Year of Living Blonde (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 1)

by Simonne, Andrea

  “He’s this totally hot guy who comes in a few times a week. Natalie’s never told you about him?”

  “No.”

  “Well, he came in the other day and ordered a birthday cake for someone named Serena.”

  “Probably his girlfriend,” Natalie muses. They’d already decided Espresso Breve wasn’t married, since he didn’t wear a wedding ring.

  “Probably,” Blair agrees. “Lucky woman, that’s for sure.”

  Natalie tries to imagine the kind of woman Espresso Breve would be with. She pictures some hot blonde with a great body. Yuck. With disgust, she suddenly realizes she’s imagining Lena.

  “So, what’s his name?” Natalie can’t resist asking.

  Blair smiles. “Anthony Novello. It suits him, don’t you think?”

  “Novello? That name sounds familiar.”

  “He must be Italian.” Lindsay finishes her cake, licking the back of her fork. “There’s a lot of really hot Italian guys.”

  Natalie is still thinking about the name, when it suddenly comes to her. “Wait a minute, Novello—that’s the name of our jerk landlord.”

  “Really?” Blair says. “Well, it must be a coincidence.”

  Natalie thinks about it. “Yeah, it must be. He does look kind of young to own this building. I pictured someone older and more stern. ”

  “I’m sure it isn’t him. That would be too weird. He comes in here all the time. Why wouldn’t he want us to expand?”

  After Lindsay leaves and Blair goes back into the kitchen, Natalie sits by herself for a moment, finishing her latte. She wiggles her shoulder around. It’s still sore.

  What a crazy day.

  She can’t believe any of it. Most of all, she can’t believe she acted just like her mom, something she never thought she’d do in a million years. Though at least I’m not making excuses for Peter’s infidelity. Her mom slapped more than a few of her father’s floozies, but she always placed the blame solely on them. Her father was a womanizer, but in her eyes he was a prince. Even after he died, predictably, in bed with someone, she wouldn’t let either her or Lindsay say a word against him. She loved him too much. That’s the conclusion Natalie always came to as a child. It frightened her. She never wanted to love a man like that.

  I’m nothing like her, Natalie reminds herself. Peter is not a womanizer and I don’t only blame Lena. I blame them both. In fact, Peter is the betrayer here. She sucks in her breath as the familiar hurt and anger wash over her.

  Trying to push it out of her mind, she gets up and grabs her mug along with the plate that Lindsay left behind. She sees another empty table that has a few dirty dishes on it and busses those, too.

  Juggling an armful, she turns toward the kitchen and nearly bumps into someone.

  “Excuse me,” she says to some guy, but her pulse jumps when she looks up and sees it’s Espresso Breve. Anthony, she corrects herself.

  He glances at her, and then stops in recognition. “Hey, how’s it going?”

  Natalie looks down at the cake box he’s holding and he follows her gaze. “Yeah, I came back and spoke to the owner. She helped me order the cake.”

  “That’s . . . great.” It occurs to Natalie that this would be the perfect time to fix the false impression she gave him the other day and explain that she’s one of the owners herself. “Listen, I wanted to tell—”

  To her surprise the cell phone in his hand starts blasting the Star Wars theme music. “Hang on.” He transfers the cake box to his left side and answers it. “Yeah, I’ve got it right here. No worries, bambina. I’ll be there soon. Okay, I love you, too.”

  Anthony fumbles a little with the cell as he turns it off and Natalie is mesmerized by his hands. His fingers are tan and masculine. His nails clean and short. She feels a peculiar breathlessness staring at his hands, as if she wants something from them.

  “Good luck,” he tells her, with a quick boyish grin that does something funny to her insides. “You’ll get the hang of things around here before you know it.”

  “I . . . uh.”

  In frustration, she watches him leave with the wrong idea. Again.

  Natalie heads home with plans to put the whole ugly mess with Lena behind her.

  “Oh, no,” Natalie groans as she heads down the street toward her house.

  Peter’s Lexus is sitting in the driveway—big, black, and foreboding as a hearse.

