Natalie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. “And you’re okay with me hanging out with Brittney? Alone?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Though Maddie seemed unphased, Natalie needed to clarify something else. “Cool. There’s no reason to be worried, either way.”
“Who said I was worried?” Maddie squinted at a stubborn patch of something on a plate.
It was becoming harder not to smile. “No one. But, just so you know, I don’t date teenagers.” Natalie made a face. “Or anyone else right now, to be honest.”
Maddie let the plate slide back into the water, crossing her arms and turning so she was leaning back against the counter. “Okay, now I’m curious. Why not?”
“Is it really hard to guess?” Natalie huffed out a breath. “I’m a full-time student with bills, which means lots of work. Toss in study time and it doesn’t leave a lot of time for anything else. Or even energy.”
“Come now, you’re telling me you haven’t dated at all since you’ve been in college? You’re an attractive, intelligent young woman. That’s nearly impossible,” Maddie insisted.
Natalie had never liked lying. She debated simply avoiding the subject, but couldn’t help feeling a little thrilled with Maddie’s interest. “Well, I mean I guess I dated my freshman year…”
Maddie tilted her head, silently asking her to continue.
“One of the guest lecturers that was on loan to KTU. I didn’t have any of her classes, but we kept bumping into each other. It seemed… inevitable, as she would say.”
“So if it was inevitable, why did it end?”
Natalie’s jaw worked. It had been a couple of years, but she’d invested herself into the fling. “Time. Experience. She was only here for a semester, and then it was back to the west coast.”
To her relief, Maddie turned and resumed washing dishes. She took a few careful breaths and accepted the next plate. Thankfully, Maddie hadn’t asked too many questions. Like what her type was, or how old Emily had been.
“Okay, and, it was really casual but I kind of rebounded with Tiva. We were better friends. Are still friends, in fact.”
“I knew it,” Maddie said, sounding amused.
“Oh, you know Tiva?” Natalie joked.
Maddie clicked her tongue. “No, I just knew you’d dated. It’s college.”
Feeling playful, Natalie couldn’t help herself. “That’s right, I heard you did your fair share in college. And not all men.”
“Hmph.” Maddie haughtily raised her chin. “Brittney would choose to talk about that.”
Natalie waited, but she only received a handful of forks. “Really? That’s all you’re going to say?”
Maddie pulled the plug on the sink drain and then turned to Natalie. “Oh, honey.” A slow smirk blossomed on her face. “A lady never tells tales.”
It was all Natalie could do not to drop the forks as Maddie turned and sashayed out of the room.
Only to return a moment later, laughing at herself. “I forgot to put my apron back.”
Natalie remained mute and unmoving as Maddie hung her apron on its hook.
Shit.
Chapter Eleven
The kitchen counter was crowded in Natalie’s apartment, but she smiled as she bit into her toast anyway. Beside her, Steven shoved a sharp elbow into her side.
She frowned and grabbed the butter knife she’d used to spread the strawberry jam onto her toast, flipping it and smearing some remaining jam onto his cheek.
“Very mature, Navarro,” he grunted as he used a piece of bread to clean his cheek. He frowned at the bread for a moment before shrugging and popping it into his mouth.
“Jeez, Steven, how are you still single,” she deadpanned.
Victoria let out a loud sigh from in front of the stove as she finished preparing her scrambled eggs. She squeezed in between her brother and Natalie at the counter, dragging a stool into place with one hand and making him move. She let out a happy hum as she sat and she scooped up her first forkful of egg.
“You gonna be back in time for Christmas?” Reeve inquired.
Natalie glanced at him with a small grin. She knew he would be very upset if she missed the holiday. Since she’d been officially unofficially adopted by the Holders as a teen, she’d been present for every major holiday, save one. He never let her forget that one New Year’s.
“Of course,” she confirmed. “Who’s gonna help keep Pops sane when you’re all bickering over what he got you?”
