Wanting The Wilson Brothers

Chapter Two

Violet’s POV

“Nate?” I pulled myself off the bed, covering the distance to the window. His hands were in fists by his side, and tears stung the corners of his eyes as he tried so hard to blink them away.

“What happened to you?”

Outside, another song played on the stereo, carrying through the building. My mother’s way of inviting me out for a chat. It was titled, “Dance with my father again.”

I ignored it.

My best friend shook his head, his shoulders shaking. I did the one thing I could, pulling him into my arms for a hug even though I knew what it would cost him.

I held him there, as he sniffed loudly, but eventually, he gave up, the tears running down his face. They reached the shoulders of the crop hoodie I forgot to take off, the dampness grazing my skin.

We stood that way for a while, music downstairs, my pulse racing, and Nate crying. He pulled away after a while, excusing himself to use the bathroom while I took off my hoodie and tossed it into the laundry basket.

Nate never returned to the room, so I went into the bathroom to check up on him, where I met him sitting on the floor, his head in his hand. I slid onto the floor in front of him.

“I heard talking about your problems helps solve them a bit,” I murmured, my back resting on the tiled wall. “What happened, Nate? Was it Ashley?”

He looked up then, a slight grin on his sad face. “I told you her name is Beckley.”

“s**t!” My eyes fluttered closed for a second. “Right. Beckley. Don’t tell me it was because I called her the name of your ex.”

Nate shrugged.

“Oh my God!” I pulled closer to him, my hand on his leg. “I’m so sorry, Nate. I had no idea why I did that. I thought…I forgot…”

“It wasn’t entirely your fault,” he said, his hand resting on top of mine. “We were already having issues in our relationship recently. I … I wanted her to come to Nick’s Christmas engagement. You remember that, right?”

I nodded. The same engagement I didn’t think I was going to attend because I didn’t know how I was going to spend a whole weekend watching Nate shove his tongue down someone else’s throat. I was fine walking into them the way I did a few minutes ago, but that was much better than suffering it for hours endlessly.

“She didn’t want to?”

“Beckley said she had this thing to do with her family, and I totally understood. Christmas is meant to be spent with families.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

“But since I told her about it, she has been asking me questions about what woman I am taking with me. I try telling her that I am not cheating on her, but that just seems to fly over her ears.”

“And then I came there tonight and made everything worse,” I completed, nodding. It sucked.

“She immediately assumed that I told you I was going to be taking Ashley and that it wasn’t a slip from you.”

“Nate,” I sighed, pulling impossibly closer to him. We were still on the bathroom floor, our legs in opposite directions, our hands still touching. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t intend for that to happen.”

“I know, Violet. And I think it would have happened whether you walked in or not.” He took a deep breath and looked into my eyes. “She broke up with me, told me to be with Ashley, and never talk to her again.”

Nate looked like he was about to cry, so I moved to his side, pulling his head in my arms and patting his back gently. “To be fair,” I whispered. “She looked like a red ginseng. You deserve better.”

“Violet!” He had amusement in his tone.

“What?” I laughed. “Her hair was all red, and I could cope with that, but why did she always have to use red lipstick too?”

“It’s called style, Violet, and I liked it.”

I rolled my eyes. “You like the strangest of things.”

Nate angled his head to look at me then, his brown eyes caressing my features. I felt the pulse at my nape race, my lips parting on their own accord. I moved closer instinctively.

He hadn’t stopped looking at me that way, his lashes fluttering delicately as his gaze moved from my eyes to my lips. It felt warm in the bathroom, like the temperature had been turned up a bit.

Nate’s hand moved from mine, snaking up my arm. I thought this was it. The moment I had been waiting for since forever.

But he swallowed suddenly, shaking his head. “We should go to bed. I have to be up early tomorrow to pack for the trip.”

“Yeah.” My voice was shaky, but I doubted that Nate would notice. He got on his feet first, my hand falling uselessly to my side. And then, he pushed his hands in my direction, helping me up.

I tried not to pay attention to the way my palm tingled with his touch, the way my heart thudded so hard against my chest as if wanting to be heard.

We walked into my room together. The music was off. Mom must have gone to bed already.

Without saying a word, Nate rolled to the edge of the bed, while I took up the space inside. It was nothing new. We had done this more times than I could count. Everyone knew he spent some nights in my room.

Everyone knew nothing happened.

“Why are you so far away?” he whispered as he turned off the night light. In a second, I felt his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer to his warm body. He sighed in content when my hand hit his chest.

He brought his hands to my neck, and I listened until his breathing became more even. And then, I slipped away from underneath him, grabbed my phone, and made my way to the bathroom.