“Eva doesn’t want to move to Chicago.”
Stella looked nervous. Nate set the broom aside—he cleaned when he was nervous, all right, it was a leftover habit from the Marines and at least it was something useful to do—and went over to take Stella’s hands.
It was becoming a habit: reaching out to take her small, birdlike hands, pulling them up to his lips, pressing a kiss against the soft skin. He was already starting to memorize the way they felt against his mouth.
He pictured doing this every day for the
next forty years, until he knew her hands better than he knew his own. It was a nice thought.
“She has friends here,” Stella continued. “She has a hard time making friends. And she loves Lynn, always has. So I don’t think...I don’t think I should make her.”
“Then you don’t have to,” Nate said immediately. “I told you before. I’m not going to insist that you totally uproot your life for me. There’s no reason you should automatically have to do that.”
Stella made a face. “Well, I don’t want you to totally uproot your life for me, either. You have a job and a company that you love.”
That was...mostly true. Nate did love his company. And he loved—parts of his job.
An idea was starting to percolate in his head. “I might be able to think of a way to make this work,” he said slowly. “But I’d have to make some phone calls, talk some things over with people. Can we wait a couple of days?”
“A couple of days to think about totally uprooting our lives?” Stella opened her eyes comically wide. “You stick-in-the-mud. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
Nate laughed at the sight of her.
She relaxed her face after a second, and laughed with him. “The terrible thing is, at nineteen I would’ve said exactly the same thing, but it would’ve been serious.”
Nate waved his hand. “We’re all idiots at nineteen.”
“Except my daughter,” Stella said, rolling her eyes. “Who is seventeen going on forty sometimes.”
“All the more reason to take her opinion seriously, then.” Nate kissed her beautiful mouth. “I should go talk to her, too, actually. I want her to know that I’m going to respect the both of you, and that she doesn’t have to worry about me whisking you guys away somewhere.”
“Hurry up,” Stella said, glancing at the clock. “She has to go to work pretty soon.”
And in fact, Eva’s footsteps sounded on the stairs. “Hey, Mom, I have to leave in like fifteen minutes, is there any food?” she asked.
Nate glanced at Stella as he said, “Hey, Eva, why don’t I drive you to work? We can pick up some breakfast on the way.”
Eva gave him a measuring look. “Okay,” she said. “I guess you want to talk to me about the whole mates thing.”
Nate laughed. “I was trying to be subtle, but I guess that doesn’t fly, huh? Okay. Yeah, I want to talk to you about the whole mates thing. Are you game?”
Eva nodded. “Ready when you are.”
So Nate stole one last sweet kiss from Stella, and went with Eva out to his rental car. She hauled herself into the seat without any trouble, and told him where her coffee shop was.
“We could go to Oliver’s for breakfast, though,” she said. “There’s plenty of time. Normally I walk to work, and it takes like half an hour.”
“Oliver’s it is,” Nate said, and put the car into gear.
Eva studied him as they drove, but didn’t move to start any conversation, so Nate waited until they were at the diner, and Eva had ordered an enormous spread of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. Nate approved.
“So,” she said at least, crossing her arms on the table and leaning forward. “The whole mates thing.”
“Well,” Nate said, “first of all, I’m with your mother for good. That means that I’m committed to making her happy, and taking care of her and you as much as you need me to. Or want me to. I’d like to get to know you, too, although I get it if you’d rather I butt out of your life, since you just met me a couple days ago.”
Eva regarded him with a considering look. “Huh,” she said. “That’s different.”
Nate frowned. “What is?”