“I don’t know, Laurel, but you’re not quite leaving me with a really good feeling inside about it.”
“That's because you're made to find problems. That's what you do with the Academy. You're the problem solver. There's no problem to solve here, Nathan.”
Nathan could tell that she was lying, and he didn't have the heart to call her out on it. He was hoping that he was wrong, but the way she almost choked on her words and the brave face that she was trying to put on, was not enough for him to see it any other way than what it was.
“Why don't you have some dinner with me? We could go out and get whatever you want. Maybe you want to talk about the stuff with your parents?”
“We’re about to have dinner here. I can't just bail on them, now.”
Nathan frowned. He had not come all that way, just to see her for a moment. It wasn't near enough to slack his thirst for her.
After a moment, she seemed to change her mind. “Why don't you stay? There is always more than enough. Then, you can stay and meet my normal family. See what you think about them.”
He smiled and said that he would love to. It was the perfect invitation, because he wanted to stay close. The funny thing about the whole situation was that Nathan knew better than to even think about her in that sort of way. He knew that it wouldn't turn out well. It would actually be a complete disaster. Even knowing all of that, even knowing what could happen, didn't really change him too much. Even knowing that it could blow up in his face, and Nancy could find out and that could be a real shitshow, Nathan knew if he could push it to something more, he would. He also knew that he probably wouldn't feel any guilt about it, either.
Laurel took his hand and led him into her house. He was not unaccustomed to human homes, and they weren't that much different than his own, but Nathan couldn't help but notice how quaint it felt. It was one of those perfect homes, like he had noticed from the outside. Everything was just so on the inside, as well, and Nathan wondered if Laurel was the same way. There was so much he didn't know about her and so much that he wanted to learn. Even though he knew it was pointless. They could never be together. It certainly didn't stop him from watching her, though. He was starting to imagine that nothing would.
“They're a bit much at first, but their heart is in the right place.”
Nathan smiled and nodded his head like he knew what he was getting himself into. It became painfully clear rather quickly, that he really had no idea.
Chapter 5
Laurel was more than a little excited to see Nathan. It was actually feeling more like he was a mirage. So many times, she’d wished that he was there with her and that she could see him again, be part of his world, and now he was there, and maybe he could be a part of her world, instead.
She didn't know how it was going to work out with him meeting her parents. She knew that Nathan dealt with humans a lot, but her parents, especially her mother, could be a lot to handle. Laurel probably wouldn't have offered for him to come to dinner and meet them, if she hadn't been afraid that he would turn into a dragon and fly off. That would have been far worse than anything else that her parents could cook up to embarrass her. Well, she liked to believe that, anyway, though there was no proof to that at all.
He had a smile on his face, but she could see that he was a little nervous. Laurel was going to have to talk to Mallory about him and find out why she had given him information to track her down, but for the moment, she wanted to focus on the evening. She still wasn't even sure what she wanted to do with herself, and now that Nathan was back, of course her mind started to hope that going back with him might be a possibility. Would it be so bad to be the conciliatory human? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. She hadn't minded before.
Her mom and dad were quite surprised to see Nathan with her when she came back in. She hadn’t mentioned him before. Her mother started to get flustered, and her dad picked up the slack and said that there was always more than enough. He then went to get another place setting. He was very rarely flummoxed, unlike her anxiety-ridden mother.
Nathan looked at Laurel and asked, “Is your Mom okay?”
“Yes, that's just how my Mom is.” She shrugged.
“I don't want to upset her.”
“Honestly, I think she was born upset, and I don't know if that's ever going to change.”
He thought that she was lying, but Laurel wasn't. He had never met a shifter that acted like her mother. He might not understand what she was saying.
Nathan sat down at the table and at least her father seemed to have his wits about him. He asked Nathan where he was from and what he did.
“I'm from London, and I run an Academy there.”
“Oh, really, you're into education? Well, that must be fascinating. What do you teach?”
Laurel felt her nerves going up. She didn’t know how Nathan was going to answer, and she could feel tension that may or may not have been there. She should have known that Nathan would handle it just fine. He was so cool and calm most of the time. He was a bit of a hot head, but under pressure, he seemed to really do well.
“I teach a little bit of everything. We’re kind of more of a specialty school. Some students have been with us from preschool all the way to high school.”
“Wow, I have not heard of a school like that.”
Laurel tried to pay attention to the conversation, but she couldn't. She was still a little overwhelmed that Nathan was even there, and she was trying to figure out why Mallory would send him like that. Out of everybody she could have sent if she was truly concerned, why would it be Nathan?Did he volunteer?
She wanted to believe that was the case and that he had wanted to see her just as badly as she had wanted to see him. It was one of those questions that she wouldn't get an answer to until she talked to Mallory. But Laurel had never really made her feelings known to Mallory about Nathan. Mallory had a tendency to think of herself as a matchmaker. She had tried to set Laurel up with a couple of people when she was with her, and it had always turned into a disaster. Laurel did not want that same thing to happen with Nathan.
She would have just been so embarrassed. Was that what her friend was doing now, or had he offered? She supposed that it didn't matter, but in the back of her mind, she knew it did. That one little distinction made a very big difference to her.
