Page 39 of Hide My Heart
But I can’t change things. Not after the mess I made.
Kissing Nate would be all sorts of wrong. He’s the only friend I have back in these parts. I don’t know exactly what I’m reaching for. Why I’m touching his face. It’s Nate, the same but different.
He’s not pulling away and he doesn’t move closer. His eyes hold mine, barely blinking, and a tiny grin raises the corners of his mouth. He looks like he likes what he’s seeing.
There’s a crackling sizzle in the air between us, and I don’t know if he feels it too, but something’s changed. I suppose people aren’t exaggerating when they say the earth moves or tilts off its axis.
But still, I can’t start anything, no matter how tempting. I’m going back to Berkeley after Christmas with Beck, and Nate, well, wait, he has a girlfriend.
I jerk myself away from him like he’s a rattlesnake baring his fangs.
His eyes dilate with shock but he doesn’t say anything.
Unable to meet his gaze, I turn back toward the window. That was too close. Or maybe nothing would have happened. He has a girlfriend, and he said she’d have to deal with all of this Beck and me fallout.
That sounds so callous.
“Amber.” His voice rasps with a low burr. “It’ll all be okay. I know you’re scared, but I promise you. I will always protect you.”
“What will your girlfriend think?” I blurt. “Hiding a fugitive from the law at your uncle’s cabin. She’ll hate me for roping you into this. Does she know about Beck and the lie I made you tell?”
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Nate says. “I only told you so because I didn’t know what your angle was.”
“Angle? Like if I were trying to swindle you?”
He shrugs, and the magic moment is gone. Poof.
I’d be lucky if he still wants to be friends.
I wring my hands and lean my forehead against the cold glass windowpane. If I were honest with myself, I did wish he would sweep me off my feet and solve all my problems.
But this is unfair to him. Here he was, hanging out at Divine, minding his own business, and suddenly he has a baby his mother’s going around town bragging about.
And if he did have a girlfriend, she would have kicked his teeth in.
“When the ice thaws, I’m going to take Beck and go back to California.”
“What about spending Christmas with your grandmother?” Nate’s warm breath tickles the back of my scalp.
“I failed. I’ll send her a nice letter and a gift.”
“She’s bound to know you’re up here. Once Darlene puts two and two together, everyone will know you’re Sharon Williams.”
“Who’s Darlene?” Worry skirts my mind even though we’re gazing out the window at a magical ice-sculptured landscape.
“She’s the desk clerk at the Redbird. I made the mistake of showing her the picture I found in your backpack, trying to figure out if Hunter was seen in town.”
I recoil like a turtle withdrawing into his shell.
“Does she know about Beck?”
“No, and with my mother spreading gossip about Beck being mine and Sharon Williams’s baby…”
“You don’t get it,” I say, snapping my spine upright. “I used the Sharon Williams alias to book the room. If Darlene remembers me, and she saw the picture of me with Hunter, and she’s his informant, she’s sure to put two and two together.”
A chime sounds from Hunter’s phone. Since he doesn’t have a lock code on it, I pick it up from the table where I left it.
It’s a text message from Darlene.Where are you? My boss has a picture of you and some girl—the same girl you showed me in a picture. She calls herself Sharon Williams and she has a baby with my boss, Nate. Is she the same girl you’re hunting for?
