London Bound (17 page)

Meg’s chest ached when her daughter faced him with an exasperated smile. The two of them had been close their whole lives, but had grown even more since Scott’s death. They could never stay angry at each other and, most of the time, didn’t need much intervention from Meg when disagreements did arise.

“I’m not asking for an apology. Just...dial it back. I really like this guy.” She sat back as well, tucked against her brother, and he dropped his arm around her shoulders.

“I promise, I’ll be super duper nice to him, okay?” he drawled.

Emily rolled her eyes and smacked his chest. “Whatever.”

“God, I miss you guys.” Meg rested her head against the back of the sofa. “Though, obviously, you’re doing just fine on your own.”

“Miss you, too, Mom.” Aaron flashed her a smile, and God, he looked just like his dad.

“We
do
miss you, but you’re supposed to be having too much fun to miss us. The pictures you sent are amazing. Please tell me you’re having the best vacation ever,” Emily pleaded playfully.

“I’m having a wonderful time. I’ve more photos than I sent. Today, I went to...”

She trailed off when movement beyond the computer caught her attention. Her breath caught when Nathan stumbled out of the bedroom, clad in only his boxer briefs, hair all mussed, eyes squinting as he made his way toward the kitchen. He sleepily scratched at his bare stomach, and Meg’s clenched hotly in response. It never lessened, she thought, slightly dazed. The gut-wrenching reaction she had to him wasn’t any weaker than the first time she’d seen him. If anything, after everything, it was stronger.

“‘S’late,” he mumbled before disappearing then reappearing a moment later, drinking from a bottle of water. “You coming to bed soon, love?”

“Oh, my God.”

Nathan’s eyes widened at the sound of Emily’s squeal.

“Someone’s there, with you, in the middle of the night? Who is it? Are you dating someone? Oh, my God,” Emily said again before going silent.

Meg swallowed around the lump in her throat as Nathan shook his head then walked back into the bedroom. Shit, shit, shit. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Her kids were never supposed to know about...whatever was between her and Nathan. And she was
not
supposed to feel gutted that he so obviously wanted nothing to do with them.

Face burning, she dragged her eyes from the bedroom door back to the screen. Emily sat on the edge of the couch, hand over her mouth, practically bouncing out of her skin, while Aaron, stock still, stared at her through narrowed eyes. Meg licked her lips, trying to figure out what to say.

Aaron spoke before she couldn’t formulate a coherent thought. “Who the fuck is that?”

“Hey,” she snapped, even as her heart raced. “Don’t cuss at me.”

“Okay, then. Who. Is. That?”

Emily moved her hand to her lap. “You’re dating now?”

Meg closed her eyes a moment and set the carton she still held next to the computer then roughly shoved both hands through her hair.

“Dating,” Aaron said, his tone tight and harsh. “Suuure, that’s what’s going on. That’s why Mom’s in her pajamas, and some guy is asking her if she’s coming to bed. I’m more than a little concerned about your definition of dating, Em.”

Emily stared at Meg, eyes widening, then turned to her brother. “Stop it. You’re upsetting her.”

Meg shook her head. “It’s all right. He can say whatever he needs to say. I know it’s a shock, but it’s private. I never intended for you to find out, especially not like this, but I am entitled to a personal,
private
life.”

Aaron scrubbed his palm down his face. “Damned right it’s a shock! It’s not enough having to deal with my baby sister dating,” he muttered. “Now, this—whatever
this
is—with my mom. For fuck’s sake...”

Meg dropped her feet onto the floor and leaned forward. “First of all, quit cussing at me! Second, it’s not for you to
deal
with anything. It’s not your job to look after me, Aaron.”

“Mom...” A muscle in his cheek twitched. “I don’t want you to get hurt. You’ve been through enough.”

“But she’s happy.”

She shifted her gaze to her daughter, whose mouth was curved in the sweetest smile and hand was squeezing her brother’s shoulder. “What?”

“There’s been something different about you. I thought it was the trip, that after a little while, you were finally enjoying yourself. But it’s him, isn’t it? He makes you happy.”

“I
am
enjoying myself,” Meg said quickly. “I’m enjoying everything about the trip, baby. And yes, that includes the company.”

“I should hope so.”

