Huffing impatiently, Nate stalked over to the kitchen where he had put some of Felix’s cider on ice and fiddled with the arrangement of the glasses he’d set out.He was nitpicking, he knew that, but he couldn’t help himself.Lottie was someone who noticed everything, and because of that, Nate wanted every single thing in his apartment to be arranged perfectly.After he was finished, he put out a small bowl of cinnamon roasted almonds he’d made earlier that evening.He’d gotten the recipe from Aiden, and while Nate wasn’t the best cook, he could follow directions well enough.He knew for a fact that Lottie always got some of the nutty treat at the town’s Harvest Festival, and after all she’d done for him, Nate wanted to show that he too could pay attention.
Lottie may have her network of spies around town to fill her in on everything that happened in Applewood, but when it came to what happened with her, Nate only needed what he’d seen with his own two eyes.No matter what the event, where it happened to be taking place, or how hard he tried to avoid it, his gaze always seemed to land on her.Every year during the early October festival, Lottie would get a paper bag of the salty sweet snack and munch on them as she walked through the lines of booths, stopping to chat with everyone she could, laughing and smiling while Nate watched from a distance, too afraid to go after the one thing his heart always wanted but his head wouldn’t let him have.
“You’re nervous.”The voice of his older brother Beckett traveled over from what was once the other man’s bedroom.When Nate turned toward the sound, he spied his brother smirking at him, one inked arm around a small box of what he assumed were Beckett’s belongings.
Nate could have looked for another roommate after Beckett moved out officially in June when he and Willa had gotten married, but Nate hadn’t wanted one.In college, his roommates had been too into socializing and annoyed him with their late nights and loud gatherings.After that he’d only ever lived with Beckett and the man was at the fire station so often, Nate felt as if he’d lived alone already anyway, so why bother looking for someone new now?At the moment, there was only one other person he could picture sharing a space with, but somehow he couldn’t imagine Lottie anywhere except for the mid-century modern home she’d lived in for the last decade.He would move in with her in a heartbeat, but could she see him there with her?The unknown answer to that question was just one of the reasons for the nerves his brother had so astutely observed.
Nate sighed.“I am.”He reached over to the black counter and turned the white bowl filled with almonds forty five degrees before giving up on everything looking perfect.“Charlotte has always made me anxious.”
Beckett chuckled and dropped his box onto one of the stools next to him.“That much has always been obvious, Nate,” he confessed, squeezing his shoulder.“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone get under your skin as much as Lottie does, but seeing how the feeling seems mutual, I think you’ll be okay.”
Nodding, Nate ran a hand over the beard he’d trimmed the moment he got home in hopes of looking his best.“I don’t know.I haven’t really given her many reasons to like me.”
Beckett snorted.“Understatement.”At Nate’s glare, he raised his hands in supplication and smiled.“I’m not trying to dump on you, I’m just being honest.Luckily for you though, I’ve gotten to know Lottie pretty well over the last year or so and she seems like a pretty forgiving person, especially to those she cares about.”
Nate gulped.“I don’t know that I’ve given her enough reasons to care about me either.”He hoped to change that, but the worry that he might screw up again was just as prevalent in his mind as his desire to be different.
Beckett squeezed his shoulder again, Nate wishing the simple move could allow him to absorb some of his brother’s inherent strength.The man was built like a brick house, but most of his fortitude was from his character, something Nate had always admired in his older brother.“She also seems like the type of person to care about someone whether they give her reason to or not.”
Nodding, Nate dragged his brother in for a hug.It was hard to move such a tall, broadly muscled man, but luckily Beckett was always willing to dole out a hug when it was needed.“Thanks, Beck.”He leaned back and smiled at his older brother.“You’re going to be a great dad.”
Beckett ducked his head, his cheeks looking slightly pinker than they did before.“Thanks, little brother.”He looked up again, his hazel eyes shining.“That means a lot coming from you.”A knock at the door interrupted their brotherly bonding moment, and the panic that Nate felt must have been written on his face because Beckett was chuckling and bumped him on the shoulder.“Don’t worry about tonight.At the very least, you’ll have Willa and me around as buffers for any awkwardness.”
Nate nodded, and after one last deep breath, he opened the door, beaming at the women on the other side.He’d seen Willa not more than a couple of hours earlier at work and paid her no more attention than was needed to wave her inside.When his eyes moved to the right and he looked at Lottie, despite it having been only slightly longer since he’d seen her, Nate couldn’t help but feel like he could breathe a little easier just by virtue of the fact that she was near him again.Words of greeting were lost into the recesses of his mind when he was faced with the beauty in front of him, so Nate held out his hand to her, smiling softly when Lottie accepted it.
As he pulled her inside, Nate watched Lottie look around the space, wanting to know everything she thought about it.A sharp inhale caught his attention before she was dragging him over to the chairs opposite his couch.The gold club chairs had been chosen because they matched the generic block color painting he had on the wall across from it and had been pretty comfortable when he’d sat in them in the show room.
“Oh my God, these are so great.I looked all over for something like this for my bedroom but I could never find it.”Their hands were still linked, so Lottie ran her free one over the tweed fabric.When she was finished, she looked up at him with bright eyes and a sly smile.“Figures you would be the one person to have exactly what I’d been wanting.”
