Chapter Eight
Sitting as close to him as she could, Haley was planting soft kisses all over Nathan’s face, paying particular attention to his lips, as they sat in his car which he had parked a few doors away from the apartment she shared with Jake and Peyton.
“So, will I see you tonight?” he asked her breathlessly, pulling back from the numerous kisses they were lavishing on each other.
“Do you want to see me tonight, Mr Scott?” she teased.
“You know I do, Haley. I don’t even want to let you out of my sight now.”
She smiled shyly at hearing him say that. “The same goes for me, too but I need to change out of these clothes and run a few errands.” Caressing the side of his face, she kissed him gently before pulling back, her hand remaining on his cheek. “Tell you what, why don’t you come over tonight and I’ll introduce you to the lust bunnies. We can order in some take out and Jake can interrogate you. It should be fun.”
“Yeah, real fun. While I would’ve preferred tonight to just include you and me, I guess we might as well do this sooner rather than later, huh? I don’t want us sneaking around hiding our relationship. I mean, it’s not like this has to be kept a secret or anything.”
“I don’t want to sneak around either, Nathan. A word of advice though, don’t let Jake’s questions get to you. Just remember he’s only looking out for me.”
“I know and I’m glad you have him to do that for you. Hopefully he’ll soon see that I’m looking out for you, too.”
“Aww, you’re so sweet.” Moving the hand that rested on his cheek to the back of his neck, Haley drew him close until their lips met and they were once again kissing. After a couple of minutes, she reluctantly broke the kiss and sat back in her seat. “I’d better go in before Jake looks out of the window and comes over to see what’s going on. So I’ll see you tonight, okay?”
“Okay. What time should I come over?”
“Hmm, seven-thirty’s good. I’ll order Chinese food for us, is that good for you?”
“Uh huh, Chinese will be great.”
“Cool.” Giving him another smile, she opened her door and stepped out. After closing it, she leaned in through the open window just as Nathan moved towards her and they shared one last kiss.
“See you tonight, baby.” Nathan smiled as he started the engine and drove away, giving her a final wave.
“Mmm, I can’t wait,” she whispered to herself before turning away and walking towards the apartment.
* * * * *
Haley entered the apartment and was just about to go into her bedroom when Jake came out of kitchen and stood in front of her.
“And where have you been? Peyton and I have been worried sick not knowing where you were or who you were with. And why is your cell phone here and not with you?” The dark haired young man ranted, waving his arms around for emphasis and Haley couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her face.
“What the hell are you smiling for? You think this is funny?”
“Jake, just calm down okay. I am old enough to be out on my own, you know, and I did call. I told Peyton I was at a friend’s place and, okay, I didn’t say I wasn’t coming home but I didn’t know that then. You may be my cousin, but you’re not my keeper. I’m sorry I didn’t have my cell with me but I forgot to disconnect it from the charger yesterday morning and put it in my bag.” She pushed by him and went into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
A few seconds later there was a knock before the door opened and Jake walked in.
“Hales, I’m sorry okay. I was just worried when you didn’t come home and we didn’t know where you were. I know you’re old enough to be out on your own but that doesn’t mean bad things can’t still happen.”
“I know that and I’m sorry I didn’t tell Peyton who I was with when I spoke with her. You’re going to have to accept the fact that I am an adult and can come and go as I wish.”
“So, where were you and who were you with?” he asked.
“Um...I was...” Suddenly Haley felt nervous about telling him exactly who she had been with last night. He is seriously gonna freak when I tell him, she told herself.
“Come on, Haley, tell me.”
“Okay, just don’t freak out. I...um...I was with Nathan.” She kept her eyes fixed on the carpet not daring to look at him.
“Nathan? Who the hell is Nathan? You said you were with a friend, not a guy.”
“Excuse me? What was that? Are you saying that a guy can’t be my friend? Anyway, Nathan is my friend...and he just happens to be my boss too.”
“That Nathan? You were with your boss all night? Doing what? And don’t tell me you were working on a case.”
“Okay, I won’t because we weren’t. We were working late and then we went back to his place for dinner. I’m not going to tell you anymore than that because it’s personal and off limits, but I’m sure you can guess.”
“Ugh! I didn’t need to know that,” he said scrunching up his face in disgust.
