“I’m not colorful.”
“You’re the most colorful fucking thing I’ve ever met, Gwyneth.”
I nearly hiccup at that and turn into the fifteen-year-old who hid whenever she saw him because he was too bright to look at.
He really needs to stop saying things like that, because my heart will start misunderstanding it and then we’ll have a huge problem on our hands. Like me falling for him.
As if you haven’t already, Gwen.
I shoo that idea and get away from him because I’m totally not desensitized to having his hands on me. I didn’t put them on the list and I don’t want to.
Walking around the cottage, I touch the small figurines of anime characters lined up by the TV. “You definitely wouldn’t have these either.”
“This used to be my and Nicholas’s hideout. He brought me here during the summers to get away from our parents and the city for a while. ”
I grab a pink-haired girl figurine and turn around to face him. His features have sunken at the mention of his brother and the walls of his forts are going up again.
Oh, God. How could I not have thought of this after Debra’s visit? It’s not just about his parents, is it?
“Were you guys close?”
He gives a vague nod, then heads to the kitchen area and disappears behind the counter. “I’ll make dinner. Go take a shower.”
“I’ll help.” I slide to his side.
There’s no way in hell I’m letting him build forts again. I hate them. His forts and his coldness, and his wounds that no one ever looked into. He’s too cold to allow anyone in, and people are usually too scared of him to try.
Not me.
Well, I might have been a bit scared in the past, when I was young and clueless, but not anymore.
I bring out some of the vegetables we brought and start washing them under the faucet. “What type of person was Nicholas?”
“The heir to the Weaver clan.”
“Not your brother?”
“That too, but his most important role was as the promised prince and he was treated as such.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You’re a member of the Weaver family, too.”
“Only in name. I was never as good as Nick at anything, whether it was studies, sports, or even existing. He aced them all and I was meant to be number two.”
“You’re not number two, Nate.” You’re my number one. But I don’t say that, because it would get emotional and messy. That’s what feelings are. Messy. “Did you hate him for being your parents’ favorite?”
“Sometimes it felt that way, but I could’ve never really hated Nick.”
“Why?”
There’s a small smile on his face as he chops the vegetables. “Because he was my parent. Being ten years older than me, he stepped into the role so easily. He’s the one who made sure I was taken care of, that I ate and slept well. He’s the one who spent all-nighters by my side when I got sick, because my mother didn’t give a fuck. He taught me what a father should teach his son. Again, because my father was too checked-out to pay me any attention. It’s thanks to him that I know what the world is all about.”
“He sounds so cool.”
“He was. Nick was also a natural leader, which is why it made the most sense for him to follow in my parents’ footsteps. They had great plans for him and had his political career all mapped out ever since he was a toddler. But he threw it all away by marrying a middle-class woman my mother didn’t approve of. They started a fucking drama about it, especially my mother. She was vicious and hurt Julia, Nick’s wife, by demanding he divorce her.”
Jeez. Debra is a bitch who only likes her sons divorced. Or married to the women she picks, I guess. “You mean like she did to you?”
“Her reaction to me was nothing compared to how she acted with Nick and Julia. She was an absolute nightmare and used her influence to have Julia fired from her job and basically blacklisted her in New York City.”
“What did Nick do?” I stop pretending that I’m focused on helping him prepare the ingredients and lean against the counter to face him.
“He fought it at first, but it was too much drama and daily fights and he was caught in the middle. But then he gave my parents a choice—either they leave Julia alone or he’d burn all the plans they had for him. They threatened to disown him, and I never saw my brother as relieved as he was in that moment. As if he’d been carrying a load since he was born and he could finally get rid of it. He chose to be disowned, took Julia, and left the country. Just like that. A few years later, he and his wife died in an accident and Sebastian came to live with us.”