Meeting Mr. Wright (7 page)

“Nate, be careful,” Amy shouts from the other room. “It’s time for dinner, and I’m not cleaning up any barf tonight.”

“That’s really appetizing, Mom. Thanks,” Nate says.

“You already ate!” Madeline tells him with a giggle.

“I have room for more.”

“Where?” She pats Nate’s stomach, feeling around for some extra space.

“I have a hollow leg,” he tells her, and the look on her face is priceless. “All the food goes down there when I eat it, so I have more room in my belly.”

“Wow,” Madeline sighs with wonder, eyes wide.

“Ready for dinner?” he asks her, and she nods enthusiastically. “Why don’t you help Miss Callie get up?”

Madeline holds out her hands to me, and I clasp them in mine. Then Nate wraps his hands around her waist and pulls her back. Her hands slip out of mine.

“Uncle Nate!” she screams, laughing.

“Try again,” he replies, winking at me. She grabs my hand and he pulls her away again, then wraps her in his arms. “Where’s all that upper-body strength, princess? We’re going to have to start working on some bench presses.” He lifts her up over his head, and I have never seen a child having so much fun in my entire life.

“Nate!” Amy warns.

Madeline holds out her hand again, and I clasp it in mine. I take Nate’s hand with my free one, and he pulls me up. Madeline runs into the living room, and the smile that Nate wears as he watches her takes my breath away. And I could kill Amy and Gabby for subjecting me to all of this cuteness.

“C’mon,” Nate says, his hand gently pressing into the small of my back as he leads me to the dining room.

Mr. and Mrs. Wright are sitting next to each other, with Jessa and Madeline directly across from them. Ethan and Emily are at the far end, thankfully. There are only two empty chairs left, and they’re right next to each other, which I’m sure is no accident. Nate pushes my chair in as I sit down, and then he takes the seat to my left. When I look up, I notice Ethan watching the two of us, and I can’t lie, I feel a twinge of satisfaction at the hint of jealousy I see in his eyes.

Gabby and Ben sit across from Nate and me, too wrapped up in each other to notice that there’s an actual meal taking place. They look so in love that it’d be sickening if they weren’t my friends.

Jessa is thinking the same thing I am. “You two look so in love,” she says, sighing a little as she cuts into her lasagna. “I remember that look. It starts to fade a bit when you’re running after a screaming four-year-old.”

“Oh shush,” Amy says, flipping her napkin at her daughter. “Your father and I had the three of you, and we still look at each other like that.”

“Which is a miracle after having Nate,” Jessa replies.

Nate gives her a playful sneer. “Clearly I wasn’t too bad since Mom and Dad had another kid after me.” He looks over at Ben dismissively. “They stopped after you, so…”

“Only because they had achieved perfection,” Ben says, puffing out his chest. “Besides, if they could survive Jess’s projectile vomiting, they can survive anything.”

Jessa laughs. “You haven’t seen projectile vomiting until-”

“Vomit!” Madeline shouts.

“That’s enough,” Mr. Wright—Jack—says, looking both disgusted and amused at the same time. “Every conversation this family has seems to devolve into one about bodily functions.”

“And yet Nate, Jess and I are still here,” Ben says, picking up his glass of wine. “There must’ve been some real magic in the air the night you and Mom met.”

“How did you meet?” I ask.

There’s a collective groan from the three Wright children.

“Now you’ve done it,” Ben says.

Amy rolls her eyes. “You all seem to have a lot of opinions for people who wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for that night.”

“Well, I’d like to hear about it,” I say.

“Thank you Callie,” Amy replies, and I can tell from the smile on her face that she just loves telling people this story. The exasperated looks on the faces of her children prove that she tells it often.

“I was an exchange student in Paris.” There’s a far-off look in her eyes and a soft grin on her lips. “I was looking for this tiny art house theater. I fancied myself to be quite the movie snob back then. I had been searching for it for close to an hour, using a map that someone had drawn on a cocktail napkin. I asked around, but my French wasn’t good enough to be able to understand the directions that people were giving me. I was so lost, and then I snagged my purse handle on the end of a bench. When I bent down to pick it up, I noticed that another set of hands was reaching for it. They belonged to Jack.” She looks over at her husband and cups his face before threading her fingers through his. And even though I’m sure he’s heard this story a thousand times, he still looks completely taken by her. “He knew where the theater was; he’d been there countless times before. We went to a small bistro down the street from the theater, and we ended up missing the movie. We talked until the bistro closed.”

“Until they kicked us out,” Jack says, smiling tenderly as he looks at his wife.

Amy grins at him and squeezes his hand. “He walked me home to my apartment.”

“I walked by there every day on my way to class. I always knew something was special about that building.” Jack touches his forehead to Amy’s, and I swear it’s one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen.

“We’ve been together ever since. Managed to bring these three goofballs into the world,” Amy says, laughing.

“You wouldn’t know what to do without us,” Jessa replies as she cuts up Madeline’s lasagna.

Amy looks at me. “I always like to say that meeting Mr. Wright was-”

“The best thing that ever happened to me,” Jessa, Nate and Ben reply in unison, sounding pretty unenthusiastic about the events that led up to their existence. They’re obviously teasing their mother, and she rolls her eyes at them. Jack leans over and gives her a soft kiss, and it’s touching to see something so simple and romantic between two people who have been together for so many years.

“I hope you feel the same way, Gabby,” Amy says.

“I do,” Gabby replies, taking Ben’s hand.

