Fool Me Once

by Brittany Crowley

  “Absolutely.”

  I’m glancing around the kitchen, and when my eyes meet the clock, they bulge out. “It’s after noon? Holy crap, we slept so long.”

  “You guys needed it. Plus, we didn’t get back until late.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t call work, and I’m sure you have somewhere you need to be.”

  “Nope. I own the company remember. The boss was pretty understanding.” He winks again.

  “I should call Monique and make sure everything’s okay.”

  I get up and put my now empty plate in the sink then grab my phone from my purse. Damn, four missed calls. I quickly hit the callback button, and Monique picks up on the first ring.

  “Tell me you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine. Hazel was sick yesterday, remember I told you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I ended up having to take her to the ER. We didn’t get back until well after midnight and fell asleep. My phone wasn’t next to me, so I never heard you calling.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I figured something came up.”

  “Thanks, Monique, you’re the best. I’m going to take the rest of the day off to tend to Hazel, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I hang up after she says her goodbyes then throw my phone back in my bag.

  “Everything all right?” Nate asks before putting a massive bite of food in his mouth.

  I watch Nate and think about everything he did for me last night. There’s no question that he went above and beyond the first date duties and to be honest, I’m not ready for him to leave yet. “How would you like to have a movie day with Hazel and me?”

  “You know what? That sounds like a great idea.” The soft expression on his face has me happy I asked.

  Chilling on the couch in sweats and watching movies sounds amazing. With Nate.

  “How does that sound Hazel?” I ask her.

  “Good! We can watch The Boss Baby.”

  “The what?” Nate asks cocking an eyebrow.

  “You are in for a treat. That’s Hazel’s favorite movie, we watch it at least a hundred times a week.”

  “Sounds great.” He smiles grabbing his and Hazel’s plates and dropping them off at the sink.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll do the dishes later.”

  He nods his head, and we all head for the living room. Hazel sits at the end of the couch leaving Nate and me to sit together. He starts off with a little distance between us, but by the middle of the movie our thighs are touching, and his arms around my shoulders, his hand playing with my hair. Being in his arms and having my baby in mine is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

  “How do kids like this garbage?” Nate whispers in my ear.

  “It’s not that bad. You won't be complaining if you’ve seen Trolls. It's cute, but after the fifth time my eye starts to twitch.”

  As we sit there watching the movie, I sink further and further into Nate. This is… nice. Having him here is nice. He fits in with me and Hazel so effortlessly, something I’d never think would have happened. It’s always been just us, and Nate’s here because he wants to be. He wasn’t scared off by the stomach bug or the late-night hospital stay. He woke up and cooked us breakfast then blew off work to stay in and watch movies. Not even a good movie, a silly little kids movie that he’ll probably hate.

  Warmth spreads throughout my stomach at the thought, as thousands of tiny butterflies take up residence in there.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking,” he asks.

  “I’m thinking…” I look over at him and lick my lips. “That I like this.”

  His arm squeezes me tighter, and he doesn’t take his eyes from mine. His baby blues suck me in making me forget my own name. They’re so intent on my lips, and I know in this second that he wishes he could kiss me.

  The feeling is completely mutual.

  Chapter 18

  A couple of days after our lazy movie day, I decide to do something nice for Nate. He really went above and beyond, and I want to show him how much I appreciate it.

  I make sure Monique has everything under control and step out for lunch. After a quick stop at the local deli, I look at the address Nate sent me on my phone when I asked him where he was earlier.

  I pull up to a fairly large house that’s a work in progress. They have the shell of the house done, but there’s no siding, and it looks like they’re installing the windows today. There’re two guys working in the front, but after a quick scan, I don’t see Nate anywhere.

  I exit my car, grab the bag of food, and set off to find Nate. There are little butterflies swarming around in my belly at the thought of seeing him. Even after a few days, I found myself getting antsy, actually wanting to see him.

  “Can I help you?” One of the guys putting in a window asks while his eyes take in my body.

  “Yeah, I’m here to see Nate Weston.”

  His eyes fly up to my face, and he has the decency to look apologetic. “You must be Lexi.” When I nod in confirmation, he continues on. “You should find him in the back.”

  With a quick thanks, I head in the direction they told me. This house is massive, I feel like I’ve walked a mile by the time I reach the backyard. It’s beautiful, but these gigantic mansions are eating all the beautiful space in Willow Creek. I love a house that has a personality and tells a story. All these mansions that keep popping up are cookie cutter and taking away from the beauty of our town in my opinion.

  I look around for Nate but don’t see a single person anywhere. Then I hear what sounds like a hammer on some wood start up and follow the noise…all the way until I stumble upon Nate, naked from the waist up. A shirtless, sweaty Nate wielding a hammer on a ladder. With the loud noise, he hasn’t heard me approach, so I don’t alert him just yet. Propping my shoulder against the house, I set in to watch him in action.

  Every time he pulls his arm backward, his back does this delicious muscle ripple that has me mesmerized. This is the first time I’ve seen him shirtless, and I can’t wait to see if the front is as stellar as the back. I’m also wondering what he can do to me with those big strong arms. I know they’re capable of being gentle firsthand with how he cared for Hazel and that they’re safe and warm to snuggle into on the couch. But this…I can’t wait for him to show me how he uses those arms in other ways.

