Nate Page 13

  “You didn’t answer. I’m taking that as a response that you don’t want to go. I’m turning around.”

  “But—what? No one does what I want.”

  That was...a weird thing to say. I shot her a look, starting to turn off the road before doing a U-turn. We were still in our neighborhood, so traffic was sparse enough for us to do that safely. “I’m not going to make you do something you don’t want to do.”

  She was twisting her hands together, and she looked down at them. “I thought that was the whole point. I don’t want to reach out to my family, but I have to for Nova.”

  “Right. For Nova, but maybe we can rethink this in a way where you’re not twisted up in knots.”

  She looked up, her eyes piercing mine. “You’d do that?”

  “Of course.”

  She took another beat, just staring at me. Then she pressed her lips together, swallowed, and looked forward. “I can do this.”

  She was still trembling, still white around her mouth, but she was looking forward with a different feel to her. Determined. And I caught an underlying fierceness from her.

  Alrighty, then.

  I could work with this.

  * * *

  When we pulled up, my phone buzzed.

  Quincey jumped. “What was that?”

  I pulled out my phone, the screen lighting up with another text.

  Another.

  And another.

  “Oh.” A distracted frown was sent my way as she began to straighten her hair for the thirtieth time. It was pulled all the way up in a bun, and she kept smoothing out the ends. They were already pressed flat. I didn’t think she knew she was even doing it.

  Then I went back to the texts. They were all from Logan.

  Buzz.

  One from Mason.

  Buzz.

  Another from Matteo. Another friend of ours.

  “I—hold on.” I opened the first.

  Logan: Duke’s team reached out.

  Logan: They’re making a motion that Quincey is mentally unfit.

  I cursed.

  “What?”

  “I need to read through these and make a phone call.”

  Her pupils were dilated, and she bit down on her lip. “That’d be really self-involved of me if I asked if those were about me. They probably have nothing to do with me. Your friends all have full and busy lives themselves.”

  Yeah… Shit.

  I decided and sent a quick text back to Logan.

  Me: Hold on. I’ll call in ten minutes. Need to handle something first.

  My phone buzzed right away after, but whoever it was would need to wait.

  I tucked it away and moved around the SUV to Quincey’s side. She was already out and looking like death warmed over.

  She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the house, and she couldn’t stop biting her lip.

  Fuck it.

  I moved in and touched her lip.

  She went completely still, her eyes enlarging, and even though she didn’t move a muscle, I felt her shrinking back from my touch.

  I pressed there, and she let it go. When she didn’t immediately bite down again, I moved back. “No more hurting yourself, please.” I ignored her slight groan and placed a hand behind her back. With a firm but gentle touch, I walked us inside.

  I knew Graham would be watching for us, and he proved me right.

  He took me in, then his sister, and whatever he’d been thinking or feeling was masked.

  “How about it, Quince?”

  “What?” She faltered, going up the first of the steps.

  He pretended to whip out a microphone and began bouncing his shoulders up and down. He started to sing the song lyrics, at the same time bobbing his head to the right. “How about it? Family karaoke night? You and me? I need a partner. Cynthia doesn’t think I know who Lady Sovereign is.” He turned to face inside and raised his voice. “But HA! Little does she know that ‘Love Me Or Hate Me’ is my most favorite song EVER!” He threw me a grin, moving aside so we could enter. “What do you all think I listen to to warm up before my games? I didn’t get pumped up to Yanni.”

  “Who’s Cynthia?”

  That grin went to his sister, and he moved to shut the door. “My girlfriend. Be nice to her. She’s meeting the rest of the family tonight.”

  Quincey froze again. “Are you kidding me? You’re introducing her to the family tonight?”

  “Yeah. Why not? It was in the text.”

  “I thought when everyone else piled on that you wouldn’t bring her. This is the worst night to have her meet me.”

  He laughed.

  A golden retriever came barreling from the back, followed by a yell. “She got loose!”

  Graham flashed Quincey a smirk. “Cynthia’s my dog. My best girlfriend. I named her after my favorite Atlanta housewife.”

  A female was coming from the back with a rueful look on her face. She was slim with her hair up in some ’do. She saw us and stopped in her tracks. “Oh, good gracious. The guests are already here.” She glared at Graham. “You could’ve told me they were here. I haven’t even gotten dressed.”