  “Just what I need.” She knows why he’s here. Of course, Lena went running to him after what happened. She should have predicted this. And I’ll bet she blamed the whole thing on me.

  After parking, she opens the back of her van and pulls out the covered racks she uses to carry the baking she does every morning. She waits for Peter to come running up to her in a fury, but he doesn’t.

  He must be inside the house. The thought irritates her. Peter shouldn’t be allowed to come and go as he pleases anymore. He moved out. It’s my house now.

  She considers changing the locks, but then wonders if that’s a bad idea. It’s time to find a lawyer, someone who can help guide her through this morass.

  Walking up to the house, she discovers Peter isn’t inside after all, but standing by the front door, hands on hips, studying the axe. She watches as he grips the handle and tries to pull it out. He still doesn’t seem to be having any luck.

  “What are you doing?” she asks, mostly to annoy him.

  “This damn thing won’t budge at all!” He puts one foot on the door to brace himself and starts twisting his body around while he continues to pull. “How did your sister manage to get it stuck like this?”

  Natalie shrugs, secretly glad he can’t remove it, and enjoying how silly he looks as he tries.

  “And I can’t believe you let Chloe decorate it,” he says, referring to the flower wreath Chloe made and hung on it the first week of school.

  “She likes it.”

  “We have to get this thing out!” Once again, he grabs hold of it with both hands and pulls, his face turning a mottled shade of red. Suddenly, there’s a loud CRACK and Peter stumbles backward holding a large piece of the axe handle.

  “Jesus!” He straightens himself and stares down at the broken handle.

  “Are you okay?” Natalie asks, though it’s obvious he’s fine.

  Peter is staring at the axe head, which is still stuck in the door. Though now instead of a handle, there’s only a short stump attached. “Did you see what just happened? I could have been killed!”

  She rolls her eyes.

  “This thing is a menace! I’d sue that sister of yours, if she had any money!”

  Natalie shifts, as the baking racks are getting heavy. “Just leave the axe for now. Who cares?”

  “What’s gotten into you, Natalie? Since when do you not care whether our house goes to ruin? Besides, I think we need to discuss putting it on the market, and we certainly can’t sell it with an axe sticking out from the front door.”

  Natalie reels for a few seconds at his words. “We are not putting this house on the market,” she informs him. “You can forget that.”

  “It’s the next logical step.”

  “It’s my home and it’s Chloe’s home. Just because you don’t want to live here anymore doesn’t mean we should be forced to move.”

  “Fine. Whatever. We still need to have it appraised for its current value.”

  Natalie sighs. “Peter, I’m tired. It’s been a long day. Is this why you came here?”

  Her turns to her with a hard expression. “You know why I’m here.”

  She doesn’t say anything as he steps back, wiping his hands on his pants. “Let’s go inside. I’d rather not discuss this in front of the entire neighborhood.”

  He opens the door and Natalie trudges in behind him. She heads for the kitchen and lays the racks out on the table. Peter is standing on the other side, glaring at her. It’s the angriest she’s seen him since the morning he left.

  “How could you, Natalie? How could you assault Lena?�
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  Natalie is incredulous. “I did no such thing! That’s quite an exaggeration.”

  “Well, that’s what she said. She told me you came into her place of work and assaulted her. In fact, she wants to file both assault charges and a restraining order against you.”

  “What?” Natalie looks up at the ceiling and closes her eyes. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and since she can’t cry, she decides to laugh.

  “I hardly find this amusing!”

  Natalie laughs some more anyway. Shakes her head. “You’re right, it’s not funny, but it’s absurd.”

  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you. You’ve always been so sensible. I’ve never seen this side of you before. First you attack me, and now Lena. Honestly, I’m wondering whether I should be worried about Chloe living here.”

  Natalie’s body tenses and her expression turns to steel. “Don’t you dare threaten me with Chloe. Because if you want a war, you’ll get one!”

  Peter holds her stare for a few seconds and then looks down at his hands.

