Page 4 of Awestruck at Dusk
“Anyway, my hoodie wasn’t in the closet. Mimi was going to wash it, and Agent Johnson somehow found the box withthishoodie and brought it to me.” I sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Why hadn’t you mentioned any of this before?” Nathan asked. I couldn’t tell if he was hurt or annoyed by the fact. But I didn’t blame him. I’d be a mix of both if I were in his position.
“I didn’t want to cause any more trouble,” I said as I let out a breath. “William gave it to me a few days after the Opera thing happened. I just put the box away in my closet without any intention of wearing it.”
“Okay.” Nathan tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and wet his lips. I could see he wasn’t thrilled with the hoodie story but seemed like he was trying to let it go.
My hand cupped his cheek, and my thumb grazed his neatly kept stubble. Somehow his eyes looked greener, and I couldn’t help but stare at them as my mind drifted away into thought, just thinking how glad I was to get to see them again.
Nathan observed me with a tad of concern as I swallowed back the lump in my throat and offered me a tight-lipped smile that only lasted a fraction of a second and said, “I think I need to talk to William once he gets out of the hospital, though. I’d really like for all of us to get along, especially after what happened last night.”
The SUV stopped, but we weren’t in my apartment. We were at my father’s place in the Upper East Side. Agent Robbins and David stepped out of the car and stood outside our door, waiting for us to be done talking.
Nathan grabbed my left hand and squeezed it. “I’d like to know what William’s real intentions with you are. It’s best to get that out of the way sooner rather than later.” He took the back of my hand to his lips and kissed it. “For some reason, I feel like he’s just playing around with all that nonsense. And apparently, he’s going to be your neighbor for a while. Well, at least not for the next month.”
Nathan was making me anxious. I didn’t want him talking to William about any of that. Because no, William wasn’tplaying around. That had been made clear yesterday. And again, I didn’t even know howIwould deal with my feelings or what William would reply to any of Nathan’s questions, but his last remark caught my attention the most.
“What do you mean? Why aren’t we at my place?” Not that I wanted to go there. I didn’t think I was ready to go back after what happened, but was I moving in with my father?
“You’re moving in with your father.”
Fuck.
“What?” I grimaced. “Why?” My father kept making decisions for me, and I was the last to find out, as always.
“Security is going to be reinforced in both the building and in your apartment. And until the modifications are completed, you’ll be living here. At least that’s what your father told me when he called me earlier.”
“Okay, buta month?”
“Why don’t we go up and talk to him?” He kissed my cheek as if I were a fragile antique piece at a museum and knocked on the window twice. Agent Robbins opened the door for us.
We stepped inside the building, and the smell of the place brought back memories of my childhood. Memories that had been buried a long time ago. And that’s the main reason why I’d been avoiding coming back here altogether. My father and I always met in my apartment.
I didn’t know what was harder: to be reminded of how my mother was clearly missing in my childhood home or going back to my apartment to deal with the demons that awaited there with long, sharp, hungry teeth.
“Kiddo!” My father exclaimed when he opened the door for us. He hugged me and greeted Nathan afterward with a firm handshake and a warm pat on the back.
I ambled inside, taking in the space. I didn’t have the clearest memory of the apartment, but I had this feeling that everything wasexactlyas it was before we left for Rome almost seventeen years ago. The framed photographs everywhere, the smell of leather furniture, the big pieces of artwork hung around the place.
“Why don’t we take a seat in the living room,” my father suggested. “Robbins, David, will you join us, please?”
As I walked to the living room, I spotted two flower arrangements sitting on the coffee table.
“Oh, these are yours,” my father said to me. “They were sent to your apartment, but I had them brought up here with your things.”
“Who are they from?”
“Those are from Christopher and Nina, and the big one is from the Sjöbergs.”
David must’ve told CJ what happened. I hadn’t even checked my texts, and I wasn’t in the mood to see anyone. But I took the card that came with each flower arrangement to remind myself to thank them and sat on the edge of the sofa where I immediately searched for Nathan’s hand.
After everyone was seated, my father took the floor. “A few things are happening right now, and I think it’s fair for you to be informed,” he said to me. His cell phone rang, but he silenced it right away.
Wow. He always took his calls, even if we were in the middle of dinner.
“I want you to move in with me for a few weeks,” my father continued, “and I’ll explain to you why I think that’s important.”
“Yes, Nathan told me,” I said dryly.
