Seth was momentarily speechless by Natalia’s pronouncement that she wasn’t bothered if they were seen together. He’d remembered her saying she’d just gotten rid of a boyfriend and wasn’t looking for another. And, while he hadn’t been actively looking for a girlfriend, he found himself more than open to dating Natalia.
“I can’t promise you—”
Natalia placed a finger over Seth’s mouth and interrupted him. “I don’t want you to promise me anything except a modicum of normalcy. My high school boyfriend was a stalker, and the man I dated in college cheated on me. And you know about Daryl who felt it was his right to control my life. He was my third strike, and I swore after him I’d never date again. But if you turn out to be any of the above, then please let me know now before we’re seen in public together again.”
Seth’s fingers curved around her wrist and he kissed the back of her hand. His gaze lowered as did his voice when he said, “I can reassure you that I am none of the above.”
“Only time will tell, won’t it?”
“I know it’s not easy for you to trust a man after what you’ve gone through with your exes, but there comes a time when you have to let it go.”
Natalia’s hands stilled. “Have you let it go, Seth? Have you gotten over your wife carrying another man’s baby?”
Natalia was asking Seth a question he’d asked himself a number of times over the years. That he had rid himself of the anger and distrust the instant their flight from the Dominican Republic touched down in Miami. He’d left the country married to a woman who’d given another man what should have been his, and when he returned, it was as a single man who knew it would take time to trust another woman again.
“Yes, I have,” Seth said truthfully. Even if he hadn’t forgiven Melissa.
“Good for you.”
“What about you, Natalia?” he asked.
“What about me, Seth?”
“Do you lump all men into the same category as your three strikes?”
Frowning, she shook her head. “Of course not. Not all men are stalkers, cheaters or want submissive women.”
And not all women cheat on their husbands, Seth thought. A satisfied light brightened his eyes. He’d just met Natalia, hadn’t spent much time with her, yet he was looking forward to their fishing and hiking together.
Chapter Eight
When Natalia parked in her assigned space and walked around to Main Street, she found a crowd standing three-deep along the parade route. So much for her arriving early. Many elderly residents were seated in folding chairs on the sidewalk, while young kids sandwiched in between them on the curb.
Dozens of U.S. flags and red, white and blue bunting hung from lampposts and storefronts. Most of the businesses had closed down for the holiday to give their employees time to be with their families, while it was a picture-perfect day for a parade. There were only a few puffy white clouds in the startlingly blue sky and temperatures were predicted to go as high as seventy-six. Everywhere she went Natalia overheard people talking about the upcoming parade and the following picnic, which they compared to a gigantic tailgate party.
Seth informed her that the Wolf Den and Ruthie’s provided the food, which was offset by donations from townspeople. All collected proceeds went directly to the church’s outreach for needy families. Someone from the Chamber of Commerce had come to the medical office soliciting donations for the event. The next day Natalia wrote a generous check and dropped it off at the chamber office; the single act bolstered her resolve to become a permanent resident of the town.
She looked forward to going into the medical office where she’d developed a positive working relationship with the staff. She was able to spend more time with her patients than she had with those who’d come into the ER’s Trauma Center, and actually gained their trust. Natalia had counseled several women who were overweight while cautioning them about the severity of their condition, which could lead to more serious medical problems. She referred them to Leah who gave them a printout of a diet they should follow and a date for them to return to the office to monitor their progress.
The medical assistant approached her one morning to ask if she could set up a group to counsel patients with nutritional issues. Leah admitted that she’d always had a problem with her weight until she was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Because her mother and grandmother died from complications from diabetes, it was a wake-up call for her to change her diet and lifestyle. Natalia told her that she would have to discuss it with Dr. Franklin before she could make a decision.
She went on tiptoe in an attempt to see over the shoulder of a man when she heard the sound of music in the distance. Natalia managed to duck under the arm of a teenage boy until she could view the lead car in the parade with the mayor and his wife sitting in the back seat of the vintage convertible. A pickup with a loudspeaker blaring patriotic songs was filled with the members of the town council. A band from the middle school followed as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies with their troop leaders kept step with the music. Reaching into the pocket of her jeans, Natalia took out her phone to videotape the event as many along the parade route were doing.
It appeared as if every business and civic organization was well represented as their members marched along Main Street wearing sashes identifying themselves. A roar went up from the crowd when the high school’s drum and bugle troop demonstrated their skills, which had earned them a number of county and state awards. The fire department was represented with a truck from the late nineteenth century hitched to a pickup. It was followed by a gleaming modern pumper with several volunteer firefighters wearing red suspenders riding on top of it.
The roar of the crowd was deafening when present and former military wearing green, blue and desert fatigues pushed wheelchairs with veterans of foreign wars who’d fought and risked their lives fighting in Europe, the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam. Natalia couldn’t take her eyes off Seth in his sand-colored fatigues as he leaned over to listen to something an elderly man wearing a blouse filled with medals was saying to him.
