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“I…I think you do.” Eric stopped on the path, bending over with both hands on his knees as he sucked in as much air as he could. “You…you never run this fast.”
Nate eased up his pace. “Sometimes I do.”
“It’s Stella.”
Nate’s head snapped from side to side. “Where?” Save for the birds whose chirping he now couldn’t hear over his suddenly pounding heart from the mention of her name, they were the only living things in the vicinity.
A smile crept up Eric’s face, and right then, Nate knew he’d been figured out. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?” Nate asked with a nonchalance he fought like heck to convey.
“I knew there was something going on between the two of you. And this morning, it’s written all over your face.”
“Well, yeah…of course. We’ve been dating.”
“That’s right.” Eric flapped his hand, and Nate didn’t know why, but there was something about his tilted head and the way his eyes narrowed that he didn’t like. “How long have you two crazy kids been together now?”
“Oh, uh…a, um…couple weeks now, I’d say.”
“Funny.” Eric took a step closer and pursed his lips in thought. “Because Stella told Lucy that you two had been together since the end of summer.”
“Really?” he squeaked an octave higher than he thought his voice possible of reaching. “Guess it’s true what they say: time sure does fly when you’re having fun.”
“They also say that my brother is full of crap and just might be the worst liar in history.”
“Who says that?”
“People,” Eric said with a shrug. “So, are you gonna tell me the truth, or are you gonna make me say it?”
He knew his brother had him. The jig was finally up, though the smirk on his face said it had never really begun.
“She and I faked a relationship to get you all off our backs.”
“Nate, Nate, Nate.” His brother shook his head as he walked a few steps, the sound of tiny twigs snapping under his running shoes. “You’re still going to lie to me?”
“I’m not. We really aren’t together.”
“So, you’ve just been kissing to pass the time?”
“How did you know we’ve been kissing?”
Eric chuckled softly as he patted his brother twice on the shoulder. “Didn’t until just now.”
Nate sucked in a deep breath to keep himself from smacking his brother upside the head. Eric may have been the biggest knucklehead, but he was a knucklehead whose advice he needed right now. He sat on the trunk of a fallen tree, running his hands through his sweat-dampened hair.
“I don’t know what to do.”
Eric sat down next to him. “Well, when I kiss a woman?—”
This time, Nate couldn’t stop himself from whacking his brother. But he deserved it. “You’re an idiot, by the way. And that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“I know. I know,” he said with a laugh. “Seriously, though…what’s going on? Hit me.”
Nate cocked a brow. “Don’t tempt me.”
He took a second to gather his thoughts. But like the amber-colored leaves that swirled at their feet in the gentle breeze, they were all over the place.
“Things with Lucy…they’re good, yeah?”
