Once Upon A Half-Time: A Sports Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,150

teeth. “So not the time!”

“I mean…if you have questions…” Mom shook her head. “Lord knows you haven’t found a man yet. I never needed to worry about this conversation with you.”

Done. That was it. I was done.

“It’s fine, Mom.” I stepped back. “Look, you guys have the venue stuff handled. I’m going to…go. And I might be back for the wedding.”

I bolted for the exit as my sister lost her mind.

Nate followed, and I was too shocked to shoo him. He led me to his car and helped me into the passenger seat. We sat in silence as we contemplated ways to purge the memory from our minds.

“So…” He started the car, but he didn’t drive. “That was your mom…”

“Who was the man she was…?”

Riding?

Gag.

“Gotta tell you, baby, I don’t make a habit of recognizing men based on their…meat, mid-grind.”

“I think it was Bryce’s dad.” I bit my lip. “Marcus ran into the hall after her.”

Nate laughed. “Great. This is a special kind of fucked up.”

“Take me home?”

He agreed, though just as the heebies shook out of me, the jeebies smacked me full force. I recognized the SUV in the corner of the parking lot.

“Oh no.” My stomach dropped. “Dad’s here? He’s gonna walk into the middle of all of this. What if he finds out that Mom is…”

Nate shrugged. “Doing what? They’re separated. Didn’t they sign the divorce papers?”

“It’s not final.”

“Well, your mom was one good bounce away from drying the ink on her signature.”

I gasped. “How can you say that?”

“Baby, they’re adults. They can do what they want.”

I guessed that included hurting each other and destroying thirty years of a life together.

But Mom had sex with the groom’s father!

This wasn’t just going to tear the family apart; it’d ruin the Washingtons and decimate the entire neighborhood. Our families were friends. We grew up together, helped each other, married each other.

Was no one happy anymore?

Hell, Lindsey and Bryce were fighting more and more, especially once he learned about the first “Dirty Dance” he’d have with his bride. Mom and Dad couldn’t be in the same room together. Now Marcus and Darla had infidelity problems.

Damn. The only person who had it right was Nate. He kept out of relationships and commitments, and he was happier for it.

Maybe he knew best.

I didn’t want to think why it comforted me that he drove me home and walked me to my door, but Nate knew how to make me smile. Laugh.

Melt.

I let him inside my apartment, and it wasn’t even against my better judgment. I just…

Wanted him there.

He had been to my apartment before…the first time we fooled around. Sure, it wasn’t his classy bar or his beautifully renovated apartment on its second floor, but I liked my place. It was tiny, but it got me away from home during college and kept me away once I graduated. Dad’s advertising company did well, but I didn’t have enough saved for a better place.

Besides, I had planned to find a home once I met the man of my dreams. We’d save for a house, have a small wedding, and then start a family.

Happily ever after, right?

My life was just a little out-of-order.

“You okay?” Nate asked.

He eyed the bed in the corner—miraculously made this morning without laundry stacked over the comforter.

“I can run to the bar, get us a six pack if you want to drink it away.”

The closer we got to the wedding, the harder it was to refuse a drink. Apparently, the only way people survived the last few weeks of planning was to write the toasts while toasted.

“I’ll survive.” I plunked onto the couch. “I just didn’t expect to walk in on that.”

“Front row show too.”

I gave an awkward laugh. “At least it wasn’t a role reversal. Had we been in there a couple minutes earlier—”

“I don’t know what you saw, but from my angle it looked like they had been going for a while.”

“Oh gross!” I smacked him with a throw pillow. Nate grinned, seizing it from me to retaliate. I ducked away. “Haven’t I suffered enough?”

He shrugged. “The ladies’ room was occupied. Nothing stopped us from using the men’s.”

“Do I look that depraved?”

“Like mother, like daughter.”

I huffed, grabbing the rest of the pillows on the couch to pitch at his head. Nate laughed, blocking the shots. He smiled, and that damn grin fluttered me into quiet confusion. It was sexy enough to make sneaking into bathrooms in public places seem…fun.

Something about Nate made me wild, but even at his most