And I…had wasted so much time and effort getting ready after dinner. And none of it measured up. My little black dress skimmed my body and flared out at my hips, hiding my worst feature. But it was nothing compared to her siren red bodycon dress. Hell, if I had that figure, I’d flaunt it too.
I don’t know what I’d been thinking.
I turned to go.
“Madison!”
I froze for a second. This wasn’t real. I would wake up any moment.
“Madison Roberts!”
I turned back and found Nathan standing next to the bar with the now annoyed blonde scowling behind him, still in her chair.
I took an uncertain step forward, and Nathan cocked his head as he took in my outfit. Or maybe he was studying my body language. Because the next thing I knew, he’d crossed the distance between us and grabbed my hand, his other hand holding his drink.
“Come on. Let’s grab a table in the back.”
I followed blindly, still certain this was a dream. There was no way he was picking me over her. Why would he? Hell, I wouldn’t. And given the huff the blonde gave as we sped by her, neither would she.
It still didn’t feel real as I sat down in the chair Nathan held out for me. I watched in silence as he took the seat across from me. My eyes hungrily ate him up. He’d changed from dinner tonight too. Instead of the casual t-shirt and oil-stained jeans, now he wore a button up shirt with crisp, clean jeans. He’d made an effort to dress up for me.
I didn’t know what to say. But apparently I didn’t need to, since Nathan broke the ice for me.
“So what are you doing here?” he asked with a hard glint in his eyes.
Um, what? I blinked a few times as I tried and failed to make sense of his question. “I’m here because of your message.”
The hard edge left his expression as his eyes cooled. “You knew it was me?”
“Well, yeah. Of course. I’ve known you most of my life. I’d recognize those tattoos anywhere.” I bit my lip. “No matter how hard you tried to hide them.”
“You knew it was me,” he repeated. “And you still came?”
I held my breath. It felt ridiculous to expose my lifelong crush. I wanted him to see me as the woman I was now and not the little girl always hanging around his house. “I thought you knew it was me, too. I was pretty open on my profile…unlike some people.”
“Too open,” he muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“You were too open.” He repeated, staring at me with that glint in his eyes again. “Guys do not need to know all your business. That’s an invitation for unsavory bullshit from assholes.”
“Right.” We were here for the lecture after all. I should’ve known he would never abandon a blonde who looked like that for me. Eyes stinging with tears, I put my palms on the table and pushed my chair back with a screech. “I’m done. Goodnight.”
I moved to stand and Nathan snatched my wrist from across the tiny round table.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.” I tilted my chin, trying and failing to pull my hand away from his grip. “I thought I was meeting up with someone interesting for drinks and maybe more. I’m not really in the mood for a lecture tonight. I’m not a child—I can take care of myself.”
“You wanted to meet up with me for drinks and maybe more?” He repeated in a soft tone. His gaze dropped to my hand, and I hadn’t noticed until now that instead of gripping my wrist to detain me he was softly tracing lines on my palm. “I guess I’m still having a hard time with the whole you knew it was me and still came part.”
My heart thundered in my ears. He sounded so vulnerable. And interested in me. What the hell? If this really was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up. “I knew it was you, and I asked you to meet me. I was the one who picked the place, remember?”
“I do. I know. I just…I’ve noticed you lately, and I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around this new grown-up version of you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. He was finally being soft and sweet and into me, but it was so swiftly on the heels of his annoyance, I was having a hard time keeping up. I had to know which version of him I was dealing with before I spilled too much.
I finally pulled my hand away to grab my chair, tug it closer, sat down, and plopped my hand back into his. I had to touch him. It’d felt so amazing the first time. “Of course I’ve grown up. I’m twenty-six, Nathan. I’m not the annoying kid playing with Sabrina and following you and your brothers around anymore. If you can’t see that, I might as well leave now.”
Nathan’s eyes darted up to mine and stared intently at me. “I don’t want you to leave.”
