Sweet Caroline

#50 Give him some space

Jillian is nothing like I imagined her. She's just as sweet as Sean said she was, but she's also a true force of nature. It's obvious that she's the one calling the shots at home and from the way Sean looks at her, he wouldn't have it any other way.

The dinner goes well and Jillian doesn't give me the third degree or anything. I even get to meet their oldest kid, the one Jillian was pregnant with back when she decided to drop out of college. Pete is 18 now and he looks just like his father – ginger hair, tall and gangly, with an easy smile. Of course he doesn't want to watch a movie with his parents and their friends, but he does stick around for a little while to eat all of our eggrolls. He keeps looking at me with a frown, as if he's trying to figure out what my deal is. I ask Nathan if I should be worried about Pete telling anyone about us, but he just laughs it off and tells me that Pete was just checking me out, since I'm closer to his age than to Nathan's. Sean and Jillian live one town over, and Pete is already in college, only coming home so often because his girlfriend lives right down the street, so even if he wanted to tell someone, it wouldn't get back to anyone who would realize that it was me and Nathan that he was talking about.

Sean and Jillian have three other kids, all a lot younger than Pete. They're already in bed by the time Nathan and I show up with the food, but Jillian shows me pictures of them. Samantha is 6, Timothy is 8 and William is 9.

"I love Pete, but he was a handful when he was little," Jillian tells me with a smile. "He still is, to tell you the truth. It took us a few years before we wanted to add another kid to mix. To be completely honest, the only reason we've got four of them is because I wanted to try one more time for a girl. Thank God for Samantha, because if she'd been a boy as well, I would be all alone in this crazy house full of smelly men."

Sean laughs at her complaints. It's obvious that this is a regular topic on nights like this and Nathan chimes in with a few jokes as well, something about girls not being easy either. When he talks about Rose, his whole face lights up.

"Nate..." I hesitate. I haven't really made my mind up about this and a night at his friends' place is not the right time, but I have to get it out. "Rose came to talk to me today."

Everyone falls silent and Nathan locks eyes with me, motioning for me to go on.

"Apparently, someone told Elise that you're dating again and she asked Rose about it."

"Fucking hell," Nathan grunts. "She talked to Rose about it? What the fuck is she thinking? Does she know it's you?" He shakes his head, not waiting for an answer. "What am I even saying? Of course she doesn't know that it's you, or she'd have confronted me about it already. Fuck. Who told her about it?"

"I don't know." I do have a theory, though. "Is it possible that Annabel is still holding a grudge?"

"No..." Nathan hesitates. "She doesn't even like Elise. Never did. Why would she suddenly be talking to her?"

I still think it's a possibility since Annabel obviously has feelings for Nathan and wants him all to herself, but now is not the time to talk about that. "I just thought you should know before Rose or Elise confronts you."

Sean whistles and moves his attention back to the TV. "Your relationship is so much more complicated than it should be. You really couldn't find someone to date who isn't your daughter's teacher?"

Nathan rolls his eyes at his best friend. "You're one to talk. You couldn't find someone to marry whose parents don't hate you?"

"Hey!" Jillian complains. "Leave me out of it! And my parents don't hate him. They just think that he's completely wrong for me and ruined my life." She lets out a small laugh. "Okay yeah, they hate him."