I want You Deeper

“What’s up with you, man?”

Nicholas looked up at his brother, who was staring at

him as though he were the one about to make one of the biggest commitments of his life. Nate was cool as a cucumber. Instead, Nicholas was the one who was distracted and had been since he arrived.

“Nothing.” Nicholas shook his head, telling himself to get back in the game. “Just a little tired, that’s all.”

Nate laughed. “You checked out at, like, midnight, dude. You don’t even know tired.”

“We walked the Lyon Street Steps this morning. Probably a bad idea, but it usually doesn’t wear me out like that.”

“That’s what happens when you get old.”

Nicholas glared at Nate, but it was all in good fun. They teased each other. It was just what they did.

“This is about Charlie, I’m guessing.” Nate sat down next to him.

They were waiting in a roped-off area in the church where the wedding would take place in just under half an hour. People were starting to drift in, and the groomsmen were at the back of the church, greeting people and hanging out.

“Just a little argument, no big deal.”

That was the understatement of the year. Nicholas looked down at his feet, leaning forward with an arm on each leg. Mostly he just wanted to stretch out his back, but it also helped keep his brother from seeing his face. “Lover’s spat,” Nate said with a nod. “We’ve had our fair share of those. It’s a sign your relationship is on the right track. That’s what the counselor says, anyway.”

Nicholas straightened and looked at his brother. “The counselor?”

“Marriage counselor. It was required to get married here. It’s been a total game-changer. Totally recommend it for you and your fiancee.”

The idea of going to a counselor to discuss his issues with Charlie was almost laughable. The issue was that he was pretending to be with her to get his mom off his case, but somewhere along the way, he’d developed feelings for her. Just when he’d begun to believe she felt the same, she’d taken the wind out of his sails with her mention of telling his mom the truth. She seemed to be more on his mother’s side-but, most notably, she seemed to be more on the side of this relationship being fake when he was starting to feel that it was all too real.

“Can I ask you a question?” Nicholas asked his brother.

Nate, who was watching a group of women gather around their mother at the back of the church, pulled his attention off the situation and looked at

Nicholas. “Sure.”

“Did Mom try to matchmake you?”

Nate stared at him for a long moment without answering. “You’re joking, right?” he finally asked.

“No.”

“I thought you knew. She introduced me to Elizabeth. Her mother is in some club with our mom. I don’t know what club it is, but it involves getting together and talking about their money or something.”

That made Nicholas laugh. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I figure all her clubs are. So Mom set you up? And you liked her?”

“Don’t get me wrong. I was dragged into it kicking and screaming. But

Mom had this surprise dinner at her house, and when I showed up, Elizabeth was there, just as annoyed as I was about all of it. We hit it off, and the rest is history.”

“I thought she just did that stuff to me. She’s always comparing me to you, telling me how successful and perfect you are at everything. I guess it makes sense that she’d want to set me up with someone since it worked for you.”

“Hold up.” Nate slid forward on the pew, swiveling to face Nicholas. “First of all, Mom was trying to fix you up with someone? While you’re engaged?”

“She didn’t know I was engaged. She was trying to set me up with that Caroline woman. Until about two weeks ago, everything I said to her led back to some fun fact about Caroline. I could probably tell you everything about her, and we’ve never even had a real conversation.”

“Whoa. She does the same thing to me.”

“What?” Nicholas shook his head. He wasn’t following. “Who does what to you?”

“Mom. She’s always talking about you and how successful you are and how amazing your house and car and boat and plane are.”

Nicholas frowned. “I don’t have a boat or a plane.”

Nate cocked a brow. “Tell her that. Your business is the most successful anything anywhere. I should start my own business. Working for someone else will never help me get my own boat, plane, and million-dollar house and car. Even if I’m working as a doctor.”

All of this blew Nicholas’s mind. “So when she’s talking to me, she’s comparing me to you and vice versa when she’s talking to you?”

“Pretty much. I suspected that. You know people do that. They never tell you to your face how great you are. They just talk about you behind your back.”

“Mom’s proud of me, I guess.” Nicholas looked over at his mother, who just happened to be pointing to the two of them at that very moment. She, indeed, had a look of pride on her face. “Mom’s proud of both of us. Who would have thought?”

“Yeah, you deal with that. I need to go mingle. See you in a few.”

With a clap on Nicholas’s shoulder, Nate stood and headed down the aisle toward their mom. She held out her arms, hands extended, in a true mom-in-social-mode gesture. As Nate approached, they joined hands, then his mom pivoted to the right slightly to brag about Nate to her friends.

How was it possible that Nicholas hadn’t seen any of this until now? Of course, his mother bragged to her friends about the two of them. He’d seen her do it countless times growing up. Why would he think she wouldn’t play up Nate when she was talking to Nicholas? It fit perfectly.