“He spoils Victoria,” Steven mumbled as he fidgeted with his toast.
“You’re such a baby,” Victoria retorted between bites, rolling her eyes when Steven huffed a dramatic sigh.
“Oh yeah, how could I miss this?” Natalie remarked. “It’s only a little over a week away. I’m pretty sure by then Brittney will be sick of me anyway.”
Reeve chuckled and sipped his coffee. “Who wouldn’t be?”
Victoria backhanded him hard in the stomach with her left hand as her right continued scooping up egg.
“Thanks, V.” Natalie poked her tongue out at Reeve for good measure.
As Victoria finished her breakfast, she pushed her plate away. “You all packed and ready to go?”
“Yep, I’m hitting the road in another ten minutes or so,” Natalie relayed with a nod.
“Cool.” Victoria grinned. “I’m taking your bed while you’re gone.”
Natalie shrugged. “That’s cool, just no sex with loverboy.”
Reeve blanched as his eyes went wide, sending a panicked look back and forth between Victoria and Natalie.
Victoria made a show of appearing thoughtful. “What if I change the sheets?”
Immediately catching on, Natalie rubbed her chin and pretended to consider her response. “Alright, but you also better wash the old ones.”
A choked sound came out of Reeve’s throat as he stared at his beloved baby sister.
“Oh relax, Reeve,” Victoria said after a moment with a roll of her eyes, “we’ll go to his apartment if we want to have sex. He likes his privacy.”
Reeve stood abruptly from his stool, moving stiffly as he went to dump his coffee out and flee the room before more could be said.
All three remaining people watched him go with smirks.
“Man, he’s so easy,” Steven snickered right before he chugged down the last of his milk.
Natalie shot him a placid look before focusing again on Victoria. “He using condoms?”
“Yeah, he’s good about it, even when I really don’t want to wait,” Victoria replied with a bemused smile.
“Good,” Natalie nodded and stood, moving to her room to retrieve her bag.
“You weren’t joking?” Steven asked in a high pitched voice, just as Natalie moved out of earshot.
It only took her a few moments to gather her things. She sat on her bed so she could comfortably text Brittney to let her know she’d be on her way soon.
Debating with herself as the first message sent, she tapped out another.
When her phone vibrated, she grinned. The smile dimmed slightly when she saw the response was from Brittney, but she pushed past the feeling. She was glad to be able to spend more time with her friend and also get some work done.
However, she also couldn’t deny the secret thrill she got knowing she would also get to spend more time with Maddie—maybe even Adam if the guy could stay home for more than a day or two at a time.
She’d been hoping to see him more, having enjoyed the two other occasions she’d gotten the privilege of working on the G-47s with him. He’d been an engineer for over a decade and had seen and done some incredible things. Also, she couldn’t help but be curious about how he and Maddie had met.
When her phone buzzed again her heartbeat accelerated. She was smiling even before she read the message.
‘Should I go buy more potatoes?’
She grinned stupidly down at the message for an abnormal amount of time before she realized
she’d been asked a question. Natalie fidgeted as she typed up a response.
‘Dunno. I guess that depends on how much you want to spoil me.’
Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. It was still an innocent enough message, but she still got a secret thrill out of sending it.
The response came rather quickly, and she bit her lip because her face hurt too much from smiling and she really needed to stop.
‘Do you need anything else from the store?’
Though Natalie had only dated a couple of women, the urge to flirt was so intense that she had to pinch herself. She couldn’t understand why. Not only was Maddie married and Brittney’s mom but, if Natalie wasn’t mistaken, they were becoming friends in their own right.
She scrolled back up and smiled. Maddie had even told Natalie a little about how she’d grown up, including the fact that her mother had made her go through with a debutante ball despite many vehement protests.
It had meant something to Natalie, when conversation had drifted from Brittney and school and had become more personal. She hoped to learn even more about Maddie.
Catching herself daydreaming, Natalie internally shook herself. She responded with a simple ‘no,’ but inserted a cute emoticon simply because she knew Maddie thought the ones she used were adorable.