She jumped as Nathan’s words, though quiet, filled the room. He strode across the room, now wearing sweats and a t-shirt, and sat beside her. As his arm snaked around her, pulling her closer to his side, she wondered how much he’d overhead. Had he heard Emily’s assertion that Meg was happy because of him? She couldn’t deny it was true, but she was afraid. So afraid of complicating things, of making it even harder to leave when the time came.

“Um,” she rubbed her hands on her thighs, “this is Nathan Harris. And this is—”

“Emily and Aaron,” Nathan finished, and Meg bit back a laugh when she noticed Emily’s cheeks redden. “It’s lovely to finally meet you.”

“You, too,” the teen said quickly.

“So, how’d you meet my mother, and how long have you been
dating
?” Aaron asked. “And what exactly are you looking to get out of this? Do you make it a habit to hook up with women traveling alone?”

“Aaron!” Meg loudly interrupted him before he could keep going, and she had no doubt that he would. She, then, turned to Nathan. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to—”

“It’s all right.” He tightened his hold on her and pressed his lips to her temple. “Not so long ago I was the son interrogating the men in my mother’s life. Actually, still am, at times. Don’t worry, love. I think I can handle being on the other side of it.”

“Awww,” Emily cooed.

“You’re ridiculous,” Aaron muttered, rolling his eyes, looking quite disgusted with everything.

“Shut up.” Emily used her whole body to shove at him, managing to coax a huffed laugh and reluctant smile in response.

Nathan chuckled. “Your mum is renting the flat above mine, and I met her several weeks ago. Officially, anyway. We’d passed each other in the hallways periodically before that. Apparently, before she got to know me, she thought I was... What was that again?” He winked at Meg. “Ah, yes, asshole-ish.”

Meg’s face warmed, but happiness filled her at the sound of her daughter’s tinkling laugh mingling with Nathan’s deep one. She didn’t say much as Nathan chatted with Emily and Aaron. His easy way with them and ready acceptance of Aaron’s constant barrage questions surprised her. And confused the hell out of her. He was acting as if they were more, that they had more between them. Meeting her kids, getting to know them, that was the act of someone with plans to stick around, wasn’t it?

She blinked rapidly and mentally shook herself. She was overthinking things. Nathan was a good guy; of course, he was being kind to her children. She shouldn’t read anything into it. Besides, she didn’t know the first thing about dating or being with someone now. Dating as a teenager was worlds away from dating as the mother of teenagers.

“Mom.” Emily’s bright voice penetrated her thoughts. “You look like you’re about to fall asleep.”

“I’m sorry, baby. It’s been a long day.” She stifled a yawn behind her hand.

“It’s getting late. You need to head to bed.” Nathan ran a hand up and down her back. “Get some sleep.”

“Yes, S—” She clamped her mouth shut and didn’t miss the way his mouth twitched. Clearing her throat, she tried again, “Sleep is probably a good idea. I’ll text you tomorrow. See when we can do this again?”

“You’re on vacation, Mom. You don’t have to check in on us all time. Just...enjoy yourself,” Aaron said, his gaze flicking over to Nathan briefly. “I’m not saying not to call, just don’t feel like you have to or feel bad if you get busy and don’t have time. We’ve got things covered here.”

“I know,” she assured him. “Still wanna talk to you, though. I miss you guys.”

“Miss you, too.” His expression softened, and he laughed. “You can hardly keep your eyes open.”

“Time for bed, love,” Nathan murmured then, to the kids, “We’ll be talking again, I imagine. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

Emily nodded enthusiastically. “Good night, Nathan. Night, Mom. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Love you, Aaron.”

“Love you, Mom. Sleep well.” He looked at Nathan. “Be good to her. It may be more difficult to find you than it is to find the guy thinking of dating my sister, but it’s not impossible, and I’d manage it.”

“Duly noted.” Nathan nodded. “Wouldn’t expect anything less. Good night, Aaron. Emily.”

Before Meg could say anything more, the call disconnected, and Nathan shut the laptop. Without a word, he stood and pulled her to her feet. She frowned as they walked toward the bedroom. Fatigue wrapped around her, blurring her thoughts.

“You surprised me,” she said softly as she crawled onto the bed and stretched out on her back.

“Did I?”

He stripped back down to his briefs then lay beside her. The light from outside the room cast shadows on his face, and she lifted her hand to trace her fingers along his cheekbones.

“When you came back in here after realizing I was talking to the kids, I didn’t expect you to come back out. I thought...” She sighed and let her hand drop to her side. “I thought maybe that was outside the boundaries of what we have.”

