Married as a Dare? Sorry, It's for Life novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Cost of a Month

That night Nathan sat at his grandmother's kitchen table with the protection petition in front of him and could not make it say anything else.

Stalked.

Feared for her life.

He had read the lines over and over.

Bowen stood at the stove with his sleeves rolled up, frying eggs because it was the one thing he knew how to cook.

"Eat," he said, and put a plate down.

Nathan looked at it.

"I haven't slept right in three weeks," he said.

"I know."

"I keep waiting for it to be over, and every time I think it is, there's a new piece of paper." He pushed the plate an inch away. "I took minutes at a county meeting on Thursday and couldn't write a word. My supervisor covered it for me."

"Nate."

"I did everything right. I walked out of the engagement, I walked out of the hall, I said it all in front of everybody." His voice thinned. "And I'm still the one reading this at midnight, wondering if my name is going to be ruined."

Bowen sat down across from him.

He did not say it would be fine.

He reached across the table, took the petition out from under Nathan's hand and laid it face down.

"Come here," he said.

"I'm all right."

"You aren't. Come here anyway."

Nathan stood.

Bowen pulled him around the table and into his lap, and Nathan sat there with his face against Bowen's neck and shook once.

Bowen's big hands moved up and down his spine.

"I've got you," Bowen said into his hair. "I've had you since the first Thursday. You're not doing this alone."

Nathan lifted his head.

Bowen's green eyes were steady and very close.

He kissed him.

It began as comfort, and it did not stay that way.

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