by Susan Stoker
Nathan could see the conflict in Joel’s eyes.
“I’ll say I’m sorry later,” Joel finally said in a quiet voice.
“I’m sure she’d appreciate that,” Nathan told the boy, then moved on, changing the subject. “So . . . you’re in what, the fourth grade? How old are you?”
“Nine. Well, ten next weekend,” Joel said with a smile, sitting up straighter.
“Ten. Wow. Double digits. You have a party?”
With his question, the boy deflated as if he was a balloon that had been popped with a pin. “Yeah.”
“You don’t sound excited,” Nathan observed.
“It’s stupid. I wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s, but Bailey won’t let me. We have to go to a stupid park and ride bikes and eat chips and junk.”
Nathan suspected money was a factor in why he couldn’t have his party at the expensive kids’ restaurant. “Your friends from school coming?”
Joel shrugged, but didn’t answer. Instead, he bent back over his worksheet and pretended to start working on it again.
Clarity struck Nathan. Joel was the new kid in a new school. A party in a local park probably wasn’t enough incentive to get his classmates to go. Kids were cruel, he knew that firsthand from his upbringing.
“Can I come?”
Joel’s head whipped up. “What?”
“Can I come?” Nathan repeated. “I mean, we’re friends now, aren’t we?”
“Well, uh . . . yeah, I guess. You really want to?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t. But I should warn you . . .” Nathan let his voice trail off temptingly.
“Warn me about what?” Joel asked.
“That I’m the nerd in my family. My brothers are the cool ones. And my sister-in-law and my almost-sister-in-law are so beautiful it’ll make your head spin.”
Joel’s brown eyes were wide in his small face. “I don’t think you’re a nerd,” he said. And it was a nice thing to say. Maybe the boy really was taking his earlier words to heart.
Nathan laughed. “I am, but I’m totally okay with that. Just wait until you meet Logan and Blake. You’ll see for yourself. Logan owns a motorcycle. And my other brother, Blake, has this vibe going . . . like if you mess with him, you’ll regret it. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they’re totally good guys, but when you meet them, you’ll see what I mean.”
“Are they gonna come too?” Joel asked in an awed voice, as if he’d never dreamed adults would want to come to his birthday party.
“Well, I’ll have to run it by your sister, make sure it’s okay, but yeah, they’d love to come. Any friend of mine is a friend of theirs.”
“Cool,” Joel breathed. “I’ll go ask Bail right now!”
Without waiting for Nathan to agree, he jumped up and ran for the door that led out to the garage bays.
After the door slammed behind him, Clayson spoke up for the first time.
“You’ll do.”
“Pardon?” Nathan asked, looking up at the man.
“I wasn’t so sure about you when you came in here. I knew that you’d gotten to our Bailey, but in my eyes no one was good enough for her. But after sitting here, watching you with Joel and hearing what you said . . . you’re not only good enough for her, you’re exactly what she needs.”
Nathan stood up and carried the clipboard over to the man. “I don’t know about that. I’m not sure she’d ever look twice at a man like me if she wasn’t in the precarious situation she’s in now. But I’m not an idiot. If she’ll have me, I’m all hers.”
“Her precarious situation?” Clayson asked with one eyebrow raised.
Nathan considered the man for a long moment before replying, “You and I both know a woman like her, with her skills, doesn’t move to the outskirts of Castle Rock and bury herself in work if something isn’t amiss.”
“And you know what’s amiss.” It wasn’t a question.
Nathan didn’t answer, but continued to hold eye contact with Clayson.
“Right,” Clayson said. “On another note, I’m glad you called Joel on his attitude. He’s full of it. Takes his frustrations out on his sister more often than not. I know he’s just a kid, and I have no idea what his life was like before they got here, but it ain’t right. She takes it and doesn’t call him on it. I figure she feels guilty for something. Don’t know what.”
“I’ll see what I can do to have him check that,” Nathan told the older man.
