Helene rolled her eyes, waving a hand at her son. “You’re infatuated, that’s all.”
Nate felt a thunderclap sound deep within the recesses of his soul. The hard, clean certainty he’d never held onto in this house before. Because his mom was very good at twisting things, and it’d always been easy for her to convince him that he wasn’t good enough. Wasn’t popular enough. Wasn’t strong enough.
But when it came to Holly? He’d never believe a word out of her mouth.
“She’s not a phase.” He spoke in hushed tones now, almost like his anger couldn’t bear to be tempted by anything louder. “She’s not afling.That woman is the best thing that’s ever fucking happened to me, and if you can’t see that then it’s your loss, Mor.”
He vibrated with rage now. It coursed through his veins like wildfire, scorching every single one of his cells like a virus burning through his body. The silence that followed was immediate and heavy, like the whole house leaned in to listen.
Helene stared at him as if she didn’t recognize the man standing in her kitchen. Nate watched the confusion pass over her face, the tiny flicker of alarm beneath the composure. He realized in that moment that his mother had never expected him toactuallygrow a spine. She’d built her entire model of him around the assumption thatmother knew bestand he’d always cave. That he’d always come home and fold himself back into the shape she’d picked out for him.
Well.Tonight she was getting a fucking education.
“Shedancesfor a living,” Helene scoffed, reaching for logic as her weapon of choice. “That world isn’t stable. It isn’t respectable. You need someone who can anchor you, Nathanael. Someone who’s steady while you’re off hitting a piece of plastic around a frozen pond with a stick.”
Nate leaned forward just slightly, huge hands flattening on the island. His eyes locked on his mother’s, like he was daring her to blink and miss his rebellion.
“Holly’s the most stable person I’ve ever met. She works so fucking hard. She takes her pain and turns it into art andstillshows up smiling. She’s got more discipline in her little finger than I’ve had in my whole career.”
He watched each thing land on his mother’s shoulders, one after the other.
“I love her,” he admitted, throwing up his hands like there was nothing else for it. As though nothing could save him now, and even if therewas,he wouldn’t want it.
His breath went tight in his throat as he spoke, because admitting it out loud made it real in a way that hurt. “I think she loves me, too. And she believes in me,” he said, voice quieternow but more lethal. “I won’t let you treat her like she’s disposable.”
His mother’s nostrils flared. “You’re being incredibly foolish, my son.”
Nate’s jaw clenched. “Nah. I’m being honest.”
Then he straightened, stepping back as if making room for the final truth he’d come down here to deliver.
“If you want me in your life, then you respect her. You don’t get to mock her, test her, or humiliate her for sport. You don’t get to make her feel like she’s standing in the wrong story.”
Helene’s face went pale with the shock of being challenged by the son who’d always been too loud everywhere except where it mattered.
“If you can’t do that,” Nate finished, “we’ll be leaving and you’ll never see me again.”
One heartbeat.Another.
Then, from the doorway, Sigrid’s voice cut through the tension like sunlight. “About time.”
Nate turned his head just enough to see her standing there in her robe, hair messy, eyes bright with fierce approval. She looked at him like she couldn’t be prouder.
Nate’s chest heaved once, hard, as gratitude for his baby sister flooded him. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed someone he cared about to confirm he wasn’t ruining everything by choosing love.
His throat tightened until it hurt, realizing he’d fight for Holly no matter who the war was against. Not to win her, or keepher. And he sure as fuck wasn’t doing it because he thought she needed saving. He was doing it because she deserved to be chosen.
He turned back to his mother, holding her gaze across the counter until she looked back at her magazine, dismissing him like she’d done so many other times in his life. She wasn’t going to bend. He could see it in the set of her jaw, in the cold way she flipped the page as though he had nothing of value left to say.
Fine. Hotel it was.
But Nate wasn’t just leaving his childhood home behind for his girlfriend.
He was leaving his past behind for his future.
59
GIRL HELP, I ACCIDENTALLY FORMED AN EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT
