedroom, then opened it wide, silently gesturing for him to leave. “If you want to use the shed out back, it should be fine.”
“Alex,” he said, pleading with me.
“I’ll make sure breakfast is served by nine tomorrow morning.”
Nate licked his full lips and then blew out a deep breath, then left the room wordlessly and without a backward glance. I watched as he bypassed the door to his room and made a left toward the stairs, descending to the first floor. It was still too early in the evening for either of us to go to sleep, but I was going to have to steer clear of the kitchen tonight.
The moment the stairs creaked beneath his feet, I closed my bedroom door and dove for my phone. At first, I thought about calling Tami, but I never knew when she was sleeping or up in the air. As a flight attendant, her schedule was always changing. I only had one sister who knew about my one-night stand a year ago, so I pulled up Autumn’s name. I wasn’t sure if she arrived in Iceland yet, but I was praying to every god imaginable that her plane landed.
“Pick up. Pick up. Pick up,” I mumbled as I sat on the edge of the bed and listened to the phone ring.
“Alex?”
“Oh, thank God!” I cried out as Autumn’s familiar voice answered on the other end.
“Is everything all right? We just landed.”
“Everything is fine, sort of. I mean, yes, nothing has gone wrong, but I really need to talk to you.”
“Sure. Colton and I are heading toward the luggage carousel, so I have a few minutes.”
“It’s him, Autumn.”
“Who is him?”
“Nate! Well, Nathaniel. Do you remember last year, when you came by the bar while I was doing inventory, and I told you about the guy I had over the night before? He was divorced with kids?”
“Vaguely.” Of course, Autumn was in the midst of her own turmoil with Colton when she stopped by to see me that day. I wasn’t surprised she didn’t recall the conversation.
“Well, that’s him, Autumn. The guy staying here is the same guy from that night.”
“Oh. Ohhh! So, Andrew’s best friend is the same guy you slept with?”
“Yes. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time.”
“Maybe we keep that to ourselves.”
Considering Andrew’s temper, I agreed with my sister. “That’s not even the worst part.”
“There’s something worse than sleeping with Andrew’s best friend, who our parents consider like another child?”
“Yes! Autumn, he doesn’t even remember.”
“What? How can that be?”
