Once and Again - By Lauren Dane Page 0,51
week. She’d been so busy she’d barely had time to eat, much less see Nathan. But she knew she was partly avoiding him. She’d begged off the Sunday dinner at the Chase house and had ignored her phone. It was only a matter of time before he came to hunt her down.
And maybe that’s what she was waiting for.
“I heard you’d be here.” Beth slid into the booth across from Lily, who turned around to see William send her a wave.
“Gonna have to start drinking my coffee elsewhere. You Murphys are far too smart for your own good.”
“Nathan was a grumpy asshole all weekend long. You want to tell me why?”
“’Cause he’s naturally grumpy with assaholic tendencies?”
Beth laughed. “Well aside from that. Though we both know the man is ridiculously hard to agitate.”
“I must be naturally gifted. Anyway, Friday I dropped Chris off at school and went to see Edward Chase. Well not him, but one of his partners. I needed to talk to an attorney about whether or not I could take Chris away from my mother if her drinking got any worse.”
Beth heaved a long sigh. “Christ. Really? I’m sorry. So totally sorry. You know I love your mother. She was more a mother to me than my own ever has been.”
“But you had Tate, and Tate never would have drank three full glasses of bourbon before eight in the morning and made believe everyone was fooled it was tea.”
“No, no you’re doing the right thing. I imagine my life would have been a lot different if we’d had someone who was willing to do that for us kids. So what are your options?”
“Today I told her that she needed to see the counselor and figure out a way to get herself healthy again or I’d take Chris. I know my father won’t do a thing. Nancy is useless. She doesn’t even have a place to live. They said the court would likely ask Chris what he wanted. I didn’t tell him that. I don’t want to make him choose. I don’t want him to have to deal with this at all. I came here to help him and I feel like a total failure. And your brother and I fought because he got in my business and I told him to back off.”
“You can’t possibly think it’s over between the two of you.” Beth stole half of Lily’s cinnamon roll. “He adores you. I know you love him too, so don’t even bother trying to deny it to me.”
“You better have taken the half with all the raisins.” Lily inspected the remaining bit of the roll and took a bite, satisfied that she was safe from the passel of raisins on the side she’d been avoiding.
“They have cinnamon rolls without raisins here. You do know that, right?”
“I do. But they put more glaze on the raisin ones. Probably to hide the raisins. But I like glaze.”
Beth looked at her and raised a brow. “I heard that about you.”
She burst out laughing. “What a filthy mind you have. Can’t imagine why you’re single with a brain as dirty as the one you’ve got. Cripes. Anyway, I don’t think we’re broken up. He’s respecting my space and I appreciate it.”
“It’s year end. He’s always totally busy with grades, finals and all that. School has a zillion meetings. He’s working every day and night too. He’s not much of a space giver. I know he messed up before, but other than that, you know I’m telling the truth. He’s an up-in-your-business sort of man. And he misses you. He’s hurting and worried he pushed you too far.”
“I should have known he told you all about it.”
“He didn’t. He told Tate, who then told me like he knew she would. Boys. So dumb. Anyway, I think you should swing by my house tonight.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to leave Chris alone with my mom.”
“Bring him along. I’ve got an Xbox and all kinds of violent games that are totally inappropriate for him. I’m ordering pizzas anyway. Come on. You need the break and he likes being around Jake.”
Her brother did tend to totally idolize Jacob Murphy, who wasn’t quite ten years older than he was. Jake split his time between Kyle Chase’s landscaping business and Tim’s plumbing business. He was a hard worker and was trying to figure out his future after college. A good influence on Chris.
“If you’re sure. And it’s not… Well Chris doesn’t know about me and