“I won the race. I get the couch.”
“You won, so you should get a reward.” He’s already walking toward the elevator. I let out a breath before I push my tired legs to follow. “Seriously?—”
“Maisie, it’s fine. I know what I want.” My bottom lip protrudes a little. “Don’t you dare pout.”
An idea crosses my mind. “Why not? Is it working?”
“No.” He says it too quickly.
I lean in, adding in the fluttering of my lashes. “Pleasecan I take the couch? Pretty please?”
Nate leans away, but I can see conflict on his face. “Come on. That’s cruel.”
“I just wanna be punished for losing.” My voice is high-pitched and his eyes are wide. I know how it sounds, but he never thinks that way of me anyway.
And I don’t want him suffering on the damn couch.
“Uh ...” He’s still breathing heavily from our run. He must be in terrible shape. “I ...”
The moment is broken when my phone goes off loudly. I realize that I’m way too far in his space and I back away.
What had I been thinking?
“Sorry, I’ll go back to begging in just a moment,” I say as I pull out the phone.
“Don’t worry about that. I got your message.” His voice is low and I don’t even know if he meant for me to hear it. I want to ask, but I’m too shocked to see Rob’s name on my screen again to say anything.
Rob
I shouldn’t have said that about you and Nate.
I blink, my jaw tightening at the words. He’d sworn he had a point, going so far as to let the wedding fall through.
Now he has regrets?
“Why is Rob texting you?” Nate sounds annoyed.
“No idea, but I’m not answering.”
“He’s apologizing, isn’t he?”
“He’s . . . trying.”
Nate shakes his head. “He always does this. He waits until he knows you’re serious and apologizes.”
I want to argue, but I quickly realize I can’t. Rob and I fought often enough that it’s obvious how Nate picked up on a pattern, even if I didn’t tell him about every single one we had. I didn’t push back on much, but when I did, Rob always dug his heels in.
Until he didn’t.
“He let me cancel the wedding.”
Nate blows out a breath. I wonder if he’s about to drop a bomb on me, but he only shrugs. “Who knows what the hell is going through his head.”
“You have thoughts.”
“I don’t want to get involved in that,” he says with a shake of his head. “It’s your relationship.”
Nate’s always been like this. He stays out of everything to do with Rob and me. When I got with him, Nate made sure Rob was a decent guy and then stayed out of it.