“Hey, buddy, you asked. Anyway, you can meet him tonight because I’ve invited him over for dinner so you can interrogate him to your heart’s content. I like him, Jake. Actually, no. I more than like him and he more than likes me so you’re going to have to get used to me seeing him.”
Taking a deep breath, she continued. “Please don’t spoil this for me. He makes me happy and I really want you and Peyton to like him.”
Jake smiled as he moved closer to his cousin and drew her into his open arms and gave her a hug. “Okay, okay. I’ll give him a chance seeing as you like him so much. But if he hurts you...”
“He won’t,” she quickly interrupted and pulled back from the hug. “We’ve had feelings for each other since we first met but we never acted on them for fear of spoiling our working relationship but... I don’t know. Something happened last night and it just felt right. And I know it’s early days but I want to give it a try. I haven’t felt like this about anyone before.”
“Then I’m happy for you, Hales. You deserve to be happy.”
“Thanks,” she whispered before popping a kiss onto his cheek.
Returning the smile she was bestowing upon him, he said, “Listen, I’m just going to finish washing the breakfast dishes and then I’m going down to the store to pick up a few groceries. Is there anything you’d like?”
“No, thanks for asking though. I’m probably going to go out later myself. Where’s Peyton, by the way?” she asked.
“She’s taking a bath. She’s been in there a while so she shouldn’t be too long now. I’ll see you later,” he said before walking out of her bedroom and closing the door.
Haley released a huge sigh of relief. Well at least that ended better than it started. I just hope everything goes well tonight, she thought as she started getting undressed.
* * * * *
About half an hour later, she was laying on the living room couch dressed in her favourite pair of jeans and a sweater, flicking through a magazine when Peyton came out of her bedroom and sat down in one of the armchairs.
“Hey, you’re back. I take it all that noise before was Jake giving you the third degree?”
“You can say that again. But we talked and he seems to have calmed down a bit. So, I guess you want to know who I was with, huh?”
“Oh yeah,” Peyton drawled. “By Jake’s reaction I’m guessing you spent the night with a guy. Could it possibly be that delicious honey you call a boss?” The curly haired blonde teased.
Haley gave away the answer to her best friend’s question by the blush that quickly crept onto her face and which settled on her cheeks.
“Ohmigod! No way! You finally did something about that mega crush you have on him! So...um...did you and the big bad boss man...you know?”
“Uh huh,” she whispered shyly before saying, “You know when you want something so badly that your imagination takes over making you believe it will be the best thing ever only for you to discover that it actually sucks and you wish it had never happened?”
Peyton nodded vigorously.
“Well my imagination wasn’t even close to what it really felt like. I think those six months of me wanting him and him wanting me acted like foreplay or something because when we finally made love it was...it was explosive.”
Smiling at the animated look on Haley’s face, Peyton said, “I’m really happy for you. I know how much you like him.”
The auburn haired young woman couldn’t stop smiling. “Thanks Pey. It’s just…I’ve never felt like this before and I know dating and working together might not be easy but...I’ll quit my job if I have to. I just know that I don’t want to have to give Nathan up.”
The blonde couldn’t hide her look of astonishment at hearing her friend’s words. “Wow! When you’ve talked about him in the past I just thought if anything happened between you guys that it would be a fling or something. I didn’t think you’d find ‘the one’”, she said using her fingers to do the quotation marks.
“Me either. Anyway, I’ve invited him over for dinner tonight so he can meet you and Jake because if he’s going to be a part of my life, then he’s going to be seeing you when he comes over and stuff. We don’t want this to be some kind of sordid little affair. He feels the same way about me as I do about him.”
“Well, like I said, I’m really happy for you, Hales. Just promise me you’ll be careful. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be with Nathan but I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“I know you don’t and I promise I’ll take things easy with him.”
“Good. So what are you doing this afternoon? Do you feel like going shopping.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll just go and freshen up and then we can leave. I’ve got a few things to do before I see Nathan tonight.”
“Okay. I’ll just give Jake a quick call on his cell phone and let him know where we’re going. We don’t want him to freak again when we’re not here when he gets back from the store, do we?”
“You can say that again. I can only handle one freak out per day thank you very much.” She chuckled as she walked towards her room.
“Hey Hales, I bet I can guess what shops you’ll be hitting today,” Peyton called out before a burst of laughter overtook her when she heard her best friend’s response.