“I’m sorry to sound, what I imagine to be, cheesy,” he said, his voice low. “But ever since I spoke to you on the phone last week I’ve felt like I couldn’t wait to meet you. Then just now, when I saw you, you took my breath away.”
Liberty snorted, he had to be pulling her leg. He squeezed her hands tighter and she looked back at him.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“I want to be totally honest with you…” he looked at the ground, as if not quite sure what to say. Before he could speak, a flurry of noise burst from the building. Liberty heard Nate groan.
“I think that might be my family,” he said, his head hanging. He was so abrupt that Liberty didn’t know what to say. She cleared her throat.
“Oh, right, well I’d best be off to welcome them and check them in. Will you come, or shall I leave you out here?”
Liberty wished with all her might that he would come with her. She wasn’t ready to leave him just yet, for him to let go of her hands.
But he dropped them.
“I’ll stay here,” he said, his reply making her heart sink.
She nodded and headed back into the dining room, the skip in her step now far less bouncy.
They were the strangest bunch Liberty had seen in a long time. An older, attractive man with a chin to rival Clint Eastwood stood head and shoulders above a petite brunette in the most gorgeous flowery bodycon dress. Behind them a couple of men, who looked too similar to Nate not to be related to him, wrestled each other to be next through the door, whilst two women who looked extremely uncomfortable in sky high heels and tiny skirts hung back, arms crossed, scowling.
Liberty held out her hand to Clint Eastwood, flinching as he pushed her hand aside and embraced her in a sweaty hug. His sour smell made Liberty gag.
“Hey cuteness, is the manager around?” the man asked, his voice as brash as his exterior.
“I am right here,” she said, trying not to join in with the scowling.
“Phoooeeeey, well blow me down with a feather.”
Liberty thought there was no chance of that happening, and managed a polite smile. The woman in the beautiful dress stepped forward and Clint Eastwood took that as his queue to move out of the way. Looking closer, Liberty could see she looked rather frazzled. It was impossible to tell how old she was—she might have been thirty, she might have been fifty.
“Hi, we’re here for the Parker funeral. My name is Matilda Arnold, please call me Tilly. I work with Nathaniel. This is his…” She gestured around to the group, most of whom were now engaged in a heated discussion that looked as though it could end badly. “His family. Father, brothers, sisters-in-law. The ones at the back aren’t staying the night. I think you have a room for myself and a room for Mr Parker here.”
Liberty studied the large man as he argued with his sons.
“I do have spare rooms available if the others would like a last minute reservation?” she said.
One of the women at the back shook her head, horrified.
“No, we’re flying home straight after the party.”
Something was amiss, Liberty couldn’t put her finger on whether it was the fact she’d said flying, or party. She tucked the thought away and set about finding the keys for rooms two and five. Behind the front desk Liberty heard the commotion quiet and looked up to see that Nate had returned.
“Nathaniel, my third favourite son,” the large man chuckled. He nodded his head towards Liberty. “Have you seen this little filly? Is this who you were flirting with on the phone? Let’s say goodbye to your first wife and maybe you can bag yourself another one while you’re here.”
Liberty’s hackles rose at being called a little filly. Then she realised what else had just been spewed from the sweaty man’s mouth and her blood ran cold.
Say goodbye to your first wife.
Nate was here for his wife’s funeral.
10
Nate stopped dead in his tracks.
“Dad,” he said with a warning tone.
His dad ignored him, grabbing him around the neck in an armlock and rubbing his head with his knuckles. Nate pulled away and smoothed down his hair, trying to regain some sort of dignity. Tilly gave a slight shake of her head and walked toward the stairs, separating herself from the Parkers with as much distance as the small lobby allowed.
Nate could have done some serious damage to his dad right there and then, no matter who was watching. He’d known Liberty for less than a day and already he’d felt something. He knew it was crazy, but he couldn’t help how she made him feel. Her kindness and her scattiness made him smile, and he’d not once gotten any whiff from her that she knew who he was or how much he was worth. That alone was worth the secrecy. He’d felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, not simply because he knew he’d be free from the chains of a pretend wife very soon, but also because when he’d walked through the doors of Pebble Cove, he’d felt safe.
He’d felt like he was home.
Now one stupid sentence from his dad had ruined that feeling. Now he felt as if the world had hopped back on his shoulders for a back-breaking ride and normality had resumed. Why did his dad have to ruin everything that was positive in Nate’s life?
Nate tried to catch Liberty’s eyes, to give her a sign, a smile, anything to make her not hate him. She was stonewalling him. Nate couldn’t blame her. As far as she knew he was a recently bereaved man who’d been flirting with her at his own wife’s funeral. He kept trying, willing her with all of his might to turn her eyes towards him. But it was no good. Anger roared inside him. His dad was guffawing about something with his brothers as though he’d casually mentioned the weather, and not Nate’s pretend dead wife.
