The chuckle tumbled from Natalie before she could stop it, and she shook her head. “Well, you’re sort of right. If I pester her enough she might listen. Food I have better success with, especially if I just show up with it.”
Maddie smiled warmly and reached over to squeeze Natalie’s arm. “I’m glad she has a friend like you.”
Natalie bobbed her head and forced herself to smile. It was difficult not to focus on the weight of Maddie’s hand against her jacket. Part of her was upset she was wearing such a thick item of clothing, and the rest of her was grateful she was. Her mind wasn’t in the right place to survive skin-on-skin contact. A shiver rippled through her as Maddie’s hand lingered.
Maddie blinked and pulled back. “I’m so sorry, honey. I’ve kept you out in this chill long enough. We have a guest room, but I think Brittney was looking forward to having a sleepover. What’s your preference?”
The nervous smile that had dropped from Natalie’s face re-emerged. It wasn’t fair that Maddie’s face was adorable even when it was lined with concern. “Uh, I mean I do want to talk to Brittney, but I think I’d prefer the guest room.”
“No problem.” Maddie stood and began folding her blanket, revealing the vibrant crimson of her not-quite-knee-length dress. Though Natalie had seen Maddie’s legs on numerous occasions, she hadn’t allowed herself to notice just how lithe and smooth they were. “Were you a dancer?” she blurted out, immediately wanting to smack herself. Self-harm would raise its own questions.
The folding paused for a second as Maddie tried to follow the change in subject. She turned to face Natalie, who carefully averted her eyes to the floor.
Maddie tilted her head, still not understanding what had brought on the non sequitur. “Actually, yes. My mother had me in ballet for a number of years. She thought it would help me attain a certain natural grace.”
“She was right.”
Natalie tasted blood as she bit the inside of her cheek. She was apparently too tired and having difficulty maintaining control of her brain-to-mouth filter. She began mentally swearing at herself. The last thing she needed was to behave like a teenage boy around Brittney’s mom.
Maddie finished neatening up, turning to face Natalie with a grin as she cradled the blanket with one arm, her cell phone settled on top. Her other hand held the nearly empty wine glass.
Natalie decided that her bodily reaction could be blamed on the moonlight. It was having an effect on Maddie’s appearance; her skin looked even softer than normal, and her eyes seemed so incredibly inviting.
The sooner they moved inside, the better. Normal lighting would be better.
She walked forward to open the door for Maddie, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach when Maddie offered her an appreciative smile. That she refrained from watching Maddie from behind as she continued inside was a personal victory.
She applauded herself for her self-control. It had obviously been the moonlight.
She stepped through the door and carefully closed it, startled to find Maddie only a few inches away when she turned.
“Sorry,” Maddie said with a smile. “I needed to turn the porch light off.” She shifted away and set her phone and wine glass down on the entryway table, moving to a hall closet to put away the blanket.
The retreat gave Natalie time to gather her befuddled thoughts.
“This way, Natalie.”
Natalie pursed her lips into a facsimile of a smile and moved to follow Maddie. Her eyes strained with the effort it took to focus on Maddie’s hair and nothing else.
As Maddie began to ascend the stairs, Natalie decided that Reeve’s advice completely sucked. Her eyes were drawn to the way the clingy fabric showed off the perfect curve of Maddie’s ass. Knowing she was going to regret it later, she gave up and let her eyes wander down Maddie’s spectacular legs. They reached the top of the stairs and she barely managed to look away in time when Maddie glanced back.
By the time they reached the guest room, Natalie’s hands were moist with nervous sweat. She hadn’t had this problem since high school when she’d had a ridiculous crush on her history teacher. She wasn’t a hormonal teen any longer, and she mentally fumbled as she tried to comprehend why she had such an extreme reaction to Maddie.
There was no logical reason. Well, there were several reasons. Maddie was an incredibly attractive woman with an incredible voice, and she was sweet and funny and—and married, and the mother of one of Natalie’s good friends.