“As I said, you’ll do,” was his response.
The door to the small office swung open and hit the wall behind it with a loud bang. “She said okay!” Joel cried out excitedly.
Nathan looked pointedly at the door, then back at the boy.
Joel took the hint, looked sheepish for a moment, and said, “Sorry, Clayson. I forgot about the door. I didn’t mean to bang it.”
“It’s all right,” Clayson said, then murmured for Nathan’s ears only, “Yup, you’ll definitely do.”
Nathan’s lips quirked up in a half smile, but he ignored the older man and turned to Joel. “Cool. So next Saturday? What time and what park?”
“Ten. And the park that’s near here.”
“Phillip S. Miller Park,” Clayson told Nathan.
“I know where that is. I’ll be there.”
“Promise?” Joel asked.
Nathan saw something in the boy’s eyes. He’d been let down before. More than once. He squatted down in front of Joel and looked straight in his eyes. “Yeah, I promise. I can’t make that promise for my brothers, because I don’t know their schedule, but mark my words. I’ll be there.”
Joel nodded. “Cool.”
“Cool,” Nathan echoed. “Want to practice more on that base-ten math stuff? I can give you some harder ones and see if you can figure them out. Then you can try subtracting.”
“Yeah. I wanna try.”
Nathan jotted down a few more problems on the back of Joel’s worksheet. He kept one eye on the door and one on the boy in front of him. He liked Joel. He seemed like a smart kid, but he really, really wanted to talk to Bailey. He hoped she’d give him a chance.
Not because he wanted to keep her safe.
Not because of her brother.
But because he wanted to get to know her.
Chapter Six
“Thanks for helping him with his homework,” Bailey told Nathan as they stood in the doorway of the garage.
Joel was playing catch with a football with Clayson. He’d taken the boy outside as she’d completed the paperwork and payment with Nathan.
“You’re welcome,” Nathan said easily.
Bailey knew his eyes were on her, and not on her brother and boss, but she refused to turn her head and look at him. He made her nervous in a good way, not nervous in a is-he-gonna-hurt-me kind of way, which was a nice change.
“Thanks for letting me come to his party next week.”
She looked over at him at that. “Are you kidding? You made his day.”
One side of Nathan’s lips quirked up.
“What? What’s funny?” she said defensively. If he was laughing at Joel, she’d—
“I’m usually the last choice when it comes to the Anderson brothers,” he said without one hint of pity.
Bailey wrinkled her brow. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is there something wrong with you?”
He shrugged. “Depends on who you ask.”
“I’m asking you.”
Nathan put both arms out to his sides with his palms up. “What you see is what you get. I’m too slender to be considered a threat, although I do know a bit of judo, which has helped me more than once in tense situations at work. I like numbers. A lot. I prefer to hang out at home rather than go to the gym and work out. Crowds make me break out in hives, and I have a sweet tooth like you wouldn’t believe. While I like a good steak, I’m hopeless when it comes to cooking meat evenly on the grill.” His tone was even, as if he honestly didn’t care how others saw him.
“So?” Bailey
asked in confusion.
“So? I’m a nerd, Bailey. A geek. Dork. Dweeb. Goober. Whatever name you prefer. I love Star Wars and can recite all the lines. I get excited about doing profit-and-loss sheets. You’ve seen my car—it’s definitely not cool. When you meet my brothers, you’ll wonder how in the world I’m even related to them, much less how we’re triplets.”
She blinked at him in shock. “You’re a triplet?”
“Yup.”
“Cool,” she mumbled, but thought back to what he’d been saying before she’d been distracted. She felt the wall she’d been keeping up to protect herself crumble a bit. It was true. Nathan wasn’t exactly the Terminator. The black slacks he was wearing were wrinkled and looked like they hadn’t ever been ironed. He was wearing a polo shirt with all but one button fastened. His hair was mussed, as if he’d run his hand through it several times. His skin was more on the pale side than tan, and if she’d passed him on the street and didn’t know anything about him, she probably would’ve labeled him as a nerd.