Her screen went dark and she sighed. She should really get on the road. There was no point sticking around the city since Jimmy had confirmed that she pretty much wouldn’t find any work at the garage until after the new year had begun.
She’d been angry, but she was over it now that she had firm plans to hang out with the Garrets—and work on the G-47s.
The backpack she normally used had been exchanged for a larger duffel bag, and she hefted the thick strap over her shoulder.
One last glance was spared for her mostly clean room before she ducked out of it.
*****
Maddie stretched as she exited her car. The clinic had been busy with an influx of sick people, and she was glad to finally be home. She smiled as her gaze flicked over the familiar El Camino; there was something comforting about not coming home to Adam’s empty spot.
Natalie had only been around the house for a few days, but her presence had really made an impact on its liveliness. Brittney was spending a lot of time trying to get a jump on her studies for the following semester (even Maddie had been somewhat aghast with Brittney’s preoccupation with picking just the right courses, and then trying to find old syllabi previous students had shared online).
Her attention wandered up to Brittney’s window and then to the garage. The lights were on in Brittney’s room, so Brittney was probably in hermit mode, anyway. She bit her lip and slipped her keys into her pocket, turning toward the inviting openness of the garage.
Soft music was drifting through the space, but Natalie wasn’t at her usual spot in front of the old car. Maddie peered around the garage and chuckled to herself when she spotted Natalie ensconced at one of the far worktables. The tables in the back corners afforded more privacy, or so Natalie said. It was a shame Natalie wasn’t singing, Maddie thought. Yesterday that had led to an impromptu concert-slash-dance-off. It had been fun.
Today, Natalie’s dark hair was swept up in a ponytail, the ends of it trailing over her shoulder as she frowned down at something. Maddie liked how focused she looked when presented with a problem. In this case, Natalie was examining a rusted out part, occasionally glancing at her laptop and muttering under her breath as she made notes.
Maddie crept closer, secretly pleased that Natalie hadn’t noticed her presence yet. Perhaps she could get a good look at Natalie’s project; Natalie had proven to be incredibly protective of her works-in-progress and had refused Maddie’s inquiries about a ‘quick peek’ several times before.
Her heart raced the closer she got, caught up in the excitement of her little game. Her work shoes were sensible and quiet, something she was glad for the closer she drew to the unsuspecting Natalie.
She stared in wonder at the complex blueprint revealed to her interested gaze—for the whole second she was able to look before Natalie yelped and blocked the blueprint from view.
“Jesus, Maddie!” Natalie blew out a harsh breath, her pulse visibly throbbing at her throat.
For a moment, Maddie felt the briefest sense of guilt. A sweet sense of victory quickly washed that away.
Natalie narrowed her eyes, no doubt displeased with Maddie’s unrepentant grin.
“I saw it,” Maddie declared proudly.
Natalie pursed her lips in displeasure, softly glaring at Maddie. “Not for long.”
Maddie flexed her hands as she considered Natalie’s position and the hidden paper. “Are you ticklish, Natalie?”
“A little on my s—wait, why do you want to know that?” Natalie’s voice cracked as Maddie teasingly raised her hands and wiggled her fingers.
Abruptly, Natalie looked behind Maddie. “Oh man, Brittney, your mom was trying to fondle me.”
Maddie immediately jerked her head around and stepped back. “I wasn’t trying to…” Her voice trailed off when she realized she’d fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book.
She pursed her lips as she tried to hide her own mirth. With a sigh, she twisted back to face Natalie.
Natalie smirked at her, casually leaning back against the table. The paper with her detailed drawing and notes was nowhere in sight. Her expression became triumphant as she crossed her arms.
“You act as if I’m planning to steal your ideas. Honey, I’m a doctor, not an engineer. I get the basics of what the parts do, but I’m not going to be able to point out any flaws in your design,” Maddie explained with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, I know,” Natalie replied with a relaxed smile. “My designs are flawless. I just don’t like to share until I’m finished. It’s kind of an art, you know?”
