Seth's Cravings: An Endless Series: Book 2 (59 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

SETH

     I watched Nadia drive away, my heart in my throat. That
look of sheer anguish in her eyes was going to live forever in my mind. I
needed to go after her; I had to explain, and dammit, she needed to listen. I
knew what was going through her mind. She thought this was just like what her
father had done; two girlfriends, my parent’s having no knowledge of who she
was. But it was all a misunderstanding. Sure, I’d made a huge error in not
telling my parent’s about her, but I’d just been biding my time because of my
father.

     “Seth! Son, what’s going on?” Dad walked down the porch
steps toward me frowning.

     I dashed back up the driveway. “Dad, I can’t talk right
now. I need to borrow your keys.” My truck was at Nadia’s.

     He frowned. “If your plan is to go after that girl I
don’t think that would be a good idea.”

     I was manic at the thought of Nadia getting further
away. “Dad, I love that woman. She thinks I lied to her about having another
girlfriend. I need to get to her and tell her the truth.”

     My dad’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “How come this
is the first time I’m hearing about her? I knew you and Melissa were taking a
break, but when she came back from Europe three days ago she said you two where
getting back together.”

     I glanced up at Melissa standing on the porch looking
crestfallen, my mother’s arm around her in support. I was a bit pissed off at
her assumption that I would hop right back into a relationship with her after
not hearing from her for months.

     “I haven’t heard from Melissa in months. I didn’t know
she was even back because she failed to call me and tell me that, or that she
decided after all this time that she wanted to resume our relationship. A
relationship I realized was never going to work out two days after she left.”

     Melissa’s expression fell even more and she moved down
the steps. “Seth, I missed you the whole time I was gone, but I needed that
time to reflect on what we’d talked about that last time we were together.” She
looked at my parent’s in embarrassment, like she was afraid they might know
what she was referring to. She stepped up to me and my father stepped back to
give us some privacy. I didn’t need privacy though. I needed a vehicle so I
could go after Nadia.

     “Melissa, if you really missed me you would have called
me at some point. If I missed you I would have gotten a hold of you. Our
connection just wasn’t strong enough to hold us together.” I stated bluntly.
“That girl that just left holds my heart and soul, she’s everything to me.”

     Melissa’s mouth dropped open in surprise, and I saw
both my parent’s staring at me with similar expressions.

     Stepping around Melissa I moved toward my parent’s.
“Dad, please I need your keys so I can go after her and explain.”

     “I don’t want to tell you how to play this son, but
that girl was extremely upset and she looks like she needs some time to calm
down. You sure you don’t want to wait, maybe an hour or…five.” He shook his
head in amazement. “I mean that was quite a slap she delivered.”

     “It was nothing I didn’t deserve. She has trust issues
and she thinks I’ve done the worst thing possible to her. God, I can’t believe
how badly I’ve messed up by not telling you about her. She thinks I was hiding
her from you.”

     It astounded me how many times I’d screwed up with
Nadia…from the very beginning. I’d always thought that I was a pretty
intelligent guy, but it seemed like every step of the way I’d made one wrong
misstep after another with her.  

     “It kind of appears that way to us as well. Why wouldn’t
you tell us about her if you love her like you say you do?” Mom asked.

     “I can’t stand here at the moment and have a logical
discussion on why I was a dumbass. I need to go.” I growled impatiently.

     “Seth.” My mom admonished. “Take it from a female; that
girl needs some time to calm down. So just explain to us please why you would
keep her a secret? Did you think we wouldn’t approve?” She frowned.

     I ran my hand through my hair. This was going to be
difficult to explain; especially since my thoughts were focused on getting to
Nadia. “Dad’s been on my case about going to Harvard after UVA for
Architecture. I know it’s what we discussed but I want to stay here for
graduate school. I thought if I told him about Nadia he’d say I was only
staying here for her and I didn’t want to deal with the fall out at this time.”

     My father frowned. “
Are
you staying here for
her? Because that’s really not a good reason to choose a school.”

