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Someone pounded on his door again.
Hoping it was Summer, he jumped up, caught his balance—maybe he did have a bit too much to drink—and rushed to the door, unlocking it and throwing it wide. The smile about to cross his face dipped into a frown. “Go away,” he grumbled, trying to close the door on Natalie.
She shoved it open and grinned from ear to ear. “She’s here. She’s downstairs. Come on.” She waved him forward. When he didn’t move, she grabbed his hand and pulled. “What are you waiting for? Go get her back!”
He stumbled forward and caught his footing, walking with Natalie. “Why are you doing this? You hate that we’re together.”
Natalie stopped in her tracks in the middle of the hallway and gave him a sad look. “I’m sorry about what I did. I didn’t think it through. I didn’t think about how you’d feel. Or how she’d feel. I just... care about you so much. I want you to be happy. And maybe I got a little mixed up about things. Because I saw how happy you were with her and it kind of felt like you picked her over me. And I know that’s stupid and childish—and then I acted that way.” Her gaze went to the floor. “I can’t stop thinking about it. Who does something like that? Throwing themselves at another person?” Tears gathered in her eyes. “I can’t believe I did that.”
“Now you know you’ll never do it again. Because if someone really likes you in that way, you don’t need to go to that extreme.”
Her mouth twisted. “I know that now.”
“Then be grateful you learned that lesson with me and not some jerk who’d throw it in your face or tell his buddies or something.”
She nodded, remorse in her eyes. “I lost my head and got jealous. I hope you can forgive me one day, because I know you love Summer.”
“I do. More than anything, I need her to know that she cancount on me and trust me to always be there for her. And I didn’t do that for her tonight.”
“Everyone makes mistakes. She’ll forgive you. She loves you. She knows you love her. She wants to please everyone, but most of all, she wants to make you happy, because you make her feel that way.” Natalie frowned, then grinned at him. “You two really are meant for each other.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
“Like I want someone to look at me the way you look at her.”
Cody hooked his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. “I want that for you, too, Nat. You deserve that and more. Never settle for anything less.”
Natalie pushed him away. “Go. Hurry up. Don’t keep her waiting.”
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“Yes, you do. It’s just three words. But they mean everything.”
Cody rushed past Natalie and took the stairs on the run. He sprinted across the foyer and into Nate’s living room, where he found Summer talking quietly with Nate and Miranda.
Nate saw him coming first and grinned.
He stopped dead in his tracks when she turned to him, hesitation and uncertainty in her eyes. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.” She didn’t move.
“Here?” Well, why the hell not. Everyone was always in their business, they should hear what he had to say so that they’d all know what Summer meant to him.
He took a steadying breath. “I don’t know how we’re going to do this.”
She raised a brow, and her eyes filled with disappointment and sadness.
He’d clear things up for her. “You’re brilliant at what you do.”
This time shock widened her expressive blue eyes.
“You’re amazing at everything, because you try so hard to always get it right.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the look of approval on Nate’s face.
“I wish I was more like you in that way. Maybe then I wouldn’t have messed this up so badly by saying something so colossally stupid. It was the biggest lie I’ve ever told. Seeing my family like that, it messed with my head. I don’t like seeing them upset and at odds. It makes me feel like...”
“You’ll lose them,” she finished for him. “You wanted it to stop.”
