Try not to kill Nathan while I'm gone. Give the man a break. He's obviously crazy about you. You and Serena try not to have too much fun without me. We'll catch up when I get back. And hey, thanks for the shoulder today. You're the best."
She made noisy smooching noises and then hung up.
Julie erased the voice mail and put the phone back on the kitchen table. The girl was certifiable. She'd called the wedding off, had a pregnancy scare and had eloped to Vegas all in twenty-four hours. And she had the nerve to call herself boring?
Clearly Julie needed to be taking lessons from her.
It was late, and Julie was tired, but she knew without a doubt she wouldn't go to sleep very easily. Too much occupied her mind, Nathan Tucker being the main distraction.
He'd surprised her tonight. He'd seemed alternately comfortable and ill at ease with her, almost as if she made him nervous. Was that why he'd never made a move before? His shyness was actually pretty endearing.
She had no idea where things were going with Nathan. He'd dropped her off without so much as a kiss good-bye. The tension between them had been palpable, but he must have the restraint of a saint because all he'd done is look at her with those gorgeous green eyes fringed with those too-long lashes. She'd melted into a puddle, and he'd simply told her good night.
She'd been plotting to jump him and drag him into her apartment while he could have been talking about the weather as calmly as he'd handled their farewell.
Maybe he just wasn't interested in her that way. But why go to the trouble of asking her out? Would she ever figure this guy out? He hadn't asked her out again. He hadn't given her the I'll call you line. He hadn't even said See you. Had the date gone that bad?
With an indelicate flop, she landed on the couch. Reclining, she put her head on the back and closed her eyes. Sexual frustration sucked. Men sucked.
Chapter 14
Micah leaned back in the chair in front of Faith's desk and turned his head as if to make sure they were still alone. "We still on for round two?"
"I wish to hell you wouldn't put it like that," Nathan grumbled. "And yeah, it would seem so. I mean, she asked for two nights. I guess I ought to be grateful she didn't ask for a week or something."
Not that he’d mind a month. Hell, he'd like a lot longer, but he wanted the blindfolds off and he wanted her to see him, to know it was him, to want him as much as he wanted her.
Micah eyed him with what could only be deemed amusement. "So how did the date go?"
Nathan grunted as he poured a cup of shit coffee that Micah had brewed and sipped cautiously. "It went."
"That good, huh?"
"It went exactly how I wanted" Nathan defended.
"So, what happened? You're acting like a bear with a sore paw this morning.”
"It's called frustration," he growled.
Micah chuckled. "You not have a good time, or she still holding out and running circles around you? I knew I loved this girl."
"We had a great time," Nathan said tightly. "She was great. Perfect, actually. I was determined to play it straight. She seemed convinced I was going to jump her, and I was determined to prove to her that I wasn't just after sex."
Micah leaned forward. "You aren't? Do tell. This gets more interesting by the minute."
Nathan sighed and ran a hand over his smoothly shaven head. "You ever look at a woman and just like what you see? I'm not talking about sex. I'm talking about liking her. The entire package."
"This reminds me of being in the third grade and having Emily Robbins tell me that she liked me but she didn't like me like me, because she liked, liked, liked Bobby Ray Coleman."
Nathan aimed a pencil at Micah's head and let fly. Micah ducked and the pencil bounced off the water cooler by the door.
"Okay, so you like her. The whole package. I get the feeling you're about to get all deep on me, man. We should probably be having this conversation over drinks, and one of us should be drunk. Preferably me."
"I wonder if anyone would miss you if you just disappeared one day," Nathan said.
Something peculiar flashed in Micah's eyes before they became bland again. "Nah, just Pop, and he could replace me quick enough."
"Don't tempt me