She didn’t want to mess her friendship up over something so silly. Brittney didn’t have a lot of friends at KTU, and as far as Natalie knew, she was the only of those that wasn’t straight.
“You can put your bag down anywhere,” Maddie said as she opened the door on the opposite side of Brittney’s.
Pulled from her thoughts, Natalie only nodded and followed Maddie in to set her backpack down just to the side of the door. A quick survey of the room revealed simple decor in blues and greens, with a queen-sized bed and matching mahogany furniture.
The sooner she could get a break from Maddie’s presence, the better. “So, I think the sleeping beauties have slept long enough.”
Maddie chuckled. “On the couch at least, yes.”
Natalie had better success not looking at Maddie on the way back down. She was relieved. Maybe Reeve wasn’t totally wrong after all. There was just that initial excitement in Maddie’s presence. It mellowed out the longer they were together.
She froze when they entered the living room. “Oh my god, that is so freaking adorable.”
“I took a picture if you want me to send it to you.”
“How about yes! I want that. I’m going to tease the hell out of Brittney for falling asleep on Daddy’s lap.” Brittney was curled on her side, mouth slightly open. Natalie thought she could see the slightest glimmer of drool.
The picture was a veritable gold mine for ribbing. She smiled when Maddie lightly bumped their shoulders together.
Maddie’s voice was laden with deep affection. “Consider it done. I love the thought of someone else teasing her when we can’t be around.”
Natalie crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Maddie approached the sleeping duo, sitting on a tiny amount of free space next to Brittney’s stomach.
“Brittney, sweetie, your friend is here,” Maddie softly announced as she brushed a hand over Brittney’s cheek.
Brittney’s face scrunched up as she began to move. “Mom?” She blinked a few times. “What time is it?”
Maddie checked the time on her watch. “A little after ten. Did you hear what I said, honey? Natalie is here.” She rubbed Brittney’s back, still trying to ease her awake.
“Hi, Natalie,” Brittney chimed in a cheerfully sleepy voice.
The dopey smile on her face made Natalie grin.
“Hey, Brit.” She uncrossed one of her arms to point a thumb backward. “You wanna hang out a bit or sleep more on Daddy’s lap?”
“I hate you,” Brittney grumbled. “And yeah, I’m ready to hang out a little. Dad’s lap is kinda lumpy.”
“I heard that,” Adam mumbled. His eyes were drowsy and barely open, but he still managed to reach out to lightly pinch Brittney’s side with unerring accuracy.
Brittney sluggishly slapped his hand, her eyes twinkling as she looked up at her mom.
Maddie stood and held out a hand to help her up, getting Brittney back to her feet with a gentle tug.
“Thanks, Mom.” Brittney leaned into her mother as she stood, obviously enjoying the comfort of having Maddie close so soon after waking.
Natalie stepped forward when Maddie glanced hesitantly from Brittney to Adam. Her hand brushed against Maddie’s as she brought it to rest lightly on Brittney’s lower back. “Don’t worry about us. You try waking that walking mountain you call a husband up enough to get him into bed.”
Maddie smiled and squeezed Natalie’s hand before moving away to poke and prod at Adam’s torso.
“You’re so cruel to m
e, woman,” he groaned as he opened one eye.
He shot Natalie a wink when she glanced in his direction. A second later he abruptly tugged Maddie down into his lap, causing her to laugh and slap at his chest.
Brittney leaned her head against Natalie’s shoulder with a smile. “Come on, let’s go upstairs before they do something gross.”
Natalie glanced back to the softly speaking Maddie and Adam. “Good night,” she said with an irrepressible smile. There was something magical about happy couples that had been together for ages.
Maddie looked up at her with shining eyes. “Good night.”
Both Natalie and Brittney were halfway out of the room before Adam managed to get out his own “Sleep well.” Natalie chuckled as they made their way up the stairs.
“You said you wanted to hang out a bit, right?” Brittney asked as they reached the top.
