Utterly Yours (Book Two) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (2 page)

              Nathaniel pulled up to the park just as the sun was setting.  It had been a long day between volunteering at the shelter and the ongoing list of meetings.  He could hardly believe his own excitement as he pulled into a parking lot and exited his vehicle.  Lillian had been a bit more than a childhood friend.  Every man knows this feeling –the moment when you realize your female friend isn’t just one of the guys.  That loss of innocence you experience when, as a young child, you look at a girl as just that –a girl, and not just a playmate.  Lillian had been that girl for Nathaniel when he had been a boy; he would get butterflies in his stomach every time they would walk together to the bus stop.  It had rapidly been on its way to becoming a distant memory, but then all of a sudden his childhood first love just popped up in his life.  He wasn’t sure if it was some sort of sign, or if this was just going to be an evening of catching up with a person from his past who had once lovingly refereed to him as
dipshit
every time they would meet –but he was excited nonetheless.

              He headed to the park entrance where he spotted Lillian seated on the same bench he had found her earlier that same morning.  He frowned at the thought that she slept there every night.  The shelter could only provide beds for so many people, and it seemed that Lillian had gotten the short end of the stick yet again.  “Evening,” Nathaniel called out as he approached the bench.

              She smiled, and he was glad to see her smile.  “Hey, Nate,” she said.

              “Lillian,” he said, returning her smile.  He had dressed fairly modestly: a nice button up and a dark pair of blue jeans.  Normally on a date he would always wear a suit, but he didn’t want to give away his secret just yet.  Besides, he was not exactly taking her somewhere that was suit worthy.  “Ready for our date?” he asked.

              She laughed as she stood.  “Oh, so it’s a date now?”

              “I was hoping so,” he said and hooked his arm in hers.

              He opened the passenger’s side door for her, and she chuckled slightly as she climbed inside.  “Who knew Nate Lynch would turn out to be such a gentleman?” she said when he sat down in the driver’s seat.

              “Well, what can I say, California was good to me,” he said.

              “That’s right –California!  I have been trying to remember all day where your family moved to.  How was the west coast?” she asked.

              “Pretty nice.  A lot of beaches out that way,” he said as he pulled the car out of the parking lot.

              They didn’t go far, and they had plenty to talk about during the brief amount of time spent in the car together.  He avoided asking her about living on the street, not wanting to put her in an awkward position.  They mostly talked about their childhood and all of the ridiculous trouble the two of them and Adam had gotten into together.  The awkward elephant in the room was certainly her current living situation, and the topic of conversation was ignored.

              They pulled up in front of a small diner, and Lillian cringed.  “We should go somewhere else,” she said quickly.

              “What?  Didn’t you love this place when you were a kid?” Nathaniel questioned.

              She laughed.  “That’s right.  Our moms would take us here almost every Saturday in the summer.  Yeah, I did.  It’s just that I’m not exactly welcomed here.”

              “What do you mean?” Nathaniel questioned.

              “I mean they’re not exactly friendly towards people like me,” she said, her face turning red.  “I came here once to buy a burger, and they threw me out and told me to go take a shower.”

              “Are you serious?” Nathaniel frowned.

              “Corporate places like this are normally like that,” she said.  “I have better luck with… mom and pop kind of places, you know?”

              “Damn, Lillian, I’m sorry,” Nathaniel pulled the car out of the parking lot.  “If they’ve treated you like shit just because of the way you’re dressed, I won’t eat there either.”

              “Well, I am wearing the same clothes I’ve been wearing for the past couple of months,” she said wearily.  The conversation was clearly drifting somewhere that made Lillian uncomfortable.

              “Where would you like to eat then?” Nathaniel asked.  “Anywhere you want.”

              She thought for a moment and then pointed down a road.  “There is another diner down the street from here; they’re usually really nice there.”

              “All right, we’ll go there then,” he said and pulled down the road.  They entered into the diner, and Nathaniel was not so oblivious that he did not notice the patrons staring.  Did she really look that bad?  He looked her up and down, trying to do so without being noticed, and he deduced that it was fairly evident she was homeless by her dirty face and tattered clothes –but she still looked lovely to him.

              A server came up and smiled at them both.  “Hey, Ace,” the young man smiled.  “Eating in or dining out?”

              “Eating in,” Nathaniel said.

              “Oh,” the young man said as though he had not expected that response.  “Sure, no problem.”

              Lilian blushed and muttered to Nathaniel, “I normally take my food back to the park or somewhere less public.”

              Nathaniel put an arm over her shoulder.  “Well, you’re eating in today.   I want to hang out with my old friend, all right?  Ignore everyone else.”