     I looked my father directly in the eye. “Actually dad,
Nadia is good motivation for me to do anything. I don’t want to move hundreds
of miles away from her after just finding her. She fills a part of me that I
never knew was missing. She’s incredible. God, if you knew what she’s
accomplished in her short life.”

     “The reason I don’t know is because you haven’t told me
about her. Maybe if you had, or if I’d gotten to know her, I would be able to
get some perspective on why you were making such a decision.” He expressed rationally.

     I knew my father was a reasonable man, but we were
talking about years of expectation here. “For years you’ve been excited about
me going to Harvard, and I was okay with that until I started falling for
Nadia, now I can’t imagine being that far away from her. I didn’t think you
would take my choice of not going all that peacefully; especially since I’ve
only known her for a couple months.” 

     He took a deep breath. “Yeah, I have to say that’s not
sitting well with me. We are talking about your future here, and you’re making
a decision that could affect the entirety of it for a girl you’ve only known
for a short time. Does my saying this out loud to you ring any warning bells?”

     I shook my head confidently. “No. And hell, it’s not
like I’m flushing my future down the drain. UVA has an excellent Architectural
graduate program. They aren’t number one like Harvard, but they are in the top
five.”

     Vehicles pulled into the driveway as I finished up my
speech. The guys were back with the pizza. They got out of the vehicles taking
in my parent’s and Melissa’s presence in surprise and incomprehension.

     “This doesn’t look like a happy reunion.” Landon said
striding up. “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Weston.”

     “Hello Landon. Everyone.” My mom greeted everyone with
a strained smile.

     My parent’s had been to quite a few of my games and
taken us all to lunch in celebration after, so they knew the guys pretty well.
They’d met Amanda several times, and Carrie only twice.    

     “I take it Nadia was not pleased to meet your
ex-girlfriend?” Landon asked.

     “It was a little bit more than that.” I replied darkly.

     His eyes narrowed on me. “Yeah, your face is pretty red
on one side. Looks like she only slapped you instead of punching your lights
out. And you seem to be standing up straight so your balls must still be
there.”

     “Landon!” My mom exclaimed in shock.

     Landon looked only half apologetic. “I’m only stating
the truth. The girl has quite the forward punt. She’d be an awesome kicker for
any football team.”

     Both my mom and I were frowning, but I noticed my dad wore
an interested look.

     “I take it she took some boy to task for something?” Dad
asked.

     “And then some.” Landon laughed. “He dropped like a
stone. The guy totally deserved it.”

      My dad’s brows rose. “Huh.” He then scowled at me. “Why
the hell wouldn’t you tell us about her?”

     “I’m a dumbass, that’s why.” I grumbled. And Nadia
probably wouldn’t argue with my description this time. She would no doubt agree
whole heartedly. If she ever talked to me again.

     Fuck, what if I couldn’t get her to listen to me? There
was no way I was accepting that.

     “Landon, I need you to take me over to Nadia’s.”

     “Son, you sure you don’t want to give her a little more
time. I doubt if she’s cooled down any.” Dad advised.

     “No, she needs to know that she’s my first priority. If
I wait she might not think I cared enough to explain. She might think I was
placating Melissa.” That’s the last thing I wanted her thinking.

     My mom’s expression lit with understanding. “Oh my
gosh, you are absolutely right. You need to get over there right now. I’m so
sorry we messed this up for you by dropping by, but you should have said
something.” My mom stepped up to give me a hug goodbye.

     My father moved forward to give me one as well. “We
will talk further about this school thing. In regards to the girl, from what
I’ve seen of her I wouldn’t expect forgiveness right away, but don’t give up if
you really care about her.”

     I nodded and then Landon and I were climbing in his car
and he was speeding down the road towards Nadia’s apartment.

     “So, what exactly went down?” Landon asked.

     I explained what happened, and gave Landon a shortened
version of Nadia’s past.

     He was shaking his head at the end, his expression
grave. “Holy shit. You really fucked up.”