It occurred to Natalie then that perhaps Brittney had forgotten the whole reason she’d made the trip out to Sage Falls. “Didn’t you have something you wanted to talk about?” she asked diplomatically.
Brittney suddenly seemed more awake, her body straightening and her eyes widening. “Oh. Right.”
When nothing else seemed forthcoming, Natalie cleared her throat. “Why don’t we both get ready for sleep and if you want to talk after, just let me know.”
The tense set to Brittney’s shoulders eased. “Okay, yeah, sounds good.”
Natalie hummed and returned to the guest room. There she discarded her shoes, exchanged her jeans for grey sweatpants, and removed her jacket. Her plain black v-neck would be fine to sleep in.
She grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste and found her way to the hallway bathroom. Just as she was finishing up, Brittney appeared. Natalie raised her eyebrows at the white babydoll shirt with a rabbit on the front, the pants patterned with the same rabbit in different poses.
“Shut up, most of my stuff is back on campus,” Brittney admitted sullenly.
Natalie raised her hands and tried to look innocent. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it. Very loudly,” the blonde persisted as she hip-checked Natalie to the side. Before Natalie could claim otherwise, Brittney continued. “I’m slightly more awake now. Wait in my room?”
“Sure.”
After a perfunctory stop in the guest room to put away her toiletries, Natalie quietly entered Brittney’s room. She’d briefly been inside during her first visit, so she wasn’t surprised by the modern furniture in varying shades of black. The room itself was painted a dark green, with white curtains and a comforter set in all three colors to tie the room theme together.
Lacking any real place to sit, Natalie hesitantly chose a spot on the edge of the queen-sized bed. Her eyes roamed the large bookshelf situated against the opposing wall, not surprised to find mostly nonfiction titles—though an entire shelf seemed dedicated to murder mysteries. A few photos were positioned on the topmost shelves, and if Natalie wasn’t so tired she might have gotten up to inspect them.
The door creaked open. “Hey, sorry about the confusion,” Brittney said as she ran a hand over her hair. “I was just more tired than I realized, I guess.”
Natalie shrugged. “Getting towards the end of the semester is always tough. I get it.”
“Sometimes I forget you’re a few years older than me.” There was a furrow between Brittney’s eyebrows as she stared at Natalie. “I had friends here growing up, but they were always pestering me to do stuff I wasn’t comfortable with. They teased me all the time about how much I focused on school and stuff.”
Natalie arched an eyebrow. “Well, I do that a little, too.”
“Not like they did,” Brittney disagreed as she flopped down at the foot of her bed with a sigh. “There was always this pressure with them to drink and party and to stop being a party pooper, Brittney. I got drunk a few times just to get them to leave me alone. I’m lucky my parents never freaked about that.”
“I mean, you could stand to cut loose more. But I do know how important school is and I know how much you want to succeed. Your friends probably just didn’t know how to act around you.”
Brittney bit her lip but her tired smile peeked out anyway. “Yeah, I guess I was pretty different from them.”
Unable to help herself, Natalie looked up at the ceiling and made an act of visibly considering the words. “More different than even you realized at the time.”
Brittney let out a snort of laughter, bringing up one hand to smack at Natalie’s shoulder. “You’re so annoying.”
“You say that, but we both know you can’t get enough of this Navarro.” Natalie joked.
For a reason beyond Natalie’s understanding, Brittney began laughing hard.
“Whoa.” Natalie watched as the fit continued on uncontrolled, the younger girl flapping down onto the bed and fighting to breathe.
The fit eventually stopped and Brittney sighed, sprawling her arms out wide as she stared up at the ceiling. She was silent for several beats as she regained her composure. “I think my mom thinks you’re a lesbian.”
“She’s not wrong.”
Brittney shook her head, still looking up. “How is it she sees that in you but not in me?”
Natalie’s lips twitched. She flopped down on Brittney’s bed, careful to angle herself so she wouldn’t be in her friend’s space. She imagined a constellation of stars on the ceiling. “It’s usually harder to see the stuff right in front of us when we’ve been around it for a while.”