  My thoughts catch me off guard. It seems my brain and… other parts of my anatomy are on warring paths.

  A few moments later, Nate finishes the piece of siding he’s placing, and I figure if I don’t let myself be known, I’m gonna look crazy standing here.

  “Do you make house calls?” I yell.

  “Only for pretty blondes that like to snuggle.” Nate smiles angling his body towards me on the ladder. His chest glistens under the sun, and it’s just as spectacular as the back. There’s a light smattering of hair across his chest and a trail that leads into his jeans that catches my eye. I’ve said it before, but Nate really is the opposite of what I usually go for. There’s not one clean cut bone on his body.

  “My eyes are up here, not that I’m one to complain.” Nate gives me a knowing smirk.

  “Sorry,” I laugh nervously. “I thought I’d bring you lunch.” I hold up the bag of food.

  “You have perfect timing, babe.” He steps down the ladder, walks over to me and pulls me into his sweaty body. “I’m starving.”

  Nate grabs the bag of food and my hand then pulls me back to the front of the house. The two guys that were working on the windows are gone, and I assume they’re on lunch break. He pulls down the tailgate of his truck and lifts me to sit on it. After a quick hop up, Nate hands the bag back to me.

  “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I grabbed two different types of subs. I like both so pick the one you want.” I hand both to him and watch him read the writing on the paper.

  “Luckily I’ll eat anything.” He makes a point to look over at me and smirk. “I’ll go with the Italian today.”

  “Good choice. I
really wanted the turkey.” I find myself pulling out a couple of sodas, wondering what kinds of things he’s not picky about eating.

  “This was a good surprise. You should do this more often. If I knew you were coming for lunch every day I’d get a fuck of a lot done in the morning, so I could take an extra-long lunch.”

  I nudge my knee against his and look at the ground. “The main reason why I wanted to do this, besides seeing you, is to thank you for the other night.” He goes to argue, but I place my hand over his mouth. “No, let me finish. You were great, and it was pretty nice having someone to lean on. It was technically supposed to be our first date so, ta-da, here’s our real first date. I decided to go the fancy route.” I raise my hand and gesture at our surroundings.

  “My mom’s going to kill me when she finds out our first date was on the tailgate of my truck at one of my job sites. We’ll call this half of our first date, and I’ll take you somewhere better when you can get a babysitter.”

  “Fair enough. But Nate, you need to know getting involved with me can be difficult. I need to get babysitters, sometimes I won’t be able to. My mom’s great, but I can’t rely on her all the time to go out whenever I want.”

  “Watching The Boss Baby with you two was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. If I have a problem with something, I’ll let you know. Stop worrying and let it happen.”

  “Our inevitable future?” I ask bringing up his prediction from the bar.

  “Yup. Just sit back and go with it, baby.” He leans in and places his lips to mine. The kiss is short and dreamy, leaving me once again wondering why it took me over six months to agree to a date.

  “How’s Hazel doing?” he asks pulling me from my regretful thoughts.

  “Really good. You wouldn’t even know she was sick. Kids are pretty resilient.”

  “They are.” He nods his head.

  I’m on the fence as to whether I should invite him to the beach this weekend with Hazel and me or not. We try to get there every Saturday, and it would be nice to have him there. But, then I’m wondering in the back of my mind if I should be mixing him with Hazel just yet… even after the movie day. It’s our little thing, just the two of us, and inviting him along is a big deal. I’ve been thinking about it over the past few days, going back and forth on whether I’m fully comfortable with the idea.

  Screw it. Didn’t I just the other day tell myself I was going to do what makes me happy?

  “Hazel and I go to the beach every Saturday religiously.”

  “Oh yeah.” He nudges me with his shoulder knowing that’s not all I had planned to say.

  “Yeah. If you aren’t doing anything, you can come.”

  I look up at him after he’s been quiet for some time. He’s staring at me, and I’m not sure why. I invited him to the beach, not to get hitched in Vegas.

  “Um, you don’t have to. It was just a thought.”

  “I’ll be there. Sometimes you stun me, Lex.”

  “How so?”

  “I thought I’d have to give some more bullet points on my charming personality. I haven’t told you about my power point presentation yet. I’m fucking thrilled, and I’d love to go.” He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear while looking honestly into my eyes. “You won’t regret it.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” I whisper gazing back into Nate’s gorgeous blue eyes.

  His face slowly descends towards mine, and I meet him halfway. Kisses from Nate bring me back to life. He’s the first guy since Carter that I can actually see myself with for more than a quick fling. I know that’s a lot riding on a kiss, even since the last time I was affected this way crash and burned on me.

  Damnit, why can’t I forget Carter ever existed? Will I constantly compare any relationship or man in my life to him? But then I realize, that’s not such a bad thing. I'm cautious, so I don’t get my heart broken again. If remembering how much Carter hurt me is the way to ensure that, so be it.

