“Yes, right this minute.”Nate put on his coat, took a gulp of his drink, and slapped some money down on the table.“Maybe there is one having to do withthe prohibition era.I’ve recently become reacquainted with the time and I must say, I find it intriguing.”
At the hint, Lottie’s eyes widened and her cheeks tinged pink.“Oh, absolutely.I’m sure I can find something or other back at my place.”She turned to the table, barely waving goodbye as she backed away.“Good luck with the trivia stuff.”Nate chuckled as she dragged him from the bar and out to her car.Still giggling, Lottie leaned over to him, her warm breath tickling his neck.“Do you think we were too obvious?”
Nate laughed as he slid into the passenger seat, bobbing his head.“Um, yes, but I don’t care if you don’t.”
Lottie started up the car and pointed it toward her house, reaching over and squeezing his upper thigh.“Right now, I only care about one thing, and it isn’t whether they bought our story.”Her hand traveled higher until it brushed against the hard tip of his erection, causing him to fill the car with the sound of his moan.Every time she touched him, he melted.Lottie chuckled as she moved her hand over him again.“Look at that, you guessed it.”
Nate grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together.“Just drive, Lovely.Then you can put your hands on as much of me as you want.”Ten minutes later, the two of them crashed into her house, Nate sweeping Lottie up into his arms and carrying her into the bedroom.When he got there, he laid her out on the mattress, and started to unbutton her coat.As the sides parted and it slipped from her shoulders, Lottie shivered, the cold air that Nate felt on the back of his neck signaling that it wasn’t because of what they were doing.“Shit.I forgot to shut the front door.”
Lottie sat up in the bed and reached around to her back, the sound of a zipper descending filling the air before the creamy skin of one of her shoulders was exposed to him.“Hurry back,” she commanded before laying back on the bed, looking like every wet dream he’d ever had in high school come to life.
Nate smiled adoringly at her and went back out front, shaking his head at his leaving the front door wide open.Applewood was a safe haven, but you never knew when someone might take the open invitation to come in.After securing the door, Nate bent over to pick up some papers that had blown onto the floor.As he gathered the pile, the one on top caught his attention.A bank statement was easy enough to recognize, but he hadn’t seen one in ages.Eager to tease Lottie for not doing all her banking online like a normal person, Nate moved to put the papers back, but he couldn’t help himself from looking a little more closely.
Raising the paper to get a better look, Nate’s eyes widened as he saw the large numbers on the page.Lottie’s financial status had never been explicitly known to him, but he knew she was comfortable enough to spend whatever money she did have on other people.From the vast amount of wealth she apparently had at her disposal, her status was far more stable than anyone else in town.Feeling like a snoop, Nate went to place the paper down, only to pause when his eyes snagged on the name of one of her accounts.
As he read the words, his stomach dropped as the realization that he’d been lied to settled over his shoulders, the weight of the despair it brought with it threatening to bring him to his knees.It felt like the ground beneath him was shaking and slipping away, nothing but a hole filled with hurt left to swallow him up.The world as he’d known it felt upside down and as he looked around the entryway, suddenly everything felt wrong.No,hefelt wrong.The panic he’d been waiting to show up finally made itself.Lottie was a lot, so much energy, personality, and light in one person, and Nate loved that about her.What he didn’t love was that once again, he was disappearing.He hadn’tearnedthat money, she’d given it to him, and he was so damn disappointed in himself.
On wobbly legs, Nate approached the bedroom, the paper dangling limply from his hand as he stepped over the threshold.Lottie looked up at him from where she lay on the bed, a smile on her beautiful face.“Did you get lost or something?”It didn’t take long for her to notice his lack of joviality, and she sat straight up, her expression uneasy.“Nathan?”
Nate clamped his eyes shut, hoping to fend off the wonderful feelings that always flooded his system whenever Lottie spoke his name.As he stood there, the knowledge that The Citizens for a Brighter Applewood was really just the single woman across from him had eschewed the feelings of love he had and harnessed onto the resentment coursing through his veins instead.Holding up the paper for her to see, Nate took no pleasure in the gasp that shot from her mouth or the look of guilt and shame written all over her face.As he looked at her, his heart squeezed painfully in his chest.
“Care to explain this?”As he watched her face drop, the knife that he’d felt stab his heart earlier twisted at knowing that no matter what she had to say, it might not be enough to stop him from leaving again.
Chapter Twenty
Lottie
Lottie lay in the bed as she waited for Nathan to return from the front of the house.She smiled to herself as she thought about how Nate couldn’t seem to stop touching her over the course of the evening.Every excuse he had to put his hands on her, he did, and even the times where it wasn’t explicitly necessary, he at least had a hand on her leg or his arm over her shoulder, claiming her for the whole town to see.The fact that they’d come into the house without even securing it before rushing off to the bedroom was just more proof of how caught up they’d become with one another, and she reveled in every minute of it.
Muffled footsteps on her soft carpet warned her of his presence, and Lottie gazed over at the door, happy to see him even after only being apart for a few minutes.“Did you get lost or something?”As she studied his face, Lottie saw that instead of a smile or even a knowing smirk on his face, Nate’s expression was one of hurt and distrust as he squeezed his eyes closed.“Nathan?”
When Lottie’s eyes suddenly snagged on the paper in his hand, the familiar letterhead of her financial adviser visible in the dim light of the room, she gasped and shot up in the bed.Apparently so used to being alone, Lottie had been careless enough to leave her paperwork out where anyone could see it.Before she could say anything, Nate’s eyes were focused back on her, the blue hard as steel and just as cold.
“Care to explain this?”His voice was low and icy, and it sent a shiver of dread up and down Lottie’s spine.
Lottie panicked, wishing she could go back in time and tell him everything before he had the chance to discover it for himself.Patting the seat next to her, she tried to smile, but it wouldn’t come.“Sit next to me and I’ll tell you everything.”