Maddie shot her an exasperated look and clicked her tongue. “If you were paid based on the size of your ego, you’d never have to work again after finishing Adam’s car.”
“Maddie, it’s difficult to keep the ego under wraps when you’re just so damn good,” Natalie uttered with a slow smile, buffing the nails of her right hand against her shirt.
Maddie tilted her head, lips twitching as her smile threatened to grow to obscene proportions. “Is that so?”
“I’m good with my hands,” Natalie declared. Her face flushed almost instantly, the undertones of red in her bronze cheeks becoming far more prominent than normal. She cleared her throat. “By the time I was eleven, Pops could put any part down in front of me and I could take it apart and reassemble it without any help. I was working in his garage long before I was old enough to legally have a job.”
Maddie tilted her head in interest, moving to stand next to Natalie and sitting half on the edge of the work table. “How’d that happen? You just wandered in when you were a little girl and he just… let you?”
Natalie hefted herself up so that she was seated fully on the table, leaning back to rest her weight on her hands as she thought back to when she’d first met the Holder patriarch.
“Not exactly, but kind of. I used to hang out at this old diner in our neighborhood. Reeve’s mom—Pops’s sister—Cindy worked there. She’d give me food sometimes in exchange for taking out the trash or washing dishes. But sometimes the owner got mad about that and so she’d send me down the street to Pops’s place.” She paused and looked away. “I guess everyone in the neighborhood kinda knew who my dad was. Before the drugs, he was actually a pretty cool guy.”
Maddie’s heart pounded. Natalie had talked around the subject of her father before, and this was the first time Maddie had heard of his problems with addiction. She swallowed, already aware that Reeve’s mom had been struck by a car only a few years back. “I think I’d like to meet Pops someday. He sounds like a remarkable man.”
“He is.” Natalie’s voice had gotten soft. “It’s thanks to him and Cindy that I was able to get emancipated. I had
a bunch of money saved up from working at his garage—and that, along with the apprenticeship he gave me, allowed me to get my first certification. I wish you could have met Cindy.”
Though Maddie had lost her own mother too soon, she couldn’t imagine what Natalie, whose birth mother had died in childbirth, had felt upon losing Cindy. She pushed the maudlin consideration away. “But now you work for Jimmy?”
Natalie’s lips twisted. “Yeah, Pops had to retire a few years ago because of his heart. Neither me or Steven were ready to take on the business, so he sold it.”
“Well, maybe one day you guys could open up another garage. If that’s what you want, I mean.” Maddie waited and was pleased when Natalie finally looked back her way.
“Nah.” Natalie grimaced. “I’d rather not be stuck working with that knucklehead all day. He always has these grand ideas that no one is really interested in. Did you know he tried to talk this elderly couple into installing a NOS system in their old Nova? Like they were street racers, or something.”
Maddie chuckled and shook her head.
Natalie continued. “Besides, he’s still trying to design something that will make him filthy rich.”
“Steven sounds like a real character. At this point, I think I’m due to meet the whole Holder clan.” Maddie meant it. The more she learned, the more she wondered about the people that had helped shape Natalie into who she was.
When Natalie smiled, her whole face lit up. “That would be pretty amazing, actually. I talk about you—that is, all you Garrets—quite a bit.”
Already smiling in response to Natalie’s joy, Maddie hummed. “It’s settled then. We’ll have to schedule something soon.”
It was then that Maddie realized she’d begun to slouch, her arms and part of her side lightly brushing Natalie’s. If she leaned even slightly to the right, their sides would be in full contact. When had that happened?
She straightened and ran a hand over the tail of her braid. “I’m going to start dinner in a little bit, why don’t you come in with me? I’ll give you a crash course on how to make something a little more substantial besides macaroni and cheese out of a box.”
Meeting Mrs Garret Page 12