Page 48 of Somewhere Only We Know (Healing in Cincy #4)

Nate and I walk into my bedroom and head for the closet. Making room for his things wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

“Something white?” I huff as I go through the dresses I have.

“It’s a good thing I have clothes over here.” Nate says from his side of the closet. I turn my head and see him standing with his hands on his hips as he looks at his selection.

The plush carpet mutes my steps as I walk up behind him and wrap my arms around his waist. The lavender scent from the laundry detergent, mixed with Nate’s already intoxicating patchouli scent, does something insane to my hormones.

“What if we just tell them to leave?” I whine.

“You are such a homebody, Bee.” Nate laughs and turns in my arms. The motion has my arms resting low on his hips and I look up at him with, what’s hopefully, my version of puppy dog eyes. “Don’t give me that look. Think of this as a hard launch to the world knowing that we’re married.”

“Normal people would just change their status on Facebook,” I tell him.

His blinding white teeth show in a smile that has me feeling delirious. “Well, we’re not normal people.”

“Let’s go, you two!” Someone yells from downstairs.

I drop my head on Nate’s chest and groan.

His arms wrap around my shoulders and he drops his lips to the top of my head before he releases me and turns me back to my clothes.

I end up settling on a silver mini dress with a strappy back.

Thank goodness for my lack of boobs otherwise this dress would show everything.

I mean, it still shows a lot, but in a tasteful way.

On an impulse shopping day over the summer, I saw these silver heels with a butterfly disguised as the strap that lays over my foot.

I never pictured myself wearing them so soon, but the silver lining is that my toenails are painted.

I head into the bedroom and toss the dress on the bed, then head to the bathroom to do something with my hair.

It’s been in a bun since we filmed the podcast and anyone with curly hair knows that once it’s in a bun there is no way to style it correctly.

So I settle on a slick back ponytail and style my curls that way.

I quickly wash my face and get started on some simple makeup that will last through the night.

When I’m satisfied with my hair and makeup, I head back into my bedroom and find some pasties that will hopefully conceal what the cold will expose. Unzipping my jacket, I place the pasties on and head to the bathroom.

“Baby, will you put lotion on my back?” I ask and turn, giving him said naked back .

“Is what you’re wearing going to make me want to gouge out the eyes of every man who looks your way?”

My body is jostled side-to-side as my back is moisturized. “Your possessiveness is very hot. But you must be immune to the looks you get from men and women, so don’t start because I have nails.”

“I’m aware,” Nate says and I hear the smile in his voice. “Okay you’re all set.”

“Thank you, baby.”

He kisses me on the back of the neck and gives me a little push back to the bedroom. Smiling, I drop the jacket from my chest and pull the dress over my body. Once it’s on I pull my sweats off and survey how it looks from the mirror in the corner of the room.

“Holy fuck.”

“Is that a good, holy fuck ? Or a bad holy fuck ?” I ask, hoping I know the answer while I twiddle my fingers in front of me as the insecurity from Trent’s snipping words echo in the back of my mind.

I know Nate would never make me feel less than for the outfits I choose to wear.

But it’s hard to break the habit of expecting people to tear you down for the little things.

“That’s a holy fuck I can’t wait until I can peel this dress off of you,” Nate says as he erases the distance between us and hovers his hands above my waist. “After tonight, we are never leaving the house.”

“Let’s go, you two!” A deeper voice, I’m assuming Bryce, calls from the stairs.

“Is it too soon to move to Alaska?” I ask when I back away and sit on the bed to put on my shoes. I wink at Nate when he sees the shoes I’m putting on.

“Maybe I can reconsider.” He says with his bottom lip pinched between his fingers. The entire time, his eyes stay on where I’m fastening my shoes.

When I stand up I head back into the closet and grab a black peacoat so I can somewhat match him. Walking back into the room, Nate is still standing where I left him. Dressed in black jeans and a grey sweater with loosely tied boots, he’s everything.

I take his hands in mine and walk backwards, heading to the stairs. “Come on, baby. The sooner we go out, the sooner we can come home.” I let go when we get to the top and do a spin when the girls catcall.

“That’s more like it. Come on you two.”

I lean into Nate’s side as we toast to getting married again. We’ve done this a few times already and every time those around us cheer.

Sarah rounds the table as an upbeat song sends most of us swaying in our spots, and pulls me from Nate. “I promise I will have her back in one piece.”

I make a noise of protest when Nate releases me. “One song.”

“We’ll see about that.” Sarah says as she pulls me to the girls.

Our dancing is apparently the cue for everyone else to finally join. The music is turned up to a non-conversation holding level and we move to the beat of the music. Sophie dances her way over to me and takes my hands in hers. Spinning us around until we’re a giggling two-some.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you we got married.” I tell her as best as I can over the music.

“It’s okay. If Chance and I got married and had no recollection, I wouldn’t tell anyone either.” Our hands go up as cued by the music. “I’m just glad our meddling worked.”

I throw my head back and laugh because it most certainly worked. We go back to dancing and hands land on my waist making my skin prickle. And not in a good way. I step away from whoever had their hands on me and my jaw goes slack.

“Trent.” I say, my blood turning ice cold at the sight of my ex for the first time in over a year. I thought I was moved on from him. The way he made me feel. Like every move I made was an attack against him.

“Hi, baby.” He says and tries to move closer. I take a step back.

I swallow and look around. The dance floor has gotten even more crowded and the guys are no longer in our sight.

“Come on, Jax. Let’s dance like old times.” Trent tries again and steps forward.

“No.”

His hands wrap around my arm and I try to shake him off, but his grip tightens. “I promise to let you lead.”

“Let me go.” I tell him again.

“You always loved going until I wore you down.” He sneers.

What did I ever see in him? I ask myself that for the last time as he’s in front of me.

He’s skinnier now, his hair is greasy, and he’s definitely not wearing the approved attire to get in here.

So the question is, how? Although that could be because he’s wearing a ‘STAFF’ shirt.

So the question is, how did he get away? And how did he know I was here?