Written in the Stars

Chapter Five

~ Vanessa ~ 

 

 "Whew... I think that worked," Nathan whispered when we finally made it out of the hall and back into the living room.

"I knew one of your stories would do the trick," I said. He had done such a good job I didn't even add in a jibe about him boring them to sleep. Nate smirked to himself as we tip-toed our way down the hall. He led us into the kitchen where he recovered the glass he had drained before dinner and then went to the liquor cabinet to refresh his drink.

"Some nights I really envy Darren... Kate and Lewis are so great," he said, his eyes glazing over a little a he uncapped the bottle and started to pour. His tone had a kind of thoughtful consideration to it. "I know I'm putting the cart before the horse, but do you know if that's something you need from life?" He asked as he finished pouring his drink and turned to face me. I stood there for a moment, reeling from the question. We had been lucky enough to have time here and there to talk about his novel and have a quick catch up over the past couple of years, but questions like that were much deeper than we usually dealt with.

"I... uh, well yeah," I admitted with a shrug. I hadn't really talked to anyone but Hannah about that kind of thing. She knew from how much I adored her kids that I wanted some of my own one day, and even though Darren was the last kind of person I would ever want to be with, I wanted a relationship like the one they had. There was so much love, understanding, and commitment between the two that you couldn't help but get dewy-eyed just thinking about it.

"Honestly..I was hoping that my last few dates may put forth some suitable candidates to do that with, but they were all flops. I'm not having any luck at all. I'm kind of starting to wonder if it'll ever happen for me," I lamented as I leaned against the bench.

"It will. You're too wonderful to wind up alone..." Nate said, as he put the drinks away. I was glad his back was to me because he wouldn't see the way that his comment made me blush. I cleared my throat and stood a little straighter as I watched him, trying to play it cool when my heart was fluttering against my ribs like a caged bird.

"And what about you?" I asked casually. I had a feeling I already knew the answer, but I was curious to see if I still had a good read on my best friend, or if time and distance had changed things.

"If they turn out like those kids, absolutely..." Nate said smiling, but then his smile faltered as he turned away to clean up the kitchen a bit more. I could see the tension in his shoulders, and it was still there when he turned back to me, drink in hand, and led the way to the back door. "Come on, can't leave the parents unsupervised for much longer..." He said. Now he was the one pretending to be casual. My brows furrowed at that change in him, and I reached out as he went to move past me, resting my hand on his forearm.

"Hey, Nate, that was a bit of a flip... What's going on?" I asked, picking up on the internal conflict that answering his own question had caused.

Nate rubbed his arm as he looked away.

"I... don't have the best habits sometimes... and I don't want that to rub off on my kids or wind up being a bad dad if they show up at the wrong time..." He said, dancing around what those habits could possibly be. I frowned as I looked up at him as I kept my hand on his arm, his skin warm under my hand. I was tempted to ask what could be so horrible that it would worry him so much, but I filed it away for another time.