              The server walked them over to a booth and placed some menus down.  “What’ll you have to drink, Ace?” he asked.

              They both ordered some sodas and the server trotted off.  “So where did that nickname come from, exactly?” Nathaniel asked.

              “I have a tattoo of an Ace of Spades,” she said.

              “Can I see?” Nathaniel asked, and she laughed.

              “No, no you can’t,” she said. 

              Nathaniel felt his cheeks grow warm.  “Oh, so it’s somewhere I can’t see?”

              “Right,” she said.

              “And everyone seems to know that?” Nathaniel questioned, and she kicked him from under the table.

              “I swear, you let one person see a hidden tattoo, and suddenly everyone around town knows about it,” she said with a slight laugh.

              Apart from some of the awkward glances they received, Nathaniel felt that the dinner was fairly pleasant.  It was hard to not notice Lillian’s discomfort, though.  She tried hard not to scarf down her food, and Nathaniel wondered if she had had anything decent to eat since the shelter’s grand opening.  “Why haven’t you been back to the shelter?” he asked after she had ate half of her dinner in the time it took him to take only a few bites.

              She pressed pause on the meal, obviously not wanting to appear too eager.  “I had a job interview this week,” she said and frowned.  “I had been trying to get ready for it; it’s all the way across town, so I’ve been on the other side of the city all week.  I didn’t get the job, though.  Kind of hard for people to take you seriously dressed like this.”

              Nathaniel shook his head.  “You know they had clothes at the shelter.”

              “Nothing that I could squeeze into was left by the time I got there,” she said.  “It was mostly kids clothes or sweatpants… nothing I’d hope to wear at an interview.”

              “Damn,” Nathaniel said.  “I’m sorry.  Do you have any more interviews coming up?”

              “Not at the moment,” she said.

              “You know, the shelter has working positions too –not just volunteer roles,” Nathaniel said.  “Maybe I can help you get a job?”

              She laughed.  “Maybe.  Having a job and keeping one are two different things though.”

              “Oh?” he asked, but she did not provide him with much more of an explanation.

              An older couple was seated at a booth not far from them; they kept glaring over and rolling their eyes.  “I think we should probably go,” Lillian finally said.

              “No, finish your food, I insist,” Nathaniel said and shot a dirty look towards the couple who quickly looked away.  “Some people are so damn rude,” he said.

              “Tell me about it,” she said while scarfing down the rest of her food.

              Nathaniel ordered a slice of chocolate cake to go for Lillian to have later, and the two of them headed out to his car.  She smiled at him when he politely opened up the passenger’s side door and handed her the chocolate cake.  “I had fun tonight,” he told her –although he knew she did not have much fun at all with the looks people were giving her.

              “It was nice catching up,” she said and smiled honestly at him.  “I miss you and Adam.  Those were some of the best years of my life.”

              “Mine too,” he said.  He passed by the park, and she raised an eyebrow. 

              “You missed your turn,” she said.

              “No, I didn’t,” he said, and he kept on driving.  “I want to do something for you.  It’s not much, but I hope you’ll let me.”

              “All right?” she said wearily.

              Nathaniel pulled up outside of the hotel where he was staying.  She blushed.  “That’s a nice hotel,” she said.  “They’re not going to let me in there, Nate.”

              “Yes, they will,” he asserted and helped her out of the car.  She followed close behind.  “So I’m in town helping the company I work with get that shelter up and running,” he said, leaving out the part where he is the owner of said company.  “I’m staying here while I’m in town.” Nathaniel pulled out his credit card as they entered the hotel lobby.  He pointed over at the hotel gift shop.  “I want you to buy you some new clothes –whatever you want.  The catch is you have to buy one dress because I’m taking you somewhere nice for dinner tomorrow night.  I’m going to rent a hotel room for you so you can sleep in a bed tonight and get you a shower or whatever else you need.  And order you some room service tomorrow –breakfast and lunch.” He handed her the card.

              “Nate, you can’t be serious,” she said.

              “Please, let me help,” he said.  “It’s not much, but I really would like for you to have a warm place to sleep tonight.  Go on to the gift shop, I’m going to go get you checked in.” He did not leave her time to argue; he headed straight towards the front desk.  He glanced over his shoulder to see her awkwardly making her way towards the gift shop.

              He got her checked into a room, and he met her by the elevator.  She was holding two small bags.  “Did you get a dress?” he asked.  “Because I want to take you somewhere nice tomorrow, and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable like tonight.”

              Her face was red.  “Yes, I did,” she said.

              “Good.  I’m just a few floors up from you,” he said and handed her the room key.  “And here, I wrote my phone number down for you.  You can call me if you need anything tonight or tomorrow morning.”

