I face forward once again.
“Anyway,” his mom says, seeming only to be able to stay silent long enough to take a bite of food and swallow it. God, how I love her already. “He told us about you. At first, it was just things like what you looked like, how you were a few years older than him—which I was actually grateful for. The girls around here that are his age are spoiled little bitches.” I squeak out one startled laugh as Mr. Black scolds her gently, but she waves him off. “You know they are, Nathaniel. He said that you were a librarian and owned your own home in the town on the insurance claim. Told us about your parents.” Her voice is low for that last part, and I see sympathy in her eyes. “Yet it wasn’t the things he was telling us about you, but how he was saying them, like you were this angel sent to him, and he was so… just… smitten.” She ends with a dreamy smile. “And let me tell you, I have only seen one other man in this entire family ever be smitten.” She turns toward her husband and makes a goofy face at him.
“Definitely smitten kitten, my love,” he admits unashamedly, and he leans over to give a soft and quick kiss to her lips. I feel my face get warm but not out of embarrassment at their PDA. I’ve been a member of Club Alias long enough to not give one flip about any type of PDA. I feel warm because of the love I see between the two of them, and how he’s looking at her the way Nate always looks at me.
“He just failed to mention that you are, in fact, the librarian at the school,” she adds, and my face does flush with embarrassment then, since they know exactly what we were doing in the school library. At my blush, she giggles, reaching out for the butter knife and pulling the tub toward her. “So how about… my only request… is if you two want a little alone time, make sure it’s in the privacy of your home and not where anyone could just… stumble upon you in a compromising position.” She quotes Mr. Moran’s awkwardness and grins over at Mr. Black, and if a hole would open up and swallow me beneath the table, I’d gladly dive in headfirst.
I clumsily agree to her request, with a silent addendum about places where people have been legally sworn to secrecy.
Chapter 22
Nate
Today feels different.
After all the excitement from yesterday evening, from the moment Evie surprised me in the hallway, to the mind-blowing sex we had in the library, to getting caught and sent to the principal’s office, right down to the moment after we ate, when my crazy mom hugged her goodbye and wouldn’t let her go for a full minute, making Evie promise she’ll make it at least a weekly habit to come over for dinner before she released her to me, the whole world just feels… different.
There’s a lightness inside me, but at the same time, I feel fuller. Like I’m complete. And as I sit in the library watching my woman flit around putting away books and helping other students, I realize I never once checked my watch today to count down the minutes. It’s like, once everything between us was out in the open, I felt secure, secure in our relationship, so I didn’t have that urgency to get to her and see for myself she still wanted me. I still looked forward to seeing her as much as I ever did, it was just… different. A less maniacal necessity.
It didn’t take long for the entire senior class to hear about what Lindy had seen. She wasted no time spreading it through the cheerleading squad, who told the football team, and then it spread exponentially from there. So when I got to school, that’s all anyone wanted to talk to me about.
Good. Let the rumor spread to the ends of the earth. Let everyone know that the hot librarian at our school is fucking mine.
I was actually able to concentrate in class; therefore, I didn’t have any schoolwork to finish up in study hall. So in order to keep from following Evie around like a lost puppy, I sink back in my chair and crack open the latest Stephen King novel, which she had sitting in my spot at the table when I came in. I looked up to find her watching me when I spotted it, and it took everything in me not to stride over to the circulation desk and kiss her for the thoughtful gift.
Which brings me to now, two chapters in and tuning out the chatter around me. Lindy had been smart enough not to sit next to me, but she’s still at my table, just at the far end. I don’t hear exactly what she says, but I hear her mention Evie’s name, and I look up to where my woman is at the circulation desk once again, and I see she’s listening to the bitch at my table.
That’s when I decide to tune in to what’s being said.
“…could have anyone he wants, including me, and he chooses her?” She scoffs snottily. “I just don’t get it. She’s not even that pretty.”
My nostrils flare, and my eyes turn to Lindy, who’s facing Jamie beside her. Jamie has the decency to look uncomfortable as she glances over at me, but Lindy keeps on running her mouth, not realizing I’ve started paying attention to their one-sided conversation.
“I mean, what’s she got that I don’t have? Who is she compared to me? What makes that… nerdy freak so special?” Lindy asks, my eyes drilling into her, and suddenly the room goes red.
But just as my legs go tense and my chair loudly scoots back across the floor, an
