AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 8
Since Nate couldn’t stop thinking about Eliza he figured he might as well do something productive. When the Elite offices had relocated from their old building to the Riverwalk, they’d offered all of their small business neighbors their services. Dr. Lewis had declined because he was loyal to the company that he’d been with for decades.
Nate understood loyalty and respected Dr. Lewis’ decision. But that was then. Things were different now. Now, Eliza was going to be there alone, sometimes anyway. The system needed to be upgraded. Now.
This afternoon he’d called over to the office to speak to Eliza about his plan to upgrade the entire system, including motion sensor cameras and surveillance that she could easily access from her phone or personal computer. He could’ve just walked the two doors down and discussed it in person, but after this morning he didn’t trust himself with face-to-face contact. So he called. But she’d been with a patient. So he left a message with Jarmen who, as luck would have it, was in charge of upgrading all the office technology. She asked him to send over a breakdown and estimate so she could go over it.
He’d agreed and hung up knowing full well he had no intention of doing what she asked. Not the estimate portion anyway. He’d send her over what his plans were for the system but it wouldn’t cost them a penny. His payment would be peace of mind that Eliza was safe. Not that Harper’s Crossing was a hot bed for vandalism or crime of any sort, but this was Eliza. He wasn’t going to take any chances.
He finished the preliminary specs of the equipment, services and system and sent it to the email that Jarmen had given him, letting her know that he didn’t want reimbursement. It was a homecoming gift to Eliza.
After he pressed send, he opened the project he was actually supposed to be working on. Under normal circumstances he would be buttoning this assignment up and moving on to the next right now. After his team in Washington completed their end ahead of schedule yesterday, he’d had eight hours of work, tops, to complete it. He’d been at this desk almost twelve and was not even at the halfway point.
Today he’d just felt…off. He’d missed a call that he had scheduled at four, not because he’d been so engrossed in work, rather, he couldn’t work with the knowledge that Eliza was mere yards away from him.
This shit had to stop. He had to stop acting like a middle school kid with a crush.
With a renewed determination to push all thoughts of the girl that spun his world like a tornado, he shifted in his chair and tried his best to concentrate on the screen in front of him. That lasted for less than five minutes and he digressed back into a middle school kid with the crush.
The mind was a funny thing. He would give anything to go into “work mode” now. But apparently it was stuck in Eliza mode and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Fighting it was pointless, so instead he surrendered to it in hopes that once he let the tide of memories and feelings wash over him they wouldn’t fight so hard to get to the surface.
Something happened this morning that made her being back even more real. Maybe it was because she looked different this morning, more like the girl he’d met freshman year. Today her hair was down, falling in soft waves around her face instead of pulled up in a ponytail. Instead of a blue scoop neck shirt that teased a hint of cleavage she wore a sleeveless purple blouse with a neckline that hit right at her collarbone. In high school she’d worn a lot of sleeveless shirts. And today she wore dark jeans that hugged her body in all the right places, which reminded him of several pairs of jeans that had made his own pants tight when she was walking in front of him down the hallway after class.
It wasn’t just her clothes and hair that had made this run-in more familiar. It was also that seeing her in the morning, cursing under her breath was déjà vu. He was right back in high school, getting to first period early so he wouldn’t miss even a second that he would spend with her that day. And just like this morning, a lot of those mornings had started with her cursing. Usually over a forgotten pencil, notebook paper, homework, lunch money or some other necessity for the day.
Once he’d realized the pattern, he’d always made sure that he’d had extra pencils, paper, money and even blank homework assignments that he would help her fill out before the bell rang. That was always his favorite part of the day. When she would take her seat beside him, scramble through her backpack, cursing under her breath about what she was trying to find and “knowing” that it should be there and he would hand her whatever the forgotten item was. She’d get this look on her face like he was her savior. Like he was her knight in shining armor. Like he was her hero. It hadn’t taken long for him to get addicted to the feeling that look gave him. He’d felt like he was the only person she saw. Like he was her entire world.
Then she’d started dating Neil.
The chair squeaked as he leaned back in it. Closing his eyes he exhaled as he scrubbed his hands over his face. Seeing Eliza with Neil had been like a knife in his heart and back at the same time. His heart because he loved her and his back because his brother knew it and went after her in spite of how Nate felt, or because of it, he still wasn’t sure.
Neil had always been competitive with Nate. Nate had never understood why because as identical as they looked they were total opposites in every other way. The identical portion of their DNA was all used up on their appearance. When it came to their personalities, interests, talents and temperaments they were as different as you could be. Nate was a morning person, Neil was a night owl. Nate excelled at academia, Neil was all-state in football and baseball. Nate was a homebody with only a few friends, Neil was voted Prom King and partied every weekend.
The brothers had nothing in common.
Except Eliza.
A knock sounded at his office door as it swung open. He looked up, expecting to see Darla, but instead he saw a mirror image of himself.
“Hey bro!” Neil lifted his hand to high five.
Just one more example of the way they contrasted. Nate never understood high fives, unless it was in a celebratory capacity. As a greeting it just didn’t make sense to him. But he slapped hands with his brother anyway. If he used himself as a barometer of what to do and not do in social situations, he’d be even more of an outcast than he already was. Or at least that he felt like he was.
“Nice office.” Neil walked around the room, picking various things up, turning them over and examining them and then setting them back down again. “I can’t believe you guys have been here a year and this is the first time I’ve been here.”
Nate, on the other hand, had no problem believing that he’d been here a year and his brother had never stopped by. He was, however, surprised Neil was here now.
“Did you need something?”
“No, I don’t need anything.” Neil sounded offended that Nate would even suggest such a thing.
In Nate’s defense, the only time he ever saw his brother was at family or social events. The last impromptu visit he’d received from Neil had been when his brother had taken a girl home who had passed out in his bathroom and he’d thought she’d died. He’d literally shown up at Nate’s apartment, so drunk he could barely stand, to ask his brother to help him “hide the body.”
Nate had gone to his house with no intention of being an accessory; his plan had been to call the police if anyone was actually dead. It turned out law enforcement was not needed. The girl was breathing and conscious. She was throwing up, confused and had a low body temperature, all signs of alcohol poisoning so he’d taken her to the hospital.
That’s where he’d met Bailey. She’d been called down to the emergency room for a child that was having chest pain. He’d thought she was attractive, but had no plans on pursuing anything, especially since she’d been working. But, she’d made the first move and asked him out. That was two years ago.
“I was just in the neighborhood and I wanted to stop by and see my little brother.” Neil slapped Nate on the shoulder and squeezed it before dropping his arm and taking a deep breath. “Want to know why I was in the neighborhood?”