I believed him. Biting my lip, I watched his fingers resume their gentle petting on my palm. “I don’t want to leave.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” I repeated softly, darting a look his way. The tenderness and need in his gaze had me catching my breath. I never thought I’d see that look directed at me, and I didn’t know if I was strong enough to live up to the promise I saw lurking in his naughty gaze.
All my answers to the dating app came swimming back at me. I’d had more than my share of alcohol to get through the questionnaire. I had wanted to sound flirty and vaguely more experienced than I actually was.
I could tell by the glint in Nathan’s eyes that he had a world of experience himself.
I was so outta my depth.
“So, what’s next? I’m kinda rusty at this.” I stammered. “I guess I need to know if this is a hookup or something more? I need to manage my expectations.”
Nathan wordlessly shook his head. I could all but see the gears turning behind his eyes. Everyone thought Austin was the brains behind Badass Builds, but I knew better. Nathan had a lot of brains hiding behind all those muscles.
It was half the reason I’d been in love with him for so long. That and the way he loved his family. And those muscles. All big and protective and sexy.
Shoot, what were we talking about? Oh right. Hooking up. With Nathan. Was this really my life?
His voice was all rumbly when he finally spoke. “I want to do this right. Get to know the grown-up you. Go on a few dates. See where it goes then. You deserve every bit of my attention, darlin’.”
Oh, swoon. My heart literally fluttered in my chest. This time I bit my lip to hide the huge grin tugging at my lips. Nathan wanted to date me. Not just a hookup. A date. And then see where it went from there. Commitment. Marriage. Babies!
No, that was crazy and way ahead of myself.
Instead, I nodded slowly. “Okay. I agree.”
It was so hard to keep the squeal inside of me. After a lifetime of crushing and lusting after the hottest Burns brother, he wanted to date me.
Me!
Not just hook up, but date.
My euphoria lasted all of a minute. And then me being me, all the things that could go wrong assailed me.
I hissed a pained breath. “But we can’t tell anyone though.”
“What?”
“If this—whatever this is—doesn’t work out, I don’t want it to be awkward. I want to still have Sabrina and her mom in my life. They’re like—you’re all like—my second family. I couldn’t bear it if I didn’t have them in my life anymore.” The longer I spoke, the more that affronted expression left Nathan’s face until finally he was looking at me with this softness that made me teary. I blinked quickly to mask it, but a tear still tracked down my cheek.
“I get it.” Nathan reached out and gently wiped the tear from my cheek with his thumb as he cupped my face. “We won’t tell anyone until you’re ready.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, mesmerized by the look in his eyes.
He shook his head slightly. “It’s hard to remember a time in my life without you in it. It’s crazy to me that you’re this amazing, gorgeous woman. When did it happen? How did I not notice?”
The reverent tone in his voice made my body burn. Nathan was finally seeing me, and I
didn’t know what to do with myself. Or him.
He still looked at me with that stunned, soft look as he paused to take a drink from his whiskey. This might’ve all been a revelation to him, but I knew everything there was to know about Nathan Burns. Down to his usual drink order. Bushmills 21-year single malt, neat.
Meanwhile I still sat here without a drink. Something that had only just occurred to me.
And Nathan.
“Shit, I haven’t even bought you a drink. I swear I usually have more game than this.” He winced. “Not that that’s something you needed to know. Fuck, I’m flustered. What do you want to drink? I don’t think they have very good wine here; probably just a shit house blend. What’s that thing you always drink with Sabrina? A lemon something?”
Maybe he had been paying attention. I smiled slightly. “Just water, please. I had a terrible hangover this morning, and I’ve got work tomorrow.”
Like the gentleman he was, he didn’t try to pressure me into ordering something harder to loosen up. Instead, he nodded and went to the bar to order my water.
