What Nathan Wants

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  “Will you ever let that go?”

  “You’re right. At least it wasn’t something permanent like HIV or Herpes.”

  “Not that it matters, but I tried to be careful. I insisted on condoms each time.”

  “I don’t want to know the details. Catching you with him in bed was enough.” He didn’t even want to know how many men she’d slept with while they were married, so he never asked. It was enough to know she caught Chlamydia along the way, gave it to him, and that the antibiotics cleared it from his system. From there, a clean bill of health and a divorce paved the way for a new beginning. “I do hope you’re faithful to this husband.”

  “You ask a lot of people, Nate. In this day and age, who’s archaic idea is it to limit yourself to one person? Patrick and I have an agreement which is none of your business.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Lovely. Maybe he doesn’t need a sympathy card. Maybe you two will be happy.” What a happiness it was bound to be, he thought sarcastically.

  “Your way doesn’t work for everyone, my dear.” She let out a contented sigh. “I must be off. I’m having my wedding dress personally sewn. Try not to spend all that alimony money in one place.” Blowing him a good-bye kiss, she headed out of the office.

  He breathed a sigh of relief and felt the tension leave his muscles. Maybe that would be the last he’d ever see of her. One could only hope. He waited until she left in the elevator before he turned to his computer and logged into the system.

  He managed through the next half hour answering emails, though he noticed he kept glancing at the phone. It didn’t dawn on him until he looked at it for the fifth time why his focus continued to go back to it. He missed Amy and her parents. He’d gone into work because he thought they might like time alone and because he should at least see what Jackson Advertising came up with for the commercial about his travel agency. Not that he’d go anywhere else. Tyler Jackson was Ryan Jackson’s cousin.

  He sighed and answered two more emails. The pull to make the call was surprisingly profound. He figured he’d develop a certain degree of amiability with the woman he chose to marry, but he had to admit that he was thoroughly enjoying his time with her, even if she had an odd way of looking at things. Why she thought returning to work as his employee was a good thing, he didn’t understand. He had elevated her to his equal, but it seemed that she didn’t feel like his equal until he agreed to send her back to the lowest level his company offered. What a strange thing it was to be paying his own wife to work for him when all she had to do was take her debit card and get anything she wanted.

  He forced himself to answer three more emails before he caved and made the call. Amy picked up on the third ring and by the way she laughed as she said hello, he knew she was having a good time.

  “Hi, honey,” he greeted, trying not to sound too excited to speak to her.

  His secretary, however, turned her head in his direction with raised eyebrows.

  Nosy woman. He spun in his chair so she couldn’t see him. He should have thought to shut the door to his office before he made the call. “What are you three up to?” he asked in a lower voice.

  “We’ve decided to use your pool,” she replied.

  In the background, he heard her dad holler, followed by a loud splash. Her mother shrieked and Amy burst into a round of giggles.

  A smile tugged at his lips. There was no doubt that her family was a lot of fun. His only regret was that he wasn’t there to partake in the experience.

  “I should have warned you that my dad loves to play in the water,” Amy told him, still laughing. “It’s why he lives near the beach.”

  “Are you swimming too?” he asked.

  “Of course.”

  “So you’re wearing a swimsuit?”

  “Well, I don’t swim in my clothes.”

  His smile widened. “Are you wearing a one piece or a bikini?”

  She gasped. “Nathan!”

  “What?”

  “I am with my parents.”

  “I can’t help it if you saved the best activity for when I was gone.” Then he added, “So, it’s a one piece. If it was just us, would you wear a bikini?”

  She sighed but he noted that she wasn’t as upset as she pretended to be. Her dad said something in the background, and she spoke into the phone, “My dad wants to say hi.”

  He waited for her to give the phone to her father and asked, “Are you going to have the energy to play golf this afternoon with all that splashing around you’re doing?”