She thought of growing up with her dad, how great he’d been in the beginning despite the struggle of single parenthood. He’d always been quiet and introspective, but he’d started to change around her ninth birthday in small ways she’d been too scared to acknowledge… until he’d become a greasy-haired, jittery mess who was rarely home.
“Yeah. That’s right,” came Brittney’s quiet affirmation.
She could hear Brittney take in a long, slow breath.
“I’m going to come out to my parents tomorrow.”
A burst of pride swelled in Natalie’s chest. Unlike before, Brittney seemed fully confident. Still, Natalie had to ask. “You sure you’re ready?”
“Definitely.”
“Atta girl.”
As Natalie’s eyes traced the imaginary constellation on the ceiling, she couldn’t help but wonder what her life would be like if her dad hadn’t changed. Would he have supported her coming out? After over a decade without anything even resembling support from him, she couldn’t imagine it.
Her eyes began to feel as heavy as her thoughts. She should get up, make her way to her own bed.
“You know what’s funny?” Brittney slurred out. “My mom pretty much told me she’s bi today.”
The jolt of surprise was enough to make Natalie blink rapidly but her limbs could scarcely move. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. Dad said she dated her roommate, or something…”
Brittney’s voice trailed off. Natalie waited for more, only to realize a heartbeat later that her friend had fallen asleep.
Natalie’s thoughts became foggy, memories of her strung-out father being replaced with flickering images of a younger Maddie holding hands with a faceless girl. The images lingered until Natalie fell asleep.
Chapter Seven
Maddie rolled her stool back with a smile, one hand rubbing the little girl’s back in comfort. “Alright, sweetie, you’re going to be just fine. It’s just a little strep. I’m going to get you a prescription for something that’s going to help you feel a lot better, okay?”
The little girl’s head bobbed, her wan features managing a smile.
Maddie’s heart melted a little more. She winked at Alice before turning to her father. “She’s gonna be fine, Brian.”
The tall man looked relieved, the cap he’d been worrying between this hands finally getting a break from his nervous grip. One hand rose to rub his beard as he offered Maddie a smile. “Thanks, Maddie, I was so worried when she woke up
so hot. I can’t thank you enough for squeezing us in.”
Maddie tugged off her gloves and moved to wash her hands, drying them and returning his smile. She patted her hands dry, not surprised when Brian offered her an enthusiastic handshake.
She gently squeezed his hand and then let go, turning to pick up her pen and prescription pad. She filled it out quickly, tearing the slip free and handing it to Brian.
“She needs to stay hydrated, so give her lots of fluids. Make sure she takes all of the pills—even if she’s feeling better. It’s important she finishes the antibiotics,” she cautioned.
Brian’s head bobbed, his eyes glancing over Maddie’s elegant handwriting. “You got it, Doc.”
He turned to face his daughter, face etched with concern. Alice offered him a brave smile, and he scooped her up into his arms without hesitation.
The sight of Alice’s burnished red curly locks against her father’s denim jacket filled Maddie with nostalgia, and she opened the door wide so they could pass.
She watched them go with a sigh, raising her arm to check the time. She nibbled her lower lip and tugged her cell phone from her lab coat.
The line rang a few more times than she was expecting, but she waited patiently.
“Hey hon, just give me a sec. My hands are covered in all sorts of muck,” Adam cheerfully informed her.
Maddie chuckled quietly to herself. Adam loved tinkering and every last ounce of muck that came with it. She could hear low laughter on the other end of the call, able to distinguish Natalie’s mirth now after a few times of personally experiencing it.
“I can only imagine what you and Natalie look like right now,” she admitted with a smile. Adam was probably up to his elbows in grease and dirt, and she imagined Natalie would look just as charming.
Adam chortled, grunting after a few moments. “I’ll have to do a better job later. What’s shaking?”
“I was wondering if you’d all like to meet me for lunch at Juniper's?” She licked her lips, hopeful that the trio would join her.
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