  Nate pulls back. “Where’d you go? Not that I wasn’t enjoying your lips, but it seemed like you went somewhere on me.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” I do not want to admit to him that I was thinking about Carter. “I’m just…” I take a deep breath. “This is a lot.”

  “Slow, remember? I can deal with that, as long as I get to do this all I want.” He threads his hands through my hair and crashes his lips to mine. Once his tongue dives between my lips, I have not another thought other than this moment. When Nate pulls back, he pulls me into his arms.

  “That’s better,” he says into my hair.

  We hear a throat clear and turn at the same time towards the noise. A man is standing a few feet from the truck looking at the ground with a wicked smirk.

  “Yes?” Nate asks annoyed.

  “I see your busy, boss man, but we found a few boxes of damaged tile in the basement.”

  Nate sighs, “Guess this ends lunch.” He sounds disappointed and believe it or not, I am too.

  “It’s okay. I need to get back to work anyway.” I jump down from the truck and brush my butt off from any dirt that might have clung to me. After I look at my phone, I can’t believe I’ve been here for over an hour.

  “I’ll meet up with you in a few minutes,” Nate says dismissing the worker and comes to wrap his arms around my waist. “And I’ll see you on Saturday.”

  “Can’t wait.”

  He kisses me goodbye and walks me to my car. After shutting the door, I’m surprised by how hard it is to leave him. I want to spend more time with him, get to know him more. Clearly surprising him with lunch showed him I’m giving us a shot and I’m glad he knows it now.

  I’m just praying he’s the right guy to take a leap on.

  Chapter 19

  There comes a time in every relationship when you have to take that leap. You have to take them to meet the parents. I’ve put it off as long as possible because, in the back of my mind, all I could think about was the train wreck of when Carter met my mom and stepdad.

  I keep telling myself this time will be different. My mom needs to approve of Nate because regardless of how I feel about him, I need the affirmation that I’m going down the correct path.

  “I really like him, Lex,” my mom states watching Nate play with Hazel.

  “Me too. I can’t explain it, but it feels right.” I try to hide a smile but can’t.

  “Then why are you still holding back?”

  I ask myself that all the time. Our relationship has grown so much, but I find it hard to give all of myself to Nate. I guess I still have Carter Larue to thank for my heart being so guarded.

  “I’m going into this cautiously. Nate’s great, he has the potential to have me falling hard and fast but…”

  “The last time you did that you ended up with a baby and dealing with being a single mother.” My mom finishes my sentence.

  “Yes. My main mistake with Carter was not getting to know him better. Actually, I don’t know if that’s all of it. Partly I ignored the warning signs that we wanted different things in life, like marriage and apparently children. Nate seems to be on the same wavelength with what we want out of life, but we’re taking our relationship at a pace that seems right. I still want to make sure he’s a good fit for Hazel and myself.”

  “Do you have any doubts?”

  Do I? I can’t think of one other than if I let myself go there completely with Nate, and down the road, if he ever left, it would completely shatter me and bringing that kind of hurt onto Hazel isn’t something I take lightly.

  Over the past three months, we’ve seen Nate several days a week. He goes to work and usually stops in for dinner, or we’ll have a date night. My mom tries to watch Hazel one night a week to allow us the time to get to know each other. I haven’t allowed a sleepover yet because it gives me a reason to put off being intimate with him. Which is crazy difficult. I want nothing more than to take our make-out sessions further, because damn, Nate can kiss. But I can’t, not yet. Not unt
il I see the future he told me we’d share.

  It’s hard not to equate sex to a baby, and I need to make sure whomever I’m intimate with can handle it should I find myself pregnant by surprise again.

  Hazel’s laughter pulls me from my thoughts when I look up and see Nate teaching her to fly a kite. The things almost bigger than her, but Nate claimed we had to go big or go home on her first time. I’m sure if he let her hold the strings by herself, she’d float off into the abyss never to be seen again.

  Luckily, I know he’ll never let her go.

  Nate hasn’t missed one Saturday beach day since the first one he joined us on. My hesitation to mix him and Hazel together vanished after that first day when I found he gels with our dynamic completely. Hazel’s really taken to him and enjoys being spoiled rotten.

  I look back to my mom. “No doubts, just making sure everything’s right.”

  “I’m proud of you sweetie. You’re living again. I was so scared you were going to go through life closed off because of that ass, but here you are opening yourself up to love again. Hazel deserves two loving parents, and I see that in Nate. You have light in your eyes again, you’re happy.”

  “This is the first time you’ve met him.” I narrow my eyes. There's no way she knows all of this from one meeting.

  “I know, and this should have happened months ago.” She returns my glare. “I can see it in how he is with my granddaughter and the smile you can’t seem to wipe from your face. When you told me about the hospital stay, I have to say, I was hesitant. But now I can see with my own two eyes how good he is for you.”

  “I agree.”

  “Lex, I think we need your help,” Nate yells from his spot with Hazel. “Don’t we little H?”

  “Mama, help!” My little girl’s giggles are like music to my ears. How can I deny the plea?

  I get up from the blanket and make my way through the sand. The smile on my lips is so large it borderline hurts, but I couldn’t reel it in if I tried. My mom’s right. When I’m with Nate, I’m truly happy.