A Younger Man

by Linda Turner

“Nylon,” she said promptly. “And something large enough to hold four people.”

  Studying her consideringly, he frowned. “Is this something you want to set up in your backyard for your kids or are you going camping? What do you need it for?”

  “A dig with the university up on Black Mountain.”

  “Are you packing it in yourself or is there someone to help you?”

  “Actually, there are fifty of us going, and so we’ll all be carrying our share of the load,” she replied. “We’ll be hiking about three miles to the dig site.”

  “Have you considered buying two-man tents instead of four-man?” he asked with a frown. “If price is a factor, two two-man are going to be more expensive than one four-man. If there’s room in the budget, though, I’d go with the smaller tents. It’s not that much difference in price, and there are other things to consider…like weight. A three-mile hike doesn’t sound very far, but it’s going to seem like an eternity when you’re weighted down with heavy equipment. The lighter your load, the happier everyone’s going to be.”

  Natalie couldn’t argue with that. “I agree, but if I go with the smaller tents, I’m going to need twice as many.” Skeptically, she eyed the supply he had on the shelf. “You don’t have nearly enough, and you just got a shipment in.”

  “We have another warehouse,” he assured her. “I’ll check the inventory on the computer. Even if I don’t have all twenty-five, I can get them. How soon do you need them?”

  “By Thanksgiving,” she retorted. “Can you work that fast?”

  “I’m sure we can. Let me check the inventory and then we’ll know what we’re dealing with. Is there anything else you need that I can check at the same time?”

  For an answer she held up the list of supplies Max had decided they would need for the dig. When his eyes widened in surprise, she smiled. “I know—it’s a lot to get together on such short notice, but there was a last-minute problem with the tour group, so Professor Sullivan decided to do this on his own.”

  The clerk whistled softly. “That’s a lot of work.”

  “And we’ve only got a short time to get it done.” Nodding at the list, she said, “Assuming you have everything in stock—or you can get it in time for the dig—I need to know what kind of price you can give me. I’ve already gotten bids from several other outfitters. If you can give me a price that beats theirs, you’ll get the order. Do you work on commission?”

  He smiled slightly. “Actually, I do. Give me a few minutes and let me see what I can do.”

  “Take your time,” she replied. “I haven’t been here before so I’ll just be wandering around the store.”

  “I’ll find you,” he promised, and hurried to the office to check the store’s inventory on the computer.

  She expected it to take the salesclerk at least thirty minutes to check everything and get back with her, but fifteen minutes later he found her looking at sleeping bags. Max was providing the tents for the class, but everyone had to bring their own sleeping bag and she didn’t have one. She needed something cheap.

  “There you are,” the clerk said with a smile. “Okay, I’m all done, and I think you’re going to be pleased. We have everything you need.”

  “And the price?”

  When he gave her a price that was significantly lower than Natalie had expected, she almost laughed aloud. The other bids weren’t even in the same ballpark. Max was going to be so pleased.

  Still, she didn’t jump at it…not yet. “Can you deliver?”

  “Within city limits?”

  “To a storage unit by the university,” she replied. “We’ll need everything delivered by next Saturday.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem. So…do we have a deal?”

  On more than one occasion, Max had told her she didn’t need his approval to buy anything—he trusted her judgment—and if she came across a good buy, not to hesitate. Grinning, she held out her hand. “Sounds like a deal to me.”

  “I bought everything.”

  “Everything?”

  So excited she could hardly contain herself, Natalie laughed. She’d called Max the second she stepped out of the surplus supply store. “Well, not the food, of course. We have to wait until the Monday before Thanksgiving for that, but all the camping equipment, including the tents, will be delivered to the storage unit on Saturday.”

  “You’re kidding! You must have found a hell of a deal. The last time we talked, you hadn’t even found anything within budget.”

  “Oh, this is in the budget,” she assured him dryly, and told him the price.

  For a moment, his only response was stunned silence. Then he started to laugh. “Damn, woman, you’re good! Did I happen to mention when I hired you that I’d pay you a bonus if you could bring the trip in under budget?”

  Natalie grinned, wishing she could see his face. “Actually, you failed to make that clear, but that’s okay. I’ll still hold you to it.”

  “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “It’s going to be a pleasure to pay you. How in the world did you pull this off?”

  “One of the women I work with at the restaurant told me about a surplus store on the east side of town, over by the train station. She didn’t remember the name of it and I couldn’t find anything in the yellow pages, so I decided to drive over there and check it out. I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t call you first,” she added, frowning. “And when the clerk gave his bid, I didn’t know if it was a mistake or not, but I didn’t want to give him time to change his mind.”

  “Are you kidding? Of course I don’t mind! I would have done the same thing. This is fantastic!”

  “I also made an executive decision,” she admitted. “The clerk pointed out that the two-man tents are lighter than the four man, and since we were hiking to the dig site, the lighter we can make the hike, the better. If that’s a problem, it’s not too late to change the order…”

  “The two-mans are fine,” he assured her. “I should have thought of that myself. Did you buy an extra one in case we have an odd man out?”