But after listening to him help her brother with his math homework, and definitely after Joel had apologized to her for his tone right before he’d asked if Nathan and his brothers could come to his birthday party—and she knew it had to do with something Nathan had said to him—she couldn’t give a shit if he was nerdy.
In fact, nerdy sounded heavenly. She’d had enough of unchecked testosterone and men who thought they were God’s gift to women. Lord knew the Inca Boyz certainly didn’t give a crap about math, or learning, or treating the women and girls who hung around the club with an ounce of respect. Yes, a nerd, Nathan, sounded like a man she’d like to get to know better.
Bailey put a hand on Nathan’s bicep and said honestly, “You’re a good man, Nathan.”
He shrugged, and Bailey dropped her hand, awkwardly shoving her fingers into the pockets of the overalls she was wearing.
“I’m okay with who I am. I wasn’t trying to manipulate you in any way,” he said.
“I didn’t think you were.”
“So you’re okay with me coming to Joel’s party next weekend?”
“I already said I was,” Bailey said.
“What about dinner tomorrow night?”
Whoa. What? “Uh . . . dinner?”
He looked away from her for the first time, and Bailey realized with a sudden clarity that Nathan was nervous. She could see the pulse beating heavily in his throat, and he was shifting from foot to foot as if he couldn’t stay still.
“Yeah. Dinner. Or lunch. Or whatever,” Nathan told her, obviously backpedaling slightly now that she hadn’t immediately said yes.
“I don’t have a babysitter,” she said quietly, not saying no, but not exactly saying yes either.
Nathan turned to look at her again, the hope clear in his eyes. “Do you think Clayson might agree?”
Bailey hesitated for a fraction of a second. No matter what this man thought of himself, she knew to the marrow of her bones that he was a good person. She didn’t know what he did for a living, although he’d said that he had to use judo, which concerned her a little. Other than that, she only knew that he was good at math, apparently had two brothers, and he’d been wonderful with her brother. The kind of role model she wanted Joel to have, not someone like Donovan.
But she was . . . Bailey. Ex-girlfriend of Donovan and Inca Boyz whore. She was in no way good enough for the man standing in front of her looking so hopeful. But she had no idea how to explain that to him. She had a feeling he wouldn’t agree, but she knew exactly who and what she was.
But she could use a friend. And Joel could use a male role model who was as good as Nathan. If nothing else, she needed to say yes for her brother’s sake.
She nodded. “I’ll see if maybe he or one of the other guys can come over for a few hours.”
The smile that crept over Nathan’s face was blinding. He huffed out a breath that confirmed to her just how nervous he’d been, and told her, “Great. If you give me your number, I’ll call with the details about where we’re going tomorrow.”
She immediately rattled off her digits and watched as Nathan punched it into his cell.
Her ringtone sounded and then stopped after one ring.
Bailey pulled her phone out of her pocket. It was one of those pay-as-you-go phones she’d gotten from Walmart. It was cheap, especially since the only people who ever called her were Clayson and Joel’s school, and no one from her old life knew the number.
“So you know my number too,” he explained, putting his phone back into his own pocket. “Anything you don’t like to eat?” he asked quietly.
Bailey shook her head. “I’m not picky.”
“Bail!” Joel shouted. “Catch!”
She turned to look at her brother and would’ve gotten beaned in the face with the football if Nathan hadn’t immediately reached out a long arm and snagged the ball in the palm of his hand. It was seriously a catch worthy of being replayed hundreds of times on social media as he snatched the ball out of the air and kept it from smashing into her.
“Joel!” she scolded. “How many times do I have to tell you not to do that? I wasn’t ready!”
“You could’ve hurt her, buddy,” Nathan said in a gentle voice. “Lucky I was here,” he said, but for her ears only. “Go long, Joel!” he ordered loudly, then after the boy ran a few paces, he threw a perfect pass that landed directly into Joel’s arms, allowing him to catch it easily.
