Winning the Heir Who Bullied Me
Chapter 128
Only when I step out of the car, the butterflies turning my stomach into a rave ground, do I notice Eliza nervously playing with her fingers next to Nathan.
I turn to Peter, who’s also out of the car, his arms casually folded on the roof.
“Regret your meanness yet?” he asks.
“1-“I turn back to Nathan and Eliza, who are walking towards us.
“Your delivery, brother,” Peter says, waving toward me.
“She’s not a FedEx package.” Nathan rolls his eyes, slipping a hand around my waist.
But Peter isn’t paying much attention to his brother. His eyes are zeroed in on Eliza, who looks gorgeous in a pink mini–knit dress with a triangle–cut–out waist that accentuates her figure.
“Hi,” he grins, big and wide, like a child finding Santa’s presents on Christmas morning.
Eliza exhales, her fingers pressed tightly together. “Hi.”
I look up at Nathan as my heart begins the familiar race it does when I’m near him. “What’s going on?”
He smiles down at me, squeezing my waist. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m taking you on a date.”
It feels like someone opened a pack of Skittles inside me with too much force, and now there are colorful balls of happines
around in my stomach.
ing
Nathan chuckles, reaching out to push my jaw closed with a finger.
“Well,” Peter says as he closes the passenger door, Eliza firmly situated in his car, “you crazy kids have fun. But not too much.” He points between both of us. “I want you home and in bed by eleven sharp, or you’re grounded.”
Nathan cocks his head. “Are you drunk? Should you be driving?”
I narrow my eyes. “I’ll murder you if you kill my future sister.”
“Jesus, CQ, give me some credit.” And then, surprisingly, his tone turns somber. “I would never do anything to endanger Eliza.”
He walks over to the driver’s side and gives a mock salute before sliding into the car.
Eliza gives me a small wave through the window, her smile giddy and nervous.
When they drive off, I turn to Nathan, suddenly breathless with excitement.
“Is this real?”
The smile he gives me belongs among the stars in the sky. He pinches my arm, soft, ticklish. “There, you’re not dreaming.”
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Chapter 128
D
I roll my eyes, a smile playing on my lips. “Yeah, okay.”
After a lot of cajoling and an “I swear on the life of my late football career that the car won’t break down,” I enter Nathan’s Tesla.
“How did you manage this?” I ask as we pull onto the road.
Nathan shrugs. “Pretty simple. We picked up our dates, we drove out, we switched. Nobody’s going to care or notice when we return.”
“Yeah, but what about the competition? As far as everyone is concerned, I’m in the running for Peter and Eliza for you.”
Nathan snorts. “It’s not an election.”
1 huff. “You know what I mean.”
“I know.” He squeezes my thigh, his hand pushing up the hem of my dress slightly. “I’ll take care of it. Trust me.”
1 exhale. “Yeah, okay.”
I let the giddy smile pull my lips apart. I’m on a date with Nathan Ashford.
“Where are we going?”
Nathan stiffens so slightly that if I weren’t looking at him, I would have missed it.
I cock my head. “Nathan?”
His hand lifts from my thigh, and he taps on the screen of his car, opening Spotify. A few taps later, AJR blasts from the speake
My eyebrows furrow as I glance between Nathan and the screen.
“Na-
“I put on a play in my old house,” he starts to sing along. “In my cape jumping on-‘
I lean forward and stab the screen, pausing the song.
“Are you ignoring me?” I ask Nathan incredulously,
”
He expels a long breath of air, tapping his fingers nervously against the steering wheel.
“Nathan.”
He pulls over to the curb underneath a street light. The engine still running, he leans back in his seat and closes his eyes.
“I don’t know.” He says the words like his tongue is being pulled out along with them.
“You don’t know if you’re ignoring me?”
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“I don’t know where we’re going.”
:
I frown. “Can’t you just use your GPS?”
“No, April.” He turns to me, looking like he’s about to deliver news that I’m terminally ill. “I don’t know where we’re going.”
Realization dawns on me.
“Oh.”
45
He reaches for his phone in the console and taps on the screen. “As soon as we picked names this morning, Peter and I immediately came up with the idea to switch. Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out what the perfect first date would be for us.”
My lips twitch. “And?”
He hands me his phone, the notes app open.
I scroll down the list of activities. And scroll. And scroll. And scroll.
“Jesus Christ, Nathan,” I breathe, looking at him. “How long did you think the date would last, five years?”
He smacks his head against the headrest and groans. “I had no idea which would constitute the perfect date for you.”
Awwn.
I press the back of my hand on the headrest, catching his head as he slams it backward again. “Any of these activities would have been perfect, Nathan,” I tell him. “As long as I’m with you.”
He rolls his eyes. “No offense, but that’s not the sentiment I was looking for.”
“What? You want me to nag and bitch because you don’t have everything perfectly planned?”
“I just… It’s our first date. I should be perfect.”
Cupping his head, I pull him close, leaning forward. “We could spend the night here in your defective car, staring at each other, and it would be the perfect date.”
“But
“You think I want to dine at fancy pants Adalina? Or go to the Opera? Or go wine tasting?” I mention a couple of the most ridiculous things on the list.
“Don’t you?”
I shake my head. “No, not really,”
He exhales. “Then… I’m sorry, April. I just want something that’ll mean something to both of us. A first date we’ll never forget.”
I think about it for a while, and a small smile spreads on my lips. “I know exactly what I want to do.”
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Chapter 128
He raises his brow. “Really?”
I nod, smiling. “We just need to make a couple of stops first.”
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