  Graham went over, throwing his arm around her and walking her to us. “This is my girlfriend, and no stress, Quince. She’s met the family already.”

  “You’re—” Quincey’s mouth dropped open. “You two are together?”

  The girl’s cheeks pinked, and she held her hands together, clasping her fingers tight. “Calihan had a hard time with it at first, but we’ve moved past that rocky ground. Thank goodness your mom loves me.” She started laughing and tipped her head up to see Graham shooting me a concerned look before his frown found Quincey. “Oh.” Her voice trailed off.

  “I don’t know you. I’m Nate.” I held my hand out, giving both siblings a look. “What’s the awkward history here? I have to know all the gossip because Logan will be pissed if I don’t fill him in.”

  Graham relaxed, barking out a laugh. “That Kade doesn’t change, huh?”

  “Have you met my friends?”

  “It’d be cool to all get together. When does Mason’s team…?” He trailed off after his girlfriend’s elbow nudged him in the chest. Hard. “Sorry. Uh, this is my little sister’s best friend. My other sister. Calihan.”

  “Britney grew up with us. She and Calihan were, are, inseparable.”

  “We still are. I’m technically her roommate.” Britney held her hand out. “You’re Nate Monson. I’ve heard a lot about you, and when I say a lot, I mean a lot a lot. You’re all anyone talks about in this family now. You, and the whole situation. You know.” She shot Graham a frown. “You are supposed to stop me when I ramble like this.”

  He beamed at her, tapping her nose. “I happen to think it’s adorable, so I’ll never stop you.”

  “Oh God.” Quincey moved to the side. “I need a drink. Do you still keep the liquor back here?” Britney blinked a second, then shot after her. She linked their elbows. “Let me show you. Cal and I were experimenting, and I think we found the next big drink. Everyone’s going to love it. We’re thinking of putting it on our YouTube channel.”

  They turned the corner, and I found Graham inspecting me.

  “What?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You look intense.”

  “I feel intense.” My phone started buzzing again. “I need a room and thirty minutes to have some hard conversations. Your sister can’t overhear in any way.”

  His eyes got hard, but he nodded. “Follow me.”

  He took me to the basement and into a far back room.

  I was reading through the rest of the texts as soon as he left, shutting the door.

  Logan: You need to call me.

  Logan: Seriously. Now. I don’t care if you’re fucking.

  Logan: Or driving.

  Logan: K. I care. Be safe. Wrap yourself.

  Logan: Not talking about the seat belt, but do that, too.

  I had to laugh. Even a crisis didn’t deter Logan. I thu
mbed through to Matteo’s first before Mason’s.

  Matteo: Guys said you’re in Seattle? What’s going on? Call. We’re due, man.

  We were.

  I clicked on Mason’s last.

  Mason: Logan called, so I know what’s going on. Call when you can. We should do a three-way call. Also, Sam wants to come, leave the kids with Malinda before heading up. You down for that?

  I hit call for Logan as I replied to both Mason and Matteo.

  Mason was first.

  Me: You know I’m always down for visiting and seeing you guys. Never ask, brother.

  His response was automatic.

  Mason: I figured, still you got a lot going on now. Still no Channing yet?

  Me: Not yet.

  Logan picked up right then.

  “Dude.” He grunted. “I’m fucking Taylor right now.”

  I started laughing at the same time I heard her voice in the background. “He’s winning at a video game. And he’s not being a gracious winner.” She was laughing as she said all that.

  There was a muffling sound, then he said to her, his voice sounding at a distance, “You love when I’m a gracious winner. You tell me all the time when you go do--”

  “Okay. Not the right talk when your friends are on the phone with you.”

  Logan laughed. “Nate’s not my friend. He’s family. We’re like a mob family.”

  I laughed. “We’re not the mob.”

  He lifted the phone back, and his voice was clearer. “We should be. We’d be awesome at getting shit done.”

  I needed to send my text to Matteo.

  “Hold on. Let me call you back in a minute.”

  “Okay.”

  He hung up, and I was typing next.

  Me: A lot is happening, but we need to do a phone call. Warning. You might be mad at me.

  Matteo: Fuck. Okay. Call when you can. We play there this Sunday. You want to come to the game?

  Me: Of course. Make it two?

  Matteo: Course. Call later, for real. I don’t like not knowing what’s going on.

