Haley dropped Keith off at Nathan's early in the afternoon, around 4ish. She had errands to run before dinner with Brooke and then Peyton would be over. Nathan didn't mind. He was happy to spend time with his son, although he wished Haley was staying too. He was good about it though, he knew tonight was a guy, girl night. There was no way Nathan was going to object to spending time with Keith and the guys or Haley spending time with Brooke and Peyton. Nathan figured if it weren't for everyone coming home for the summer Haley probably wouldn't have seen him that night at the café and things would still be the way they were.
Nathan and Keith hung out until Deb got home. Nathan walked about as slow as Keith with the boot on, so he let Keith roam while he followed close behind to make sure he stayed out of trouble. Then Nathan took one of his old Nerf, hang over the door, basketball hoops and hung it from a drawer in the kitchen. He chose a drawer because it was higher than the low cabinets but not so low that Keith was eye level with it. The ball kept Keith occupied for a while. He kept throwing the ball at Nathan, who sat on the floor in front of the hoop. Nathan had to keep showing Keith how to shoot the ball in the hoop but Keith would just keep saying, "ball, ball," and Nathan would crack and just give it back and Keith would just throw it at him.
When Deb got home around 5, she found Nathan reading some of his old children's books that she had saved to Keith. Every couple of words Keith would try and imitate what Nathan had said. He was getting better with words. Deb joined them and tried to get Keith to say Nana (pronounced Na-na not Nan-na). He said it with ease; he just didn't understand that she wanted him to call her that.
"Oh ma, Tim's coming over for dinner. I hope you don't mind," Nathan said. "Haley, Brooke, and Peyton are having a girls night and he was staying with Brooke so I invited him over for the night, some of the guys are gonna stop by later too."
"That's fine," she said. "I haven't seen him in so long; it'll be good to see him."
"Are you sure," Nathan asked, then he continued while sort of laughing, "you didn't come in and say hi the other night when he was here and I thought maybe it was because you two had history," he finished, full blown laughing now.
Deb threw a couch pillow at him, "how did you know about that Boy Toy Auction misunderstanding?"
"Dad mentioned it once," he answered still kind of laughing. "Don't worry though mom, Tim's very different you'll see."
They all ate together. Deb could tell what Nathan had meant by saying Tim was different. He was only acting strange, like the boy he used to be, when he was playing with Keith. After dinner, around 6:30 almost 7, although it was early Nathan could see the eventful day had tried out his son. He told Tim he was going to give Keith a bath then put him down then they could set up for the NBA Live tournament.
When Nathan came back downstairs about an hour later, he had taken a while because he had to set up the play pen again and he read Keith a story, Tim was playing NBA Live on the big screen.
"So, you were old Tim with Keith tonight," Nathan said. "That's probably ok with Brooke because it's Keith, but if you keep it up with Lucas, Brooke's gonna get fed up." Tim didn't say anything. "You're ok with him coming over tonight," Nathan asked. "I know he can be an ass sometimes, he is my brother right? Look he apologized and meant it otherwise he wouldn't have, that's how he is. He really is a good guy," Nathan paused, "you don't have to like him just keep your cool otherwise you're gonna push Brooke right to him."
"She already warned me," he said, "and I know I was a fool. I couldn't help it, but I guess I better try and try hard." He looked at Nathan, "you know she's amazing. Old Tim's staying gone 'cuz I won't lose her."
"She is amazing," Nathan said, "she's been great to Haley and me. Aside from Luke she was the only other person who kept me up to date on her and Keith all this time." He started toward the kitchen, "let's get this tournament set up." They wrote a list of who was coming then randomly drew up brackets. Then they brought out some snacks for the coffee table. Around 8pm the doorbell rang and in came the guys, Lucas, Skills, Fergie, and Mouth.
"Alright," Nathan said, "it's a one-on-one tournament. The brackets were chosen at random and can be seen on the coffee table next to the chips, pretzels, and soda."
"What man, no buy in," Skills said.
"Yeah right," Nathan said, "I know it wasn't me gambling then, but do you not remember my history. After what happened with Daunte, I don't want to push my luck, not even with something small and in house like this."
"True that yo, true that," Skills said.
"Yeah so speaking of your history," Mouth said, "what's up with you and Haley?"
"Yeah," the rest of the guys echoed, even Lucas, he wanted to hear Nathan's side.
"I don't know," he said, "it's complicated. The girl ran from me for almost two years and I wasn't even chasing her. Then over night we're talking again. I don't know," he said again. "Neither of us want to get hurt or hurt the other again. So, we're just talking, taking things slow, see what happens. Besides we have to be careful for Keith too. He's our number one concern."