Page 115 of Nathan
“Oh, sorry, I knew it was a spice. Okay, and then there’s River, whom I know. Do you think it will be awkward between us or will she accept my apology? She hasn’t answered any of my text messages.”
“River will be fine. She’s just having a hard time figuring all of this out.” Nathan let go of my hand and took another sip of his wine. “Do you remember the name of my older sister?”
“Yes.” I closed my eyes to focus. “Lumi. And her husband’s name is Daniel.”
“Damian, and they’re not married yet. Same goes for my older brother, Atlas, and his future wife, Jolene. I’m not sure why it takes so long for them to close the deal once they decide to marry.”
“Planning a wedding takes time.”
Nathan shrugged. “I’d be happy with a small ceremony on the beach. Anyway, there’s also my other brother, Maximum. He’s the one with the need to save the world. He used to be a semi-professional rugby player, but he’s skipping this season to help in that orphanage down in Bangladesh.”
“Is he married?”
“Nope. He and River aren’t having much luck with love. It’s kind of crazy because last year at Christmas, all five of us were single. I honestly would have thought Lumi would be the one to stay single the longest.”
“Why?”
“She’s very bossy and doesn’t trust people in general. It was just hard to imagine her finding a man who could handle her issues.”
“But Damian loves her?”
“He really does. He’s older than her and a Garda, so he doesn’t let her push him around.”
“What’s a Garda?”
“A policeman. Damian is part of the Emergency Response Unit, which is what you’d call the SWAT patrol in the US.”
“Oh, okay. I’m pretty sure I have all their names down now. I’m just nervous about meeting them.”
“Why?”
“Because it might get a bit awkward with the way our relationship started and knowing everyone in your family used to hate me.”
“Hmm... I’m sure things will be a little weird for me when I meet your parents too. You said they tried to warn you from being with me,” Nathan pointed out.
He was right. I could see my mom making things a mess with her lack of filter. “I hope they don’t embarrass me too much.”
Nathan gave me a comforting smile. “It’ll probably just be awkward for the first five minutes, and then we’ll put it behind us. I’m sure we’ll laugh about it in a year.”
We drank again before Nathan paid the bill and we left the restaurant to go enjoy a Broadway musical.
“I’ve seenThe Phantom of the Operaat least ten times,” I whispered as we sat shoulder to shoulder with our fingers intertwined in the front row.
Nathan scrunched up his whole face. “Then why didn’t you pick something new?”
I chuckled. “New isn’t always better, and when you said that you hadn’t seen it, I wanted to share something special with you.”
We sunk lower in our seats as the music began playing, and the lights went down. Nathan leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Just being with you is special. I hope you know that.”
I beamed at him with happiness and felt good about all the photos that had been taken of us today. No one could ever accuse me of faking my affection for Nathan. The smiles I gave him were genuine, and so were the touches and the kisses we shared. I didn’t mind if the media shared stories about me loving Nathan. For once, the headlines would be true.
