Trust In Me (Triplets book 2)

Chapter 18

Shay stood on the curb, looking up at Nate's apartment building. Her time as his assistant had ended the previous week, then she and Ellen had spent a few days in the handover, and she had gone back to accounting.

She had spent three miserable days under The Dragon before she had had enough. Shay had hoped that she would see Nate in the elevator as she once had, but he hadn't been there for three days even though she knew he was working from the office. Coupled with Phee begging Shay to join her, all of this meant it was time.

Shay had thought about turning her resignation into Nate directly and not taking the coward's way out, but she couldn't do it in the end. At lunch, she had told Ellen what she was about to do, and Ellen had been upset but supportive.

Ellen had claimed that it was a fear she had when she offered Shay the job. She thought it would be hard for Shay to transition back to what amounted to a data entry job after facing the challenges of being Nate's assistant.

Shay had waited until today, Friday, and at the end of the day, she had turned in her resignation to The Dragon. The Dragon never made anyone work out their two-week notice, she claimed it was a security issue, and Shay knew this. She knew that it would be her last day working at Wright Financial. Her last day to potentially see Nate on the elevator.

Now, taking every ounce of courage Shay had, she was set to ask Nate for a favor. It was a very personal and private favor, and she was scared to ask him. She was afraid to tell Nate the reasoning behind it.

It had been a brief thought at the time, but a few weeks earlier, when she had wanted to share her worries with someone, and the only person she could think of to share with was Nate, she realized that he was the one she trusted most. Her brief thought had turned into a certainty.

It wasn't anything specific he had done. Shay felt it on a gut level. She knew, without a doubt, that Nate would never do anything to hurt her intentionally, and other than her family, she had never felt that with anyone else.

So why not go to him and ask for help with the one thing she had never trusted anyone with.

Shay had changed into simple blue jeans and a t-shirt because she felt that dressing down might somehow make the ask seem less important. She took a deep breath, wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans then entered the building.

She didn't hear any power tools, but it was late. Shay wondered what she would do if he were not working in the apartment on the third floor. She knew he lived in the building, but she wasn't exactly sure where.

If Nate weren't there, she would take it as a sign and go home. She nodded and climbed the stairs quickly before her nerve ran out. As she reached the top of the third-floor landing, she noticed that the door to the apartment he was working in was open, and the lights were on. Was that a good sign or a bad one?

When she reached the door, she saw Nate alone, bent over a piece of wood with a chisel.

He didn't hear Shay, so she took a minute to watch him for what might be the last time because if he said no to her request, there was no reason for them ever to see each other again.

He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but this time he was wearing his glasses to see what he was doing with the chisel. A lock of his brown hair fell over his forehead, and he looked...like home.

"Nate," she softly called when he had set the chisel down.

He spun to look at her with a confused frown.

"Shay, is everything alright?" he placed the piece of wood he was carving down on the makeshift table in front of him.

"Yes, may I come in?" she asked.