Changing Tides (Kill Devil Hills Book 2) (14 page)

CHAPTER 15:

NATHANIAL

“
I
hate doing these things,” Kelly complained. She tapped her nails against the wooden armrest of her chair incessantly, driving me insane. In the real world, for most men, when their lying, cheating, bitch of an ex-girlfriend broke their heart, they never had to see that person again. In my world, I had to see Kelly all the time. Parties, premiers, award shows…it never ended. At least we’d come to a mutual understanding after our break-up. A mutual understanding where neither of us spoke to one another unless we were delivering lines.

So I wasn’t sure why she was talking to me now. This was a photo shoot. No talking necessary.

“But being on the cover o
f
Entertainment Weekl
y
…even I can admit that’s pretty cool,” she gushed. “And I love how they’re releasing special edition covers of each of us individually. I wonder which of us will sell the most copies.”

“It’s cool,” I muttered, flipping through a magazine, trying to ignore her. I’d never minded photo shoots—they were easy enough and sometimes even fun. I wasn’t about to admit it to Kelly, but I was also excited about the individual covers. I’d finished my side project—a TV commercial set to air in the days before Christmas—and after today’s photo shoot, I’d have a couple months free or
…
relativel
y
free. My manager was pressuring me to fill that time with another gig, anything really before filming of season three o
f
Dragon War
s
began, but I was looking forward to the time off.

“Did you hear the rumors about season three?” Kelly wore next nothing in the princess-barbarian outfit her character was famous for. We were shooting the cover photos in full makeup and costumes. She was a beautiful girl, and her outfit showed off her curves impeccably. No wonder so many men turned up for Comic-Con every year—they were probably all there to see her barely covered ass. But it was another girl’s body I kept picturing. I hadn’t been able to shake Ellie since the night we’d spent together. Almost three weeks had passed since—three lonely weeks with nothing but my imagination to comfort me.

I needed to move on and forget Ellie, but that just wasn’t happening.

“Did you hear me?” Kelly repeated.

“What?”

She groaned. “Next season—we won’t be filming together. After murdering your father, you’ll be shunned by the tribe. You’re starting next season on the opposite side of the world with the Trenadine Clan. Sisiline’s family. You’ll work your way up the ranks of their military—excelling and training their dragons. Haven’t you read the books?”

Okay, so maybe I’d skimmed the novels and read summaries on Wikipedia. I’d started them and always meant to finish them, but life got in the way. Maybe I would try to tackle them again in the coming weeks, but each book was around one-thousand pages and there were six books in the series. On top of all that, the author still had several more books he planned to write. If the popularity of the show continued, I’d probably have this job for life.

“Don’t worry, you and I get back together eventually,” Kelly informed me. “Not until next season or possibly two seasons from now, and by then we’ll be foes. It’s romantic, though, because our characters fall in love all over again.”

This was the best news ever. No Kelly for two years. Halleluiah. “Do you think Sisiline is Lucian’s sister?” I asked randomly, remembering Ellie’s theories.

Kelly laughed. “No. Who gave you that idea?” As she said this, she rested her hand on my arm and leaned in against me.

I froze and the magazine fell from my fingers to the floor.

What the hell was she doing?

Several of the crew working the photo shoot watched us with curious eyes. And I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that one of the fan sites would have an article about this out by tomorrow. Since the speculation of our breakup had hit the internet, there was a new article with my name on it practically every day. For months now my manager had urged m
e
no
t
to confirm our split. She lived by the thought that ‘all gossip was good gossip.’ But I had to wonder what Ellie thought of it all. Would it hurt her if she read somethinglike
,
Nate West and Kelly Patterson Get Cozy at the Entertainment Photo Shoo
t
?

I cared about Ellie. I cared what she may or may not be reading. So I roughly whispered to my ex, “Kelly, kindly remove your hand from my arm before I cause a scene. You remember what happened the last time I caused a scene…your boyfriend lost his job.”

“For your information, he was never my boyfriend,” she refuted. “Why can’t you be a grown up about all of this? People make mistakes. I made a mistake. How long are you going to continue to punish me for it? Don’t you ever think about what we had? I want to giv
e
u
s
another chance.”

Wow. I did not see that coming. “What part of cheated do you not understand?”

She huffed, then she stood and stormed off.

And that precise moment, my phone buzzed. I had it shoved down the leg of my armor costume and had to wiggle to get it free. It was too early for Ellie’s ‘goodnight’ text and was probably only my mother—she’d recently started texting and had a tendency to share her every thought. But on the off chance that it might be Ellie, I needed to check.

It wasn’t my mother texting. It was Ellie. This was shocking, and even more shocking was the fact that she’d used more than one word in her message.

Ellie: I’m sick of this bullshit not talking thing.

I took a deep breath and thought carefully about how to respond.

Me: Then you should talk to me. I’m here.

Ellie: Okay. Good. I’ll call you on Friday.

Friday
?
It was Monday
.
Why did we have to wait so long
?
I didn’t care that it was almost my turn for the photos—I just wanted to talk to her. Now. But then again, setting a date to talk, even if it wasn’t today, was better than nothing. At least she’d decided she wanted more.

Me: Friday is good.

Ellie: I miss you.

Ellie: It’s crazy. I shouldn’t, but I do.

Ellie: I haven’t figured anything out. But I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I left you.

