Long Time Running - By Hannah Foster Page 0,65

arms slide around her waist from behind; she stiffened.

"We can't do this Andrew."

"Yes, we could," he disagreed gently, without removing his arms, "if you'd let me. But, in the meantime, you are someone who needs a friend and I don't see a long line up of people looking to fill the role."

It was a minute before she let herself relax. Once she did, she turned in his arms and molded her body to his lean form. As much as she fought it, it always felt right. "I don't mean to be such a bitch."

"I know," he whispered.

"I'm scared."

"I know."

Out in the living room, Jack sat tucked up next to Eric measuring his hand against his father's.

"Are we going to meet my Mom tomorrow?"

"Yes. Are you excited about that?"

"Yeah. Do you think she'll like me?"

Eric swallowed down a lump in his throat as he nodded. "I know she will, Jack. She loves you."

Leaning his head against Eric's shoulder, he sighed happily. "This is going to be the best birthday ever."

Chapter 23

Nathalie applied her lip gloss for the fourth time before angrily wiping it off with a tissue. As she stared into the little mirror on her table she wondered what Jack would think when he saw her. Would he think she looked old? Tired? Mean? Sad? She realized no amount of lip gloss would cover the fact that she gave him up and for almost eight years he has known that his mother chose to be somewhere other than with him. Closing the cap on the lip gloss she tossed it across the room in frustration.

"You are going to exhaust yourself before he gets here," Andrew remarked from the doorway.

Smiling sheepishly, she shrugged. "I can't decide if I should allow him to see me looking terrible or if I should try and look like I didn't just have a tumor yanked from my head."

"First of all," he said, coming into the room, "I did not yank the tumor from your head. I delicately removed it. Second of all," he told her more seriously, "he is so excited to meet you that you could be purple with pink polka dots and he wouldn't care."

Playing with the hem of her t-shirt, she let out a shaky breath. Eric had phoned her last night to tell her that Jack now knew he was his father and that he was looking forward to meeting his mother. The news had both thrilled her and heightened her anxiety. There were consequences to every choice made in life and she was about to find out what hers were.

"He was really okay last night?" she prodded.

Andrew nodded, smiling. "He was. He stayed curled up to Eric all night long and fought to stay awake for as long as he could."

Seeing the worry etched on her face he pulled a chair to her bedside and sat down. "Nat, he is a bright, perceptive kid. Even if he doesn't understand all the complexities of why he wasn't living with you or why he wasn't told Eric was his father, he knows he's loved and that matters a lot."

"Did it matter to you?" she asked gently.

"I'm not Jack" he replied quietly. "My circumstances were different."

"How was Sarah? She...she didn't seem to want to talk very much last night."

"She's having a hard time Nat. She loves Jack."

"And she feels like she's being left - a recurring theme in my sister's life and one I've contributed to," she admitted.

"She likes to pretend she can roll with anything but I know....I can see how hard it is for her."

Cocking her head to the side, Nathalie carefully studied her friend. Though it had been years since she had seen him, there had been a time when she had known him inside and out. She had been one of the first to see his perpetual bachelor ways as a defense mechanism as opposed to a real love of the single life. There was something in the tone of his voice, in the way he spoke about her that turned a light bulb on.

"Drew, are you in love with my sister?"

He said nothing as he dropped his gaze.

Exhaling, Nathalie rubbed her hand over her face. "You sure you don't want to pick someone less complicated than Sarah?" she asked. Getting no response, she leaned forward and looked him straight in the eye. "My sister has this really prickly exterior-"

Andrew snorted. "Tell me about it."

She smiled knowingly. "And most people give up trying to get past it because it