A Younger Man

by Linda Turner

  “You must not be from around here. Nobody ever orders from the menu.”

  Glancing up, he found himself confronting a waitress in a formfitting uniform who couldn’t be a day over eighteen. Grinning at him sassily, she was short and cute and had flirt written all over her.

  Sitting back in his chair, Max raised a dark brow. “Then why have a menu?”

  “The old folks passing through town need them,” she confided, winking at him. “They like to know what they’re getting. You should try the hot wings. You look like the kind of man who would appreciate something hot and spicy.”

  Studying her through narrowed eyes, Max had always appreciated a flirt. Normally he would have flirted right back, but before he could even think of a comeback, images of Natalie stirred in his head…the surprise in her eyes when he’d kissed her at the football game, the love that lit up her whole face when she laughed at something the boys did, the tenderness of her touch when she tucked them in at night. And regardless of how cute the girl standing before him was, or how sexy she was in her snug little uniform, when he compared her to Natalie, she just didn’t measure up. She was too young, too immature, too obvious.

  Stunned by the direction of his thoughts, he scowled. Since when had a cute, sexy woman turned him off?

  “Actually, I just want a cheeseburger and an order of fries,” he said coolly. “I’m not really into hot and spicy.”

  Something that looked an awful lot like irritation flashed in her eyes, but she just gave him a tight smile and jotted down his order. “Anything to drink? Milk?”

  Max bit back a laugh. Oh, yeah, she was irritated. Judging from the looks of her, she didn’t get turned down very often. “Make it iced tea,” he retorted.

  “Whatever you say.” She sniffed as she turned away and pushed through the swinging door to the kitchen.

  When his food was delivered to his table a short while later, Max needed to take only one bite to know why the place was packed. At any other time he would have appreciated that. But his thoughts kept drifting to Natalie. It had been years since he’d let a woman get under his skin. How the hell had she managed it? And more important, what was he going to do about it?

  “Is something wrong with the burger?”

  Glancing up from his thoughts, he frowned at the sassy little waitress, who had obviously decided to give him another chance. “No,” he retorted. “I guess I’m just not very hungry, after all. Just bring me the bill.”

  “How about dessert? That might tempt your appetite.”

  A half smile curled the corner of his mouth. He had to give her credit—she just didn’t give up. “No, thanks. I just need the bill.”

  “Okay,” she said with a shrug, irritation once again flashing in her eyes. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  When she tore off his bill and slapped it down on the table, Max merely picked it up, checked the total, and pulled out his wallet. Leaving her a respectable tip, along with the money for the total for his meal, he walked out. The second he climbed on his bike and drove away, however, his thoughts once again turned to Natalie.

  He was, he decided grimly, acting like his father, mooning over a woman, and that scared the hell out of him. He wasn’t going to do this. Not now. Not ever. He couldn’t very well deny that he was seriously attracted to Natalie, but that was all it was—sexual attraction. He wasn’t in love with her, he assured himself. Oh, he liked her a hell of a lot, and there was no question that she could get him stirred up, but that didn’t add up to love. And he wasn’t going to start letting himself think it might.

  Despite the happiness his father and Becky seemed to share, he couldn’t believe that he’d been wrong all these years. What most people mistook for love was nothing more than an incredibly strong chemistry that didn’t last. Time and again he’d seen his father, friends, associates, throw caution to the wind and rush headlong into marriage because they made the mistake of getting involved with women who had marriage written all over them. Women like Natalie. Women who wanted home and hearth and husband and kids and huge Thanksgiving dinners every year, surrounded by children and grandchildren.

  No, no, no! He wasn’t getting caught up in the fantasy. He wasn’t kissing Natalie ever again, he promised himself. He wasn’t touching her. Hell, he wasn’t even flirting with her! Maybe then, he wouldn’t make a damn fool of himself over her.

  Satisfied that he had his emotions well in hand, he stubbornly refused to let her intrude on his thoughts the rest of the drive home. And the second he walked in his front door, he went straight to his computer and spent the next two hours working on his book. And for the first time in what seemed like weeks, the words flowed.

  Katherine would be pleased, he thought with a tight grin that held little humor. Giving in to impulse, he reached for the phone to call her. It wasn’t until he heard the young male voice at the other end of the line, however, that he realized he had unwittingly called Natalie instead. “Tommy? Is that you?”

  “Hi, Max,” he said happily. “How did you know I wasn’t Harry?”

  Max frowned. That was a good question. The boys were the spitting image of each other and they loved playing tricks on him. Natalie could tell them apart, of course, but Max couldn’t deny that he spent most of the time calling them by the wrong names. And when he did get their names right, he’d guessed. So how had he recognized Tommy’s voice from his brother’s? When had he gotten close enough to them to tell them apart?

  “Max? Are you still there?”

  He blinked, jerking his attention back to Tommy. “I’m here. I was just trying to figure out how I knew who you were. Lucky guess, I guess. So what have you guys been doing?”

