Nate (A Texas Jacks Novel) (27 page)

“It’s fine,” I reply, so Charlie can relax and we can move on from this awkward moment. “How about we go inside so I can meet the rest of your family?” Charlie gives me a grateful smile, and we maneuver through the front door.

The minute we clear the entryway, Charlie shouts, “No one else better sneak-attack us, or I’m out of here!”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Charlie-bear.” A tall, dark-haired guy a little older than me tells Charlie. “What? You can’t be seen hugging your brother now?” He ribs her. She shakes her head but grins at him before she complies with his request. “Now, tell me all about
you know who
.” He mock-whispers in her ear.

She gives him a shove, but then introduces me. “Nathan, this is my big brother, Anson. Anson, this is my—” she stops and looks at me with raised eyebrows. “Uh, this is my
good friend
, Nate.” She presses forward when I don’t give her the right word she’s looking for. We’ve never claimed to be anything but friends, even though we know darn well it’s more than that. However, I’m not ready to admit it out loud just yet. It’s still a subject I need to reevaluate—at a later date and time.

“Nice to meet you.” I reach for his hand to shake. He nods his head, and gives Charlie a weird look before the rest of the family joins in, and more introductions are handed out.

“Smells good, Mom!” Charlie praises her mom, as we sit down to dinner approximately 20 minutes later.

“Yes, it sure does. Thank you for the invite to your special family dinner.” I wholeheartedly tell her parents. Here’s another thing that I haven’t done in ages—had dinner with my family at an actual table.

“All right, everyone dig in so we can get to the juicy stuff.” Lindsay slyly smiles at us. I have a feeling this night is just starting to really liven up. Charlie reaches under the table and places her hand on my thigh, squeezing it for a moment. She releases her grip, though she doesn’t take her hand away.

“No need to embarrass them.” I let out a little air of relief, until Bethany continues, “Just yet, anyway. Wait until they start to stuff themselves on Mom’s enchiladas.” She wags her brows at Lindsay, who laughs in return.

“You women are horrible.” The tall blond guy—
Greg, I think his name is
—says to me. “They’re harmless. I’ve already been through the interrogations, and honestly, contrary to whatever you’ve been told, it’s tame.” He tries to reassure me.

“Honestly, Charlie led me to shark-infested waters on this one.”

They all stare at her with a mixture of shock, surprise, and amusement. “What?” She defends herself. “I didn’t want to scare him off! I’m not that stupid.” She nervously laughs, and all the while, she won’t make eye contact with me. So I reach under the table and give her hand a squeeze. Although, a shiver did crawl up my arms at her announcement.

“Don’t worry, Nathan, it’s not as bad as whatever has your face turning pale,” she promises. “I just didn’t want to give off a bad impression of my family. We can be loud and obnoxious, and I didn’t want you thinking we were nuts.”

“Geez! Now that’s all you’re doing, sis!” Anson chuckles at both of our discomfort.

“All right, stop trying to make matters worse. Your sister will stop coming to visit us if you keep ragging on her and her friend.” Her dad intervenes at her siblings’ so-called-teasing. “Nathan—or do you prefer Nate? I believe I’ve heard my daughter call you both this evening.”

“Nate is fine, sir.”

“Sir,” he chuckles. “Please, just call me James. Now, where did you two meet? It would seem my daughter is pretty tight-lipped these days on the subject of her friends.” He gives her a pointed look. She returns a weak smile to him before ducking her head and paying her plate far too much attention than it deserves.

“We met at
Texas Jacks
, in Vacaville. She was sitting all alone at a table, and I couldn’t resist the pull to meet her.” This time, she’s watching me, wondering what will come out of my mouth next. I wink at her, causing her to blush.

“I see. So, a bar, then?” Her dad doesn’t seem fired up about how we met.

“It’s a dance club, too, Dad.” She steps in before I can say anything further. “We were there to dance, not drink.”

“How long have you been seeing each other?” he asks, looking at both of us.

“Just over three months,” I reply.

“Charlie!” her mother exclaims. “What is wrong with our children, James?” she says, turning to her husband before looking at the rest of the table. “Why do you all feel the need to hide who you’re seeing from me? I’m getting old, here! My poor heart can’t take it.”

“Mom, cut out the theatrics.” Jennifer shakes her head. “We are not going through this song and dance again.”

“Oh, fine—but seriously, I thought we promised not to keep secrets anymore. Unless—” she trails off, eyeing each child as they squirm in their seats. Someone coughs, and it feels like the air is getting warmer.

“Sorry, Mom,” a guilty-looking Lindsay speaks up. “We promised to give her space, until she was ready to share it with us.”

Her mom solemnly nods her head, and then tucks into her dinner, allowing Charlie’s dad to pick back up with his many questions.

We end up getting into a nice groove through the rest of dinner and dessert, as the family asks us a million questions. It’s pretty easy to keep the focus on Charlie and myself, and off the topic of my family. Each time they mentioned them, I could feel Charlie tense up. I don’t blame her—it’s not like I’ve really shared anything on that subject with her. But I can see why she wanted me to meet her family. They’re funny, love being together, and are a genuine bunch to be around.

Charlie’s dad does manage to eventually draw us all into a game during the course of the evening, to the siblings’ dismay. Truthfully, I think all of their posturing is just for show, and they secretly love it. I even saw some side-betting happening amongst the players.