     My chest caved. “It wasn’t like I wasn’t ever going to
tell them, I just wanted to give it a little more time. I didn’t figure a two
month relationship would hold much water when I tried explaining to my dad why
I didn’t want to go to Harvard, and instead wanted to stay here.”

     Landon took a corner fast and tight, but then he had
just the car for it; an Audi R8. “That’s why you didn’t tell them?” He asked

     “Yeah. But I know she thinks I was trying to deceive
her like her father had. Fuck!” I shouted punching the door. Landon didn’t say
anything about me hitting his precious sports car though.

     “All I have to say is…expect to do some groveling. That
girl has a temper on her, but it seems to short out fast at least.” Landon
supplied.

     What he said was true. Nadia didn’t get angry often,
but when she did it flared hot. However, it seemed to burn itself out pretty
quickly. On the other hand, this had cut deep into her insecurities, reminding
her of her father. I didn’t think this was going to roll off her back like our
past problems.

     Landon pulled into Nadia’s apartment building, parking
next to my truck. “Do you want me to stay? Maybe say some things on your
behalf?”

     I shook my head dismally. “No. Go ahead and take off,
I’ll see you later.”

     “Good luck, man. Hope it goes well.” Landon offered
sincerely.

     So do I, I thought as I unfolded myself from Landon’s
too small front seat. I trudged up the steps to her apartment and stood at the
door for several dozen seconds, my heart hammering with ‘what ifs’. What if she
wouldn’t listen to me? What if she didn’t believe me? What if she’d had enough
of my dumbass?

     I knocked and waited. Thirty-three seconds I waited. I
could hear movement on the other side and figured there was some debating going
on. I restrained myself from knocking again, because I knew they knew I was out
here. Finally, it opened. But it wasn’t Nadia on the other side. It was Luka. A
very angry Luka.

     “She doesn’t want to see you, Seth.”

     I wasn’t expecting this. Nadia was one to face her own
battles head on. This wasn’t like her. “I need to explain what happened, Luka.”
I looked over his shoulder, but didn’t see her anywhere.

     “What’s there to explain? It all seemed pretty
self-explanatory.” He glared at me and his fist was tight around the door
handle like he was restraining himself from hitting me. If I were in his shoes
I’d already be cracking some skulls, so his restraint was appreciated. I’m sure
it had to do with Issy being close by.

     “That girl, Melissa, was an old girlfriend of mine.
We’d broken up before Nadia and I started going out. For some reason Melissa
thought after months of silence we could jump back into a relationship no
questions asked. I disabused her of that notion. I never loved Melissa; your
sister’s the only woman I’ve ever loved.” I said the last part loudly hoping
she would hear.

     Luka’s expression thawed slightly…but only slightly.
“Why didn’t your parent’s know about Nadia? Why were you keeping her a secret?
I could believe you hadn’t gotten around to telling them if you hadn’t gone
home two weekends ago, but you did. Why didn’t you disclose her existence in
your life then?”

     “It’s a little complicated, Luka.” I said rubbing my
nape irritably. I didn’t want to be explaining myself to Nadia’s brother; I
needed to explain this to Nadia’s face. “Can I please come in and talk to her?”

     Luka stepped forward and I backed up hoping he wasn’t
going to start something with me. The last thing I wanted was to get into a
fight with Luka. However, he only moved forward so he could shut the door
behind him.

     “Seth, my sister is in her room crying.” Luka’s words
ripped my heart out. “I haven’t seen or heard my sister cry since the night our
father died. For five years she’s been the rock of this family. I know she was
grief stricken, the same as Issy and I, when our mother was sick and finally
passed away, but she held herself together for our sake. I’m sure she cried
when she was alone, but I never heard it. But she wasn’t able to stay strong
this time; she started crying on the way home. I had to take over driving for
her.”

     Fuck, he was killing me. I knew how strong she was, and
I knew how she hated losing control and crying. I remember at the beach house
when she’d been tremendously distressed at causing Landon pain but had refused
to cry about it. How she’d held it all in when she’d talked about her mother,
and her father.