Page 30 of Deadline for Love

“This is where I come to take my mind off things… I think you need it, too.” Nathan interrupted the silence and slipped a soda into my hand.

“You’re right, I really needed this. Thank you.” I wasn’t just referring to the invitation or the refreshment.

“I’ve been trying to remember what you like to drink,” he confessed, taking my hand and placing a gentle kiss on the back.

“But I want you to know some things about me too.” He kept my hand slightly away from his lips and breathed these words, making me swallow hard.

“I’m the jealous type.”

Puzzled, I stared at him with huge eyes.

“Even if I don’t seem like it, I am. I know it’s not a good trait, but when that boy held you and kissed you, I really wanted to tear you out of his arms.” His confession left me speechless.

“I know. It’s something I need to work on,” he murmured. “But I wanted to tell you that…”

When he realized I had nothing to say, he lowered my hand to his lap and brushed it gently with his thumb. There was another brief silence between us.

As his words ran through my head, I realized who he meant bythe boy, and I almost had to laugh. Although he was about to say something, I beat him to it. “Fernando is like a little brother to me. When I met him, he was a teenager who caused a lot of trouble, and I looked after him when I had time. We were neighbors until I moved out. We became best friends when I worked at the pizzeria during school. There’s nothing more going on there,” I reassured.

Nathan probably hadn’t expected me to explain this to him because now he was staring at me, speechless.

“What?”

“I thought I might scare you off.”

“Why? Have you done anything bad? Are you my stalker?” I asked humorously.

“No, I would never do anything like that.”

“Yeah, then! Until now, you’ve protected, looked after, and been honest with me. So why would you scare me off? Because of jealousy? Come on, I think that’s kind of cute,” I said and gave him a coy smile.

He remained stunned for a moment, but then he finally smiled, too, his beautiful brown eyes lit up by the moonlight.

The silence was pleasant, with only the sound of nature and the light wind whistling around us. My thoughts, however, were all restless.

I couldn’t get the new deadline that James imposed on me out of my head. He really put a lot of pressure on me... What if he was unhappy with the articles? What if he threatened to fire me again?

Nathan gripped my hand tighter, drawing me out of my mind. “You can’t seem to get out of your head.”

I clicked my tongue following his comment. “Yeah, I’m just annoyed by my boss.’’

Then I leaned back in annoyance and sighed loudly, which made Nathan chuckle, but it was short because he continued to speak—with a slight dullness in his voice.

“There’s something else I want to tell you... And maybe you can include it in your article if it helps you.”

His words aroused my curiosity, but I was nervous because, somehow, the mood felt a little gloomy.

“What do you mean?”

Nathan averted his eyes and looked at the starry sky. “I… I used to have a sister. Her name was Rita.”

When he started to speak, I didn’t know what was coming because one thing was for sure, judging by the blank look in his eyes, this couldn’t be good.

“She was murdered... The culprit hasn’t been caught... But I suspect that the current murders could be connected to my sister’s.”

An icy chill ran down my spine, making me shiver. The world around me now seemed dark and cold.

“It happened three years ago. One day, my sister started receiving letters. She tried to persuade me that she was in danger, but I thought it was a bad joke because the letters sounded childish, the poems weren’t good—I simply shrugged it off as a school prank.”

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