Nerdproof | ✔

Chapter #3

CHAPTER THREE

Watching Nate interact with the little girl whose name I learned was Sky was agonizingly cute. She was extremely shy hiding behind Nate's leg, almost clinging to him, while curiously peeking around him to stare at me. Her green eyes were large with wonder.

She held onto his pinky finger with her entire fist while skipping over rocks and pebbles in the road. I refrained from asking questions although the way Nate acted with the little girl threw me curveballs.

He denied the daughter statement although he defiantly treated her like she was indeed a daughter to him. And not to mention she calls him daddy I mean really what more evidence do I need?

He scooped her up, her legs wrapping around his waist and her chin resting on his shoulder, before we crossed a busy street. She still watched me with curiosity as I walked behind Nate. I gave her small smile; she blushed hiding her head in Nate's neck.

When arrived at the ice-cream shop Sky was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet begging to have everything on the menu. I laughed when Nate became flustered when the girl made her green eyes impossibly large, smart girl.

In the end she didn't get everything, but pretty damn close to it. Nate led us to a booth in the back of the shop where the little girl clambered onto his lap scooping ice-cream into her mouth.

I curiously watched them, filling my own mouth with ice-cream before I started blabbering asking a lot of inappropriate questions.

"I know what you're thinking cupcake and I didn't lie," Nate said, my eyes snapped form the little girl to his amusement filled eyes. I narrowed my eyes making him chuckle slightly.

"Sky, do you wanna go play outside?" Nate asked his head tilting to the window where a jungle gym sat. The girl stared at him and the playground like she dreaming or something. I got the feeling he never allowed her out of his sight much.

"Really?" She gasped forgetting about her ice-cream completely. She never allowed him to answer before she ran out of the door with short strides. We both watched as she climbed up the jungle gym. She actually possessed a lot of skill in the climbing category. I broke my arm on one of those death traps when I was small... never again!

"She's my sister's," My head snapped back to watch Nate when he suddenly talked. His eyes were still trained on Sky.

"Excuse me?"

"Sky, she's my sister's daughter," I nodded slowly, licking at my spoon. His eyes moved to my tongue darting out to lick the spoon and stayed there making me feel awkward.

"So uhm-" I coughed awkwardly his eyes moving back up to mine "If you don't mind me asking, why did she call you daddy?"

He shifted in his seat, green eyes moving to stare back at the little girl. She was sitting on the swing, kicking her feet up in front of her to stare at her converse.

"When my sister gave birth to her, we were kind of in a very remote place. There was a hospital in the next town over but we would've never made it, in a way I was sort of convinced Sky was gonna die... you know with all the blood and screaming," Nate chuckled slightly shaking his head.

"At that age everything I knew about babies and or birth was limited so yeah I was kind of scared to death at that moment," He played with the melting ice-cream eating some of it before he spoke again.

"My sister committed suicide three days after Sky was born, and since then I took care of her. She doesn't know any better she thinks I'm her dad and..." Nate shrugged his eyes moving back to Sky "I let her,"