Then it hit Nate like a sledgehammer, the realization that he only had himself to blame. If he’d just been open and honest with Liberty to start with then she wouldn’t be standing in front of him looking as if she’d seen a ghost. Which was quite appropriate, seeing as they were all supposedly at a funeral.
“I can explain,” he said, sheepishly.
Liberty still point blank ignored him, darting down behind the front desk to fish out the keys for the two other rooms.
How was he going to dig himself out of this hole? It wasn’t something he could do right now, not with his family and Tilly looking on.
Tilly. That was it. She could help him. She would know all the right things to say to make this okay. He looked over to the stairs, where he’d followed Liberty and her flour printed dress up to his room only hours earlier. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Tilly was standing, perfectly poised as normal, by the bottom step. He gave her a smile but she shook her head and turned away.
Nate felt lost. Alone. He wanted the world to swallow him up and spit him back out at his own villa where he could go back to living the solitary life he was used to. But the more Nate thought about his own villa the less he wanted to go back. He thought he loved his life but arriving here at Pebble Cove had awoken something in him that he hadn’t known was there. He loved that it was right by the beach, the one and only thing it had in common with his own home. But he also loved the quirky building and its corridors and hidden rooms, so different to what he was used to. He loved the history that came with the house, he could feel it in the crumbling walls and the rotten floorboards. He loved the gardens. He loved the little paths that curved around the trees. But most of all, he loved the way it made him feel. Nate knew that had a lot to do with Liberty, the thought of hurting her made him feel physically sick. He held on to the reception desk to balance himself.
Liberty looked through him as she held up the keys.
“If you’d like to follow me,” she said to Tilly and his dad. “I’ll show you up.”
Nate’s sisters-in-law smirked to each other as they watched Liberty take the lead. He saw one of them point to the girl’s dress and they laughed. They were both so made up he had no idea what they really looked like, he’d never met them when they didn’t have a face full of m
ake-up painted on, and their hair styled to within an inch of its life. They were carbon copies of each other in looks and in personality. Nate didn’t know how much money they spent between them on a weekly basis, but he could take a wild stab in the dark that it wouldn’t be a small sum. They were using his family. Ultimately, they were using him, as Nate hadn’t only set up his dad when he’d hit the big time, he’d helped out his brothers too. But if his brothers were stupid enough to be walked all over, then Nate wasn’t going to stop them. They couldn’t understand why Nate hadn’t gotten himself another copy of their wives to see him through the investors, but the thought made Nate’s blood turn cold.
He turned to his brothers.
“Archie, Reg, why don’t you and the girls come with me and I’ll show you where we are for the afternoon?”
He slumped back through to the gardens with his brothers in tow, ignoring the snide comments that they were all making about the motel. Okay, so it wasn’t the Grand Palace that they were all used to, but was there really the need to be so rude?
Liberty fought back the tears as she mounted the stairs once more. She could hear the girls laughing at her and fumbled with her hair, feeling how out of place it had fallen. Just like how she was feeling right now, like she was completely out of place amongst these people. They were all so prim and perfect and well put together. Liberty knew she was a mess, that the motel was a mess, that her life was a mess. What were they all doing here? She felt her cheeks blaze and pushed the embarrassment right down to her toes. The shame that was coursing through her blood was harder to ignore.
How wrong could she have been? Liberty thought there had been something between her and Nate. When they’d stood together looking out of the window, the electricity between them could have powered the whole of Little Norwich. But she must have just imagined it. There was no way someone like Nate could like someone like her, especially if he spent his days hanging out with the type of women who were now laughing at her from the lobby. There was no way that she could like somebody like him, either. What kind of cold-hearted man acted like that at his own wife’s funeral gathering?
Liberty’s hands automatically went back to her hair, tucking the springing curls into her hairband with such a force that it brought the tears back to her eyes. Luckily, they were at the door of room five so Liberty could offload one of her followers.
“Here we go,” she said, aiming herself at Nate’s dad. “Room five. Please call down to reception if there’s anything you need.”
The door unlocked and swung open, but Liberty didn’t venture inside. She watched as Nathaniel Snr edged into the room as if he was scared something would jump out at him. He placed his bag gingerly on the double bed and made a noise that Liberty chose to ignore.
“Plenty of room for two in here,” he said, grinning at her. Liberty’s stomach turned in disgust.
“Follow me, please,” she said, leading Tilly back toward the front of the motel.
“Nate’s a good man,” said Tilly. “He’s nothing like his father—or his brothers, come to think of it.”
Liberty chose not to acknowledge what she’d said. She was humiliated enough without everyone trying to marry Nate off to her when his wife was barely even cold.
“This is you,” she said.
Room two was situated at the front of the motel, just before the small corridor leading to Nate’s room. Liberty’s heart thudded as she remembered following him into the room, as she remembered how that brief moment had made her feel. She was so stupid. She unlocked the door for Tilly and stood back.
“Thank you, it’s beautiful,” Tilly said, sounding like she meant it.
It was a beautiful room, it had been Liberty’s own bedroom. And now she felt like she was ruining its memory by loaning it to this awful family.
