Nate might understand the source of Patience Kabbah’s animosity, but that didn’t make it any easier to sit at her table again and meet her eye. See, he kind of needed Hannah’s mother to like him. Because Hannah, whether she realised it or not, adored her mother. And Nate couldn’t be the thing that caused problems between them.
So he held Patience’s gaze and said, “I’d just like to make a few things clear.”
She gave him a glare that reminded him of Hannah’s, if Hannah’s were powerful enough to blow up the fucking sun. Across the table, Ruth and Evan practically leapt to their feet. “We’ll be in the kitchen,” Evan said, before giving Nate a sympathetic look. Which was reassuring, since not so long ago he’d wanted to punch Nate in the face.
“Bye,” Ruth muttered. She picked up her plate and kept eating, even as she hurried out of the room.
Which left Nate, Patience, and the monumental weight of a mother’s disapproval. Hannah, apparently, was still hovering in the toilet. Possibly hyperventilating, so he’d made this quick.
“Ms. Kabbah,” he said, “I completely understand why you don’t like me. I have kids. I get it.”
“It is not that I dislike you,” she said sharply. “I am friends with your mother, you know. I think—I thought that you were a lovely boy. But I will not have you hurting my Hannah.”
“I know,” he said. “But I’m not going to hurt her. I love her.”
She cocked her head. “How convenient.”
“Actually, it was extremely inconvenient, all things considered. Things would’ve been a lot simpler if I could just stop loving Hannah. But I can’t, and I don’t want to. I’d rather walk over glass every day for the rest of my life than give her up.” He sat back, watching a series of unreadable emotions pass over the suspicious woman’s face. “If you want to—if you need to—you can spend all year needling me. And the year after that. And the decade after that. Because I’ll still be here.”
She studied him with narrowed eyes, her mouth a razor-sharp line. Then, finally, she said, “If you will be here so very long, I suppose you may call me Patience.”
He tried not to grin even as relief blossomed in his heart. “Thank you. Patience.”
She flicked him an arch look. “Go to find my children. I cannot believe they are running all over the house during dinner. These girls.” She shook her head despairingly and picked up her fork as if nothing had happened.
At which point, Nate gave up on holding back his smile.
A couple of hours later, Hannah and Nate wound their way through Ravenswood’s meandering streets. The afternoon sun had become the low, ripe disc of evening. Its glow warmed Hannah almost as much as the feel of Nate’s fingers laced through hers.
“I don’t know how,” she said, “but you really saved that nightmare.”
His lips quirked. “Your mother and I had a talk.”
“About what?”
“My undying devotion.”
“Ah.” She chuckled. “Well, it worked.”
“I should hope so. I meant every word of it.”
She faltered for a moment, her steps slowing, her eyes wide as she looked sharply up at him. “You… did?”
“Yep.” He pulled them to a complete stop and turned to face her. And then, to her absolute horror—and, disturbingly, her slight excitement—he sank down onto his knees. In the street. The quiet, abandoned street, but still.
“What on earth are you doing?” she hissed. “Get up!”
“I can’t.” He took her hands. “I’m being dramatic.”
“Nathaniel! Are you proposing?”
“No,” he laughed, “but thanks for the enthusiasm.”
Her cheeks heated. “Sorry. I just—”
“Hannah.” He squeezed her hands. “When I propose—” she almost choked at when “—you will be warned well in advance so you can organise the whole thing to your satisfaction. Okay?”
Her heart swelled. “Really?”
“Really.”
She was getting dangerously emotional, and all because he was going to let her arrange her own proposal. Oh, dear. “You’re the best.”
“I know.” He dodged as she tried to flick his head. “Settle down, woman. I’m declaring myself, here.”
“Oh, I see. Sorry. Do go on.” She cleared her throat and tried to look demure, but it was difficult to maintain with an enormous smile splitting her face.
Nate kissed her hands, one at a time, before he began. “Hannah. I wasted a lot of time and made this whole thing harder than it needed to be by holding back. I didn’t want to scare you off, I didn’t want to move too fast, I didn’t want to throw my feelings all over the place like confetti.