“How’d what go?”
Valerie slipped into the room and eased the door closed behind her. “When you talked to Zeke.”
“Oh, that.” Natalie smiled happily. “He changed my mind.”
“He what?”
“He changed my mind. I’m going to take a chance on him, after all.”
Valerie’s brown eyes sharpened with curiosity. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Natalie briefly recounted her conversation with Zeke. “Afterward he kissed me, and the next thing I knew, we were in bed.”
Valerie plopped down on the mattress. “No shit?”
Natalie laughed at her sister’s shocked expression and told her the best part of all, that Zeke hadn’t had any protection in the house. “It was awful. But wonderful, too. He hasn’t been with anyone since he moved here, and no telling how long before that.”
“Wow,” Valerie said softly, her eyes going dreamy. “A guy like that is hard to find.”
So happy she could barely contain herself, Natalie hugged her knees. “I’m falling in love with him, Ree-Ree.”
“You haven’t called me that in years.”
“I haven’t, have I?” Natalie tipped her head to study her sister. “Don’t laugh. This’ll sound really sappy, but I feel as if things changed between us last night—that you all of a sudden grew up or something, and now you’re not just my baby sister anymore, but a friend.”
Valerie did laugh, but not mockingly. “I’ve been grown up for a long time, sister dear. You just never opened up to me like you did last night. I’m glad you did. You suddenly seem almost human.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“Well, it’s true. You’ve always been so nauseatingly perfect. Beautiful, talented, smart. Except for Robert, I can’t remember a single time you screwed up really bad. It hasn’t been easy following in your footsteps.”
“I never knew you felt that way.”
“For, like, always. When I was little, I used to practice singing in the barn where no one would hear. I wanted so much to be like you. Mom and Pop were so proud of you, and I never felt as if they were proud of me. I was so-so at everything—okay in school, okay at art, okay at singing. I didn’t shine at anything, and I still don’t.”
Natalie caught her lower lip in her teeth. Then she shifted to hug her sister with all her might. “You do shine,” she whispered fiercely. “You’re wonderful and funny and kind. My kids adore you, and no wonder. You can make me laugh when no one else can.”
Valerie returned her hug. “That’s nice, I guess, being good for a laugh. But it’s not exactly a great talent.”
Natalie sat back. “Look at the flip side. Besides singing, what am I good at?”
Valerie frowned thoughtfully. Then she grinned. “Nothing much.”
“Exactly. You’re proficient at a lot of things. Being really, really good at one thing—being obsessed with it like I am—has its drawbacks. I’m forgetful and unorganized. I lose my train of thought and screw up the simplest things because I’m hearing music in my head and not concentrating on the task. You’re a good cook. I’m not. You don’t turn the white clothes pink. I do. You remember to check the oil in your car. When daylight savings time comes, you remember to reset your watch and all the clocks. I go around subtracting or adding an hour for weeks because I never remember to set my watch.”
Valerie giggled. “You do, don’t you?”
They fell quiet for a moment, just smiling at each other. Then Valerie said, “Now that we’ve established a mutual-admiration society, let’s get back to Zeke. You’re really falling in love, huh?”
“Yes.” Natalie hugged her knees again and shivered with delicious delight. “Am I crazy, or what?”
“Not crazy.” Valerie playfully punched Natalie’s shoulder. “Right on. I’m so glad for you, Nattie. If anyone on earth deserves to get a really great guy, it’s you.”
Tears stung Natalie’s eyes. That seemed to happen a lot since she met Zeke. “Thank you. It’s so weird, how it happened. Isn’t it? I get a divorce, go flat broke, and move home with both my kids. My whole life seems to be falling apart. Then he buys the place next door. Chad vandalizes his house, forcing him to come over and hassle it out with me. If that hadn’t happened, I might never have met him. It’s almost as if it was meant to be. You know?”
“I believe in that, actually. Some people are just meant to be together. You can tell by the way they look at each other.”
“Who do you know like that?” Natalie asked.
“Mom and Pop.”
Natalie stared incredulously at her sister for a moment. Then she shrieked with laughter.
