Quinn (The Waite Family) (29 page)

“You’re going to be fine.
Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
She’s coming. I wasn’t going to tell you this, but she called this morning and asked for directions. She said she had a negative sense of direction and wanted to make sure she didn’t get lost.”
Nathan looked at the man in the chair as he laughed.
“Sound like someone else you know?”

Nathan could get lost in his own room.
Not really that bad, but he couldn’t find his way around the grounds without a map to guide him. He did do better once he got some landmarks memorized, but somewhere new, he’d never make it.

He started to pace again when his phone rang. It always startled him because he hadn’t had one until recently. He was beginning to get all sorts of things now that he could go for days without the shakes and he wasn’t talking about killing himself any more. He still got depressed, majorly, but he was getting better at handling it.

With shaky hands he picked it up and said hello.

“Mr. Howard, you have a visitor at the front desk. Would you like for us to bring her to you or do you want to come and get her?”

“I’ll come and get her.
Thank you, Marsha. I appreciate it.”
He hung up the phone and turned to Brady. “She’s here.
I’m going to be sick.”

“No, you’re not. Go and see your sister.
You’ll be fine, and Nathan?
Don’t forget why you asked her here.”

Nathan nodded as he left the room. He had to ask her to forgive him. It was part of his process. She didn’t have to forgive him, but he had to ask all the same.
When he got to the desk there was a woman there with Marsha, and a man. Nathan didn’t know either of them.
He walked forward, taking deep breaths as he went, and plastered on what he hoped passed as a smile.

“Hi. I’m Nathan Howard.”
He closed his eyes at his blunder.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been…I’ve been drunk and high for so long, I don’t…this was a mistake. I’m sorry. I thank you for coming.” When he turned to leave, run as a matter of fact, she laughed. A soft sound that brought up all sorts of disjointed memories.
He stopped and turned back to her. “You used to do that. Laugh when you were nervous.
I remember that.
I don’t remember much, but that I do.”

She smiled again.
“I’m Alyssa Waite.
This is one of my bodyguards, Daniel Louise. I don’t remember much about you either.”

Nathan looked at the bodyguard and nodded. Turning back to his sister he whispered, “I’d never hurt you. I don’t know if I did in the past, but I would never harm you. Ever.”

She glanced back at Daniel and he stepped away. Not far, but he did give them privacy. “He’s not because of you. I’m…there are people who would harm me and my husband is overprotective.
Overbearing as well, but mostly overprotective of me.
Can we sit down?”

Nathan led her to the sitting area for visitors. He waited until she sat then he sat across from her. He was suddenly nervous again. The beautiful woman before him wasn’t what he expected.

“I was thinking of you as a child. I know that’s stupid, but I didn’t picture you as a woman.” When she laughed he blushed. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out right.
I’m not very good…I need to tell you I’m sorry.”

“For what?
And you never hurt me. Not physically anyway.
You and I didn’t run in the same crowds so there was nothing there. You have nothing to be sorry for, Nathan.”

He looked around the room. He wanted to do this right. She was being really nice to him and he didn’t know how to handle it.
His family just wasn’t nice.

“I know about…I know about Shannon.
And Robert.
They said that he killed her, is that true?”
She nodded.
“She wasn’t a nice person.
I mean…they said that you can’t blame someone else for your problems, but she is the reason I’m a drunk and an addict.
She gave me my first drink when I was ten.”

“That sounds like her. She would have wanted to control you with it.
I’m the one who should be sorry.
She…Dad told me once that she was the root of all evil. I didn’t know what he meant until that night we met in the restaurant.”

Nathan didn’t remember that night, or for that matter much after he’d turned twelve.
But he only nodded.

“Uncle Samuel…he’s not nice either. He…he’s evil.
You need to stay away from him or have your bodyguard close. Don’t let him touch you.”
He took a deep breath when the guard stepped toward them. He hadn’t realized his voice had risen.

She lifted her hand and Daniel didn’t move any closer, but he didn’t stop staring hard at him.
Alyssa leaned forward then, took his chin and pulled his gaze from the man behind her.

“Nathan, did Uncle Samuel molest you?
Did he hurt you?”
Nathan tried to look away, but she gripped him harder.
“Answer me please?”

“I was seven.
He said that…he told me that he was going to show me something fun.
It wasn’t fun. It was…it was horrible.
After
a while
Shannon would bring me to him when I refused to go.
I hated her for that, and him. I will never be able to…”

She got up and sat next to him on the couch and pulled him into h
er
arms.
Nathan didn’t know what to do at first.
It was his first hug in more years than he could remember. A hug given for comfort, not because he needed to be held down.
He wrapped his arms around her and started crying.
Soon it was sobs.
He thought for a second he should be ashamed, but all he could think about was that she was holding him and not condemning him.

