When we pulled back into the trailer park, Nate climbed out of the truck first, then Wren. I tried to follow, but my legs were numb from Wren sitting on me. Nate sighed, reached into the truck, and lifted me out bridal style.
“We’ll see you guys later!” he called to Dean and Marni as he shouldered the truck door shut. They drove down the street and around the bend toward their own single-wide.
Wren walked inside the trailer, only shutting the screen door after her. “It’s hot in here!” she yelled out to us.
Nate glanced down at me. “Guess I should put you down. Want to sit on the bench?”
We sat down on the wicker couch together. I wasn’t sure how much Wren had told him, but I imagined there wasn’t much left to his imagination.
But he was still here. Still sticking with me even though I tried to push him away. He was still protecting me in the little things.
Now that I looked back, I wondered how many of our arguments in middle school and high school had been the typical flirting of kids.
We’d had each other’s backs even then.
We even teamed up to look out for Nola—bless her over-large, accepting heart. That girl didn’t like to tell any of the boys no. And she was beautiful enough that she was constantly being asked out. She wanted to keep everyone happy and spread some love in her life.
That was where Nate and I came in. We wouldn’t let her go out with some of the boys. She got stubborn one time and went out with a boy Nate and I didn’t like. I tagged along. Nate and I were right. He was a tool and made a move on me when Nola left the room. Needless to say, I have a much better right hook than average. I’d grown up in a scrappier situation.
After decking him, I’d texted Nate, and he came to pick us up from the party.
He was livid. We had to talk him down from beating the guy to within an inch of his life. Seeing someone who usually terrorized Nola and me get so protective of me...that had been the moment when I saw him with more clarity. He wasn’t the dumb little brother he pretended to be. He was just a little brother doing what brothers did. Making their sister’s and her friends’ lives miserable until they really needed him.
Funny thing, the next day at school, the guy had had a black eye—courtesy of me. But he also had a broken nose and a fat lip.
No one knew who did that to him, but Nate’s knuckles were a little scraped up. He never admitted anything about it, but from that moment on, I became more protective of him. I started fielding girls and pointing away the ones who weren’t worthy of him. Of course, I couldn’t ever tell him that.
He just wouldn’t understand.
He’d probably be furious.
It was as though we were destined to end up together. We’d both secretly (him not so secretly) been sabotaging the other’s dating life. It was as though we knew, subconsciously, that we liked each other.
And now it was up to me to open up to him.
“Thank you for going out on another date with me,” Nate said with a smile.
“I think you went on a date with me tonight.” I smiled faintly.
We stood in silence for a few minutes. “Do you want to go for a drive? Go get a late-night milkshake and fries?”
“Yes. Milkshake and fries.” I nodded stiffly then followed him to his Jeep. He held the door open and pressed his hand against my lower back, guiding me into the car before he climbed in.
He put the Jeep in reverse and backed out of his driveway.
“Nate, I haven’t told you everything.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“But you’ve stayed.”
“Riley, I’m not an idiot, despite what you think.”
I studied my fingers and stretched each one individually.
“I know you had a good reason. I know you were scared.”
I steepled my fingers together and pressed, popping my knuckles.
“What do you think I was scared of?”
“Of my family. Of me.”
That wasn’t true. I wasn’t scared of them. I was scared of how much I loved them. I turned to face him, leaning my back against the door. “That’s not true. Your family was always kind to me. I wasn’t scared of them.”
“No, I don’t mean that in the sense you feared your mother’s boyfriends.”
“Low blow, Nate,” I growled.
“You were worried about us leaving you.”
And there it was. The knife to the heart.
“But aren’t you mad at me? I left because of my own insecurities. I didn’t want to be the last one there. Everyone else was leaving, and I didn’t want to wait around for that to happen.”
He pulled onto a side street and drove through a neighborhood that led to a park by the river.
I shifted uncomfortably. “I didn’t want to pull you guys into my life when you already had plans of your own.”
He pulled into the park and drove to the river. He parked facing the water, the moonlight shining down on it. “Riley, I’m not mad at you. I think you did what you thought you had to do to take care of your sister. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t tell us. We would have understood if you needed space to figure things out. We would have understood about your worries of us leaving.”
I reached closer and squeezed his hand. “Nate. You are the sweetest, kindest man I know. But everyone leaves. It’s just a fact of life.”
“No, not everyone. Some people have staying power—even if the person they’re staying for is as prickly as a porcupine.”
My lips tugged up of their own accord. “I’ve never been called a porcupine before.”
“Oh, I’m not sticking around for you; I was talking about Nascar Jim.”
He smiled and unbuckled his seat belt so that he could stretch his arm out across the back of
