Page 110 of The Fate Of Us

She pulled away a second later, looking up at him. “I’ve missed you! I haven’t seen yousince you came by that day—”

“It’s been forever. I know.” He beat her to it, his smile not faltering. “I promise not to letanother seven years go by before seeing you again.” He promised her, before she gave him one final squeeze, and headed back to her chair, pulling out his as she went past.

But before he moved, or looked down at me, he called to my father. “Mr. Moore.”

I glanced over at Dad, who had finally stopped staring at his plate, his eyes wider than I’dever seen them. “Nate Patricks. What are you doing here? We haven’t seen you since you left for—” My dad looks at me, and I can see the night he picked me up from the pier, tears staining that ivory dress, pan across his mind.

He looks back at Nate. “College.”

Nate shuffles on his feet. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Sir.” He nods his head slightly,before finally daring a glance at me. “Hi,” he smiles, before walking behind me and claiming the empty seat next to me.

The last time he stole the seat beside me was when we signed our contracts. His face wasthe polar opposite right now, there was a glow about him, his tanned skin glistening… like he was happy to save me.

Turning my head, I watch him, as the legs of his chair scrape across the stone terracebeneath us, his eyes darting between my parents. There’s something different about him. I can’t tell what exactly, but it’s something. Something about the way he came in and took control over the moment, carried himself with a confidence that I’d only seen him act out.

It’s only when his eyes flick to Goldie, growing warm, that I remember he was there theday I found out she was leaving, and suddenly his warning glares make sense.

“So Nathaniel,” My mother started, her wine glass wedged between her lips again. Shealways called him Nathaniel when we were younger, and every time she did, I reminded her that he hated it. But that was my mother. “Congratulations on the movie with Adaline. Who’d have thought that you two rugrats would have grown up to be in the same career, and just as successful. It’s really wonderful when you think about it.”

It was, I suppose. If you had told the Nate and Addy who were sitting on the pier, readingand existing under the sun, that one day they’d be two of the most well-known actors in the world, we would have laughed and told you to leave us alone.

Then we probably would have sat in silence.

Addy would dwell on the fact that she was still stuck in the career she’d hated from theday she was pushed into it.

Nate would deny it, convincing himself that he’d never get over his anxiety enough tobarely speak in public, let alone be broadcast across every movie theatre in the world.

I never did ask him, come to think of it. Why someone who had tried to help me leavethis life had wandered into it himself?

There was so much to ask him. So much to catch up on that we hadn’t spoken about. AndI was tired of not talking to Nate Patricks.

“—Oh you two were just precious!” The end of my mom’s sentence rang in my ears, as I shook my head and brought my eyes into focus.

“I suppose we were,” Nate said back to her, reaching over the table to pick off a few ofthe dragon rolls I’d been eating.

My dad steals my attention then, the clearing of his throat and the way his eyes areburning through Nate prepping me for—

“So you two are fine now?” He blurted, his voice all low and sunken, so many questions intertwining his words.

“We were always fine.” I lie through my gritted teeth.

Finally, my dad sinks the California roll into his mouth, at the same time he scoffs andsays, “Yeah, sure you were.”

My mom looks over to him. “Darling, what do you—”

“Mom, it’s nothing. Lets just… get back to…” I nodded a few times at the table, hoping that would somehow switch the subject.

But it’s no use. “No, no, if I remember correctly, you told me you hated him. Youremember, the night he never came back from college—”

“You hated him? Since when?” Goldie asked, a humorous snort weaving through herwords.

Things had gone from zero to one hundred so fast I couldn’t keep up. Silence wasswitched for screams and my head became a speaker, echoing every word.

I look back at my sister. “I don’t, Gold’s, just ignore—”

“Don’t tell her to ignore me when I’m telling the truth!”

“Dad,” I warned, not liking the way I felt Nate stiffen or the way my dad was throwingdaggers at him. Or that I saw Goldie’s ears prick up. She couldn’t find out—

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