Page 5 of Home for Nathan (Secret Springs)

Chapter

Five

“ W ow.” Nathan looked around at the entryway of Charlie’s house, wide-eyed and almost speechless.

A grand central staircase wound its way up from the center of the foyer and split into two to crawl out into the upstairs level.

Carved griffin heads, he thought, adorned the newel posts, and recessed paneling filled the walls halfway up to the chair rail where there was the stunning wallpaper that went the rest of the way.

The furnishings were all just perfectly matched with the house.

He couldn’t even. “This place is amazing, Charlie.”

Charlie laughed, clearly pleased. “Thanks. I got to do most of the design work, and it was my first real project. I just adore it. I mean it’s a bit much, but the family rooms are way more livable, I think.”

“Still, I mean this is like an Architectural Digest historical home.”

Charlie nodded, linking their arms and walking him through the entry toward the back of the house. “It really is. It’s on the historic register.”

“That is so neat. Thanks for having me up so I could see it.”

“Anytime! I really think that we are gonna be good friends.”

Nathan hoped so too. He really liked Charlie, and the fact that Charlie was married and had kids made it kind of nice, because when the baby came, it wouldn’t be so weird.

Not like hanging out with his single friends would have been in Denver or someplace like that.

Not that he wasn’t single. He was, but he was going to have a baby, and Charlie had asked him to come up for lunch.

Apparently, Kaleb had taken the kids to some sort of alpha brunch that they were having at the truck stop or something like that, so it was just the two of them.

“Is it tacky of me to ask if you have, like, servants?” Nathan asked.

Charlie’s chuckle was light and happy. “It’s not tacky at all.

We do have a caretaker who lives on the premises but not in the house.

He’s in the old carriage house above the garage.

And then we have a cleaning crew that comes in once a week and cleans the whole house.

It takes five maids to do the work, which is just crazy but that keeps me from having to constantly be vacuuming and dusting and polishing and sweeping. ”

“That’s wild, but I guess it’s good you give local people jobs.”

“Totally. We also, and this is embarrassing,”—Charlie’s cheeks went pink—“have a personal chef who comes in once a week and does all this meal prep so that I can just take stuff out of the freezer or the fridge if I don’t want to deal with making anything, or Kaleb doesn’t want to be a caveman and burn meat. ”

“Wow. That’s not embarrassing; that’s really cool.” God, he was jealous.

“You think? I think it’s a little too much, but it is what it is, right?”

“Absolutely.” So now Nathan felt like the world’s biggest screwup. He knew he shouldn’t, because he was doing his best, but it was a little unnerving.

“Do you like to cook?” Charlie asked, and he shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I know how, kind of. I’m not, like, a gourmet person, but I can work my way around things.” He chuckled at himself, because he was ridiculous. “But you know, I work in the deli, so there’s lots of salad making involved in that. I can follow a recipe, make stuff.”

They headed into a blessedly normal-looking living area with a television and toys strewn about. They both settled on the overstuffed sofa that was like sitting on a cloud.

“So have you always worked in retail?” Charlie seemed so interested, and not in that nasty stalker way. He’d been a concierge at the big hotel, so that really made a lot of sense, but it was still unusual.

“That’s not what I went to college for, obviously, but I’ve worked in a lot, yeah. One day, I’ll get my loom and everything here and have space to set it up, and then I’ll show everybody the kind of things that I make.”

“Oh, so you’re a weaver.”

Nathan nodded. “That was what my degree is in—fiber arts. Little weird, I know, but I loved it so much.”

“That’s cool though. We need more artisans in the world. That’s neat.”

“Well, it probably wasn’t the most practical thing to be into, but it was my passion.” Nathan chuckled and shook his head. Now he was going to have to focus on paying for diapers. “We’ll see, you know, once the baby’s born and possibly in college, I’ll get back to that.”

They both laughed together. “You’re brave, honey,” Charlie said.

“Well, no, I mean. I’m pregnant, and the jerk said he wasn’t interested, that he wasn’t going to stay. That’s not brave. That’s just, you know, playing the hand you’re dealt.”

“Are you excited about the baby?” Charlie asked him, and he nodded because most of the time he was.

“If I don’t think about it too hard, I’m super excited. And then I think about it a little bit. About how it’s going to be really lonely. For a really long time.”

Which was a shame, because Zion was smart and gorgeous and… Nathan thought, maybe not as interested in him as he was interested in Zion. Zion was going to be a great friend, especially once Nathan got over this crush. He was going to put it all on pregnancy hormones.

In fact, that was great—blame it on pregnancy hormones. Not falling in love because he wasn’t going to fall in love with someone who didn’t need to have a baby that wasn’t even his.

Honestly, besides just acknowledging that Nathan was pregnant, they never talked about it. It wasn’t like Zion was like, “oh, I love kids”, or “oh, I wanna have babies.”

It was just, “well, you’re pregnant.”

That didn’t bode well.

He glanced up, because Charlie had obviously been talking. “Sorry, I was woolgathering.”

“You’re thinking about Zion?”

His cheeks immediately threatened to catch fire. “Was it obvious?”

“Little bit. I mean, not tons, but yeah. A little bit.”

“I can’t help it. Zion does it for me.” Nathan shook his head.

“But I’ve got a baby to think about, and I don’t think he’s in the same space as I am in any way.

He’s got his shit together, he’s got money, he’s not into children.

” Nathan was broke and trying to figure stuff out and totally having a baby.

He surprised himself by tearing up. “And I’m super emotional. Forgive me?”

“Hey, I have two babies. Forgiveness is like a thing. Hormones suck.”

“That they do, my friend. I detect no lies.”

Charlie turned to face him more directly. “He’s not being mean to you, right?”

“Zion? Are you kidding? He’s super sweet.

I mean it’s totally not his fault that… We are not…

I mean that he’s not as into me as I am into him, right?

I can’t blame him for that. Well, maybe a tiny smidge.

It’s just that—” He motioned to his belly.

“If we’d met at a different time, but maybe not.

I mean, really, he’s—I don’t even know if he’s into me at all, in any romantic way.

I know that he wants to be friends. He’s been super clear about how much he enjoys hanging out, but he hasn’t even tried to kiss me.

We’ve been on six dates now. I think that we can very much say that if it hasn’t happened by now, it’s probably not going to. ”

And that sucked, but what was he going to do? So he was just going to keep being friends and enjoy Zion’s company and his friendship and stuff and?—

And then when Zion found something else to occupy his time and moved on?

He guessed the cool part was that the baby wouldn’t know.

Charlie chewed his lower lip. “Okay, I’m going to tell you something that might not be any of my business, but that’s what friends are for, right?”

He nodded, eyes wide, hoping it wasn’t bad.

“Zion talks about you all the time. To Kaleb. And Kaleb made him promise to go slow because you’ve been hurt, and you’re pregnant. But he wants to kiss you. So maybe you should go for it. Go in for the kiss next time.”

His heart started beating harder. “You think?”

“I do.” Charlie reached over to grab his hand. “I know it’s scary. I had such a hard time trusting after… But Kaleb was more ready than I thought, and so was I.”

Now it was his turn to worry his lower lip. “We’re going out again on Friday.”

“That’s the best way to find out, isn’t it? Then you’ll know.”

He thought on that, then nodded firmly. “Yes. Yes, then I’ll know.”