Of course, the minute he got up there, the blonde from earlier snatched the barstool next to him and immediately started talking to him. All my earlier insecurities rushed to the surface again. I’d watched Nathan enough over the years to know his type. And she could’ve been his poster girl. Literally on a poster at his workbench at the shop.
But this time, Nathan hardly paid her any attention. He gave her a distracted glance, shook his head, and walked back to me with my water in hand.
The blonde’s glare shifted from Nathan’s back to me.
Usually, I’d duck my head and hide—I hated confrontation of any kind. But Nathan had chosen me. Me. Over her.
Again.
I think I was too shocked to do anything more than blink back at her. There was no way this was my life. Any minute I’d wake up.
I really didn’t want to wake up.
“Sorry about that.” Nathan pulled his chair back out and sat across from me again after he’d placed my water down in front of me.
I didn’t know what he was apologizing for. “What?”
“I should’ve ordered you a drink when you got here. I think I was still so stunned at how gorgeous you are. And how stupid I was to never notice it before.” His eyes dipped from my face, lingering on my cleavage. “I’m just glad as hell that I finally figured it out.”
Me too. I thought it but didn’t have the courage to say it. Instead, I took a sip of my water then cleared my throat. “You’re not having another round?”
“Nah. Gotta work tomorrow and yell at my brothers. Easier to do without a pounding head from a hangover. Speaking of, what were you up to last night that left you with a hangover this morning. Hot date? You still seeing that asshole biker?”
He might’ve been trying for a casual tone, but I could hear the annoyance and frustration he was fighting to suppress.
I closed my eyes with a wince. Shit. I’d forgotten that Nathan had assumed I was seeing that scary biker. “Um, no. No date. I haven’t seen ‘that asshole biker’ since that night. Definitely not seeing him.” I don’t know what made me tell the truth, but it fell out of my mouth before I even thought about it. “I needed some liquid courage to fill out my profile.”
“Really.” Nathan sat back in his chair with that smirk that drove me crazy. “So your profile hasn’t been up that long.”
I rolled my eyes. “Long enough. It got your attention.”
“That it did.” His smirk turned into a smile. He shook his head and softly repeated, “That it did.”
As if on cue, my phone chimed with a notice from the app.
He raised his eyebrows. “You need to get that?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Probably just another dick pic.”
I don’t know where this sass came from. I felt like a heroine in one of the books I loved to read. This was definitely my favorite dream ever. I never wanted to wake up.
“Dick pic?” He repeated flatly. “Give me your phone.”
“What? No. Why?”
“Because I’m going to block those fuckers. No one should be sending you unsolicited dick pics. Ever. What the ever-loving fuck!”
“You’re sweet.” If not more than a little overbearing. “But it’s not necessary. I know how to block assholes, thanks.”
He simmered as he glared at my purse where my phone chimed with another incoming app message. It was crazy-hot that he was already this territorial over me.
Although a small part of me wondered if he was actually seeing me as a woman or if this was still thinking of me as sister-adjacent. I’d seen him go all aggro over Sabrina with men before.
Yup, this was definitely the part where I woke up.
Wanting to delay the inevitable, I gave him a twisted smile as I pushed away from the table. “I really should get. Those books won’t shelve themselves tomorrow.”
Because that was a sexy thing to say. Remind him that you have the world’s most boring and unsexy job. Where was my romance heroine sass? Crap, I had to get out of here before I completely unraveled.
“Maddie, wait.”
I paused, my back still turned. I couldn’t face him when I was all flustered. I didn’t want him to see me barely holding it together.
“Let me walk you to your car.”
I nodded tightly. All my insecurities and awkwardness bubbled to the surface. I couldn’t say anything because if I spoke now all that crap would fall out of my mouth. Instead, I walked away from the table and through the bar without looking to see if he was following. I could feel his presence just behind me. I was always aware of where Nathan was, no matter what room we were in. I just knew.
We left the bar without speaking another word. The door shut behind us, leaving us on the street in sudden silence.