Natalia turned around when she heard a woman call her name and then pushed her way through a group of several young boys to where Mya Wainwright stood holding Lily. Mother and daughter wore matching baseball caps and sunglasses. Mya’s face bore the evidence of her spending time in the tropical sun.
“How long have you been here?” she asked Mya.
“I just arrived. I couldn’t find a space and I had to park over near the church and walk. Lily didn’t want me to pick her up, so it took what seemed like forever.”
“If I’d known you needed a ride I would’ve picked you up,” Natalia said, “because I have a designated spot in back of the office.”
Mya blew out her cheeks. “Maybe next year. But I did get a chance to see Giles and Seth when they went by.”
“Do you think we can make it to the veterans’ monument in time to see the wreath-laying ceremony?” Natalia asked.
“What time is it?” Mya questioned.
Natalia glanced at the time on her phone. “Eleven fifty.”
“I doubt it. It’s four blocks away and we’ll never make it there in time with this crowd. I grew up here and the only thing that brings folks out in droves is this parade and the Fourth of July fair that runs for three days and nights.”
“I’ll drive you back over to the church. I don’t have a car seat for Lily, so you’re going to have to sit in the back with her on your lap.”
Mya smiled. “Thanks.”
* * *
Natalia parked her SUV next to Mya’s Honda Odyssey in the church’s expansive lot. She removed her baseball cap, reached into her tote and took out a wide-tooth comb to fluff up the short strands. Mouthwatering aromas wafted from an enormous white tent erected several hundred feet away in a grassy area. She got out and opened the rear door and extended her arms to take Lily from Mya.
Mother and daughter had also taken off their caps and sunglasses. The toddler hesitated, and then held out her arms to be picked up.
Lily stared at her with large, round blue eyes. “You remember me, don’t you?” Natalia asked.
“It’s going to take her a while to warm up to you,” Mya said, “and when she does, be prepared because she’ll ask you a lot of questions.”
“That because she’s very bright. Right, boo-boo?”
“I no boo-boo,” Lily said.
Natalia pretended to be shocked. “If you’re not boo-boo, then who are you?”
“Lily!”
“I guess she told me,” Natalia said under her breath as she and Mya entered the tent. Rows of tables and benches were set up theater-style, serving tables positioned around the perimeter of the tent, and servers, dressed entirely in white from caps to running shoes, were setting pitchers of water and soft drinks and stacks of plastic cups and napkin-wrapped cutlery on each table.
“This tent reminds me of a revival meeting.”
“That’s because at one time there were quite a few revivals in The Falls. Every summer different evangelists would come to town. Folks would travel far and wide to listen to their fire and brimstone sermons, and a few claimed to have been healed after they laid hands on them.”
Natalia set Lily on her feet when she wiggled to get down. “Do you believe they were healed?”
“I don’t know,” Mya said, as she led the way to a table with a centerpiece of a small American flag. “I was too young to understand what all of the shouting was all about. My mother was a devoted Southern Baptist and every year she would take me and my sister with her to what she called tent meetings. Despite the music, preaching, crying and shouting I’d fall asleep because it would go on for hours.”
The one time her paternal grandmother wanted to take Natalia to a tent meeting, her father forbade it because of his belief that the faith healers were con artists intent on selling salvation to those gullible enough to hand over their hard-earned money.
“Where do you want to sit?” she asked Mya.
“Here is good.” She had selected a table near a wide aisle for easy access to and from the food stations. “Traditionally the members of the military are served first. I always have Giles bring me a plate so I don’t have to stand in line with the other folks.”
Natalia sat down and set her tote on the bench next to her. Mya mentioning food was a reminder that she’d gotten up early to prepare a scant breakfast of toast and coffee before she put up several loads of laundry and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom.
After sharing their surf and turf dinner, she and Seth hadn’t had an opportunity to eat together again. A week later he called to tell her he had to work his days off because the sheriff’s department was down one man because a deputy was on bereavement leave. When she least expected it, Natalia found herself comparing her relationship with Seth to what she’d initially had with Daryl.
She knew Seth was attracted to her as she was to him, but unlike Daryl, at no time had he put pressure on her to go beyond what she deemed an easygoing friendship. Within half an hour of meeting Daryl, he’d asked if he could take her to dinner to get to know her better. She’d graduated, completed an internship and residency without dating, because she had a hard-and-fast rule not to engage in a workplace romance. What had begun as friendship segued into a physical relationship and an engagement. And it wasn’t until after their breakup had she become aware of how ingeniously he had been insinuating himself into her life. The responsibility of supervising the Trauma Center and the long hours spent working at the hospital left her little time to analyze her private life, which had been spiraling out of control. However, she tried to right it when she began to challenge him. Disagreements escalated into shouting matches until she told him either they go to couples counseling or break up. Daryl refused counseling and promised to change. He didn’t change and initiated the breakup.
The tent was quickly filling up as residents scrambled to find tables for family members. Natalia estimated there was enough room to seat at least six hundred. “Will everyone in town turn out to eat?” she asked Mya.