  “I already took care of it.”

  “You did a great job.” he said, pleased. “This is going to be a great dig, and it’s all because of you, Natalie. I don’t know how I could have pulled any of this off without your help. Thank you.”

  “No thanks are necessary,” she said huskily. “I’m just glad I could help.”

  Long after she hung up, Natalie couldn’t stop smiling. Then she remembered that she had another test in Max’s class tomorrow. After the fiasco of the last one, she had to pass this one. Otherwise, it was all over. Just thinking about it made her stomach clench.

  The next morning dawned cold and wet and miserable. Given the chance, Natalie would have pulled the covers over her head and gone back to sleep. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. She’d studied until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, and now it was time to face the music. She tried to convince herself that she was well prepared, that this time she could answer any question Max threw at her and the rest of the class. In the back of her mind, however, was the niggling fear that she would panic again and make a complete fool of herself.

  Restless, too nervous to even think about breakfast, she hustled the boys through breakfast, warmed up the car while they were brushing their teeth and dropped them off at their school cafeteria a full half hour before she normally did. Max’s class didn’t start for another forty-five minutes, but she headed for the university, anyway. She’d spend the time going over her notes one more time.

  His classroom was, not surprisingly, deserted when she walked in a short time later. Thankful to have the place to herself, she took her usual seat at the back of the room, pulled out her notes and started to study. But the classroom was too quiet, her mind too jumbled with all the facts she’d crammed into it over the past few days, and she could feel herself start to come unraveled. Horrified, she slammed her notebook shut and pushed to her feet. She knew the material—at least, she h
ad last night. Now it seemed to be all jumbled in her head. Drawing in a deep breath, she released it slowly. She had to calm down!

  When Max walked in ten minutes later, she was pacing restlessly. Surprised, he stopped short at the sight of her. “You’re early.”

  “I’ve been up since five,” she admitted with a grimace.

  “You’re panicking.”

  She didn’t deny it. “I can’t afford to flunk another test.”

  “You didn’t flunk the last one.”

  “After I took it over,” she reminded him. “I can’t do that on every test!”

  “No,” he agreed, smiling. “But you won’t need to. Will you chill out? You’re going to do fine.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You know what’s on the test!”

  “So do you!” He laughed. “This isn’t an ambush. At one point or another, I went over everything on the test in class.” Grinning, he raised a dark brow. “Did you do this in high school every time you had a test?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Then why are you now?”

  Put that way, she realized he was right. What was she doing? “I guess because I never thought I’d get to go to college. When Derek and I got married, we had an understanding that I would work and put him through college, then it would be my turn. But then he decided to go to law school, and after that I got pregnant with the boys. When he took off before they were born, I thought that was it. I was never going to get a chance to go to college.”

  “But you obviously did.”

  “True. But now that I am, I guess I’m afraid that I’m too old, that I can’t cut it, that I can’t keep up with the eighteen-year-olds. So I try harder.”

  “All the eighteen-year-olds are interested in is having a date for Friday night,” he said dryly. “You know that, don’t you?”

  Still pacing, she stopped short, blushing, and laughed. “Of course! I didn’t mean—”

  “That you were looking for a date for Friday night? Damn! And here I was, all set to ask you out!”

  “Max!”

  “Natalie!” he mimicked, grinning. “I’m—”

  Serious, he almost said, but he never got the chance. Before he could say another word, he heard a sound at the door and looked over just in time to see another student walk into the classroom. When she stopped short, her eyes wide with surprise, it was obvious she’d overheard him ask Natalie out.

  “Good morning,” he said easily, swallowing a curse. He wanted more time with Natalie, dammit! What was wrong with that? Since she’d started working on the dig from her house, he only saw her during class, and that wasn’t nearly enough. “It’s a rotten morning, isn’t it?” he told the student. What was her name? Jennifer? Debbie? “We must have gotten an inch and a half of rain last night.”

  “We’re in a flash-flood watch,” Natalie added quietly as she stepped around him and slipped into her desk. “The weatherman’s predicting another inch of rain before noon.”

  Just then another student walked in, then another, each shaking water from their hair, and Max was resigned to the fact that there would be no more private conversations with Natalie for the moment. If they hadn’t been interrupted, would she have agreed to go out with him? He’d been fighting the need to ask her out for weeks, and why, for God’s sake? Okay, so she was his student. She was thirty-six years old, married and divorced, and she knew her own mind. Of course, she hadn’t said yes, but he’d been on the other end of the kisses they’d shared, and she wasn’t indifferent. And neither was he. At some point in the future, he was going to have to decide what he intended to do about that, but for now, he just wanted to take her to a movie or out to dinner or both. What was wrong with that?

  The bell rang, jerking him back to the matter at hand. “Okay, boys and girls,” he said as everyone took their seats, “it’s party time. Clear off your desks and let’s get started.”

  Silence fell like a rock as he handed out the tests, and within seconds every student was bent over the test. Seated at his desk, Max kept an eagle eye for cheaters, but Natalie’s class was a good one, and so far he hadn’t had any problems with them. Relaxing somewhat, he shifted his gaze to Natalie and let out a silent sigh of relief. Unlike the previous test, when she’d sat and stared at it blankly, she was writing furiously.