“No, that wasn’t it at all. I just figured that the first time I met your kids—even if it was only on video chat—shouldn’t be in just my pants.”

“But you weren’t wearing pants, you were just in— Oh! Right, pants are underwear here.” She snorted, letting her tired eyes drift shut, and blindly tapped him on the chest.

He laughed, a soft, rumbling sound, and dragged a finger down her cheek. Then, gathering her close, he kissed her. A brief, sweet press of the lips.

“Glad you got to meet them,” she whispered. “They were able to see the best part of my vacation, the very best part of the gift they gave me. Even if they don’t know it... I do.” She grimaced. “S’pose that didn’t really make any sense. It did in my head, though.”

“Shhh.” He smoothed a hand over her hair. “Get some sleep.”

“Okay.” She snuggled closer, burrowed into his warmth. “Nathan?”

“Yes?”

“I...” She swallowed audibly. “I missed you today.”

“I missed you, too.” He gripped her chin and peered at her in the darkness. “Now, enough talk. Time to sleep.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good girl.”

M
eg let her eyes close and just relaxed into the fingertips that were massaging her scalp. It was an absent-minded gesture, she knew. Nathan was reading through one of the numerous files he’d pulled from his bag earlier, and she’d stretched out on the couch beside him, lazy and tired, with her head resting on his thigh.

She sighed, caught between the warm, contented feeling that had filled and surrounded her for weeks now and the budding panic that this was all coming to an end. She’d gotten used to spending her days exploring the city and her evenings with Nathan. More often than not, she’d return to the apartment before him, and the rightness of that, of being there to welcome him home each night, scared the hell out of her. Even the time they’d had together Sunday—all day, just the two of them—hadn’t fulfilled her the same way the day-to-day did.

The problem? It was now Tuesday, and, in less than a week, she’d have to walk away from all of this. From Nathan. As much as she wanted to go home—she missed her kids, her friends, even her job—the idea of never seeing him again and losing what they’d built in the time they’d been together made her want to weep.

“Are you talking to the kids, tonight?” Nathan dragged his thumb along her jaw, a ghosting caress before returning to the light massaging.

“No. They have more important things to do than wait for their mama to call them every night.” She laughed. “Besides we talked last night, and texted earlier.”

“Hmmm.”

She turned onto her back and looked up at him. “Aaron was more pleasant to you last night.”

Nathan chuckled, hand flexing in her hair. “Yes, the lack of glaring was very heart-warming.”

“You totally scored points by telling me to quit nagging him about sending his transfer application in,” she pointed out, biting back her smile.

He finally shifted his attention from the page in front of him and tilted his head to meet her gaze. “I’m quite certain I never used those words.”

“Oh, your meaning was very clear.” Her lips curved when he frowned. “And you were right. Riding his ass isn’t going to make it happen. No matter how much I wish it would.”

He bent down and kissed her forehead. “You’re a wonderful mum, Meg. Just give him some space; he’ll make good choices. You’ll see.”

Sitting up, he turned to his report again, fingers back to their magic dancing on her head. Meg blinked back the sudden wetness welling in her eyes and moved back onto her side, intent on hiding her face from Nathan. She missed this—having someone to talk to about what was going on with her kids, someone who would point out when she was being unreasonable or provide another opinion or option when she just wanted to fix a problem, make everything better for her children. She had friends, of course, to talk with—Caro, in particular, wasn’t stingy with her opinion—but it wasn’t the same as having a partner who offered balance.

And, she would do well to remember that she didn’t have that now. Not really. As lovely as it was that Nathan showed an interest in her kids and offered his views, Meg didn’t have a partner. She hadn’t had one for six long years. She wasn’t doing herself any favors by pretending she did with Nathan. She’d known from the start that this was temporary—a fling while she was on vacation. Something to enjoy, yes, but sure as hell not something to rely on.

Meg needed to focus on the enjoying, while she was still able to. Getting too emotionally invested— Who the fuck was she kidding? She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her cheek back and forth on Nathan’s thigh, nuzzling against the warmth seeping through his suit pants. For all the reminding herself that it was temporary and a fling, she’d flung casual out the window before she’d even realized she’d done it. The more she got to know Nathan, the more she... She bit her bottom lip, swallowing the groan that swelled in her throat, as she allowed herself to think it for the first time, to let the idea sit in her mind without her shoving it aside—she’d fallen for him. Hard.