Felix looked up at him, his eyes taking in Nate’s ragged appearance and a bright smile coming over his face.“You look like shit.”
Nate nodded, uncaring that his brother was razzing him because he deserved it and motioned with his hand for the water.He was far too weak to strangle his brother who was taking his sweet time pouring him a glass of the good stuff, but Nate made a note to get him back later.
Once Nate had the cold liquid in his hand, he swallowed it in three large gulps before demanding another.“More.”
Felix obliged him, the same smug smile still plastered on his face.“Are you going to tell me why you look like a wet mop with a beard?No wait, let me guess.”As Nate destroyed his second glass, Felix continued.“You were stupid and blew it with the one person you’ve been low-key obsessed with for most of your life for the third time.Or is it the fourth?”
Nate slammed the glass on the bar top, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.“Not the fourth,” he grunted.Truthfully, Nate had lost count of how many times he’d messed up with Lottie, but this would be the last.“And I’m not obsessed.”Felix raised a brow and Nate relented.Denying how he felt about her is what had landed him in so much trouble in the first place, so why bother keeping up the ruse.“Fine.She’s irritated the hell out of me and I loved it and her.And yes, I screwed up.Are you going to tell me where she is?”
Felix laughed as he wiped down the bar top with a rag.“What makes you think I know?”
Nate stared at the stool in front of him for a second, his muscles begging him to take a load off while knowing that if he allowed himself to sit, there was no way he was getting back up again.“I think that because the cashier at the bakery said she went to the florist for a bouquet, the florist said she went to the grocery store for some bread, the grocer told me she actually went back to the bakery to get a loaf from them, and the same cashier at the bakery informed me that actually Lottie left to come here for a drink.Now, I’ve biked all over this damn town and I have nothing to show for it, so either tell me where Charlotte is or get her on the phone and find out.”Nate leaned against the counter, winded from the exertion of biking and his little speech.
Felix stared at him for a moment.“Yea...I don’t think I’m going to do that.”
Nate gaped at his brother.“Why the hell not?”He ground out.If anyone should be helping him out, it should be Felix.He’d dropped enough hints about knowing the extent of Nate’s feelings for the woman for years, and now when it was time to put his money where his mouth is, he was being a tight-fisted ass.
Felix shrugged and slung the rag over his shoulder.“I love you Nate, like a brother some might say.”Nate rolled his eyes at the man three years his junior, but even though he still felt quite a bit of annoyance at his not giving up the information, he felt his mouth twitch with a smile anyway.It was hard to stay irritated with Felix.It was like trying to scowl at a puppy.“But Lottie has been a very good friend to me, a very good friend to just about everyone in this town really, and I don’t want to see her hurt again, especially not by someone I love.”
Nate nodded, respecting what his brother was saying and actually admiring him for being the best kind of man.“I can’t promise I won’t ever hurt her again even a little because I’m an idiot and that’s not the kind of thing that just stops being true overnight, but I can promise that I won’t walk out on her if and when I do mess up.”
His younger brother studied him for a minute before finally sighing.“I want to see you both happy, and ideally that would be as a couple, so I guess I can do you a solid.”He filled up Nate’s glass with some more water and slid it over to him.“Better fill up because you could be biking all over town for the rest of the day.I actually have no idea where Lottie went, only that she mentioned wanting to visit somewhere special to you both.”
Nate’s mind whirred for a moment before he tossed back the final glass of water.“Thanks, Felix.”Nate pushed off the bar.“I don’t suppose you’d let me borrow your car.”Felix shook his head, the bright smile back on his face.Flipping his brother the bird, Nate rushed back out of the bar and got back onto the bike.
It took another twenty minutes for him to reach the orchard, his muscles burning the entire time.Once he found Lottie and made things right, Nate was going to ask her to join him in a bath filled with Epsom salt because his body was wrecked.As he got to the side of his parent’s house, Nate threw the bike to the side as he stalked back toward the loft.As he did, he caught a glimpse of his parents sitting on the porch from the corner of his eye.
Nate glared at them as they sat hand in hand, looking so lovingly at one another that he felt both envious and a little sick because they were that sweet.“You couldn’t have texted me that she was here?”
Nate’s dad smiled and shook his head.“Sometimes you have to work for it, kiddo.”He rose and offered a hand to his wife who took it and joined him as they walked toward the back door.
As Nate’s mom passed by him, she held out something in her palm.“Oh, I found out what was wrong with your car.”She handed him what looked like a couple of thick bolts with tiny tubes at the end.“Seems like someone went and removed your spark plugs.Fancy that.”
Nate’s dad barked a laugh and dragged his wife inside.Nate could hear the two of them cackling at his misery and their hand in it, but it was worth it because now he would finally be able to make things right with the woman he loved.Approaching the storage shed gingerly, Nate paused at the bottom of the stairs.Taking one last deep breath, he took that first step, hoping it would bring him that much closer to forgiveness from the person who’d always been kind enough to give it to him.He just hoped he could give her enough reason to grant clemency upon him once more.
Chapter Twenty-Two
