the necessity of ensuring that every avenue is carefully maintained.”
“Indeed. While I remain perfectly comfortable with what I currently have, there is always more to be had.”
Nathaniel nodded. “And in the meantime, you want everything here to continue as is.”
“Precisely.”
Nathaniel gave his best comforting smile. “Well, to that, I can say you have nothing to worry about, Father. Everything here will continue as you have left it and will run as though you weren’t here in the first place.”
“Will it?”
“Absolutely.”
A beat, then, “I have full confidence that it will. James will maintain the house, and Sonia will deal with the rest. I have no doubt they can handle matters.”
In truth, Nathaniel shouldn’t have been surprised that his father wasn’t going to leave him in charge. Despite apparently behaving himself, there was no chance his father was going to let bygones be bygones. And while there had been a moment, brief though it was, where Nathaniel thought he might be given a chance.
Then again, it wasn’t all bad.
If he’d been left in charge of the house, unsupervised, he would have felt compelled to stay home and deal with running things. There wasn’t a lot to deal with, but guests stopped by on occasion, and there might be a need for him to be around. It meant he would have had to put off any and all possibility of seeing Tyler.
And now, his father had thrown that right out the window, never realizing what he was doing.
So, he smiled. “Fine choices.”
“I thought so. Sonia will deal with you as she always has, but she will also be in charge of your personal security. Anything you wish to do must be passed through her and escorted.”
Nathaniel was never more glad for his years of training, in honing his skills at hiding what was going on in his head. If he was going to remain as he was, put under constant watch, then so be it, he would continue doing what he’d already done. And if that meant Sonia would be doing the same, and with even less oversight, then all the better.
He itched to pull out his phone and message Tyler. “Understood, Father.”
“And when I return, you and I will discuss what I’m going to expect of you for the rest of this summer.”
“I look forward to it,” he said evenly.
“Good.”
Nathaniel nodded, maybe there was something to Tyler’s idea about playing his own game and having fun with it after all.
Tyler
After his disastrous video call with Nate, Tyler had done his best to avoid Clay and Elliot. The rest of the next day he’d been mostly successful in that regard. He suspected Clay was trying to avoid him too, which worked out nicely for him. Tyler ran into Elliot near the end of the day, who only smirked knowingly at him as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and disappeared.
The most he heard from Nate was a text telling him that he had good news, but he would have to wait to give it to him. That piqued Tyler’s curiosity and he knew better than to push. Whatever Nate wanted to tell him, he would find out in due time.
He didn’t have to wait long the next day. His phone beeped at him from the coffee table as he squinted at the laptop sitting in front of him. While Clay and Elliot hadn’t said anything, Tyler knew he needed a job. There was still money in his savings, but he would prefer not to have to dip into it unless necessary.
He picked up the phone and read the message from Nate.
Busy?
Tyler snorted and tapped back, Just torturing myself looking for a job.
How would you feel about getting out for a bit?
Sounds good. You able to?
I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t.
“Smartass,” Tyler said fondly, typing back in the affirmative.
He closed the laptop’s lid and slid it onto the table. His phone beeped with Nate’s message confirming where to meet him and Tyler hurried to get himself ready. He still had a couple of hours before he would have to meet Nate at the same cafe he’d last met the man at, but Tyler wanted to make sure he was cleaned up and looking his best.
Tyler emerged from the shower, dressed and ready, just in time to almost hit Clay on his way down the hallway.
Clay stepped back, raising a brow. “What’s the rush?”
“Going to meet...someone,” Tyler said, evading at the last second.
Clay wasn’t fooled. “Right. Would that someone happen to