While Nicholas stared at his mother, Charlie slipped in behind the group gathered at the back of the church. She said something to one of the groomsmen, who pointed toward the front. As Charlie followed the guy’s directions, her gaze happened to land on Nicholas. His heart sped up briefly, then sank as he remembered she didn’t have feelings for him. She was just returning a favor.

“Charlene!” his mom called out after Charlie long after she’d stepped past her. She used Charlie’s formal name-the name Charlie had clearly said she didn’t use. Nicholas took a deep breath. Yep. That was the name his mother would insist on using for the rest of the time she knew Charlie.

Which, sadly, wouldn’t be much longer.

Charlie glanced at Nicholas with an uh-oh expression before pivoting to return to where Nicholas’s mother stood. He smiled at the glance, briefly caught up in the fact that they’d shared a moment. Then he remembered that this was all just an act for her. She wanted him to tell his mother the truth as soon as possible, rather than pursuing where this might go after the wedding.

Still, despite his feelings, he needed to help Charlie out here. He’d gotten her into all this. He needed to stay by her side throughout it.

He stood and walked to where the group was gathered. His mother had her hand on Charlie’s arm and was introducing her as Charlene to all her friends.

“She’ll be joining our family very soon,” his mother gushed. “She works for Nicholas’s best friend. He’s a billionaire, too.”

Nicholas grimaced. He didn’t like that word, even when his mom said it in the context of being proud of him. The part of him that liked hearing his mother was proud of him didn’t like the fact that she used this to impress her friends. He wished she’d live her life for herself rather than what everyone else thought of her, but he knew that would never change.

“Nice to meet you,” Charlie said.

“I can escort you to your seat.” Nicholas stepped up next to Charlie. “It looks like we’re about to get started.”

In very fortunate timing, he saw one of the groomsmen standing next to the bride’s grandmother, ready to walk her to her seat. He knew from the rehearsal that this kicked off the entire ceremony.

Nicholas’s mom gasped. “Oh, my. Yes. I didn’t realize it was that late. I’ll catch up with you all at the reception.”

Eager to get away from the entire scene, Nicholas turned and held out his arm to Charlie, offering to officially escort her. She took the offer, snuggling up next to him as they began the walk. The music just happened to start when they were halfway up the aisle.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to be doing this,” Charlie leaned over to whisper. “People think we’re an official part of the whole seating thing.”

“They’ll get over it.” Nicholas smiled at the one woman staring at them. Everyone else was either talking to the people around them or facing forward. “I try not to worry about what people think.”

Charlie looked over at him, a puzzled look on her face. He was sending a clear message. His mother was obsessed with impressing all these people. He was not. Never would be. His goal over the past few years had been to take the opposite approach of his mother.

“This is your seat.”

Arriving at the front pew, he gestured for Charlie to slide on in. She was sharing a pew with Justin and Brooke, along with his cousin’s family. Third row back. Not quite immediate family, but close enough.

Nicholas’s job was to turn and head to the back of the church for the next person he was assigned to escort. That person was his mother. She’d taken her spot in line, just behind the bride’s mother.

“Did you see Betsy Eadby?” his mother asked as he stepped into place beside her. “She’s green with envy.”

Although he knew exactly what his mother was getting at, Nicholas turned a confused look on her anyway. “What do you mean?”

“Her daughter is in her thirties and still hasn’t married. Her son still lives at home. He’s twenty-eight.” She whispered that last part. The sad thing was, she was one hundred percent serious. A large portion of the hard work she’d done planning this wedding had been to impress these people. It was beyond a hobby for his mother. It was her life.

“I have a feeling she thinks far less about you than you think. People are weird that way. They tend to be more worried about their own lives.”

“That’s silly. We all compare ourselves to others. It’s how we know we’re doing well.”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

The couple in front of them reached the pew, which was Nicholas’s cue to start moving. As he walked his mom to her seat, he thought about what she’d said. Yes, comparison was human nature. He was guilty of it himself. How often did he look around at all the other founders in Silicon Valley to see how they were doing? He spent plenty of time monitoring valuations and acquisitions to keep an eye on everyone else in town. And he and Justin had been in direct competition for years.

No, he wasn’t all that different from his mother. She just put pressure on him and Nate to make her look good. She also measured people’s success by whether their children checked off items on a list that existed in her mind. Get engaged-check. Have an elaborate, society-approved wedding -check. Live in a nice house with expensive belongings-check. No doubt next up would be having a set number of grandchildren that she could then brag about to her friends.

It was an exhausting merry-go-round ride, and Nicholas wanted off.