She trudged back down the stairs and wondered how long she could leave it before she had to face Nate again. The thought made her skin itch.
11
There wasn’t a lot of time to think about anything. As Liberty’s foot hit the bottom step the front door opened and a mob of people came bustling through. There were five of them, three women and two men, and they looked like tourists with the camera equipment they had with them.
“I’m sorry, we’re all booked up for the night,” Liberty lied. She didn’t have the energy to cater for another party of people when the current group she had were draining enough.
A large woman—with shocking white hair that must have come from a box because she was no older than Liberty—stepped forward.
“We’re not staying, we’re here to cover the funeral of Nathanial Parker’s wife.” She had an city tang to her voice and flashed a media badge as fleetingly as she flashed a cold, white smile. “If you could just point us in the right direction, sweetheart, we’ll stay out of your way.”
Liberty didn’t think her heart could sink much lower, but right now it was nestling in her shoe. Who in their right mind invited the media to a funeral? She gave a small nod and turned toward the dining room. Now there’d be no getting away from seeing Nate again so soon. Or Nathaniel. Liberty was wracking her brains to try and work out why the name sounded so familiar to her, she had been since Tilly had called him Nathaniel. It was bugging her but there was no way she could whip out her phone in front of guests and start Googling—her manners were far too well ingrained to allow her to do that.
Whoever he was, he had lied to her, just like the man before him had too, and Liberty was sick of it. She felt so angry at herself for falling so quickly for his charm. So quickly. It made her stomach churn just how easily she’d felt at ease around him. That had never happened before, and Liberty was normally so guarded. She figured that he must have had so much practise at charming everyone around him that the behaviour was second nature; and this sat in Liberty’s stomach like a bag of cement.
Nathaniel was standing in the gardens, a little separate from his brothers and their wives. Liberty could hear the women moaning as she opened the doors, and she wished with all her might that they’d all just vanish in a puff of smoke so she could retreat back to her annex and start the day all over again. Nate looked up as he heard the doors and his smile beamed generously at her until he saw who she was with.
His face changed in an instant. If looks could kill, Nate would be granting Liberty’s wish right now, but she didn’t fancy the idea of cleaning up lots of bodies for the sake of some peace. More importantly, why was he looking at her like that?
“It’s being held here. Can I get anyone a drink?” Liberty asked the reporters.
There were shakes of heads all round so she turned and fled for the safety of the dining room, shutting the doors behind her.
Nate toyed with the idea of chasing after Liberty. Part of him wished he could run away with her, leave this whole sorry scenario behind him, but he figured he’d get a slap around the face before they’d gotten further than the rotten porch. Instead he turned his anger toward the people he despised the most, the media.
“What are you doing here?” he said, hearing the anger in his voice. “I specifically said one local reporter. There must be representation from the whole of the city here, why? Why would you not respect what I asked you, at this time especially?”
Nate almost forgot about his grief for a moment and pulled it back at the last minute.
“Your dad got in contact,” one of the photographers said with a shrug, helping himself to a chair beside a beautiful green shrub. He took out his cell and got lost in whatever was on his screen. “What time’s this thing start?”
Nate saw red. The three girls with notepads honed in on him and his brothers, but he pushed past them and stormed into the building.
“Dad?” he yelled as he ran up the stairs. “Dad?”
A door on his left, up near his own room, opened and he almost tripped as he rushed toward it.
“Dad, I asked you not to invite any media.”
Tilly’s face appeared, her expression startled a
s Nate rounded the open door.
“Oh, Tilly, I thought you were dad.” Nate held his hands up in submission. Tilly took them in her own and held on tight.
“Calm down, Nate,” she said. “Take a breath.”
He did, grateful to her as always. Tilly steered Nate into her room and shut the door behind them.
“Help me, Tils. He’s been here five minutes and already he’s making my blood boil. Why does he do this to me?”
“Keep it down, Nate. Don’t give him any more ammunition. You know why he does this to you, we’ve been over this a thousand times. He’s jealous. He’s making himself look the bigger man the only way he knows how, by belittling you.”
Nate sat wearily on the floral bedspread and held his head in his hands.
“He wants your fame and your fortune, he always has, even before you had it yourself,” Tilly continued, sitting down next to him. “When you gave him the power he so hugely craved he must have felt stripped of some of his masculinity, getting everything handed to him on a plate by his son. Men like him hate that. It’s not like he was a great guy before that happened, but since then he’s just been an absolute pig to you.”
“I know,” Nate said. “I just wish I didn’t let him get to me so much. If I’d known I would never have given him money or a home or…”
Nate let his voice trail off. He knew that given the time over again, of course he would still give his dad everything he obsessed over, because he wanted his dad to be happy. That was just the kind of person Nate was, and he knew there was no point denying it. Tilly rubbed his back and they sat in silence for a moment.
My Bereaved Billionaire: A Clean Billionaire Romance (My Billionaire A-Z Book 2) Page 5