She quirked an eyebrow at me. “Nemesis really has a thing for underwear? That’s weird.”
“Ask Iola. It’s how she and Asher met.”
Nat bent to grab a pair of pajama pants. “When are you going back to LA?”
I swallowed to force the word out of my dry throat. “Friday.” Watching her bend had sucked away every drop of moisture.
“Friday?” She pulled her pajama pants on, her smile turning into a frown. “I didn’t expect it to be so soon.”
Now she was more-or-less dressed, I could finally take a breath. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to Asher about his building team right away.”
“No, please don’t. You’ve already done too much for me.”
“We’re not keeping score.”
“Still. I can handle the repairs.” She hesitated, then swallowed, her expression serious. “Kade, we need to talk.” Straightening her back, she twisted her hands together as though she was about to say something difficult. “I want to get my journalism career back, which means I’ll be going to Chicago, if my boss will still consider me for a job.”
I was suddenly sure where this was going.
My chest tightened.
Nat was about to tell me she was leaving and remind me we’d just been messing around. It wasn’t like I hadn’t known it would happen. We’d been through this before.
I’d thought expecting this moment would make me ready for it. That it wouldn’t be as bad. But now it was here, something heavy was pressing into my heart.
Part of me had always believed if I could be a little sweeter to Mom, just a little more charming, she might keep loving me. I’d thought if I could do enough to keep her happy, she wouldn’t leave us in the apartment, hungry and afraid this might be the time she never came back.
I shouldn’t have let my guard down with Nat. Somewhere along the way, I must have started hoping for things I knew she couldn’t give me. Last night had been a mistake.
“What I’m trying to say is that I don’t want either of us to hold each other back,” she said. “We both have dreams, and…” She broke off and frowned at me, her expression concerned. “Kade? Are you okay?”
Putting my arm behind my head, I smiled. “Nat, you don’t need to say anything. There’s no need.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we’re friends. Last night was great. Really great. But it was good to get it out of our systems so we can move on.”
Plumping up the pillow, I pretended to turn my attention to being able to lie back more comfortably.
Her expression dropped. She bent to her bag, rifling through it again. “You want to move on?” she asked, straightening with a toiletry bag in her hands. “Only last night seemed real, and I thought…” She hesitated. “You don’t want more?”
“We were just fooling around. How’d you put it? Going round the bases? Well, we’ve done that. And now it’s out of the way, we can stay friends.”
It came out sounding incredibly sincere, considering how difficult it was to say.
“Are you sure being friends is all you want?” She was chewing her lip, her eyes dark.
“I’m leaving soon anyway.” I gave a casual shrug.
“Right. On Friday.” Her voice sounded tight.
“And you’re leaving now. Don’t you have an appointment to get to?”
She fiddled with the zip on her toiletry bag, her eyes clouded and hard to read. “Kade, it just seemed like…” She sighed. “I don’t know. I felt like we really connected.”
“Maybe we did, for a moment. But now it’s a new day and who knows how we’ll feel. Isn’t that right?”
“You’ve shut me out again.” Her voice was flat. “Why do you have to hide from me?”
I widened my eyes, like I was surprised by her question. “I’m not hiding. I’m right here.”
“No. You’re not. Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
She was starting to answer when her phone rang again. Scrambling for it, she found it under some clothes.
“Hello?” She listened for a moment. “Yes. Sorry. I’ll be there soon.”
When she hung up, she ran a hand through her messy hair. “That was the insurance assessor. I’m going to shower, okay?”
“I’ll find your panties,” I said.
She turned toward the door, then hesitated and looked back. “Kade, last night was…” She caught her lip in her teeth. “It was really nice. Thank you.”
My chest was so tight my heart could hardly beat. “I’m glad we did it. Now we can move on.”
Though I knew it was what she wanted to hear, Nat looked sad. “I never wanted either of us to get hurt,” she said.
“Who’s hurt? We’re going to stay friends, remember?”
She turned away. “Yeah. Friends.”
As she put her hand out to open the door, I couldn’t help myself. “If you won’t let me ask Asher for help, I’ll talk to someone else I know who does building repairs. He’ll give you a good price.”
“No. Thank you, but you’ve done too much already.” Her voice sounded strange.
“Nat, I told you, I don’t keep score.”
She kept her face turned away from me as she went out, but for a moment I wondered if she could possibly be crying.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Natalie
I didn’t have time to fall apart.
On the way to Mack’s Place, I let myself cry. Then I pushed Kade out of my mind, wiped my face, took a deep breath and went in to meet the insurance assessor.
After the meeting, I went to Dad’s assisted living center. The talk I had to have with him would be difficult, and I was dreading it. May as well get it done while I was already miserable.
I found my father in the recreation room, his wheelchair pulled up to a table with three other people.
As I got closer, I saw he was playing cards with Reg and two members of the ViaGranny gang, a group of elderly widows and divorcees who hung out together. I recognized Beatrice Abernathy and her friend Martha. Their pink ViaGranny shirts were thrown over the backs of their chairs, and