  Yes. It was time to let everyone know what was going on. I did what I could on my own, but even though I was used to operating as an individual, I wasn’t anymore. Our group, we were a package deal, and Mason was right. I needed to ask for more from them.

  I couldn’t tell Matteo and not tell Channing.

  I called Logan again.

  He picked up. “Mason wants to do a three-way. You have time now?”

  “No. We’re at Graham’s now.”

  “I didn’t know that was tonight. How’s that going?”

  “It’s…” I hesitated. “There are family issues here.”

  Logan grunted, and I could hear an explosion from his end. He added, “Well, we all got experience there. I’m starting to think our families are normal. Like, who does have a nice and loving home nowadays?”

  From his end, Taylor spoke up, “That’s...sad.”

  Another grunt. I could hear his voice turn from the phone. “Don’t feel sad for me, baby. I know there are amazing peeps like Malinda, and your dad is pretty cool now.” There was some silence from his end, just the sounds of their video game in the background before Logan came back. “So, talk later tonight?”

  I frowned but didn’t push about what just happened on his end. “Yes, and Matteo’s playing here on Sunday. I’m going to go and take Quincey.”

  “If she’ll want to go. Does she like football?”

  “That’s not been a conversation we’ve tackled, but I will in the future.”

  “Good. You should, considering her brother and our guys.”

  I hid a smile. “Right. Thanks for the advice.”

  “Well. I am your lawyer. I’m all about giving advice, but I’m not cheap.”

  I barked out a laugh. “Yeah, yeah. And yes, if she wants to go, I’ll take her. No one’s said anything to Matteo about Nova?”

  “No. We’ve been on lockdown, just me and Tay and Mase and Sam. That’s it. Even the kids don’t know, so they won’t spill to Heather and Chan.”

  “I’m going to have to tell them, too.”

  “That’ll be a good conversation. Heather and Channing are cool. They won’t care about the timeline of when you’ve shared with everyone. You don’t have to share all the shit about Dick Royas.”

  “Yeah, they are.”

  We were both winding down. The emergency had been successfully put off for the next phone call.

  Logan was on the same wavelength, saying, “Okay. Have your dinner. Text us when you can do a call.”

  “It might be late.”

  “That’s fine. You know that.”

  We said our goodbyes, and I was moving back through the basement for the stairs when I heard someone coming down. Quincey had worried eyes and carried a glass in her hand. She paused on the stairs, gripping the railing tight. “Hey.”

  I paused, too, taking her in. Something was going on. I was expecting this, but the look she was wearing now seemed like a different sort of something happening. Something bad. Something that needed to be handled now. The problem: I didn’t know what the something was, and I didn’t know how to get her to say what the something was.

  This girl had walls.

  She had wall after wall after wall, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had walls even to herself.

  What I did know was that she wasn’t as hard as she first pretended to be. I got glimpses of the little girl inside her at moments, and this was one of them.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She let out a gust of air. “How do you do that?”

  I migrated closer. “Do what?”

  “Look at me and know what’s going on inside me?”

  She seemed genuinely curious. I frowned a little. “I’m getting to know you, that’s all.” I moved closer, putting one foot on the bottom step. There were three separating us, and she was gazing right down at me.

  I asked again, “What’s wrong, Quincey?”

  She tore her gaze away, bending her head. “This was a bad idea.”

  “What was?”

  “This. Coming here. Asking them to be allies…” She trailed off because I was done hearing this. I climbed the stairs, placing a hand on her hip as I gently moved her closer to the wall so I could go past her. “What are you doing?” Her voice rose an octave.

  I ignored her, going up and stepping out into the hallway. We were just off the kitchen, where I saw more people had arrived. I skimmed over everyone, and conversations quieted. They were getting tense, straightening into an upright position where they’d been leaning or slouching.

  I saw the mom. The husband

  I saw the other sister, and that was the problem.

  She wasn’t alone. She’d brought another two friends.

  I lingered on them, studying them.

  Then I turned to Graham’s girlfriend, who’d been laughing with the girls. Her eyes were a little glazed, but not much. She seemed flushed on the forehead, not the face. She was nervous.

  Graham was my last stop, and he’d been waiting.

  He was not happy.

  He transferred his gaze to Quincey, who’d followed me up but was standing at a distance behind me.

