Page 5 of Want You

His eyes went wide in horror. “No, really?” Nathan had to admit that growing up messing with his brother was a priority, one he took seriously, but in his current state he wouldn’t do something to upset him. “Fuck.” He dropped his head, wincing in pain as their mother walked back carrying a Styrofoam cup.

“Oh, your IV is almost out. I’m just going to run out and see if someone is going to come change it.”

“Mom.” Nathan reached for her. “They know. I’m sure someone will be in soon.”

“You’re right.” She sighed, patting Nathan’s hand. “They know what they’re doing. I just hate seeing him in pain.”

“Not a fan of it either,” Nathan promised her. “Do you want to use my phone?” he asked, pulling it out of his pocket and holding it out to Scottie.

Scottie looked at it like he was being handed a toad. “Why?”

“Didn’t you say—” Nathan stopped talking when he saw the look on his brother’s face. A true, shut the fuck up in front of her, kind of look. Who the hell did he want to text? It was either something illegal or a woman, and both seemed unlikely.

Scottie didn’t even jaywalk, and he’d always been a nervous wreck around women. Nathan needed to get his mom out of the room again. Needed to send her on some quest. “Hey, Mom?” he said slowly, still thinking of what to ask for. “Would you mind going to the caf and grabbing something to eat? I want to ask Scottie about an update for my website.”

She rolled her eyes. “Nathaniel, do you think right now is the best time to bother your brother about the zeros and whatever else goes into coding? He’s got a concussion, for Pete’s sake.”

“It’s alright, Mom, I could use the distraction,” Scottie assured her.

“Well, if you’re sure. I could actually use some coffee anyway. Don’t push your brother if he starts getting woozy from all the thinking,” she warned Nathan as she left the room.

“What website update?” Scottie asked.

“Seriously? I don’t even run that thing. Someone from the agency does. No, moron”—he held out his phone again—“now you can message whoever it is you need to message. However, if this is some illegal shit, don’t do it on my phone. With my luck I’ll get hacked, and I don’t need that kind of press.”

“Oh yes, heaven forbid you mess up your squeaky clean image.” Scottie scoffed as his fingers closed around the phone. “I need to download an app. It’s ugh…”

“Okay, unless it’s a sex thing. I don’t need that shit on there either.”

“Well, it’s not a sex thing so much as a dating thing.”

So it was about a woman. He watched Scottie swipe his thumb across the screen a couple of times and then heard him swear and drop the phone.

“Want me to do it?”

“No, but it’s going to take me a while, so please be patient,” he whined.

“Or, I’ll message for you. But just so you know, I’m not sexting for you.”

A disgusted expression settled on Scottie’s face. “Ew, as if I’d ask you to do that. I really like this woman. The last thing I need is for you to scare her off.”

Nathan couldn’t help but laugh. In his thirty-four years, he’d never had a problem getting a date. Scottie, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. If he found someone who he connected with and wasn’t freaking out about, the last thing he wanted to do was mess it up.

While Scottie got everything set, Nathan sat back in the chair and closed his eyes.

He was instantly back in the bar, dreading a night of being the sober one around his drunk teammates. He’d felt slightly overwhelmed when he saw the woman in the blue dress. He loved the way she’d smiled back at him and how he could almost taste her if he focused hard enough. He swallowed as he remembered how she felt coming against his mouth. The sound she made when he’d flicked his tongue against her clit one last time. The look on her face just before he’d walked out the door.

A wave of guilt washed over him. While his brother was laying broken on the side of the road, he had been preparing to fuck her into the goddamn wall.

“Shit,” Scottie cursed, and Nathan opened his eyes to see his brother looking down at the phone. “I don’t remember my password.” Scottie’s head thumped against his pillow. His head must really be bothering him if he couldn’t remember something. “The one time I feel like I’m making progress and I get hit by a fucking bus. It’s like the universe doesn’t want me to be happy.”

“Are you unhappy?” Nathan asked. Scottie never gave the impression that he was. He had a great job and a good group of friends. He’d never really expressed disappointment in his lack of a romantic life. But then again, they didn’t often talk about that stuff.

Nathan talked about his games, and Scottie gave him pointers from an analytics standpoint. They shared jokes about their overprotective mother and occasionally discussed real estate, but beyond that, they weren’t up to date on the ins and outs of one another’s love life, and until this minute, Nathan preferred it that way.

“Yes and no,” Scottie admitted. “Figured I’d start the new year by getting out there. I’m just kind of sick of being the single friend at all the weddings, ya know?”

Nathan did not know. He’d been to seven weddings in the last two years and never once did he go alone. All he ever had to do was think he needed a date and one practically materialized in front of him.