I still couldn’t look at him. “I’m parked just up the street.”
Nathan didn’t say anything, so I headed off in the direction of my car with Nathan silently trailing me.
“This is me.” I stopped on the sidewalk next to my car, staring at my shoes. I’d worn my sexiest heels, certain that they’d give me the power to feel sexy and feminine with him. That hadn’t lasted. “Thanks for…”
I didn’t even know what I was thanking him for, so I trailed off as I tucked some hair behind my ear.
“Well the water was free and the company was charming although brief, so I think I should be the one thanking you.” Nathan’s voice was deep and just above my head as he stepped into my personal space. “When can I see you again?”
I caught my breath and lifted my gaze to search his eyes. He wanted to see me again? “Like a date? Or do you mean am I coming to Wendy’s next family dinner?”
“Like a date. You know, dinner, drinks, and hopefully a kiss at the end. A date.”
I pressed my lips together at the thought of kissing Nathan Burns. Shoot, this better not be a dream.
“Tomorrow, okay?” He asked when I didn’t say anything.
Still speechless, I nodded silently.
Nathan’s eyes crinkled with his smile. “Fan-fucking-tastic, darlin’. I’ll text you the details after I make our reservation.”
I held my breath as he leaned into me. But his lips only passed over my cheek before he was stepping back.
“Drive safe.”
I nodded vacantly and stared back at him.
His eyes crinkled again. “This is the part where you get into your car, Maddie.”
“Car. Right.” I blinked a few times before I jerked into motion. I felt kinda dizzy as I tottered around the rear of my car, hitting the button to unlock my door. “Good night.”
Nathan just waved as he watched me open my car door and sit in the driver’s seat. I shut the door behind myself, gripped the steering wheel, and closed my eyes. Was this really my life? Did I really just make a date with Nathan for tomorrow? I leaned back and squealed. I wanted to call all my friends and crow that my lifelong crush had just asked m
e out on a date.
But I couldn’t.
The only friends who understood were Nathan’s family. And I didn’t want to make it awkward for them—or hear their lectures on dating the baddest of the Burns brothers.
Aside from that, my life was kinda perfect at the moment.
Right up until the moment someone knocked on the passenger window.
I jerked and opened my eyes to find Nathan crouching next to my car. Nathan, who had just asked me out. And the same Nathan who just heard me squeal like a teenage fangirl.
My face burning, I shoved my keys into the ignition and turned the engine over so I could roll the window down.
“Um, yes?”
“Everything okay?” Nathan asked, bent over with his hands on the roof of my car. His face too close to mine.
“Everything’s good.”
Nathan nodded slowly, a slight smile curving his kissable lips. His eyes twinkled. “This is the part where you drive home.”
“Home,” I whispered back. “Right.”
“Drive safe, Maddie. I’ll see you tomorrow night.” He tapped the roof of my car then took a few steps back.
Embarrassed as all heck, I was still grinning like a fool as I pulled away.
This was my favorite dream ever. I hoped I never woke up.
And conversely, I couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would bring, because I was going on a date with Nathan Burns.
Chapter Eight
Nathan
I woke up the next morning feeling lighter than I ever had before. Usually, I’m an ass in the morning. Grumpy, surly, and maybe a few other dwarfs too. But not today. I practically had a spring in my step as I moved around the shop.
“What’s with the whistling?” Ryan scowled as he collapsed onto his bench next to mine.
“I know, right?” Austin chuckled. “Someone got laid this weekend.”
“You mean you, don’t you?” I returned. “You’re the one who just got engaged.”
A satisfied smirk stretched across Austin’s face. “Fuck yeah, I did.”
I just shook my head, thankful that the attention was off of me. I hadn’t thought about what I’d tell my brothers. Maddie wanted to keep shit quiet about us. And I was kinda worried they wouldn’t approve. They’d all have an opinion and want to share it with me. Aggressively.
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