  She takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Look, I went over to talk to Lena today and I admit I lost my temper and slapped her. Nothing more. I know that was wrong. After that, she attacked me, okay? She jumped me. All I did was defend myself. In fact, my shoulder is sore from her knocking me to the ground.”

  Peter studies her. “Why should I believe anything you say?”

  “Come on, Peter, don’t you know me better? Is she even injured? That woman is built like a Marine.”

  “I have to admit I was surprised by her story.” He appears to mull things over. “She’s pretty upset, though, and I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t go near her again, do you understand?”

  “I have no desire to see her again. Believe me. I just felt she should realize that her actions have consequences. She’s hurting people.”

  Peter gets agitated. “Listen, you need to get past this. I’m not coming back, okay? Our marriage is over.”

  Natalie swallows. “I understand that.” She wants to say something spiteful, but stops herself.

  “How did you even know where she works?”

  “I, uh. . . .” Natalie tries to think of a plausible explanation. Obviously, she can’t admit that she and Lindsay followed him. It wasn’t hard to imagine Peter taking that too well. The way things were going, he’d probably take out a restraining order and accuse her of stalking. “I looked her up on the Internet.”

  Peter frowns, but seems to accept this. “I want it to end here. I don’t want you frightening her like that again. ”

  Natalie tries not to scoff as she imagines Lena playing up this whole thing and acting as if she were frightened. I’ll bet she’s only upset that she didn’t take a piece out of me.

  Lena was like a pit bull with lipstick and tight yoga pants.

  By the time Peter is done adding recriminations about lawyers and legal actions, Natalie is so fed up she wants to scream. It’s a huge relief when he leaves.

  She heads upstairs to the guest bedroom, having moved all her things in there after Peter moved out. It was too depressing sleeping in their old bedroom alone. During the day, she’s busy at the bakery, but at night things are different. It’s hard to sleep alone. The bed in the guest bedroom is only a queen, and not as large as the king she and Peter shared, but she still doesn’t know where to sleep on it. Oftentimes she wakes up at night confused and adrift, wondering where she is. Though they seldom had sex anymore, Natalie discovered she misses Peter the most at night. She misses his presence. She misses having someone she can talk with about the minutia of her day, to share her ideas with or even just the comfort of sitting in bed together, each of them reading something. In truth, it has been a while since they’d been close, but now she realizes how much of it she took for granted.

  Of course, she still has Chloe, and Lindsay has basically moved in. In fact, she wonders what Oliver thinks about all this and if he minds that his girlfriend has abandoned him. She’s only met him briefly, but most men wouldn’t be too pleased. Lindsay claims he travels a lot and doesn’t care, but it’s hard to tell whether that’s the truth or not, since she’s so terrible with commitment.

  Natalie opens the guest bedroom closet to get out some clean clothes. As always, her decision on what to wear is based solely on comfort and practicality. All her pants are dark and baggy with a drawstring waist, all her shirts more of the same.

  Quickly she grabs a pair of gray sweats and a loose T-shirt with the words “I Eat Therefore I Bake” on the front—a Mother’s Day gift from Chloe last year.

  She pulls her ponytail out and refashions it, so it feels tight again.

  Leaving the guest bedroom, she walks down the hall past Chloe’s room, which has horse pictures plastered all over the door, and then past what she and Peter have designated as their home gym. For some reason she stops. The door is open and inside she sees the elliptical machine, along with a treadmill, a workout bench, and a row of shiny weights. Peter spent a lot of money on this room, only to join a gym in the end, claiming he felt more driven to exercise with other people around.

  For Natalie, their home gym may as well have been attached to an orbiting space station, as often as she visited it.

  Timing was always the problem. Should she exercise in the morning or at night? Her mornings were so early that adding an hour meant getting up at 2:30 am, something she wasn’t about to do. Exercising at night meant finding the motivation when she was exhausted from working all day.

  She’s exhausted just thinking about it.

  Yet she doesn’t leave.

  Instead, she thinks of Lena and her toned, muscular body. Then she thinks of how good it felt to slap her. Not a nice thing to acknowledge about herself, but letting her frustrations out in a physical way had felt good.

