by Diana Currie
“What were you doing before I interrupted your day? Am I getting in the way of anything?” he asked.
“I was just going to enjoy having the house to myself, do a little reading, and eat my lunch. Oh, I’m sorry… are you thirsty? Can I get you something to drink?”
“Water or soda would be good, thank you. I’ve been on a plane for the last four hours.”
“I didn’t realize you were flying out today. I thought you’d said production in Louisiana starts Tuesday.”
“It does. My original flight was booked for Monday; this was a last minute decision,” Nathan explained.
Maddie retreated to the kitchen to grab Nathan a bottle of water from the refrigerator. She leaned her forehead against a gallon of skim milk and closed her eyes. It was so overwhelming, talking to him in person after so many months with nothing to judge him by but the sound of his voice. She might have been hiding her face in the refrigerator a little too long because when she turned around to close the door Nathan was standing right beside her.
“Why do you seem so uncomfortable? Do you want me to leave?” Nathan asked.
“No,” Maddie practically shouted and thrust the water bottle into Nathan’s hand.
He took it from her, careful to graze his fingers along hers inconspicuously. “Good. I haven’t stopped thinking about you all night; I barely slept at all.”
Maddie blushed and motioned for Nathan to take a seat at the kitchen table. “What happened last night? Did you go out with your friends?” she asked as she sat down opposite him at the table.
“Yes. We had a good time; I like hanging out with the crew. It’s nice to spend time with regular people in the business and not just always surrounding myself with other actors.”
Maddie stared at her sandwich, her appetite had vanished and she couldn’t even think about eating now that Nathan was watching her. “What made you change your flight?” she asked.
The photos of Nathan and Katie outside the club would be on the internet and celebrity news shows very soon so there was no point in skirting around the events of the night before. Nathan wanted to make sure he was able to get all his feelings off his chest before Maddie found out that Katie had kissed him last night. He was relieved that he would be able to tell Maddie the truth of what happened before she got the media’s skewed version of events.
“Something happened just as we were leaving the club. I walked Katie to her limousine and she propositioned me again, like she did on New Year’s Eve. This time there were cameras watching us and she used them to her advantage. She knew I wouldn’t push her away and give the paparazzi a better scoop. So, she kissed me.”
The blood drained from Maddie’s face as he explained this to her, and it actually made Nathan more confident of what he was about to say to know that she reacted strongly to another woman kissing him. There was jealousy in her after all. Nathan took a breath and continued the speech he’d prepared on the plane that morning.
“What you need to know, Maddie, is that last night I told Katie no for the last time. I made it perfectly clear to her that I had feelings for someone else. She was angry and said if that was true then I ought to be out with that woman instead of her and she asked, ‘where is she?’ Katie was right; the person I most wanted to hang out with last night wasn’t there. And she wouldn’t be until I convinced her to see me.”
“Nathan…”
“Don’t say anything yet. I know you think that anything more than friendship between us is impossible, but I refuse to accept that. I won’t dismiss the idea before we’ve even met in person. Before we even know for certain whether there might be something more here. So, I lay up in bed thinking about it until the sun began to come up and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I chartered a plane and flew here to answer the questions that have been on my mind for months now. You say you might get hurt if we start something more and it doesn’t work out, but I’m here to tell you that I’m hurting already because you won’t even give us a chance.”
Maddie fought back tears of both joy and agony. She was elated to hear Nathan’s emotional declaration but she also didn’t see any way of turning him down anymore. She had been procrastinating this decision and her time was officially up.
“You’re used to always getting what you want, aren’t you Mr. Celebrity?” Maddie asked teasingly.
Nathan quirked an eyebrow and smiled. “Yes, but it has nothing to do with my job,” he stated. “My mother spoiled me.”
“You said you have feelings for me?”
“Yes. I love talking to you on the phone, Maddie. But it just makes me want more.”
“So, what do we do?” she whispered. “How do we do this?”
Nathan sighed with relief. He had finally broken her. “Assuming that you feel the same way, I suggest we spend the next day together and see where it goes.”
“Like go on a date?”
“Well, I want to protect your anonymity so it wouldn’t be wise for us to go out to eat. If even one fans spots me and it ends up on Twitter you’ll be on the radar. We should keep this under wraps as long as we can.”
“How much time do you have in town?”
“Stanley will be back tomorrow night to take me to Shreveport.”
“That soon… Will you stay here overnight?”
Nathan smiled nervously. “If you don’t mind. But I can have Stanley get me a hotel nearby if you prefer.”
“No, I want you here,” she replied. How convenient, she thought, that her parents were away for the weekend. “Want me to show you the rest of the house?”
Maddie took Nathan around the Sherratt residence showing him the basement rec room, the sun room and den at the back of the house, and then upstairs to the bedrooms. She showed him her parents’ room, Kyle’s old bedroom, and the spare room used for Sandy’s many hobbies. When they got to Maddie’s room at the end of the hall she paused at the door, thinking how absurd this was. Nathan Foster in her house; in her room! It was unreal.