  “Fishing!” he said promptly. “Mommy took us fishing at the park after school. I caught a big perch!”

  “No, kidding? I went fishing today, too.”

  “You should have come with us. Mommy almost fell in when I caught my big fish.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Yeah. She’s right here.” And before Max could stop him, he called out, “Mommy? It’s Max. He wants to talk to you.”

  She came on the line almost immediately. “Hi, Max. Is everything okay? You don’t usually call this late.”

  “I just got in and was checking to see what your schedule was for tomorrow,” he lied. “We’ve only got a week left, and there’s still a lot to do.”

  “Tomorrow I thought I’d start buying the nonperishable food,” she replied. “What about you?”

  “I’ve got to go finalize the contract with the charter bus company.”

  “So you’ve decided against the vans?”

  “I was never really comfortable having students drive. This is safer.”

  “And more convenient,” she added. “Everyone can relax and enjoy the trip.”

  Max should have been pleased—she was keeping the conversation strictly business, which was what he’d wanted. So why did he want to ask her about the fishing trip and the boys and what they’d had for supper and if she ever planned to trust a man again? What the hell was wrong with him?

  He should have told her he was just checking to make sure they were on the same page and then found an excuse to hang up, but the words just wouldn’t come. Instead he heard himself say gruffly, “Are the boys packed for their trip yet?”

  She laughed softly. “They didn’t care that they weren’t leaving until the Friday after Thanksgiving—they packed last week.”

  “They’re going camping, too, aren’t they? With their babysitter and her husband and her kids?”

  “They’re going to Rocky Mountain National Park.”

  “Are you having second thoughts about letting them go?”

  “Second and third and fourth thoughts.” She laughed ruefully. “I know they’ll have a good time—Susan’s brother works there and he knows all the best places to see the animals—but I’m going to miss them like crazy. They’ve never been away from me….”

  “Never? Not even t
o spend the night with one of their friends?”

  “They’re only five,” she replied. “They’ve had a couple of sleepovers with Susan’s kids, but those were at my house. I just like knowing where they are at night.”

  “But you won’t be home yourself,” he pointed out.

  “I know.” she said, sighing. “It doesn’t make sense, does it? But I’m their mother. I don’t have to make sense. If something happens while they’re gone—”

  “Nothing’s going to happen, Natalie,” he assured her huskily. “Obviously, Susan’s a responsible person or you wouldn’t trust her to take care of the boys while you’re working. And with her husband and brother both there, it sounds like there’ll be plenty of adults to watch the kids. They’ll be fine. Anyway, you’re not going to have time to worry about them. You’re going to be pretty busy. Remember?”

  “How could I forget? It seems like I’ve been waiting for this forever. It’s going to be so much fun!”

  Max knew exactly how she felt. He’d lost track of the number of digs he’d been on over the years. He always enjoyed them, but it had been a long time since he’d looked forward to one as much as he did this one. And the reason was obvious. Natalie. He would have three full days with her. If just the two of them had been going, he would have been worried about his resolve to be just friends, but with forty-nine chaperones taking every step they did, he didn’t think he had a thing to worry about.

  The days that led up to the dig were wild, frantic, crazy. And Natalie had never been so excited in her life. It seemed as if she was constantly running…to school, to work, to get something for the dig or for the boys for their trip or both. When she fell into bed at night, she was so exhausted that she was asleep almost as soon as she closed her eyes. Still, she dreamed of Max, though she only had fleeting memories of her dreams the next morning. And there was no time to worry about that, because with the rising of the sun the madness started all over again. She couldn’t complain, though. She loved the pressure, loved working with Max. They had become a team, and every time she turned around, they were on the phone to each other.

  Three nights before they were supposed to leave for the dig, she didn’t see how they could possibly have everything ready in time for the trip. With every passing hour, Natalie’s to-do list seemed to grow by leaps and bounds—there were last-minute glitches, things that had slipped her mind, perishable groceries and dry ice to buy, but somehow she managed to get it all done. Then suddenly it was Thanksgiving and the dig was scheduled to begin the next morning. She was so excited, she could hardly sleep. She wasn’t the only one. Before her alarm even went off, the boys were standing on either side of her bed, nudging her awake.

  Groggy, she squinted at them in the light that streamed across her bed through the open door to the hallway. “What’s wrong? What time is it? What are you doing up so early?”

  “We’re going camping,” Harry crowed, grinning as he bounced on the bed. “C’mon, Mom, we gotta get going!”

  “We can’t be late!” Tommy added, trying to tug her into a sitting position. “And we still gotta eat breakfast and brush our teeth and—”

  “Okay, okay!” she groaned, laughing. “I’ll get up, but it’s only five o’clock. You can sleep another hour if you want to. Why don’t you just crawl in bed with me and go back to sleep? I’ll wake you up when the alarm goes off.”

  “Mom!”

  “You’re going back to sleep!”