“Most of them do. But not everyone comes this early.”
“Daddy!” Lily screamed, holding out her arms.
Natalia turned to see a tall, deeply tanned, raven-haired man with Seth heading in their direction. Giles scooped his daughter off Mya’s lap and rubbed noses with Lily. Natalia’s suspicions that Lily looked like her father was evident when she met the man’s laser-blue eyes.
Seth rested a hand on Natalia’s shoulder. “Giles, I’d like you to meet Dr. Natalia Hawkins. Natalia, Giles Wainwright.”
Leaning over the table, Giles offered her his hand. “It’s pleasure meeting you, Dr. Hawkins. Mya has been talking my ear off about inviting you over to welcome you properly to The Falls. Three weeks from now we have family coming down from New York to spend some time with us, so the more the merrier.”
She smiled at the drop-dead handsome man with captain bars on his desert fatigues. “Please call me Natalia. I’m only Dr. Hawkins at the office. And I accept your invitation to get together with you and your family.”
Giles sat down next to Mya. “Satisfied, sweetheart?”
Mya blew her husband an air-kiss. “Yes, sweetheart.” She turned to Seth. “You have to let us know when you’re off because you know you’re always welcome to join us.”
Seth sat next to Natalia and dropped an arm over her shoulders. “I’m off Saturdays, barring any unforeseen schedule changes.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Is that your Saturday to work, babe?”
Natalia felt a rush of heat creep up her chest to her face. Seth’s endearment had slipped out so smoothly as if it was something he’d always called her. “Yes, but I’m off at one.”
Mya waved a hand. “That works because we usually start cooking around three.” She flashed a Cheshire cat grin. “I guess that settles it.”
Seth’s hand moved from her shoulders and down the length of her spine. “Did you get to see the parade?”
She met his smiling light brown eyes. “Yes. It’s nice to see that the armed forces are well represented in The Falls.”
Seth laughed softly. “Now you sound like a local. Folks around here hardly ever say Wickham Falls when they’re talking about The Falls.”
“I’d like to think of myself as a local. After all, I do live here.”
“If you say so.”
Natalia gave Seth an incredulous look. There was something in his rejoinder that caused a cold chill to eddy over her body. “Why would you say that?”
“Say what?”
“What you just said. Don’t you believe me when I say that I plan to stay here?”
“What I believe or want should not affect your decision to stay or leave The Falls, Natalia,” he said in a quiet voice. “And there is one thing I want you to remember, and that is I’m not your ex. I will never tell you what you should or should not do.”
Natalia closed her eyes and smiled. “You could never be him,” she said, after she opened her eyes. There was so much about him she liked and missed: his warmth, the now-familiar scent of his cologne and his soft, drawling voice with a trace of a Southern accent.
A server approached their table. “Captain Wainwright and Sergeant Collier, you can go up and get your food now.”
Seth stood. “What do you want, babe?”
“Bring me whatever you think I’d like.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
* * *
Seth followed Giles as they walked to the food stations. He had less than two hours to spend with Natalia and his friends before he was scheduled to start his shift. He was a first responder and that meant working weekends and holidays.
“You’re right, Collier,” Giles said as he picked up two Styrofoam plates.
&
nbsp; “What about?”
“Natalia. She’s stunning and a doctor.”
When Giles mentioned that Mya had talked nonstop about the young woman doctor who’d joined Dr. Franklin’s practice, Seth told him that Natalia was his neighbor and admitted that she was beautiful and brainy.
“I like her.”
“No!” Giles said, smiling. “Only a blind man wouldn’t be able to see that, Brother Collier.”
Seth picked up two plates. “I’ll have some potato salad,” he said to the server. “At least I’m man enough to admit it, Brother Wainwright,” he said, lowering his voice. “The only drawback is that we don’t get to see that much of each other with our work schedules.”
Giles pointed to a tray of baked beans. “It was that way when I first met Mya. My schedule had me flying between here, New York and the Bahamas at least three or four times a month. And then when I’d schedule a time to take them with me, Lily would come down with an ear infection or a cold and all our plans would go up in smoke. It wasn’t until we were married and I told a cousin that Mya and I were planning to have a baby together that he agreed to join the company’s international division.”
“You’re telling me this to say what?”
“Be patient. Things have a way of working themselves out.”
Seth wanted to tell his fellow marine that at thirty-eight, he was quickly running out of patience. He’d been with enough women following his divorce to recognize that after a month Natalia was different, that she possessed all of the attributes he wanted in a wife.
He’d been twenty-seven and Melissa twenty-two when they married and at that time he’d believed he was mature enough to be a husband and father. They’d talked about starting a family but Melissa wanted to wait until he returned from his deployment. She feared if he was killed that her child would grow up without a father like she did.
It had taken ten years for him to get over his distrust of all women. Even when making love he forced himself to remain detached from the most intimate act between a man and a woman. He’d thought of it as a physical release and nothing beyond that.
The Sheriff of Wickham Falls Page 11