  “Oh sure,” her dad assured him. “This is my warm up. You got a nice pool, by the way. I especially like the flotation you can put a soda on. A person could get a horrible case of sunburn out here. You know, it’s hard to want to leave.”

  Nathan chuckled. “As long as you remember to be ready to leave for the course at one, you can burn all you want out there.”

  “I can’t leave you high and dry. I’ll be ready. I got to give you a chance to beat me after I slaughtered you last time.”

  “You didn’t slaughter me. You won by three points.”

  “You see three points. I see a massive win.”

  “Well, if it makes you sleep better at night...” He shifted in his chair. “Hey, I don’t have any pictures of Amy yet. We would have gotten some wedding pictures, but she insisted on eloping. Will you get a picture of her for me while you’re out there?”

  “Sure. Oh, Amy wants to talk to you.”

  “Okay.” He waited for her to get on the phone. “So, I hear that you want me,” he said in his best seductive voice.

  “You’re impossible,” she replied, probably rolling her eyes. “Look, I want to have dinner here at the house tonight.”

  “You do?” He straightened in surprise.

  “Yes. It’s my parents last night here, and I want to make them something special to eat.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I used to cook all the time you know.”

  “Well, yeah. I mean, it’s not like I paid you enough to eat at expensive places every night.”

  “Right. So I learned to make some pretty good meals. Tonight I want to make my dad shrimp and salmon. He likes it flavored a certain way, and I don’t care how those fancy restaurants are, they don’t do it well enough.”

  “Okay.” He shrugged. “Knock yourself out.”

  “Great. Mom and I will go shopping while you and my dad goof off.”

  “Golfing is a serious game,” her father called out.

  “Oh sure,” her mother retaliated good-naturedly. “Grown men chasing a ball around. Real serious.”

  Someone knocked on his door, so Nathan spun around in the chair. Tyler pointed to his watch, and Nathan noticed the time. Giving his friend a slight nod, he told Amy, “I have to get ready for a meeting. I’ll see you around noon.”

  “Okay. See you then.”

  He hung up and noticed that Tyler was giving him a knowing look.

  “What?” Nathan asked.

  “Young love. How grand it is.”

  “Were you listening to me while I was on the phone?”

  “No. I happened to walk by, that’s all.”

  “That’s it. I’m getting a lock for my door. A man deserves some privacy.”

  “All you had to do was shut the door,” his secretary called out.

  “You’re both lucky I’m too busy to hire your job replacements,” Nathan growled.

  “Hey, we’re happy for you. This one sounds better than Veronica,” Tyler said.

  “You missed that one,” Carmen told Tyler. “She’s getting remarried.”

  Nathan picked up his briefcase and walked over to her desk. “Do I need to give you more work so you won’t be bored enough to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations?”

  Peering up at him through her bifocals, she said, “You volunteered me to get Miss High and Mighty a wedding gift. I’m involved.”

  “Get her whatever you think she deserves.”

  “I don’t k
now if I can be that inhumane.”

  “Then fake it. Send her flowers. You can’t go wrong with those.”

  She groaned but picked up the phone. “This better be the last thing I do for her.”

  “It is. Once she says ‘I do’, I’m off the hook.” He walked with Tyler toward the elevator. “I guess she was right. It is a day for celebrating.” Thank God, he was finally free of Veronica once and for all.

  Chapter Eleven

  Nathan and Tyler sat in the conference room at Jackson Advertising and listened to Ryan Jackson and Jacob Hackman present their idea for the commercial.

  “Since we’re coming up on the summer season, you want to utilize the fact that children are out of school, so that is why this commercial involves family packages,” Ryan said as he motioned to the drawings he laid out on a storyboard. “You mentioned wanting to offer a deal on the Jack Bently cruise line, and the beginning of the commercial would be the best place to bring that up.”

  “Right,” Jacob agreed. “Get people’s attention before they go to the kitchen to grab a snack. Then, we mention it at the end in case anyone is returning from the kitchen, but the end will be a quick blurb with your website.”