“This is so beautiful.” Emily dabs at her eyes, and everyone at the table turns and looks at her, completely surprised that she said something.

Nate, unfortunately, is the first person to reply. “It really is beautiful,” he says, looking pointedly at Ethan. “Stories about men who honor their commitments are few and far between these days.”

I pinch Nate’s leg under the table, while Ethan looks like he’d love nothing more than for the floor to open up and swallow him whole.

A
FTER DINNER,
Nate and I stand side-by-side at the sink. He’s washing the dirty pots and pans, and I’m arranging the dinner plates into neat rows in the dishwasher. I’ve been stewing over the comment he made to Emily about commitment since he said it, trying to figure out whether or not I should say something to him about it. But Nate has his shirt sleeves rolled up, and I keep getting distracted by his forearms, watching them dip in and out of the suds, all soaking wet and strong and beautiful.

I really should splash myself with some of that dishwater to get my mind right before I open my mouth, but the two of us are alone and with a house full of people and a wedding on the way, who knows when that will happen again? I need to take my chance while I have it.

“Listen,” I say as I rearrange a few coffee cups to make room for another one to fit on the rack. “I don’t need you to stick up for me.”

“What do you mean?” Nate asks, turning off the water and drying his hands with a dishtowel.

“I mean that I don’t want this week to be uncomfortable. I don’t want to have to worry about someone bringing up the past and throwing it in Ethan’s face or throwing it in mine.”

Nate turns to me, and for some strange reason I want to reach up and smooth over the crease between his furrowed brows. “I wasn’t trying to throw the past in anyone’s face, Callie.”

I sigh, not really sure if I’m explaining things so that he’ll understand where I’m coming from. “Maybe that wasn’t the best way to put it. It’s just that what happened between Ethan and me, it happened between
Ethan
and
me
. And now I’m in this awkward position of being here and trying to keep my distance while he’s still a part of things because his friends are my friends. It’s difficult, and I don’t want to worry about it more than I have to. I don’t want to worry about you saying something that’s going to bring all of that out into the open. Maybe it’s just better to let it be.”

Nate’s arm grazes mine, and it sends a shiver through my body that makes my stomach flip. “I know we only just met and I don’t know all that much about you, but…” When our eyes meet, he takes a deep breath and purses his lips, seemingly reconsidering whatever it is that he was going to say. That, of course, makes me entirely too curious.

“But what?”

Nate’s eyes search mine, and it’s so easy for me to get lost in that deep, expressive blue. He shakes his head, and the corner of his mouth quirks up in a half-smile.

“Nothing,” he replies, and turns his focus back on the dishes.

A
FTER
N
ATE
and I finish cleaning up the dinner mess, he goes upstairs and reads Madeline a bedtime story. Once she’s all tucked in and sound asleep, Nate, Ben, Gabby and I all head over to the patio that’s connected to the guest house. It’s a beautiful outdoor space with a roof and open sides. There’s a grilling area that’s nicer than most of the kitchens I’ve been in, and a large stone fireplace on the side of the patio that’s opposite the house. Two love seats are positioned in front of the hearth; Ben and Gabby are all cuddled up in one, while Nate and I sit in the other, maybe an inch or so between us.

I’m settled into the cushions and my eyes are closed. I love the tickle of the wind blowing strands of hair across my face, and I take long, deep breaths. I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever breathed like this. Like it’s something I want to do rather than need to do.

“You really love this place, don’t you?” Ben asks.

Gabby asked me the same thing yesterday, and I realize that I should probably be a little less obvious about it, lest one of the Wrights get worried that I’m going to want to stay forever. But tonight is not the night that I’m going to do that.

“Yes,” I breathe, tilting my head toward the breeze before I open my eyes. “How did you guys ever leave it?”

“It’s easy to leave a place when you know you can come back to it whenever you want,” Nate replies with a grin. The small size of the love seat doesn’t leave either of us much room, but I welcome the warmth from the close proximity of his body as I fold my legs underneath me, trying to keep out the chill.

“What Nate said.” Ben wraps his arms around Gabby and she snuggles against his chest. I feel the familiar prick of jealousy beneath my skin. Not because I want Ben, but because I miss the feeling of being wrapped up in someone like that, completely trusting them with my heart, my life…my everything.

“Colorado, though,” Nate says, looking over at me. “This place has nothing on Colorado.”

“What made you choose to live there?” I ask.

There’s a far-off look in his eyes, like he misses the place already. It’s a look that makes my heart twist. He’s too beautiful for that kind of longing, and I have to press my hands into fists to keep from reaching out for him. What is it about him that just draws me like a magnet?

“I went to CU on a scholarship for lacrosse, and the moment I stepped off the plane I just knew I was supposed to be there. It felt like home. I loved all the mountains, the lakes. Everything,” Nate says.

Ben interjects with a little bit of brotherly teasing. “Nate’s always liked to climb things just to jump off of them. Colorado’s got plenty of things to jump off of.”

“That’s crazy,” I say, laughing. I can’t even wrap my mind around the kind of hobbies Nate must have. Rappelling, mountain climbing. Personally, I like having my feet firmly planted on the ground at all times. I don’t really like taunting gravity by throwing myself off tall things.

“No.” Nate looks over at me, his eyebrows scrunched together. The reflection from the firelight dancing on his face makes his expression very warm. “What’s crazy is knowing there’s so much beauty in this world and not actively seeking it out.”