              “Nate, I don’t know what to say.  Thank you.”

              “You’re welcome,” he said and then nodded.  “This is your floor.  Goodnight.  I’ll see you tomorrow.  I’ll pick you up outside of the hotel tomorrow night at eight, okay?”

              “Okay,” she said with a smile as the elevator doors closed.  Nathaniel smiled; it was the best date he had had in a long time.

              “Mom, for crying out loud,” Nathaniel huffed as he entered into his hotel room after his date with Lillian; his mother had started calling him, and he did not even give her a chance to explain her reasoning for the call before he began griping.  “I swear, if this is another guilt trip, I’m going to lose my mind.  I already told you I would talk to Eliza when I got back from Troy, and I promised to have dinner with her.  Would you just cut me a little bit of slack, please?”

              “Nathaniel,” his mother cooed, “I was just calling you because Eliza asked me to.”

              Nathaniel paused slightly as he inserted his hotel room key into the door.  “Oh?” The woman had an incredibly different tone form what he had gotten used to in the past week.

              “Yes.  She asked me to give you her cellphone number and for you to call her this evening if you are available,” she said, and Nathaniel noted that the woman sounded incredibly peppy.  She had been giving him a terribly hard time all week about him ruining his date with Eliza, so he was guessing that she had had a good conversation with the woman recently that was changing her tone.

              Nathaniel sighed.  “Why does she want me to call?” He entered into the presidential suite, letting the door whoosh closed behind him.  He immediately kicked off his shoes; his feet were killing him after having walked through the park all night and having a busy day at the shelter as well.

              “Well, I’m not sure, to be honest, but she sounded rather chipper about it,” she said.  “I suppose you didn’t scare her off after that horrible first date after all.”

              Nathaniel laughed slightly, pulling the phone away from his mouth when he did so.  He took a breath.  “All right, all right.  I will call her if that will make you happy.  What number did she give you for me to call?” Nathaniel scribbled down the phone number his mother recited so quickly that he was fairly certain she had memorized it.  “All right, I’ll let you know how the conversation goes, all right?” he said before hanging up.

              He shook his head, deciding it was best to actually call the woman after how upset his mother had gotten over his date desertion scheme.  He certainly didn’t want to talk to Eliza, but his mother’s constant guilt tripping had left him with no choice.  A familiar voice answered the call after the third ring.  “Hello?” she sang, “this is Eliza.”

              “Hey, Eliza.  This is Nathaniel Lynch.  I believe I owe you an apology after-”

              “After you had your assistant make up a bogus story just so you could leave our date?” she interrupted.

             
Damn, she’s smarter than I thought she was
, Nathaniel thought.  “Um… yeah.  Didn’t realize you knew that was bull.”

              “I’m quite intuitive,” she said, sounding only slightly annoyed.  “Listen, I think I’m actually the one who owes you an apology.”

              “How’s that?” Nathaniel questioned as he sat himself down on the large sofa in the enormous living space.

              “I know I was being a real drag on that first date,” she said.  “I mean, I must sound like a complete joke to you.  I was really nervous about meeting you, and when I get nervous I tend to ramble a lot.  I was probably boring you out of your mind.”

              Nathaniel blushed slightly; she had certainly hit the nail on the head with that one.  “Well,” Nathaniel began to explain himself, but she cut him off again.

              “Well nothing,” she said.  “All I did was rammer on and on about myself.  I probably came off as one of those snobby daddy’s girls, right?  Well, I kind of am a little bit of a daddy’s girl, I guess, but I promise I’m not a snob.  I like you.  And I’d really like a chance at a restart, you know?  I know you’re going to be in Troy for another week, but maybe when you get back we can try that first date again.”

              Nathaniel smiled.  This change in attitude was unexpected.  “You know what, Eliza?  I would really like that.”

              “And not just because your mother is insisting?” she questioned with a slight laugh.

              Nathaniel laughed also.  “No, not just because of that.  I think I prejudged you, and I’m sorry.  I’d love that second first date.”

              “Hey, tomorrow around six I’m going to be free.  How about a video chat?” she asked.

              Nathaniel smiled.  “Sure.  I won’t be able to talk long,” he said, remembering his date with Lillian at eight.  “I have a dinner appointment with a client out this way.  But I would love to talk again.”

              “Sounds good.  Have a goodnight, Nathaniel,” she said.

              “Same to you,” Nathaniel responded, and they both hung up their phones.  He rose up from the couch, a small smile on his face.  He was surprised; it had actually been a fairly pleasant conversation with Eliza.  She was certainly his typical type, and a part of him wondered if he should take the potential relationship more seriously.  He had another week in Troy, though, and he intended to enjoy his time with Lillian for now.