  Just barely keeping the panic at bay, Natalie moved from one question to the next with a frown, expecting her brain to fog over at any second. But when she finally reached the last question and read it, the answer sprang to mind almost immediately. Not sure if she wanted to laugh or cry, she quickly wrote it down, then hesitated. She had time to go back over the test and check her answers, but she readily admitted that she was afraid to. If she second-guessed herself, she could screw up the entire test.

  Study Long, You Study Wrong.

  She smiled as one of her grandmother’s favorite sayings echoed in her ears. When she was a child and played dominoes with her grandmother, she’d always teased her whenever she hesitated, trying to decide what to do. Go with your gut, her grandmother had told her, and that was what she intended to do. She knew she’d passed the test—the question was, How well? With only a seventy on the last test, she needed a high A to bring up her average. She liked to think that she’d done that, but she couldn’t be sure, and that was what worried her. She’d gotten grants and scholarships to go to college, and she needed to finish the fall semester with at least an eighty average to qualify for the grants she would need for next semester. She couldn’t do that if she continued to make Cs in Max’s class.

  Worried, she started to read her answers over again, only to stop. No! she thought, scowling. Right or wrong, she was finished. She’d know on Tuesday if she passed. Gathering her things together, she made the long walk to where Max sat at his desk at the front of the room. He didn’t say a word as she handed him her paper, but she could see the question in his eyes. How had she done? Her answer as silent as his question, she only shrugged, smiled slightly and walked out. The next five days were going to be incredibly long.

  His eyes on her slim back as she disappeared out the door, Max would have liked nothing more than to grade her test right then and there. But he was determined not to show favoritism, so he neatly stacked it with the other papers that had already been turned in, then turned his attention back to the students who were still taking the test.

  Thirty minutes later the last student walked out of the classroom. Max glanced at the clock on the wall and frowned as the bell rang. He should have placed the test papers from Natalie’s class in his briefcase, then taken a break while he waited for the next class, which began in ten minutes. He usually graded tests at the end of the day, after everyone had taken it, but he didn’t want a break, and just this once he didn’t care if he was playing favorites. He had to know if Natalie passed. Flipping through the stack of test papers until he found hers, he quickly began to grade it.

  After her last class, Natalie holed up in the university library and began working on her homework. She had an English paper to work on, a test in biology on Tuesday, and the term paper for archeology, which had to be completed before she went on the dig, because it was due immediately afterward. And the clock was ticking. So she settled in her favorite little nook, spread open her books and went to work.

  Concentrating, however, wasn’t easy. Her thoughts kept drifting to her archeology test…and Max. With no effort whatsoever, she could still feel his hands gently kneading the tension from her shoulders, still feel the way her breath had caught in her throat when he’d asked her out. Had he meant it? Did she want him to mean it?

  Suddenly realizing where her thoughts had wandered, she swore softly and reminded herself that she had a lot of work to do and she’d have to leave soon to pick up the boys. It didn’t help. Max couldn’t have distracted her more if he’d been right across the table from her.

  An hour passed and she got very little done. Disgusted with herself, she finally packed up her things and he
aded for Susan’s house to get the boys. She’d planned to buy a pizza for the kids, rent a video, then spend the rest of the evening at the kitchen table, working on her homework. But it had been a while since she and the boys had done anything together. Homework would have to wait, she decided. There was a new Disney movie at the theater and the boys had been begging her to take them. Tonight was their lucky night.

  “Okay, guys,” she said as they reached the house and carried their backpacks inside, “you need to put your things away and change into some clean clothes.”

  Interest sparking in his blue eyes, Tommy said, “We’ve got clean clothes on, Mom. We just put them on this morning.”

  “That was nearly twelve hours ago,” she pointed out with a grin, “and you both look like you’ve been rolling around on the playground. Go change into something presentable, please. You can’t go to Mr. Toad’s looking like a couple of slobs.”

  “Mr. Toad’s! Really?”

  She nodded, trying not to smile. “And I don’t think we could possibly go to the movies when you’re so dirty—”

  They launched themselves at her, screaming in delight, and the three of them fell onto the couch in a tangle of arms and legs. Laughing, Natalie hugged them fiercely. “Did I happen to mention how much I love you guys?”

  “You’re the bestest, Mom!”

  “Better than Johnny Dunkin’s mom,” Harry agreed. “She can walk on her hands!”

  “No kidding?” She chuckled, impressed.

  “She does it all the time, just flips right over and walks down the sidewalk on her hands. It’s really cool.”

  The doorbell rang then, surprising the three of them, but before Natalie could struggle up from the couch, the boys were racing to the front door.

  “I’ll get it!”

  “No, I will! You got it last time.”

  “No, I’ll get it, boys. You need to go change—”

  Too late, the boys pulled open the door…and found themselves face-to-face with Max. With a whoop of delight, they grabbed his hands and pulled him inside.