After a bit he just let her hold him, his tears dried now. When he sat up he noticed that Daniel and his nurse were gone and that there was no one else in the lobby.
He smiled at her.

“They were staring at us. I thought it best if we had some private time.” He sat back on the couch and smiled at her. “You’ve had it rough, haven’t you?”

He looked around the lobby again. He’d been here for over a year now and his time was almost up. He’d be out in another ten days as a matter of fact. Nathan didn’t know what he was going to do, where he was going, but he was going to make something of himself.

“It’s not been so bad, not here anyway. I know you’ve been paying for this and you have no idea how much I appreciate it. This place…it’s been where I began my life.
I’ve been making plans. I’ve taken some college classes in the past six months. Nothing too stressful at first, but I’m getting better. I’ve been working on a degree in business management. I want to help people that have been…you don’t care. I just wanted to tell—”

“Don’t do that, Nathan.
I do care. I didn’t think I would, but I do.
Tell me about your classes. I want to hear.” She leaned back against the back of the couch and that’s when he noticed her belly.

“You’re pregnant.
That’s…you said you were married, but it didn’t register.
A baby, my baby sister is going to have a baby.”
He started to reach out and put his hand on her, but pulled it back.

“It’s all right, you can feel him.”
She took his hand and put it on her belly.
“He doesn’t move yet…well, not so you can feel him. But I can feel it, a quick kind of swirl in my belly.
It’s so cool.”

Nathan didn’t feel anything but her tiny belly. It was hard and soft at the same time.
He couldn’t believe she was old enough to be pregnant.
He smiled when she grinned at him.

“Your husband, he’s a good man?
I don’t know him…do I?”

“No, his name is Cain Waite. You’ll like him, he’s a doctor.
He has these sisters, five of them.
They are incredible. I can’t wait for you to meet them.
Nathan?”

He pulled his hand away and turned from her. “I didn’t ask…you don’t have to say that, Alyssa. I’m just so happy that you came here to see me.
And to let me tell you how sorry I am.”

He heard her shift on the couch. “Nathan, look at me.
I mean it, look at me.”

He turned slowly. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but the tears in her eyes weren’t it.
He nearly turned away, but she grabbed his chin again.

“You’re going to be bruised if you don’t stop not listening to me.” Her smile was wobbly.
“I didn’t come here expecting anything other than to visit a man from my past.
What I got was something more.
When you leave here in two weeks you’ll be coming home to my house for a few days. The man I talked to earlier said you needed to go to a halfway house for a month then you’d be free to do as you please so long as you got a job and didn’t have any setbacks. Is that right?”

“Yes. I have to get a job or go to school full time. But I’m not expecting you to—”

“Hush, I’m not finished. You’ll have a job if you want it.
And if you want to go to school I’ll help you with that as well. You’re all the family I have and we have to work together. I want you to be in my life.
If you don’t want to be in mine…well, tough shit. You’re stuck with me.”

Nathan laughed. “Does that work on your husband?”

“No, not nearly as much as I’d like for it to.
But it works wonders in the board room and with the city council.
I mean it. You’ll come home with me. I live in the old house, but you know there is plenty of—”

“I can’t live there.”
He felt the panic rise. “I’ll work or go to school with…please don’t make me live there.”

She took his hands in hers and held him until it passed. He knew she was saying something, but he hadn’t understood until he felt calmer.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think.
There’s a house on the other property. It’s not far from where we live, you’ll stay there. No one is there anymore. Jazzie lives in the big house, but the cottage will be perfect for you.”

“Why are you being so nice to me, Alyssa?
I mean, you don’t owe me anything. Right after you came back an attorney came and brought me the paperwork…I know that I’ve spent a great deal of your money…why?”

She looked around the room now and was quiet for a long time. Nathan let her be. He enjoyed the quiet too.

“Let me do this for you. I don’t know…I’m not sure why I want to do this yet myself, but I want to do this for you, for us.”
She turned back to him.
“Will you let me?”

Nathan nodded.
He didn’t know either and he found he didn’t want to disappoint her.

The morning of the wedding dawned bright and sunny. Quinn had fought him all the way on a big wedding, but he was sure that someday, hopefully soon, she’d appreciate it.
He looked over at his best man and smiled.

“Here, let me, Grandda. You’re making it worse.
How did you ever wear a suit and tie everyday to work?”

He huffed.
“Your grandma did it for me. Said it made her feel useful. Made me feel stupid.
Why do we have to get dressed like damned penguins for anyway? Just to say I do.”