Even though she was referring to the chair, hearing those words from Lottie bolstered Nate’s confidence enough to pull her back toward him and grab one of the silky curls that rested on her shoulder.“Maybe we’re more alike than I gave us credit for, since we have similar tastes in furniture.”
A throat clearing from over his shoulder reminded Nate that the two of them were not alone.The world had once again fallen away, but Nate hadn’t panicked and fallen away with it this time, the feel of Lottie’s soft hand in his keep him rooted right along with her.As he turned his attention back to Beckett and Willa, Nate tried not to roll his eyes at the shit-eating grins on their faces.
“We’re going to leave you two to your planning.”Beckett looked down at his wife lovingly as he pulled her toward his old room.“I just remembered I left something in the closet.”
“Oh sure.”Willa’s wide smile was now aimed at her husband.“I can help you with that.”As the two disappeared, closing the door behind them, Nate didn’t lament their absence.Beckett had offered to be a buffer for him, but he was actually looking forward to having Lottie all to himself.
Lottie leaned closer to him and groaned.“Oh God.Is there somewhere else we can go talk?”Nate peered down at her with a raised brow.“They’re about to have sex, and I left my noise cancelling headphones at home.”
Nate felt his face scrunch in response.“How do you know that?”Maybe she was psychic after all because he saw no indication of that from the couple, though his attention had been firmly fixed on the woman next to him.
Lottie looked at him like he was adorable in his ignorance of such things.“I know that because I have lived with them for a while now and before it was official, Beckett spent almost every night he wasn’t at the fire station in Willa’s room.”She followed Nate as he pulled her over to the kitchen where he grabbed the bottle of cider and passed Lottie the bowl of nuts, memorizing the sweet smile of surprise on her face when she realized what was inside of it.“Trust me, I know.”
Despite having no idea what his brother and sister-in-law were about to get up to, Nate knew enough about Lottie to understand that when it came to observing people and their behavior, she was better than anyone he’d ever met.Once they had their food and drinks, Nate pulled her out into the hallway and over to the stairwell that led up to the rooftop.“I suppose that could be pretty awkward to listen to while we try to plan a public forum.”
Lottie walked next to him, chuckling as they moved up the steps.“Oh, I don’t really care about ‘awkward.’”Nate opened the door to the roof for her but instead of moving past him, she stopped and faced him with a glint in her eye.“I don’t want to listen to it because it will get my own engines revving, if you know what I mean.”After patting his chest lightly, she breezed past him and out into the cold.Unfortunately, even the bitter air of winter wasn’t enough to cool Nate off after her little confession.
Adjusting himself in his pants, Nate walked over to the outdoor seating area and switched on one of the space heaters nearby.Grabbing one of the large flannel blankets, he draped it over Lottie where she sat on one of the cream colored sofas, her feet to her side and a few of the cinnamon almonds disappearing into her mouth.Nate collapsed next to her and cracked open the cider, taking a long drink as he watched her sit so comfortably next to him after admitting something like that.Wiping the hand with the back of his mouth, he stared openly at her while she crunched on her snack, trying to hide the smile on her face.
After a full minute of silence, Lottie finally made eye contact with him, the cocoa in her eyes lighter than usual.“Did I scandalize you, Mister Mayor?”She reached over and grabbed the bottle from his hand and took a swig before putting it on the table in front of them, licking her lips clean.
Nate opened his mouth to answer in the negative only to find himself cupping Lottie’s cheeks and leaning over to kiss her.The moment his lips touched hers, he knew he was a goner.He didn’t care.The sweet taste of apple and cinnamon on her lips, the same scent that always lingered in the air after she swept past him, and the feel of her supple skin under his hands clouded out concern for anything other than more of her.Lottie’s hands found their way to the sides of his coat, and she pulled him closer, moaning into his mouth as he drove his tongue further into hers.
Even with his eyes shut, Nate’s vision tunneled as it always did when he was with Lottie.All he could see, all he could hear, taste, smell, and feel was her.It was everything and it was wonderful.As he waited for the inevitable wave of fear to come, Nate moved his hands down her neck and onto her waist and pulled her on top of him, gripping her as tightly as he dared allow himself.He didn’t want to hurt Lottie, but he needed her to be as near to him as he could possibly get her.He craved closeness to her body before the panic showed itself and caused him to run away.As Lottie gripped his shoulders, her nails digging to the skin despite the thick sweater that separated him from her, Nate sighed into her mouth and pulled her down onto the hardness pressing against the zipper of his pants.
The pressure was sweet relief and horrible torture at the same time, yet Nate couldn’t help himself from doing it again.One hand moved from her waist and slipped underneath the layers of fabric that comprised her dress.It was one of her more ostentatious numbers, and while she looked no less beautiful in it than she did anything she wore, he silently cursed the lack of easy access to her body.Just as his fingers brushed against the silk of her panties, Lottie reared back and stared at him.Her pupils were blown wide, the brown swallowed almost entirely by black that was as inky as the night sky that surrounded them.
Whimpering, Lottie leaned down and brushed a feather light kiss against his lips before sliding back to where she originally sat.She stayed there for a moment, her breath coming in stuttered pants before she launched herself up off the couch, whipped off her coat, and started to pace in front of him.Nate watched her with rapt attention, already able to tell that she was more than a little pissed off by the looks she kept shooting at him.