  With that thought in mind, she wanders over to the elliptical machine. Natalie stands next to it awkwardly, as if getting up the courage to ask it to dance. Finally, she makes a decision and climbs aboard.

  Immediately she fumbles as her legs swing around and she grapples with the handlebars.

  Whoa. Is that how this thing works?

  Within a few minutes, she gets the hang of it. Before long, Lindsay and Chloe are home and find her upstairs. Lindsay’s been picking up Chloe after school lately, since it’s so close to her art studio.

  “How was . . . school . . . today, sweetheart?” Natalie asks, sweating from the exertion.

  “When did you start exercising?” Lindsay asks.

  “About . . . ten . . . minutes . . . ago.” Natalie is huffing and puffing, but doesn’t stop. Oddly, it feels good. Like her stress is flowing out along with her sweat.

  “School was fine.” Chloe looks a little worried. “Would you like a glass of water, Mom?”

  “That . . . would . . . be . . . great!”

  Natalie keeps pushing herself. She thinks about everything that’s happened, every dark emotion that’s gripped her since Peter announced he wanted a divorce. It only drives her harder.

  Lindsay continues to watch, but doesn’t say anything.

  Finally, Chloe comes back with the water and Natalie stops, panting for breath. “Thank . . . you.” She takes the glass and gulps it down. “I think I’ll make veggie burgers tonight, do you guys want one?”

  “Sure,” Lindsay says.

  “I love veggie burgers!” Chloe’s eyes light up.

  Natalie doesn’t usually eat vegetarian burgers, but Chloe decided to stop eating meat last year, so she’s been making them more often. Oddly, she finds herself thinking that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to lay off meat a little herself, start eating lighter.

  After taking a quick shower, Natalie heads downstairs where she checks on Chloe, who is in the family room watching Flicka for what must be the hundredth time. Lindsay is in the kitchen, sitting at the island filling out some kind of paperwork. In some ways it feels like old times, having her sister around so much, and Natalie appreciates the support.<
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  “You know, I’ve been thinking,” Natalie says to Lindsay, as she grabs the burgers from the freezer. “If you’re going to stay over so much, why don’t you sleep in the master bedroom instead of on the couch? Obviously, I’m not using it.”

  “I don’t mind the couch. Besides, it’d feel weird sleeping in your marital bed.” Lindsay gives a small shiver.

  “Don’t be so quick to dismiss it. That bedroom has its own bathroom with a sunken tub. Plus, it will drive Peter crazy if he finds out you’re sleeping in there.”

  Lindsay grins. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that myself! I’ll move my things in there tonight.”

  “I’ll put clean sheets on right after dinner.”

  “And next month I’m going to decorate his nightstand with a big bowl of Halloween candy.” Lindsay smiles deviously. “I can’t wait. I only wish I could see his face when you tell him.”

  “Don’t worry, he’ll hate it.”

  “That’s what I’m counting on. Pissing off the ass clown.”

  Being a dentist, Peter is a stickler about sugar, something that was occasionally a point of contention, seeing that Natalie bakes sweets for a living. They’d learned to compromise, and even Peter agreed some sweets in moderation are okay. In truth, Natalie thought he secretly loved desserts, but just didn’t want to admit it. He hated Halloween candy with a passion, though.

  “Are you starting a diet?” Lindsay watches as Natalie puts a large frying pan on the stove.

  “No, I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”

  “Because you were exercising, and now you’re eating vegetarian food.”

  “I’m making veggie burgers for Chloe.” Natalie thinks about Lindsay’s question though as she cooks. Maybe I am starting a diet. Natalie feels a small sense of panic even thinking those words. She’s started so many diets over the years. It seemed like every Monday of her life she started a diet, until she finally gave up.

  When the food is ready, Natalie goes to get Chloe and discovers her talking on her phone in the family room. Against Natalie’s wishes, Peter recently bought Chloe a smartphone, even though they’d agreed to wait until she was older. Peter kept insisting it was in Chloe’s best interest to have a phone now, just in case she needed to reach him. Chloe was, of course, thrilled. Natalie didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much she could do.