“No. We haven’t had time to talk about that. I’ll tell her after Widiwick. On Sunday, maybe.” He took the potato out of the pan, put it on a plate, then reached for the fish. “I need to talk to you about something. Maybe you’ve noticed that your dad and Frank are angry at me.”
Terri grinned. “You mean the way Uncle Frank sneers at you? My dad wants to tie rockets to your ankles and launch you. Yeah, I’ve noticed.”
As he put the fish in the pan, he didn’t laugh and she could tell that something was bothering him. She braced herself. He was going to tell her of his great love for Stacy. Would he use terms like “light of my life”? Please not “soul mate.” She was so sick of that term.
“I owe you an apology.” He sounded as though he was announcing the end of the world.
“For not putting the sheets on the bed?” There was no smile from him. “Okay,” she said. “An apology for what?”
“I knew what was going on.” He glanced at her as though this was something she’d understand.
“What was going on?”
“With you and me that first day. I saw it.”
“Saw what?” When Nate looked up from the fish, she could see his pulse pounding in his throat. Wow! Whatever he was trying to say was certainly difficult for him.
“I saw the way you looked at me.”
“You mean when I yelled at you to get out? Sorry about that, but I thought you were an Ender in the wrong house. How you got the key was a mystery.” She was smiling.
“No, not that.” He took a breath. “You let me stay because you liked...liked the look of me.”
“I guess so,” Terri said. “You’re certainly not ugly.”
“I’m afraid I played on that knowledge. See, I was angry with Stacy for leaving. I’d come all the way here from Colorado for her. I was planning to move to her hometown, but she appreciated my sacrifice so little that she ran off to Italy. How could she leave the country when I was here?”
Terri lost her smile. She hadn’t thought about it but it was rather inconsiderate—dare she say selfish?—of Stacy to do that. “I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt you. She just took an opportunity when it was offered.”
Nate waved his hand. “I realize that now. She was right and I was wrong, but that doesn’t matter.”
“Oh? So what exactly is the problem?”
“You.”
“Me? How am I a problem between you and Stacy?”
“You’re not.” Nate paused. “I’m not explaining this well. That first day we met, I knew you...you were interested in me in...in that male-female way. Not friendship, but as something else. That was okay on your part, but not on mine. I knew I was engaged and that nothing could happen between us. But I stayed anyway. And I think that staying may have encouraged you to think there could be something else.”
“Possibly.” Terri still didn’t understand what he was trying to say.
“I didn’t tell you about Stacy until the last minute. Until I had to. I was enjoying that a woman was paying attention to me when the one I loved wasn’t.” He looked back at the fish.
At last, Terri was beginning to understand. She’d thought that her father, or maybe Uncle Frank, had arranged the mix-up and had gifted her with this beautiful man. But after he told her about Stacy, she felt that she’d been stupid and naive. At the memory, Terri could feel the blood rising in her face. “It’s okay,” she managed to say.
“No, it isn’t, because I’ve known all the time.”
She looked at him. “What have you known?”
“About what’s between us. What we never speak of. The...the attraction.”
If a person could blush all over her body, Terri was doing so.
“Because I knew about it, I was wrong,” Nate said. “I shouldn’t have walked around shirtless so often. I know how much you like...rugby bodies.”
“Ah.” Terri was at last fully understanding what he was saying. He had done things on purpose. Nothing had been an accident as she’d thought. “You pulled off your sweaty shirt and asked me to rub you down.”
“Yes, and at that house when it was raining, I knew you could see me when I undressed.” He stood up straighter, as though preparing himself for punishment.