  Fuck this.

  I jerked my head at the two friends. “Who are they, and why are they here?”

  Calihan got red. Her chin jerked up, and she turned to face off against me.

  I narrowed my eyes. “I’m going to stop you before you say something you’ll regret. This is not a social fucking outing. You think this is easy for Quincey to be here?”

  Calihan’s eyes flashed. She raised her chin up even higher.

  I kept on. “I don’t know the exact history or the details. Nor do I give a shit about that.” I swept everyone with a look before finding my target. “What I do give a shit about is my kid. That’s why we’re here. I’m an outside observer, but observing, I can tell it’s a big deal that Quincey reached out and came here. You might h
ave anger on your end concerning her, and I’m guessing that’s the reason you brought two more friends; to shit on this night for her, but girl, you’re not just shitting on only her anymore. I’m in the mix now and so’s Nova. If you’d like to salvage some of the night, your friends have to go. And if you can’t drop the chip on your shoulder for the night, you best be going with them until you can see beyond your own issues and to the one who’s really needing everyone to be together on this. Nova.” I waited for a beat because I’d thrown a lot at her. “You decide.”

  And I waited again.

  There was silence in the group.

  I skimmed a look at Graham, who seemed surprised, but not in a bad way.

  “Graham,” Calihan hissed.

  Okay. That’s all I needed to know. She thought this was the moment she could call in her reinforcements, which meant she thought there was space and time here where I’d allow that to first be negotiated. No. There were no negotiations right now. Her shit came later. Nova was first.

  I reached behind me and took Quincey’s hand. “We’re out.”

  I began leading her to the front door.

  The mom dropped something. It clattered to the floor, and she hurried in front of us, blocking us with her hands up and spread. “Wait. Wait. Please.”

  Quincey had a tight grip on my hand.

  I stopped, and she moved all the way up against me. I could feel her tension, and I could feel her chest rising up and down at a rapid rate. That was too rapid for my liking.

  I locked eyes on the mom. At a glance, she seemed nice. She also seemed desperate. She tried looking at Quincey, who moved behind me, her head ducking down into the back of my neck.

  She started shuddering.

  Fuck.

  There was so much pain here, and it all started with the fucker named Duke.

  “Quincey, please stay. I’m sorry about Calihan. She didn’t realize how important—”

  “Yes, she did.” I stopped her. I shifted my hand to lace my fingers with Quincey’s.

  The mom jerked her gaze back to me, and she swallowed, taking a step back. Her hands lowered.

  I tried to gentle my tone, but I was pissed. “I’m going to give you my assessment of everyone in this room, and you can tell me if I’m wrong or not, but I’ll be honest. I won’t care. You, you seem nice. You seem like you care, and you seem very happy that Quincey is here. And I think relieved, too. You also seem on edge and fearful because you know your other girl has some residual anger issues and came here to throw her little tantrum, maybe try to put Quincey in her place. You disagreed, but you’re scared to speak up for whatever reason. Your man. He seems nice, too. Loyal. Gentle. But quiet. He’s in the background letting things play out, and that’s probably how his father was, and his father’s father, and your man seems like he likes that role. He’s content with that role. Graham, I’m not going to assess him because I know him. I like him. I respect him. The girlfriend, she’s nice, but she’s nervous, too. She also knows the two friends shouldn’t be here, and she was nervous about my reaction. She was the first to clue in, knowing there’d be fireworks when I got up here. Probably the reason she downed more drinks than she might’ve normally drunk for a night like this. The two friends, I’m not going to assess them because they shouldn’t be here. And they know it, but they signed up to be pawns. Now, Calihan, that’s a different matter. Right now, I’m not liking her one fucking bit. She seems like a spoiled brat, and that word can easily be interchanged with another that rhymes with witch. And when I say that, you need to know I’m not judging her for being a brat. I’m not judging anyone here.” I looked at the sister. “These are facts on how I see the dynamics playing out, and I don’t care two fucks that you might have reason to be a brat. God knows that I’ve been a dick, an asshole, and all other forms of a male brat in my youth, but it’s not the time or place to handle that right now. Right now is about hopefully coming together so we can keep Dick Royas away from Nova. And if you’re going to be a brat, I don’t want you involved. Now, we’ll leave and let this family handle their shit. When it’s handled, give me a call.”