She pushed the door open and let Nathan into her personal space. Immediately, she wished she’d thought to tidy up before allowing him access. There was an overflowing laundry basket in the corner and her bed was a rumbled mess. While she scrambled to make the bed, Nathan placed his backpack on the floor and looked around. She briefly thought about the Love Spelled Backwards poster on the wall but Maddie didn’t care; Nathan already knew that it was there.
“Sorry the place is such a mess,” she said awkwardly.
“It’s not so bad,” Nathan replied kindly.
He hardly noticed the bed or laundry because his eyes were drawn to the movie poster on the wall. He had a harder time seeing his image in Maddie’s room than he’d anticipated and tried to push the uneasy feeling it gave him out of his mind. He walked around inspecting Maddie’s desk and the collection of books on her shelf. She had many novels Nathan had never heard of before and he noted a large collection of classic British literature. There was also a book he remembered Maddie mentioning months ago. He pulled Wallbanger off the shelf to inspect the cover.
“What did you think of this?” he asked.
Maddie looked up from the bed making and blushed. “It was excellent.”
“Maybe I’ll have to borrow it then,” Nathan replied smiling. As he replaced the book on the shelf he noted a number of other novels by the same author. “What about The Unidentified Redhead?” he asked pulling it out to inspect more closely.
“Leave my books alone,” Maddie whined and went to Nathan’s side to take her guilty pleasure reading material away from him.
“I just want to know what it’s about! You own the whole trilogy,” he teased holding it out of reach.
Maddie shot him a dirty look that made him laugh. “I don’t want to tell you,” she pouted.
“I’ll just see for myself then,” he said turning the book over to read the back cover.
“Stop!” Maddie cried trying to reach for the book but Nathan held it above her head. “You are so
much more annoying in person!” she huffed. “It’s about a woman who moves to Los Angeles to be an actress and instead falls in love with a movie star.”
It was Nathan’s turn to blush. He wasn’t expecting that at all; he figured it was just another romance novel and couldn’t help but wonder if some of Maddie’s reservations about meeting him were based on the plot of this book.
“So how does it end?” he asked intrigued.
“I don’t know. I haven’t finished book three yet,” Maddie said softly.
Nathan placed the book back on the shelf where it belonged. It was too soon to go down that road just yet. “Well, I hope it has a happy ending.”
“So, what do we do now?” Maddie asked, eager to get Nathan’s mind past her embarrassing book collection.
“Let’s just talk. Tell me about school or your job.”
Maddie bit her bottom lip as Nathan sat on her bed and patted the spot beside him. She moved obediently to sit there. “The semester just started this week. I have five classes and I think three of them will be easy. The other two have hard instructors and will probably be a lot of work. And I start back at my job on Monday. I’ve really missed it over winter break so I’m looking forward to getting back into the lab.”
“Is that what you want to do when you graduate? Work in a laboratory?”
Maddie shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’m hoping to get an internship next fall and that would give me a better idea of what the career options are. I like the research aspect of it though, working with clinical trials and testing new drugs. So, I might try to pursue that aspect.”
“What are you working on right now?”
“Alzheimer’s medication. It’s not ready to submit to the FDA yet. The mice are having skin irritations so the manufacturer will have to go back and make adjustments and order a new study.”
Nathan smiled and leaned back against the pillows on Maddie’s bed. “You speak about this very passionately. You really love it, don’t you?”
Maddie blushed. “Yeah, I do. If I didn’t I probably would have dropped out when my dad got sick. But I was hooked after my first anatomy class and this job I have now makes me even surer of my decision. So many of my classmates picked their major because they thought it would be easy or that they could make a lot of money from it. I’m fortunate to have a concrete career goal to work towards.”
“What’s Holly’s major?”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “Communications. She has no idea what she’s going to do when she graduates. Her main focus right now is still fraternity guys.”
“She’s a bad influence on you then,” Nathan said with mock seriousness.
“Holly is harmless. And she’s a good friend.”
Nathan reached out to take Maddie’s hand in his and her surprised eyes flew up to meet his. “Sorry,” he said squeezing her hand tighter and interlocking their fingers. “I just couldn’t go any longer without touching you in some way.”
Maddie smiled. “I don’t mind.” She could hardly believe this was happening but wasn’t going to fight it any longer. She knew she would have to tell Holly if Nathan kept his word that this was going to last longer than the weekend, but she was still uncertain how in the world she could explain it to her.
“You won’t be going on any more of Holly’s blind dates, will you?” Nathan asked.
“No, not as long as you promise to come hold my hand like this from time to time. And just so you know, New Year’s Eve was a fluke. It was last minute and I never wanted to go out with that guy.”
“Good. I’ll come visit you as often as I can. I promise. If we really want this to work out we’ll find a way.”
“If you mean that then we’ll have to tell Holly the truth sooner or later.”
Nathan was about to respond with a snide comment when they both heard the front door open. Maddie’s head whirled around to the open bedroom door as she heard a loud deep voice call her name from downstairs.