“Thought you said you were a nerd,” Bailey muttered. “Nerds can’t catch or throw footballs where I come from.”
He chuckled. “With two badass brothers, I was bound to pick up a thing or two,” he replied wryly, then looked at his watch. “It’s getting late. I should let you two go.” He caught her eyes again with an intense gaze that Bailey felt down to her toes.
“Thank you for agreeing to go out with me. I can’t promise not to do anything dorky tomorrow night, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum . . . at least for our first date. Gotta make a good impression.”
“I think you’ve already done that,” Bailey told him honestly.
He took a step, but didn’t look away from her. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Bailey.”
“See ya,” she responded quietly.
He took another two steps away, then turned and headed for his car, waving and calling goodbye to Joel and Clayson as he went.
She grinned. Yup, he was kind of a nerd. Most men she’d been around would’ve done a manly chin lift or merely lifted their wrist to say goodbye. Not Nathan. He held up his hand and waved at her brother as if he was standing on the deck of the Titanic and waving at the adoring masses as the massive ship pulled out of port.
Joel ate it up, waving back just as enthusiastically.
As soon as Nathan was out of sight, Joel headed for the Chevelle.
“Have a good chat?” Clayson asked as he strode up to Bailey with the keys to the shop in his hand, ready to lock up.
She eyed the older man. “Yeaaaaah?” The word was drawn out in question.
He smirked. “Good.”
“Clayson Davis . . . what are you up to? Are you trying to set me up?”
Her boss merely shrugged as he turned to face her, putting the keys in his pocket. “Look. You’ve been here a few months. You’re a hard worker. I never have to ask you to do anything twice, you’re always on time, unless you’re busy with something to do with your brother. I just think it’s time you did something for yourself for once.”
“And you think Nathan is”—she brought her hands up and made air quotes—“doing something for myself?”
“Don’t get cheeky, woman,” Clayson said gruffly, although his eyes twinkled. He pointed down the street where Nathan’s car had disappeared. “That is a good man. He’ll take care of both you and Joel.”
Bailey put her hands on her hips, irritated now. “We don’t need to be taken care of.”
“You don’t need to, no,” Clayson agreed without getting bent out of shap
e at her tone. “You’ve more than done a good job of that all by yourself. But sometimes it’s nice to have someone willing to step up when stepping up needs doing.”
Bailey shook her head and gave up. Clayson would think what he wanted to think no matter what she said. But secretly she was relieved the older man approved of Nathan. She wasn’t going to get into a relationship with him, or any man, but it would be nice to have a friend. “Don’t go getting ideas,” she warned him.
“You seein’ him . . . besides at your brother’s party?” he asked with uncanny insight.
Bailey felt herself blush, but nodded and said, “Tomorrow night. It’s only dinner.”
“Man works fast,” Clayson observed.
“Bail! I’m starved. Let’s go!” Joel yelled out the window, clearly done with hanging at her workplace.
“Keep your pants on!” Bailey shouted back. “I’m comin’!”
Clayson put his hand on her shoulder, and she turned and looked back at the man she respected almost as much as she’d respected her pa.
His face was completely serious as he told her, “Give him a chance. I don’t know what happened to put those walls up behind your eyes, but the Andersons are good people, no matter what some people in this town say.”
“What do they say?” Bailey whispered.
“Nothing but nasty gossip,” Clayson returned immediately. “You’re an adult, and you can make your own decisions about them. But I’ll tell ya this. You don’t have to worry about Nathan or his brothers. They’re loyal as can be, and I have a feeling the man who just left would rather pull out his own fingernails with a pair of pliers than hurt you.”
“Ew, gross,” Bailey said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
“All I’m sayin’ is if you let down your guard and take the time to relax for a second, I think you’ll find just what you need in Nathan Anderson.”