“Well, it’s true,” Valerie insisted. “They still love each other. They just can’t stand each other.”
Natalie fell back on the pillows, laughing so hard she felt weak. “A f-fatal attraction,” she said with a gasp, “that never r-reached the lethal stage?”
“Sort of.” Valerie sent her sister a disgruntled glance. “Name me one time in the ten years since they separated that either of them has so much as looked at someone else.”
Natalie sobered and suddenly felt sad. “You’re right. Mom is so pretty. She could crook her finger and have guys standing in line, but she never dates.”
“And Pop is married to the damn television and his backache. He doesn’t have a life anymore. It ended the day she walked out.”
“Oh, God.” Natalie sat up. “You’re so right. They still love each other.”
Rosie bounded into the bedroom just then. Natalie threw her arms wide. The child catapulted onto her lap, giggling and squirming. Valerie met Natalie’s gaze over the top of her niece’s head.
“Meant for each other,” she said as she pushed to her feet. “I’ve got twenty that says they get back together someday.”
“It’d take a miracle.” Natalie gobbled like a turkey as she nibbled her daughter’s neck. Between gobbles, she said, “They fight like two cats in a burlap bag.”
“My point exactly. People don’t go for the jugular every time they see each other unless some very powerful emotions are at work. They don’t just dislike each other. They detest each other. Gotta be a reason for that.”
Zeke was on his third mug of coffee when he saw Natalie come out the back door of the Westfield house, carrying a bag of trash. Even though she was far away, he identified her by her trademark walk—an unintentionally sexy sway that Valerie lacked. He nearly growled in frustration when she left the porch and became obscured by bushes. He glanced at his watch, saw that it wasn’t quite eight o’clock, and wondered why she’d gotten up so early. She was supposed to sleep in this morning, damn it.
As she exited the yard to reach the trash cans, she walked out into the open again. He settled back against the steps, never taking his eyes off of her as she dumped her burden in the garbage can. She wore something pink—a nightshirt of some kind, he decided, because her legs looked bare. At such a distance, he couldn’t make out any details, much to his regret. But where vision failed him, imagination took over. In his mind’s eye, he envisioned her shapely calves, the slender turn of her ankles, and the way the nightshirt would hike up in back as she bent over. He wished she were there with him. That he could run his hands over her softness and bury his face in her hair.
Soon, he promised himself. Now that he’d made up his mind about Natalie, he wanted her in his bed every night. With two kids in the mix, that meant marriage, the sooner, the better. It was his responsibility to set a good example for her children, after all, especially for Chad, who’d be a walking, talking hormone before they knew it. Zeke wanted the boy to respect girls, and teaching that trait required more than lip service.
Not long after Natalie went back in the house, Chad emerged. As the boy cut across the field, Zeke lifted an arm and waved. Chad spotted the movement and waved back.
“Morning,” Zeke called when the kid was within earshot. “Going to be a scorcher today.”
“It’s alread
y getting warm,” Chad shouted back.
When the boy reached the porch, Zeke pushed to his feet. “You eat breakfast?”
“Cereal and toast.”
Zeke swirled his cup and dumped the dregs. “May as well get to work then.”
“What are we gonna do today?”
Zeke led the way to the shop. “Build fences.”
“You got the lumber?”
“Yep,” Zeke said as he opened one of the shop doors. He slanted Chad a meaningful look. “Got it a couple of months ago. Would have finished some stalls and a corral by now if it hadn’t rained tomatoes and rocks on my house.”
Chad blushed. “I’m real sorry I did that now.”
Zeke laughed and ruffled the boy’s hair. “I know you are. Wouldn’t needle you about it, otherwise.”
An hour later, Zeke and Chad were digging the fourth posthole when Natalie and Rosie showed up. Wiping sweat from his brow with his shirtsleeve, Zeke turned to greet them. He meant to ask Natalie why she’d come so early, but as it happened, he never even got a chance to say hello. Chester had followed the ladies across the field. When the gander spotted Zeke, he went into instant attack mode, lifting his wings, extending his neck, and hissing.
