Downhill From Here (#1)

23. A Photograph

Nathan's POV

Bowie looked like she was about to kill me.

And aside from the fact that she was sending me daggers with her eyes, I thought she looked really pretty today.

"You have a kid?" Whitney asked with raised brows. She looked down at the picture of Lilo and then up at me in disbelief.

Bowie had mentioned that she was the least trusting of her sisters. And given their tremulous childhood, it made sense. She was grilling me to protect Bowie.

I originally wasn't going to go into full detail. I came over to fix the sink and talk to Bowie for a couple of minutes about last night.

After what happened, I barely slept. What happened in the closet almost felt like a dream more than reality.

And now that it happened I was scared I had really fucked up.

No matter how much I wanted to, I shouldn't have kissed her. It blurred too many lines and created more problems.

But damn. The way she looked at me with those brown eyes before I kissed her had broken a dam inside me.

And when I thought she would've pulled away, she didn't. We kissed like it was something we did all the time. And if we weren't interrupted I wondered if we would've stopped.

I left the gala wondering if she was mad at me. With the way she ran, you'd think that.

We had to talk even though I could easily tell by the way she'd been looking at me that she wanted me to leave. She was nervous and probably frazzled from last night.

And even though I made sure that the number of people who knew about Lilo was small, suddenly I didn't want to lie anymore.

Sure, I barely knew her sisters. But something about them was endearing enough to make me feel honest.

Plus I didn't like how she had to lie to her family. I could tell it was bothering her.

"Yeah, she's 3 years old, almost four," I answered.

"Nathan," Bowie said with a heavy breath. She looked at me with wide eyes, color draining from her face.

"It's okay," I said calmly with a shrug. "You don't have to lie for me."

"Yeah Bowie, let the man talk," Whitney chimed in, her eyes squinty. "I want to hear more."

"I feel like I would've remembered you having a daughter," Scarlet pondered. She was still eating the bag of MnMs I purchased days ago. "I did Google stalk you, to be honest."

"Well, no one knows. For her protection, I haven't shared her with the world."

Poppy placed a hand on her heart and aweed silently.

"Wow," Scarlet mumbled. "That's sweet."

"Protection from what?" Whitney pressed. She took a step towards the island, standing next to Bowie who was giving her an obvious look. "You involved in something nefarious."

"Whit that's enough," Bowie grounded out, irritation clear on her face.

"Yeah, cool it," Scarlet added. "He's not in the fucking mob."

Whitney still kept her eyes on me eyeing me warily.

"Her mom," I started, feeling the tightness in my chest. I turned and placed the tools back into my box. "Her mom wasn't the best person."

I turned back and watched as Whitney's expression slipped. Her attention was drilled on me, her face wearing sympathy.

I crossed my arms and leaned on the counter behind me.