By the time we leave, I’ve made a promise to come back for a round of Backgammon and another dinner. I’m not going to lie; I think I’m biting off more than I can chew by agreeing to all of this. It seriously scares me to death. I’m not as used to all of this family closeness now as I was in my youth. Even having a serious girlfriend has, by choice, not been in the cards for me. I’m not going back there again. As it is, Holt, Tucker, and now Charlie are the closest people I have in my life. And as far as my relationship with Charlie goes, I’m one hundred percent positive it has moved to the fast lane—granted, a lot of that was my doing. As much as I like her family, I need to apply some pressure to the brakes and slow us down.

“Thank you for coming tonight,” Charlie brings me out of my musings as we drive along I-80 towards home.“My family really liked you.” She leans her head on my shoulder and yawns.

“Tired?”

“Yeah. I’m grateful you’re the driver tonight. I might have just crashed at my folks’ if it had been just me there.”

“Glad I’m good for something.” I tease her, as she nuzzles into my side a bit more. “Preparing to nap on me now?” I laugh.

“Maybe,” she shyly replies.

“Go to sleep, little one. I’ll wake you when we get home.”

If I get any deeper with Charlie, I just might drown, because I don’t think I have any strength, when it comes to her, to stay afloat. I might let her take me down and hold me there. The fight is too real, and my heart isn’t ready to go there completely. I went there once, until my life fell apart, and now—allowing it to happen after so long—I can’t fathom it. I don’t want to hurt myself again, let alone Charlie. Ultimately, that’s probably going to happen, no matter how much I try to prevent it.

“A
RE YOU CRAZY?”
C
HARLIE IS
staring at me, with her mouth agape.

“One lap.”

“You know what? I think you’ve gone mental.”

“I’ll go slowly.”

“Nope. No, way. No, how.” She shakes her head at me.

“No one else will even be on the track. It’s perfectly safe.” Leaning against my bike, I gently pull her between my legs. “
I’ll
keep you safe.” I murmur, as I feather kisses up and down her neck.

“If you think this is working,” she stops talking, and I can feel her body relax, giving into my devious whim. “Then you might be right.” She laughs. “You dirty, rotten, scoundrel.” I feel her arms tangle around my neck, and one of her hands starts to play with the hair at my nape.

“
Mm-hmm
.” I murmur against her throat. “You can’t resist the powers that be.” I tease her while brushing a few more light kisses against her throat.

“If you two are done making a spectacle of yourselves,” I hear a snide voice, which once used to be sugary sweet.

Charlie stiffens as I pull my head up to catch Shelley scowling at us. Shaking my head at her, I look back down into Charlie’s eyes. I can see she’s fired up to say something, so I lean down and effectively cut her off with a hard kiss.

“Caveman.” I hear Shelley mutter under her breath in disgust. “Are you two finished?”

Charlie turns in my arms, so her back is now flush with my chest. I wrap my arms around her waist as she leans into me further.

“Is there something we can help you with, Shelley?” I ask, ignoring her previous comments, not wanting to give her any more reasons to be rude, or insulting, to Charlie.

“My car won’t start. I was hoping you would be able to give me a lift home.” Now she’s back to being sweet, and studiously ignoring Charlie in every way possible. She’s standing in front of us— wearing super short shorts, a tight tank top, and heeled boots, using her body in a flirtatious way. She’s going for sexy, and hoping I’ll jump on board with whatever she’s offering, even though Charlie is clearly standing right here. Even if I didn’t have Charlie, I wouldn’t be tempted with her desperation in the slightest.

“Sorry, I can’t give you a ride.” I give it to her straight, not even feeling bad that I won’t help. “I have a date with Charlie. Did you ask anyone else to see if they could give your car a jump start?”

“Of course!” she chides me. “Do you think I wanted to come over here, and see you two sucking face?
Please
.” She scrunches her nose in disgust.

“Well, I don’t know what to say. Call a cab?” I offer with a small grin.

“Did he ask you to take a ride on the back of his bike, yet?” She ignores me and looks to Charlie. “He promised me ages ago he’d let me ride with him, too. In fact, he offers all of the girls a ride once around the track before it shuts down for the night.” She smirks at Charlie.

“Really? Do you honestly think I would believe anything that comes out of your mouth?” Charlie asks in a bored tone, not giving in to her snide remarks, or looks.

“You can believe whatever you want. It’s still the truth. Go ahead, Nate. Why don’t you tell her about how you’ve given me
plenty
of rides?” She challenges, daring me to deny it.

“Well now, look who’s stirring up trouble!” Holt states as he walks up to our little group. “Shelley, are you the reason that Charlie’s sweet lips look like the duck pucker pout?” he quips.

“Hey, sexy,” she purrs in Holt’s direction. She makes her way towards him, pushing her body up against his as she greets him with a hug. I can feel Charlie’s body silently shaking. We both know that Shelley isn’t into Holt. She’s just trying to play her games, and using him as her newest pawn. “I was just asking my dear old friend, Nate, for a ride home.” She pouts while latching her arm around Holt’s waist.

“Oh my stars, he didn’t turn you down, did he?” He winks at us, as he mocks her with his stupid comment.

“I know! I can’t believe it, either.” She exclaims. “What about, you? Do you have any plans tonight? Maybe you’d want to bring me home.” She winks up at him.

“Sure. I can give you a lift.” He assures her. I watch as her face lights up, and she flashes me her sly smile, before turning her attention back to Holt.

“Thanks, babe. You’re a life saver.” She nuzzles into him a little more.

“Let’s get out of here, and leave the love birds to do their own thing. What do you say?”

“You don’t have to ask me twice.” She shoots Charlie one last disapproving look, then turns on her heel and propels Holt towards the car lot.