Teach me to trust

65. Home

The rest of our holiday is blissful, our time spent together filled with love and plenty of sex and Nate is the most relaxed I've seen him, a weight seemingly lifted from his shoulders since the night he put that ring on my finger.

We're walking through the airport, about to find our taxi home and while I have the holiday blues already, I look forward to being back in our own bed, in the comfort of our home. I think Nate feels the same when he picks up his pace when we reach the exit of the airport, finding us a taxi fairly quickly and piling our cases into the boot.

I must have fallen asleep in the car ride home, Nate shaking me gently to wake me up and I discreetly wipe the side of my mouth when I sit up, saying my thanks to our driver and climbing out of the car, heading up to unlock the front door while Nate wheels our bags up behind us.

I turn to hold the door open for Nate, locking it behind us and walking towards the kitchen to make myself a drink.

I almost jump out of my skin when a loud bang sounds from the living room and I step back to grab onto Nate who's just behind me, but my shoulders instantly relax when I see our friends stood in the room, JD having just set off a party popper, wide grin on his face.

"Congratulations!" sounds out from our four friends, Lily wringing her hands together in a desperate attempt to calm herself down before she gives up and runs to me, practically diving on me to give me a hug and Nate holds me up when I stumble back from the force.

"I'm so happy for you!" she squeals into my ear, squeezing me tight before dropping back onto her feet, smiling up at me with a giddy look in her eyes, turning to look up at Marc when he approchaes, wrapping me in a warm hug.

"Congratulations, you'll make a beautiful bride" he murmurs in my ear, pulling back and ruffling my hair before pulling Nate into a hug.

"Get your fine ass here" Keira is next in line to hug me, jumping up and down with me in her arms and squealing into my ear, pulling back and holding my face in her hands and shaking it side to side.

"I can't believe you're engaged to be fucking married" she laughs, "I'm fucking hyped to be your maid of honour"

I nod as well as I can in her tight grip, looking to her side where JD stands, eagerly awaiting his hug and practically bouncing on his feet to get to me. Keira sees him stood next to her and rolls her eyes, moving out of the way and nudging him,

"Needy bitch" she tells him, before giving Nate a hug.

JD pulls me up off my feet and into his arms, squeezing me tight into his chest and spinning fast enough to make me feel sick, having to tap on his back to slow him down before I throw up all over him,

"I'm so excited for the both of you" he tells me, pulling back and grinning down at me, his eyes shining, and he looks over to Nate before leaning down to me, "It's a miracle he grew the balls to propose, never though he'd get enough of a grip to even talk to you"

"Well, that's enough of that I think" Nate steps in, slight pink tint to his cheeks and pulling JD in for a hug.

"How did you guys get in here?" I ask, looking at Nate when he stands behind me,

"Oh, well, Nate text us to tell us he'd finally put a ring on it, and I still have the spare key he gave me when he first got the locks changed so I thought we'd set up a nice surprise"

I'm just now noticing the decorations that had been put up, banners decorating the walls and balloons scattered around the room, cards in envelopes and gift bags sat on the coffee table in the middle of the room.

"Did he tell you he asked my permission?" Keira voices, sipping on a drink in her hand and laughing at my confused face,

"No he didn't" I tell her, looking up at Nate and smiling when I see the embarrassed look on his face, shaking his head at me and rolling his eyes when he sees me smiling at him.

"Well" he shrugs, "I had to ask her, I couldn't do it without"

My heart feels warm at his words and I lean up to kiss up on the bottom of his jaw, gripping his hand behind me and squeezing tight.

"So?" Keira speaks, "Are you gonna let us see the ring or what?"

I laugh and nod, holding up my left hand and Keira and Lily bound over to look, turning my hand every which way to look at him, wide grins on their faces and approving nods to Nate,

"Do you love it?" Lily asks and I nod, feeling Nate squeeze my hand when I respond, and when I yawn he lets go of my hand and rubs my back gently,

"I think Emily's tired" he tells them, checking the watch on his wrist and showing me that its 10 at night and we've been travelling all day, "You wanna head up to bed?"

I nod to him and pull the girls into hugs again,

"Thank you guys so much for coming here tonight, the decorations are beautiful" I tell them, reminding myself to take pictures, JD and Marc pulling me into a hug again before Marc ushers me off to the stairs, telling me to get some sleep.

"I'll text you tomorrow" I call out to nobody in particular and receiving unanimous replies from everyone, Nate following me to the stairs when Marc walks away,

"I'll be up soon, okay?" he tells me, brushing my hair from my face, "I'm just gonna talk to the guys for a while then I'll see them out"

"Take your time, you've not seen them in a while" I yawn again, "I'm only upstairs just come up when you're ready"

"Will do" he leans up the step to kiss me, "Now go to bed"

"Yes sir" I tell him, my cheeks heating at the dark look in his eyes,

"Don't push it"

I laugh and turn to go upstairs, jumping when he slaps my ass as I go, chuckling at my shock before waiting for me to get to the top of the stairs and heading back into the living room.

I quickly wash my face and brush my teeth before stepping out of my clothes and dropping into bed, plugging my phone in and feeling my eyes rolling before I manage to put it down fully on the bedside table.

I can't remember the last time I felt tired enough to fall asleep this quickly, with no particular worries or thoughts of things I needed to do the next day running through my mind. I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with the people downstairs I can faintly hear laughing and the snug weight of the ring on my finger and the man who put it there.

It seems to be a couple of hours later when I hear the bedroom door opening, a faint recollection of hearing Nate's voice when he talks to me quietly as he enters the room and again when he gets into bed behind me, leaning over and kissing me on the side of the face, faint whispers of warm words.

He bundles me into his arms and rubs his thumb over my ring finger, pressing a gentle kiss onto the skin just above it, wrapping me in his arms and laying me on his chest, cradling me back to my blissful sleep.