The Best Man novel Chapter 25

"Well, thank you for coming and please call me Elizabeth, everyone does around here", she smiled before leading the way to the kitchen, only to find my Dad helping himself on some biscuits my mother kept in the cookie jar

"Arthur!", she scowled, and he paused eating since he was caught red-handed with the biscuit in his mouth

"I just took one", he held out both his hands. "I promise"

My mother huffed out a sigh before walking towards the sink to put the flowers in water

"Nice to see you again, Sir", Nathan straightened out his posture when my father approached us

"It's nice to see you too, McCarthy", my father extended his hand out, and they exchanged a firm manly handshake before he pulled Nathan to the side. I decided to followed them because I already knew the drill of what would happen to Nathan if he was left alone with my Dad.

My father noticed me creeping up behind them and turned to push me back into the kitchen

"Your mother needs help in the here, Pumpkin"

"No she doesn't", I chuckled nervously before clearing my throat. "Otherwise she would have said so"

"Just stay in here. Nathaniel and I need to have a talk. Man to man", he spoke firmly, and I didn't like the sound of that, at all.

"He's not my boyfriend Dad, there's absolutely no need for this", I retorted whispering so that he was the only one that heard me, and he placed his hands on my shoulder before leaning to whisper into my ear

"There's absolutely no need to make this difficult, stay here", he ordered, turning on his feet and I watched them ascend up the stairs, Nathan turned to look at me before they disappeared from sight and judging from the look on his face, he was definitely anxious. I felt my mother wrap her arms around my shoulders.

"I'm sure your father won't be as hard on him as he would have if Nathaniel was your boyfriend"

"You know how he is, Mom. He's probably going to dissect Nathan in there with questions, private questions that are none of his business"

"It's not everyday you bring a boy home to have dinner with us, your father is just taking some precautions, that's all"

"I didn't invite Nathan to dinner, your husband did", I pointed in the direction of my father's study, where he's probably grilling the poor guy with endless questions about what his intentions are about me

"Nathan is going to be okay, relax", she laughed before turning me around so that I looked at her

"I stopped breathing for like two whole minutes in there, do you see how pale I look?", he whispered dramatically, and I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand

"You didn't crack under pressure, right?"

"Give me some credit", he sighed dramatically "I'm tougher than I look, you know?"

"I know", I gave a nod of approval. "Did you promise to meet out all the conditions he set for you?"

"I promised him that nothing bad will happen to you on my watch and I intend on keeping that promise"

"For real?"

"I'm being for real, my life literally hangs in the balance here", he clearly made sure I dictate the humor in his voice and I smiled at him, then realized he reciprocated my smile, his as twice as bright as it usually is before raising our entwined hands to his lips to quickly place a kiss on the back of my hand without my parents noticing

"I'm a man of my word, Bella. You just need to trust me"