I was in the middle of a crowded room. It was loud—people talking, the camera flashing, and the photographer yelling directions. Ellie was three-thousand miles away. But my heart was slamming in my chest like she was right there with me. The rest of the world ceased to exist. The noisy room faded away. It was just me, my phone, the girl on the other line, and the stirring feelings I felt deep in my stomach
.
This wasn’t one sided.

Ellie: And now you probably think I’m insane.

Ellie: Sorry. It’s been a rough day.

Me: I really want to fucking call you right now.

I had so much to say. It seemed like maybe she did too. I waited in agony for her to message me back. Finally she did.

Ellie: Okay. For a minute.

Wow. Trying to keep calm, I dialed her number. As it rang, I took slow breaths. After three long weeks, I couldn’t believe I was finally getting to hear her voice again.

Then she answered. “Hey,” she said, her voice soft and unsure.

One word…and, Jesus Christ, my heart was palpitating. “Hey,” I repeated. “How are you? Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine.” She sounded about as nervous as I felt. “Sorry about the text explosion. I’m not sure what came over me. I couldn’t really stop myself.”

“You don’t need to apologize. Because I feel it all too. And I haven’t stopped thinking about you either.” I had my phone pressed to my ear so hard that I was afraid I might break it. I wanted more than just her voice. I wanted to see her. I wanted to hold her.

A silence fell over us. I was kind of scared to say anything else. Then I remembered she’d mentioned it had been a rough day and I desperately needed to know why. “Are you sure everything is fine?”

“Yes…well, no. I don’t know. I just went on the blind date from hell.”

My heart dropped. “You’re dating?”

“Yeah. Rhett’s crazy idea. He thought I needed to go out on a few first dates with both men and women as a way to figure out what I want. He set up a profile for me on some stupid dating website. It’s been a nightmare.”

I didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t my girlfriend—I had no right to stake any claim over her. And yet, the idea of her seeing other people, whether they were male or female, hurt like a sledgehammer to the stomach.

“Nathanial? You there?” she asked.

I’d stopped talking. She’d finally texted me more than one word and this was what she had to tell me? “I’m here.”

Then the photographer called my name. “Nate West, you’re up, man.”

“One minute,” I called to him before returning to my conversation with Ellie. “I’ve gotta go,” I told her. “I’m at a photo shoot.”

“Right. Me too. I mean, I’m not at a photo shoot, but I am at work. So yeah, I’m sorry I disturbed you. It won’t happen again.”

Dammit. I was screwing this up. This might be my only opportunity and I was wasting it on jealousy over nothing. If these dates with other people meant anything to her at all then she wouldn’t have bothered telling me about them. “Wait,” I said before she could hang up the phone. “If you’re dating random people to figure out what you want then I think…” I took a breath. “Then I think that I should get the chance to date you too.”

“What?”

“I want to date you.”

“Oh. Um.” I could hear her breathing through the phone line—almost like she was pressing her phone as hard as she could against her ear too.

“We can talk more about it on Friday,” I told her before she could tell me no. “Unless you want to talk before then. But I really do have to go.”

“Friday,” she whispered.

“And, Ellie, please don’t stop the goodnight texts. I look forward to them all day.”

“I won’t.”

We both hung up then. I inched my phone back in place under my armor against my calf. Then I walked across the room as if nothing life changing had just happened and let the photographer do his thing. But the whole time I stood for my pictures, I could feel goose bumps covering my arms. The moment this was over I was booking a plane ticket to the East Coast.

* * *

“You’ll meet me then?” I asked David. My brother was the busiest person I knew. He had two kids, a husband, and a full time job. I’d just seen him at Thanksgiving, but there were certain situations that called for a big brother. This was one of them.

“I would love to be there. Rogelio’s mom is visiting, so the timing is perfect. She can help him with the kids while I’m gone.”

“Okay, thank you,” I said into the phone.

“You really like this girl, don’t you?”

I laughed. That was an understatement. “You must think I’m out of my mind.”

“No, I think you’re romantic.”

“Well, romance is probably the opposite of what I need to win this girl. Anyway, my flight gets in at one tomorrow. Is that doable for you? Want me to buy your ticket? I would love to buy your ticket this time. Especially since you’re helping me out.”

I already knew the answer to this question. No.

Even though I knew they could use the extra money and even though I had more money than I knew what to do with, David only let me buy stuff for his kids—never for him or for Rogelio. So a plane ticket was out of the question. Which meant it was a good thing David was a flight attendant or it would have been impossible for him to even entertain the idea of flying to meet me. But still, standby was always tricky, especially this close to Christmas, so I offered in case he’d give in about the money thing just this once.

“I’ll be there by one,” he said. “There are a million flights from Miami to Charlotte every day—getting one won’t be a problem. So, keep your money. Spoil the kids with it at Christmas time, but you know how I feel about you trying to give it to me.”

“I know,” I groaned. He could be so stubborn sometimes. “But if you ever need anything then please ask. You know I’d love to help you out more.”

“Yeah, yeah. I better get off the phone. I need to run everything by Rogelio. Make sure he’s okay with me leaving. Then I need to call Mom and tell her the plan. And don’t you dare bring that damn cat of yours—Rogelio’s allergic.”

I already knew Rogelio was allergic. He didn’t need to remind me.

That meant I needed to make a visit to Mrs. Stone’s house and see if she could watch Holly. I got off the phone with David, spent fifteen minutes searching the house for Holly, finally found her trapped behind the headboard of my new bed, and then headed down the beach for Mrs. Stone’s.

Ben answered the door.