“Chester!” Natalie cried.
“Bad boy!” Rosie screeched.
Zeke wasn’t about to be chased off his own property by a silly goose with a bad attitude. This time, instead of running, he lifted his arms, yelled, and met the gander’s charge. Accustomed to victims that fled, Chester clearly didn’t know how to react. With a panicky quack, the huge bird banked his wings sharply to the right, turned, and ran, honking with every step. Determined to teach the gander a lesson, Zeke continued the chase until Chester had crossed the field and reached his own driveway.
“That’ll show you,” Zeke yelled for good measure as he slowed his pace and turned back for home. In the distance, he could see Natalie cupping her hands to her mouth and yelling something, but he was too far away to distinguish her words. Rosie began waving her arms and jumping about. “What in blazes are they hollering about?” Zeke wondered aloud.
An instant later, Chester pinched Zeke on the ass, providing him with a startling and painful answer to that question. “Ouch!” Instinctively breaking into a run so the gander couldn’t bite him again, Zeke yelled, “You no-good, rotten, miserable excuse for a—ouch!”
Zeke picked up speed. When he’d put a good ten feet between himself and the vengeful gander, he wheeled to press a frontal attack again, waving his arms and yelling to frighten the bird. Chester honked frantically and fled, Zeke once again right on his ass.
Looking on, Natalie started to laugh. Her children cast her appalled glances, which only made her laugh harder. Ten minutes later, she had tears streaming down her cheeks and was holding her sides. Every time Zeke gave up the chase, Chester doubled back and tried to bite him. In all her days, Natalie couldn’t recall ever having seen anything so funny. Even the kids finally started to giggle.
“How long is Mr. Coulter going to chase Chester, Mommy?” Rosie asked.
“Until Chester stops trying to bite him, I guess.”
Thirty minutes later, Zeke walked home with far less energy and enthusiasm than he’d shown when leaving. Chester waddled behind him, quacking unhappily but no longer attempting to bite.
“I think we have an understanding,” Zeke said when he reached them. “Crazy, stubborn bird.” He swiped sweat from his forehead and gave Natalie a lazy grin. “You have an odd sense of humor, lady.”
Natalie nodded and brushed tears of mirth from her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she pushed out. “It just looked so comical. From now on, I’m calling you ‘Dances with Ganders.’ ”
His twinkling blue eyes narrowed in threat. “You’ll pay for that one.”
The growl in his voice made Natalie’s insides tighten. “Promises, promises.”
He ran his gaze slowly over her. “I’m a man of my word. Do you stand behind yours?”
A sizzle of desire tightened her chest. “You’ll soon find out.” She glanced meaningfully at her kids. Zeke followed her gaze. Then he clapped his hands. “Time to get cracking,” he said, his tone suddenly brusque.
Chester sat in the shade of the shop, quacking softly, his tone reminiscent of an old man muttering under his breath. Natalie went over to scratch his head. “Poor baby. You wore yourself to a frazzle.”
“That poor baby darned near took a hunk out of my backside.”
Two hours later, when the four of them stopped working to take a break, Natalie sat with Zeke in the shade of the building, their backs braced against the metal siding. After draining a glass of ice tea, he settled those amazingly blue eyes on her, his expression thoughtful, his firm mouth solemn.
“You didn’t sleep in.”
“I barely slept at all. I finally drifted off about five, and only a few minutes later, Lothario started crowing.”
“Lothario? The rooster that I hear crowing every blasted morning?” Zeke chuckled at the name. Then he sobered. “You didn’t get your rest.”
“Nope.”
Zeke studied her face. Those damned shadows were under her eyes again. He couldn’t, in good conscience, insist that she lose more sleep tonight. “Sunday,” he whispered. “I can wait.”
Her eyes danced with pure, unadulterated mischief. “No way, buster. I’m not staring at the ceiling all night again. I can think of more productive ways to spend my time.”
Chapter Ten
That evening, Natalie left for work a half hour early, no easy feat when she had only thirty minutes to get ready after leaving Zeke’s place. She took the fastest shower in history, pulled her hair up on top of her head, slapped on makeup, shimmied into a dress, and left the house in a mad dash, blowing kisses to the kids on her way out.
