Page 103 of Stay With Me

Nick lifted his eyebrows incredulously. “Something like what? I haven’t even told you what it is yet.”

“I already know,” James replied.

Nick scoffed. “No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do son.” James wagged a finger. “You love her. It’s obvious. And it’s normal to be scared. It just means you know you have something to lose, and—surprising as it may be—that’s actually a good thing.”

“That’s not what it is,” Nick insisted.

“Now you’re lying to yourself.”

“No, I mean. Yes, I do love her, but that’s not the deep shit that I’m in,” Nick clarified. “If it was just that, I’d be on easy street. The problem is way bigger than that, and the problem is what’s terrifying.”

“What’s the problem?”

“The fact that when I met Sammie, I was a total douche bag. I lied to her and did things that were awful.”

James furrowed his brow. “Didn’t you meet her only a matter of days before you fell off that cliff? I don’t think that’s enough time to do something truly unforgivable.”

“Well when you have as much practice being a douche bag as I do, you can manage to do plenty awful things in record time.”

“What did you do?”

Nick pursed his lips, not wanting to actually say the words, but then considered it may be good practice for when he finally got the balls to tell Sammie.

James shrugged. “Try me.”

Nick drew in his breath sharply, then huffed out an exhale. “The uh, the food critic.”

James burst out laughing again.

“Dad, seriously. It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”

“No,” Nick insisted. “It was awful. It was the night before I picked Sammie up to take her to the park, and then I took her to the park with some pretty shitty intentions. And those shitty intentions put her in a dangerous situation. Like, life-threatening dangerous. It was sheer luck or the grace of God or something that the worst thing that happened to her was a scorpion sting and a scary night. Things could have been much worse. Horribly,horriblyworse.”

“Now, now. Don’t beat yourself up over hypotheticals. She’s fine. And you are too,” James reasoned, and then gingerly patted the cast. “I’m impressed with you, sport. Sounds like you’ve developed a bit of a moral compass.”

Nick shook his head. “Too little, too late.”

“Nah,” James said with a small shrug. “I don’t think it’s as bad as you think. I’ve spent a lot of time with Sammie these past few weeks. Seen the way she is with you and how she looks when she talks about you. What kind of person she is. I don’t know exactly what’s going on in her head, but from all outward appearances, that’s a girl who loves you.”

Nick lifted his eyebrows slightly as his heart melted at the mere thought of it being true. “You think so?”

“Do you think she’d be here every single day, under circumstances like these if she didn’t?” James asked. “I mean, you’ll have to wait for her to tell you, but that’s what it looks like to me. And I think if you’re honest with her about what you did, she’ll forgive you.”

Nick smiled softly, allowing what he believed was naive hope to fill his chest, as his gaze drifted to the ceiling. “If she does, I don’t think I could help myself from doing something totally crazy.”

James smirked. “Such as?”

Nick smirked back. “You know.”

James shook his head in disbelief. “Well, I’ll be. Never thought I’d see the day when you changed your mind about all of that. But I guess finding the right girl changes everything, doesn’t it?”

“Sure does.”

“Just do yourself a favor,” James went on. “Don’t tell your mom until after the fact. If you want to have a prayer of it being a surprise to Sammie.”