Forest Edwards is always running. Either literally, because of his dog, Fletch; running to escape his tiring work life; or, well, running away from the possibilities of love.
But when Natalie Dayholt, together with her dog, Bailey, waltzed into his...
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HE FOUND HIMSELF inexplicably and irrevocably gravitated to her — to the extent that he was still left wondering how it all managed to happen so quickly.
The two of them were now seated in her room, with him leaning against her bedroom door while she sat quietly on the carpet in her room, hugging her knees as the quesadilla rested untouched on a ceramic plate in front of her.
Bailey lay obediently beside her, and Forest couldn't help but smile when he caught the dog stealing glances at the quesadilla occasionally. He made a mental note to bring some treats, as well as Fletch, for Bailey the next time he came.
"You should eat that soon, Natalie." He gestured to the food, giving her a small smile.
Her tears had now dried up, and though her eyes were still puffy and a little swollen, she had looked much better than she did before.
She nodded, pulling the plate into her lap as she sat crossed-legged.
The both of them sat in a comfortable silence and Forest watched as she ate, unable to keep a smile off his face the entire time. Because Natalie kept on mumbling whenever filling dropped from her quesadilla back onto the plate.
"Don't look." She muttered, her cheeks turning a shade of pink as she turned away from him. She put the quesadilla down, frowning at the plate in embarrassment.
"Okay." Forest chuckled, as he pretended to be busy using his phone. He was, however, still stealing glances at her every few moments, just to ensure that she was fine and wasn't about to burst out crying.
After all, he knew exactly how Natalie had the tendency to conceal all her emotions to the brink, or until she couldn't deal with it anymore.
He watched as she finally finished eating her food, leaving the room to clean the plate.
"Thank you." She said, giving him a faint smile as she pointed to the empty paper bag on the table. "Was it Haley who asked you to come? To, I don't know, see me?"
He shook his head, frowned, and then nodded. Natalie looked confused. "Yes and no. For one, I wanted to see you. And yeah, Haley briefly told me what happened." Forest clarified, standing up from the floor as he moved over to sit at the armchair closer to the bed where she was seated.
"Right." There was a small crease in between her forehead as she glanced at him, trying to process his words. "You wanted to see me. Is it because we fought? Because of," Natalie paused, swallowing hard as she choked out her next few words, "Theodore and also Lauren?"
Forest sucked in a breath. "Yeah. I wanted to say I'm sorry."
"You know, I'm sorry about that too." She said, biting on her lip as she looked at him, seemingly afraid that he wouldn't forgive her. But that should have been the last thing on her mind. "I shouldn't have even eavesdropped on the both of you in the first place. And really, I thought about it, and it was up to you whether you'd have wanted me to known."