  “And if the commercial is on a site like You Tube, you can catch their attention right before they have time to click to something else. For the Internet, we would condense the commercial to thirty seconds.”

  Nathan nodded. “Sounds good. We’ll go with it.”

  “You don’t want to think about it first?” Tyler asked.

  “Ryan’s your cousin. I’m not going to risk you putting arsenic in my coffee because I said no,” he joked.

  “And here I thought we actually had some good ideas,” Ryan told Jacob.

  “Nope. It’s because of your cousin.” Nathan broke into a smile and stood. “It’s a good idea. Go ahead and start up the shoot for it.”

  Tyler stood and started talking to Jacob, so Nathan took that as his cue to approach Ryan. “Your wife is pregnant, isn’t she?”

  Ryan collected the drawings but gave him a curious look. “Yeah.”

  “I just got married, and I thought it might be good for my wife to talk to a pregnant woman. You know, to discuss the joys of carrying a child and motherhood and all.”

  “I don’t know if Beth would say she’s enjoying it at this point. She’s ready to give birth and be done with it.”

  Tyler walked over to them. “Is she that far along already?”

  Ryan tucked the drawings under his arm. “It’ll be thirty-seven weeks this Saturday, and she’s carrying twins.”

  “Twins?” Nathan’s eyes grew wide. He didn’t think he could handle two at once at his age. He hoped Amy would have the sense to limit it to one. As if she had any control over something like that, he silently mused.

  “A boy and a girl,” Ryan proudly said.

  “You’re sure on the one being a girl?” Tyler asked.

  “The ultrasound finally showed that only one baby has a turtle.”

  “It’s ridiculous they make up names like that for the parts,” Nathan said.

  “It’s cute. Women love it,” Ryan replied.

  Nathan guessed so, but still...why not just come out and call it what it actually was? With a shrug, he told Ryan, “I’d like to get started on a family. I’m forty and not getting any younger, but I still haven’t convinced my wife to have a child.”

  “That’s because of the way you married her,” Tyler dryly commented. “I’m sure if she had a choice, things would be different.”

  “Never mind that.” Nathan didn’t need to involve Ryan in any of the details of his marriage. “I thought that since women are influenced by other women, your wife would inspire mine.”

  Tyler gave a loud sigh but didn’t respond.

  Ryan shrugged and smiled. “I’m sure Beth would like to talk to another woman about being pregnant. I can’t promise she’ll say nothing but good things about it, but overall, Beth’s excited.”

  “Good,” Nathan said. “So, would you like to join me and my wife for dinner next week?”

  “We could do that or this weekend.”

  “I can’t this weekend. We already have plans.”

  Nathan decided not to tell them Amy had volunteered them to watch her friend’s kids in order to dissuade him from staying married to her. She could have her weekend of kid catastrophes, but he’d follow it up with the expectant bundle of joy and hoped it mixed well with a woman facing her mid-30’s and the ticking biological clock that would be resounding a gong in the back of her mind.

  Jacob motioned to Ryan that he had to leave, so Ryan waved to him before he turned back to Nathan. “Let me talk to Beth, and I’ll get back to you on a day we can meet up. If she goes into labor, then it obviously won’t happen.”

  Nathan’s eyes lit up. “That’s even better. If my wife could hold a newborn, that would be great.”

  Tyler shook his head. “You’ll have to forgive him, Ryan. He’s a little eager to get a child.”

  Ryan laughed. “Apparently.” He checked his watch. “I better head off. I’ll email you about a good time to meet.”

  “Thanks.” Once Ryan left the room, Nathan clapped his hands. “Well, that settles it. As soon as Beth speaks to Amy about the joys and wonders of motherhood, Amy will be ready to have one of her own.”

  “Don’t you mean, ‘one of your own’?” Tyler commented with a roll of his eyes.

  “You want to know why you’re not married? It’s because you don’t understand women.”

