Nate (A Texas Jacks Novel) (13 page)

T
HREE DAYS.
T
HAT’S HOW LONG
it’s been since I’ve seen Charlie. She’s all that I can think about lately, which makes no sense.
Since when do I get all worked up about a little slip of a woman?
Yet, I can’t deny it. She’s on my mind more often than not.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The pounding on the bathroom door brings me back from my Charlie-induced fog, startling me. My hand slips while I’m shaving my face, causing me to nick my cheek.

“Keep your pants on!” I yell at the offender on the other side of the door.

“If I had some on, maybe I would. But some of us have a job to get to, while others hog the bathroom!” Holt yells through the door. “I hope you have yours on. I’m coming in, and I’m not all fired up for a full moon.” I hear, right before the door knob twists, and Holt’s blond head appears around the door before he admits the rest of his body in.

“You build things for a living – go build your own bathroom.” I grumpily mumble at him through the bathroom mirror.

“Are you PMSing?” he quirks his left eyebrow at me with a small grin on his face. “Or is this all due to that sweet little mouse you seemed all tied up in knots over?”

“No.” I lie, going back to applying toilet paper to the fresh wound, trying to staunch the blood flow on my left cheek, so I can finish wiping the rest of the shaving cream off my face.

“Uh-huh. Right. So, what’s the problem? Still wishing you had gone in for that kiss?” he taunts as he makes himself at home, sitting on the toilet lid.

“I did kiss her.”

“Oh, right. I forgot— cheek kisses count now. What base would you call that? Half way to first?” he laughs.

“Don’t you have a job to get to?”

“Touchy. Do you want me to run to the mini-mart for Midol?”

“I’m just wondering when you’re going to get your own bathroom so we can stop having these morning tea and cookie chats.”

Tucker makes his way into the bathroom, yawning.

“What’s this? Are we having a bonding moment, or an intervention on kissing skills?”

“Nope.” Holt reaches into the medicine cabinet for his toothbrush, as he scratches his chest. “Just need to get ready for work. I’m not the one who wimped out on a kissing a chick.”

“I did kiss her.” I remind them.

“Cheeks don’t cut it, man.” Holt says around a mouth full of tooth paste.

“So, as fun as this has been, are we all driving into work together?” I ask, a bit testily. I really don’t want to delve into what I did or didn’t do with Charlie, or let on to the fact that she occupies my whole head.

“Sure, get the heck out of the bathroom already so we can hit the road in 15.” Holt replies, totally unfazed by my attitude this morning.

“Great. I’ll update my Facebook status.” I quip, as I remove myself from their presence.

“Don’t worry. I know exactly what he needs. A little dose of his favorite new flavor, and Nate will be good as new.” I hear Holt say to Tucker right before I round the corner to the front room.

I think it’s time to chill out, and the only way that’s going to happen is to either stop whatever this is with Charlie, or send her a text so no one gets hurt today.

“Hey. Do you want to grab dinner with us?” Naomi asks, the moment I answer my cell.

I just locked up after work and was heading to my car when she called. “Sure. Where do you want to meet? I’m starving!”

“We thought
Merchant & Main Grill
sounded good. Are you game?”

“I’m game for anything at this point, and I haven’t been there in a while, so yeah, I’ll totally meet you there. I’m just heading to my car now. Should I drive straight over?”

“Yep! We’ll all meet you there in about 15 minutes.”

“Wait. What do you mean we’ll
all
meet you there? Who else is tagging along?” I’m baffled as to who else she could be talking about.

“The Three Stooges, of course. Who else?”

“Right
.” Why I wouldn’t get that on my own is beyond me.
“All right. I’ll see you in a few minutes, then.”

I end the call, wondering why I didn’t get a message from Nate about tonight, or even a personal invite from him.

I slip into my blue Honda and click on my seat belt, before firing up the engine and head to the restaurant.

“Holt and I are headed out to
Merchant & Main Grill
if you want join us. The girls are meeting us there, too.” Tucker tells me the minute he walks out of his bedroom. “I just got off the phone with Naomi, and she promised to get Charlie on board.”

“Sure. Give me a few moments to clean up, and then we can head out.” I tell him, as I head back to my room and change out of my sweats.

We called it quits early on the project we were working on, which allowed us to come home and clean up at a decent time. I didn’t have any plans to go anywhere once I got in. The only things on my mind were phoning in a pizza, and calling Charlie. Though, phoning Charlie was on the back burner, seeing as she was at work. Thankfully, Tucker just killed two birds with one stone, as there was no way I was going to turn that offer down.
Food and Charlie?
I’m in, one hundred percent.

A few minutes later, we climb into my truck and head towards
M and M
.

We find the ladies shortly after arriving, and pull up seats next to each of them. I automatically reach out and take Charlie’s hand in mine, placing it on my thigh.

Looking up at me, I wink at her as she asks, “How was your day?”

“Good. Though, it would have been better if I could have seen your pretty face all day long. Instead, I had to endure the looks of the motley crew sitting next to your friends.” I nod towards Holt and Tucker as Charlie giggles, bumping her shoulder into mine.

“Well, I’m glad you no longer have to wear your ‘beer goggles’ to face them.” She jokes at the expense of the guys.

“Look here, Squirt. Tucker and I are the best looking things at work. Don’t let Nate fool you, we cause traffic jams all day long.” Holt winks, as he wraps his arm around Halley. “Halley would know. Right, babe?”

She rolls her eyes. “Sure. If that’s what you want to tell yourself.” She winks over at Charlie. “Though, I think the hottest guy sitting at this table right now would be Nate. Right Charlie?” Earning herself a big grin from Charlie and a frown from Holt.

Now I’m laughing at Holt’s expression, as I hold my hands up in surrender. “Don’t even look at me. She’s with you. Though, she is right. The girls just can’t help themselves when I’m around.”

Ever since I gave Nathan my number, we’ve been talking, or texting each other, with every free moment that we had. I know, I wasn’t playing it very cool, or slow for that matter, but there’s just something about Nate that draws me in to him completely. I love talking to him, or being in his presence and I just can’t help myself. I don’t think there’s a woman with a brain in her head who would want to avoid all things that are Nathan.

I’ve been waiting all week for tonight. We’re supposed to go out on our first
real
date. I don’t count last Friday, when we all met up for dancing. Tonight, it’s just the two of us.

I was glad that today was a half-day at work. I didn’t think I could have survived the work day without messing something up. I was too distracted with excitement about my impending date, to really even think straight, or fully do my job. Luckily, I made it through without any major screw-ups before I rushed home to find an outfit.

I still can’t believe I’m actually going out with this nice, good-looking guy, and that I haven’t scared him off already.

So, here I sit on my closet floor, in the middle of the day, trying to determine what to wear. I’m not even sure what we’re doing, as he never told me.
Should I dress up? Go semi-dressy, or semi-casual?
I’m driving myself crazy, and I can’t even call my friends, since they’re all at work.

After another half hour of trying to choose something, I give up. Picking my phone up off the floor, I decide to shoot Nathan a text instead. He’s the only one who can really help me with the matter at hand.

Charlie: Any hints as to what I should wear tonight?