“Oh, shit,” she cursed. “Speaking of telling people… I completely forgot that Kyle was going to come by to pick up some groceries my mom bought him.”
“Your brother is downstairs?”
Maddie nodded. Nathan kissed the back of her hand before standing up and adjusting his clothes. “Let’s go introduce me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Would you rather I hide up here until he leaves?” Nathan joked.
Maddie thought about that for a minute; it sounded like a decent plan to her but she could see Nathan would not allow it. He clearly wanted to meet her brother. Kyle had been astonished and skeptical when she admitted to having met Nathan over the phone and becoming his friend. She shuddered thinking about how this was going to play out but there wasn’t anything she could do to prevent it from happening.
“Okay, then. Let’s go freak out Kyle.”
Nathan smiled and waved his arm for her to lead the way. She knew he was going to enjoy this. Maddie descended the stairs to find Kyle snooping through the brown bagged groceries Sandy left on the counter for him. Their mother was always worried that being a bachelor, Kyle wasn’t eating enough fruits and vegetables so she shopped for him like he still lived in the house.
“Hey, bro,” Maddie greeted.
“Maddie, did mom get me any snacks at all? I see whole wheat bread, bananas, canned soup, plenty of easy bake pasta dinners, but seriously… where are the chips and cookies?”
“She never buys you junk food, idiot.”
“I know but tomorrow is the Super Bowl, I thought maybe she’d throw me a bone,” Kyle said finally raising his eyes from the groceries.
Maddie couldn’t help smiling at the expression on her brother’s face. It was one of complete and utter shock. “Kyle, I’d like you to meet my friend. This is Nathan; he’s in town for the weekend.”
Nathan came forward and offered his hand to Kyle, who shook it with his mouth still hanging open. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Kyle. Maddie has told me a lot about you.”
“Wow, man. My sister told me that she knew you but I gotta admit I was still kinda not sure if she was crazy or not.”
Maddie slapped his arm. “You said you believed me!”
Kyle rolled his eyes playfully and Nathan laughed at their exchange. Maddie was still scowling at her brother when two dark haired little bundles of energy ran into the kitchen from the living room. Rebecca had a bottle of milk in her hand and Addison was dragging her blanket.
“Hey girls!” Maddie greeted them and sank to her knees to hug them.
Nathan watched Maddie with her nieces and saw so much love in her eyes as she asked them how they were doing and pretended to be properly concerned when one of them pointed out a boo boo on her arm. Maddie rubbed her thumb over the mark gently and then kissed it which appeased the child. He had zero experience with little kids but even Nathan could see that Maddie was great with them. And they clearly adored her. They looked like identical twins to him, one being a fraction of an inch taller than the other but otherwise indistinguishable from each other. Maddie picked up the toddler with the blanket and kissed her cheek.
“This is Addison. Addison, say hi to my friend, Nathan.”
“Hi,” the little girl replied.
“Hi there, Addison,” Nathan said as he felt the other girl tugging on his pant leg.
“That’s Rebecca. She wants to be held too,” Maddie explained. Nathan panicked, thinking she meant for him to lift the little person.
Luckily, Kyle stepped in before he attempted it. “I’ve been driving around for an hour trying to get them to take a nap when I remembered Mom bought me food,” Kyle explained.
“You girls didn’t take your naps yet?” Maddie asked them. “You must be so sleepy!” Both shook their heads at the same time which Nathan thought was kinda cute but Kyle looked exasperated.
“So, Nathan, you came to Amarillo to visit Maddie?” Kyle asked as Rebecca tugged on his hair. Then he had another more disturbing thought. “Wait, why were you up
stairs with my sister?”
Nathan didn’t miss the implication in Kyle’s question but showed no answers in his expression. He was good at diverting conversation after having done countless interviews with probing journalists. “She was showing me the house. I noticed you have a Cowboys poster in your old room. You still a fan?”
Kyle’s features softened a little. “Yeah. They were robbed in the playoffs.”
“I’m a Green Bay fan, myself, but I think I could get you some tickets for a Dallas game next season if you’d be interested.”
“You’re serious? Do you have a lot of connections like that?” Kyle asked.
“It’s one of the perks,” Nathan shrugged. “I’ll set it up so you have two tickets, hotel, and airfare to Dallas too; I know the drive would probably be too long. Would your mother be able to watch the twins overnight?”
“Hell yeah, thanks man. That would be awesome.”
Maddie knew Nathan had won over her younger brother in one minute flat. Bribing him with football tickets; so cheap, but yet highly effective. She was impressed.
“So, are you telling Mom and Dad about this or are you keeping it a secret?”
“I was hoping to meet all of you; it’s a shame they’re out of town,” Nathan replied.
Kyle chuckled. “This is still so weird. I’ve never met anyone famous before.”
“To tell you the truth, I still get that way too and I’ve met tons of actors, directors, and musicians. Just last month I ran into Tom Cruise at a charity event and I was tongue tied. Couldn’t speak at all.”
“Wow, you met Tom Cruise? That’s awesome,” Kyle said.