Page 21 of Awestruck at Dusk
I shut the door, walked to the kitchen, and opened a bottle of wine after fighting with the corkscrew. Heck, it was my birthday weekend. And this is what I envisioned as a perfect celebration—a good glass of wine with dinner at home. Maybe more.
No one was going to make me feel guilty for drinking alone while I waited for Nathan to be done with the most nerve-wracking conversation ever aboutGod knows what. And by no one, I meantme.
There was still this part of me that kept pressuring my mind into feeling guilty about Caleb’s death. That I didn’t deserve to move on with my life.
Torturing myself with those thoughts just made me want to keep drinking, so I kept myself busy with that to fool my mind into forgetting and decided to think about what to order instead.
I was thinking Italian, so I called the restaurant since I knew what Nathan liked, and he’d already told me it was my turn to choose tonight.
A stark silence filled the living room when I ended the call. There was no sound coming from the other side of the door. Good. That meant they were modulating their voices. But I couldn’t hear a damn thing! Although I was convinced they were most probably speaking in Swedish.
That’s when I googled Swedish courses on my phone as I poured my second glass of wine. I never could pick up a single word whenever I heard any of them speaking Swedish. It was so frustrating. I couldn’t live like that.
Nathan and William had been out there for a while, and I grew restless, which only accelerated my sip rate, making me down that second glass of wine like it was nothing.
I could already feelthe presenceflowing through my veins.
Naturally, I poured myself a third. I was in adon’t let me see the bottom of my glasskind of mood, and luckily, I was the one pouring the merlot.
Nathan waltzed right in when I took the first sip of my freshly poured glass of wine and shut the door behind him.
“Saucing up?” Nathan asked with a laugh. I took another sip with lifted brows and nodded. “Can I join in?” He took a seat beside me on the living room couch.
“Sure, but you’ve got some serious catching up to do,” I replied.
Nathan leaned in and poured himself a glass. He then placed a soft kiss on my lips.
“I know. I can tell by that cheeky smile of yours that I’m already behind schedule,” Nathan returned, bringing his lips to his wineglass, his gaze refusing to release mine.God,he’s sexy.
And yes, I was alreadysauced upin the most relaxing way ever. “But don’t worry, I’ll catch up with you in a bit,” he added, taking another, longer swig.
I’m sure he would. Nathan would drink, and I could never tell how drunk he was. He had this abnormally high tolerance for alcohol. His face never gave him away.
But not me.
I was the opposite of that. One drink, and the corners of my lips moved up involuntarily.
That got me thinking about how much he must’ve drunk that day at the Super Bowl. A shit ton, that’s how much. Luckily, Joel was there to handle it.
Ugh! The curiosity was eating at me. I wanted to ask what he talked about with William. I mean, they were out there for a while. But I had to be subtle about it. Maybe let him tell me about it.
“I ordered dinner for us,” I said instead, dropping my wineglass on the coffee table and placing my arm around his neck. I was operating with one hand and a few fingers. There were things I could do but holding a wineglass with a cast wasn’t one of them. “I ordered the usual for you from Alessandro’s.”
“Scrummy,” he whispered, kissing me gently. Once. Twice. His lips lingering longer each time. “Your mouth tastesdelicious.”
“Like wine,” I breathed back.
“My point exactly.”
He dropped one of his slow, heated kisses on me, and I could feel my face flushing from the warmth of both the kiss and the wine waking me up inside.
“I met—Dave Matthews—just before—you arrived,” I said in between kisses.
“You did, huh? Wow, that’s amazing.” He pulled away from me just a little to meet my eyes. “William didn’t mention that,” he said mostly to himself.
Why would William mention it?
William did whatever the hell he wanted and said whatever the hell he wantedwhenhe wanted. And I didn’t think Nathan was on the top of his briefing list.