  “Huh. And here I thought all I had to do was find a judge to do a marriage by proxy and I’d get a wife.”

  “I chose her out of all the others I interviewed. It’s a great honor.”

  He snorted but didn’t say anything.

  “One of these days, she’ll come to visit me, and she’ll be happy about it. Sure, she has some minor reservations, but that’s normal.”

  “Uh huh,” he sarcastically grunted.

  Nathan picked up his briefcase and followed Tyler out of the room and down the hall. “It’s like Cinderella. She didn’t know what to do and ran off in the middle of the ball. It’s the fear of not being able to fit into a wealthier lifestyle.”

  They stopped in front of the elevators and Tyler said, “That is really lame.”

  “What?”

  Tyler pressed the down button. “Cinderella wanted to be with the prince but had to leave because the prince was going to see her as she truly was. If anything, you could interpret it as Cinderella pretending to be something she wasn’t and almost getting caught.”

  The doors opened and they stepped into the elevator. “But the story is a classic fairytale. Cinderella had a heart of gold.”

  “Maybe, but did you know how the original version went?”

  “She didn’t end up with the prince?”

  “Oh, she ended up with the prince. It’s just that her wicked step-sisters cut off a part of their feet to fit the shoe.”

  Nathan cringed as the doors closed.

  ***

  Amy sat on the edge of the bed her parents had slept in during their visit and watched her mother pack. She hated to admit she was thankful for anything Nathan did, but she was glad he’d invited her parents to come up. She had purposely avoided seeing them or inviting them to see her ever since Sean’s death because she was afraid it’d bring back too many memories. Her father had given her away at the wedding, and her parents had been fond of him, often treating him like the son they never had. The last time she’d seen them was when she buried him.

  But the memory of that sunny fall morning didn’t bring her the despair she feared it would. Instead, it was a sense of gratefulness that they’d been able to know him and that she had been with him for the short time allotted to her. Even if a part of her couldn’t believe how fast Nathan had won them over, she was glad that they didn’t criticize her for moving on. It seemed that they had also welcomed Nathan with the same enthusiasm they’d welcomed
Sean, and that spoke a lot of their care and concern for her. A child couldn’t be better loved.

  “I’m sorry it took so long for me to see you again,” she softly told her mother who placed a folded shirt into the suitcase.

  Her mother glanced up and smiled. “There’s no harm in taking time for yourself. Besides, it’s not like we didn’t often email and call.”

  “Yes, I know. But it’s nice to see you and dad.”

  “It was nice to see you too.”

  “I don’t think we should wait so long to see each other next time.”

  “Your husband is talking about coming to Florida this Christmas. He wants to book a condo right along the beach. He said that you mentioned how clear and emerald the water was. He said it intrigued him.”

  Despite the fact that he’d been interviewing her for the position of his wife instead of a job when she said that, she laughed as she recalled the way she’d extolled the virtues of the Florida panhandle. “I must be a better travel agent than I thought.”

  Her mother chuckled and finished packing. She zipped up her suitcase and sighed. “It was a lovely visit.”

  “Yes, it was.” Amy stood and hugged her mother. “I can’t wait to see you again.”

  “Me neither. And it would be fun if you brought another one with you.” She patted Amy’s stomach and winked.

  “Oh for real, Mom. You too?”

  She shrugged. “I hear being a grandparent has a lot of perks.”

  “Yeah well... We’ll see.”

  Amy wasn’t going to make any promises. She’d see how the weekend played out with Danielle’s kids. Either Nathan was going to still be determined to have a child or he’d swear it all off for good and end the marriage. If he didn’t want to take part of the responsibility of being a father, then she was better off knowing now. Either way, Danielle was doing her a favor.

  She walked with her mother down the stairs and to the entryway where her father was telling Nathan about the time he got second place in a golf tournament.

  “I would have been the winner if the wind hadn’t been blowing to the south. It knocked my ball away from the hole at the most critical moment,” he finished.