Page 97 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“I love you, Murph!” He ended the call, and I smiled. He was most likely drunk, but I was glad he called me to let me know he was enjoying the show and thinking of me.
“Was that Nate?” Lily asked. I nodded with a small, crooked smile. She immediately noticed something was wrong.
The half-time show ended, and Lily immediately shut the TV off. “Okay, we’re done pretending to care about the Super Bowl. Tell me everything.”
I laughed but sobered up in a second. “William or Nathan?”
“Both! But Nate first. Are you guys fighting?” Lily had a genuinely worried face. She loved Nathan too. How could she not? Nathan’s the best.
“Nathan tricked me into signing a restraining order against Thomas on my behalf. He planned it all with my father, and Caleb helped too. He told me the documents were a contract renewal of my security detail, so I signed them off without even looking at them. I trusted his word.”
“What? But why wouldn’t they talk to you about it? Why hide it from you?” I could see she didn’t agree with how they handled it either.
“I didn’t know this until two days ago, but Thomas has been threatening Nathan ever since we saw him at CJ’s party. And last Friday, he even went looking for Nathan at his office. I don’t know all the details because we were arguing about the whole:making me sign things without my consentthing.
“Nathan’s excuse was that they didn’t want me to worry. But that’s how my father operates. He keeps things from me to protect me, and now he’s grooming Nathan into doing the same. That’s what hurt me the most.”
“I’m so sorry. The Thomas situation is pretty crazy. I guess the restraining order isn’t such a bad idea, right?”
“It’snota bad idea. And I would’ve agreed to it immediately. I don’t want Thomas to hurt Nathan. Not that I thought he would, but now I don’t know what to expect from him.” I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to keep the tears away. It seemed like I wasn’t done crying. “They don’t trust me to have common sense. It’s ridiculous.”
Lily sat next to me and hugged me. “It’s okay. I’m sure Nate didn’t mean any harm with this. It could’ve been your father, the one who wanted things to be handled this way.”
“He did mention something of the sort,” I said, brushing a few tears away. “But I still feel awful about how I reacted. I dismissed him in the worst possible way. He wanted to stay. He tried to talk to me about it, and I pushed him away. But I was furious! I needed space and—”
“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. I’m sure you’ll figure things out once he gets back from Miami,” she said, picking up her phone from the coffee table. “Do you want me to call Joel and ask him how Nathan’s been doing?”
I nodded, almost desperately. Nathan seemed to be having a good time when he called me, but I didn’t mind listening to Joel’s opinion on the matter.
But Joel didn’t pick up. There was still a while to go before the game ended. They were probably drinking and having fun. I huffed and took another sip of my wine.
A couple of minutes later, Joel returned the call, and Lily quickly took it.
“Hey!…Yeah, of course…Are you guys having fun?…What do you mean?”
Lily’s face went grim, and I got anxious.
“Is he okay?…Please call me back once you’re in the hotel…Love you, too.”
“What’s going on?” I asked reactively.
“Um—Nate had a little too much to drink, and Joel’s taking him back to the hotel. He said he’s fine, just well—drunk.”
“Shit, this is all my fault,” I said, crouching on the sofa.
“Itdefinitelyisn’t your fault. Nate’s old enough to know what he’s doing. I guess he was having a hard time too, and that’s how he tried to forget about it.” Lily dropped her phone back on the table. “He’ll be okay, don’t worry. Joel will call me in a few minutes.”
Twenty minutes later, Lily’s phone rang again.
“Nate wants to talk to you,” Lily whispered. “They’re back at the hotel.” I snatched the phone away from her hands and took the call.
“Hey, you.”
“A-a-a-alriiiiight,” he said with a chuckle. “Murph, Imissye.”
“I—miss you too,” I said, thinking how he probably wouldn’t remember our conversation the next day. I hoped he remembered the half-time show, though. “How are you feeling? Are you okay?”
“I—know I dropped a clanger,” he said lazily, “but I luv-ye.”