Her first stop when she reached town was at a drugstore. When her business there was concluded, she stashed her purchase on the back floorboard and drove straight to Robert’s posh new home on Eagle Butte, Crystal Falls’s equivalent of snob hill. She ground her teeth when she pulled into the driveway, which encircled an elaborate stone fountain, a feature befitting the stately house with its pillared front portico, expansive front doors, and cathedral windows. The place was a mansion. It had probably set him back a couple of mil. How could he sleep at night, living in such opulence when his children were doing without?
Doing a slow burn, Natalie parked her old Chevy dead center in the drive, cut the engine, and then sat there, taking deep breaths to calm down. She wasn’t here to argue with Robert about money. Ever since the earring incident, she’d moved beyond that, her concerns more centered on Chad and how this mess between her and Robert was affecting him. Let Robert hoard his wealth. She honestly didn’t care anymore.
Zeke was largely responsible for Natalie’s change of heart. Loving him and knowing that he loved her had set her free of the past. Tonight when she made love with him, she wanted no ties binding her to that past. She needed to start over fresh, with no old grudges or grievances weighing on her heart. With Zeke behind her, she would see to her children’s needs without Robert’s help. If the club went under, so be it; she’d get a job. Chad and Rosie might not have the best of everything for the next year or so, but they’d have the essentials, and they would know they were loved, not only by their mother but hopefully by their father as well.
That was the reason for Natalie’s visit here today—to talk with Robert about his failure to telephone or visit his children. A truce of sorts was her aim. To encourage Robert to exercise his visitation rights and keep in touch with the kids, she would forgo all child support, past, present, and future. No more snide remarks, no more hassles, no more threats to take legal action when she spoke to him on the phone. She couldn’t force her ex-husband to be a responsible, loving father, but she could at least encourage him to go through the motions. Just an occasional phone call would make Chad feel better. Even if Robert’s heart wasn’t in it, he could spare ten minutes a we
ek to play the concerned, interested dad.
Natalie swung purposefully from the car. Her heels tapped sharply on the flagstones as she made her way up the wide, curved steps. When she reached the ornate double doors, she could hear the faint strains of Chopin coming from inside—the Berceuse, if she remembered correctly. The melancholy, Italianate sweetness of the piece almost made her shudder. On the rare occasion when Robert had deigned to have sex with her, he’d always played Chopin on the stereo.
Five years ago, Natalie would have trembled and felt heartsick, knowing he was inside with another woman. Now she was just glad it was Cheryl or Bonnie putting up with him. She leaned heavily on the buzzer, then rapped the brass knocker a few times for good measure.
For almost three minutes, Natalie cooled her heels waiting for Robert to answer her ring. She knew he was home. He never would have left the stereo on when he left the house; he was anal about things like that. She’d also called his office on the way into town, and his secretary had informed her that he was taking care of business at the house this evening.
Business, ha. Since when did bonking a blonde qualify as work? Growing impatient, Natalie grasped the ornate door lever. She meant to speak with Robert whether he wanted to see her or not. He could forgo a few minutes of playtime to talk with her about the emotional welfare of their son.
To her relief, the door wasn’t locked. Riding high on nerves and determination, she barely noticed the gorgeous entry hall as she stepped inside. “Robert?” she called. “It’s Natalie! Can we talk for a couple of minutes?”
No answer. Natalie might have turned to leave, but the music playing on the piped-in stereo system emboldened her. Her ex-husband was somewhere in the house. She would have bet what remained of the Blue Parrot’s assets on it.
“Robert!” she called again, trying to inject a syrupy sweetness into her voice so he wouldn’t dread talking to her. “This won’t take long, I promise. I just want to talk to you about Chad for a few seconds.”
It was a huge house. If the interior walls were soundproofed, maybe he couldn’t hear her. Gathering her courage, Natalie decided to check the downstairs before she left. What could he do, have her arrested for unlawful entry? Not even Robert would be that petty, and this was a discussion long overdue.
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