  Jerking herself awake, she forced herself out of bed. “I’m up,” she promised. “See? I’m up.”

  Delighted, the boys let out a whoop and raced down the hall to get dressed. Rolling out of bed, she had to admit she was glad the boys woke her early. She had plenty of time for a shower, and she intended to use every second of it. It was the only real shower she’d get for the next few days. Grabbing her clothes, she rushed into the master bath.

  She’d made herself a list of everything that needed to be done before she locked the house and walked away from it for four days, but it seemed as if she’d hardly done half the things on the list when the doorbell rang a short while later, announcing Susan’s arrival. “She’s here, Mom! She’s here!”

  “I know. Do you have your toothbrushes and toothpaste? What about jackets? Make sure you bundle up when you’re outside. I don’t want you coming home sick,” she told them as she hurried to the front door. Sudden panic squeezing her heart, she opened the door and announced, “I don’t know about this, Susan. Maybe this is a mistake. You’ve got your kids to watch over—you don’t need mine, too.”

  Far from shocked by her last-minute about-face, Susan only grinned. “Why did I know you were going to do this? Will you relax? The boys are going to do fine. I promise I’ll take good care of them.”

  “But—”

  “No buts,” she said firmly. “You’ve been dying to do this for years. Go and have a good time and don’t worry about the kids. I’ll watch them like they were my own.”

  “I know that,” Natalie replied, smiling. “I’m sorry. I know I sound like a nut—”

  “No, you don’t.” She chuckled. “You just sound like a mom who’s never been away from her kids before. Will it help if I promise to call you if they so much as get a sniffle?”

  “How are you going to call me? The cell phones don’t work in the mountains.”

  “If there’s a real emergency, I know where you are. I’ll call the sheriff and he’ll find you. Okay?”

  Hesitating, Natalie knew she was being paranoid, but she hadn’t realized it was going to be this hard to let them go. They were growing up so fast—before she knew it, they’d be grown and gone. Did Derek ever think about them, ever think about what he was missing? She almost felt sorry for him…until she remembered that when he’d walked out, he hadn’t given a damn that she was seven months pregnant with his sons.

  Bracing for the old, familiar bitterness that always came rushing back whenever she thought of Derek, she was surprised to discover that it wasn’t nearly as fierce as it had once been. And she knew it was because she’d gone on with her life.

  “I’m not really worried about something happening. I’m not,” she insisted when Susan gave her a skeptical look. “This is just their first trip without me, and the next thing you know, they’re going to be going on school trips, then off to college and…” Suddenly realizing what she was saying, she laughed at herself. “Okay, so I’m a little nuts this morning. Give me a hug, boys, and have a good trip. Make sure you mind Aunt Susan and Uncle Joe.”

  “We will. Bye, Mom.”

  “Last one to the car’s a rotten egg!”

  They were gone in a flash, leaving Natalie with a smile on her lips and tears in her eyes. Clicking her tongue, Susan gave her a quick hug. “None of that. You’re going off on an adventure of your own, remember? Go have fun. We’ll see you Sunday.”

  With a wink and a smile she was gone. Staring after Susan’s Suburban as it disappeared around the corner, Natalie shook off her melancholy. This was no time to get sentimental and weepy. Susan was right. She had a fantastic adventure of her own she was going on…with Max!

  Her tears instantly vanished, and suddenly she couldn’t stop smiling. How long had she been waiting for this? It seemed like a lifetime. From the moment she read Max’s first book, she’d been fascinated with archeology and, she readily admitted, him. She couldn’t wait to see him in action on a dig. After loading her backpack into the car, she did a quick tour of the house to make sure everything was in order, then headed for campus. Since she had the responsibility of getting her sons off that morning, too, Max had arranged for several of the other students to help him load all the equipment and supplies into the bus an hour before everyone else was scheduled to arrive. So when she arrived at the pickup spot on campus, the bus was loaded and the only things left to be dealt with were the students’ personal items.

  Almost everyone was there when she arrived, and Max was at the center of what looked like controlled cha
os. In the process of checking each new arrival off his roster, he looked up the second she started toward him. The smile that started in his eyes and spread to his mouth warmed her all the way to her toes. “There you are. Did you get the boys off okay?”

  “They couldn’t get away from me fast enough,” she answered, chuckling. “In fact, they woke me up before the alarm went off. I don’t think they slept all night.”

  “I know the feeling. I’m always that way before a dig.” Cocking an eyebrow at her, he grinned. “You ready for your first dig?”

  “Now that all the planning’s over with, yes! I can’t wait!”

  “Good. Because now we’re going to have some fun.”

  The bus driver needed to talk to him about how some of the equipment was packed in the bus’s luggage area, and as he hurried to take care of the situation, Natalie was left to wonder exactly what he’d meant by “we’re going to have fun”. Had he meant the entire class? Or the two of them personally?

  With her heart skipping a beat at the thought, she swallowed a groan. She was not going to do this! She wasn’t going to analyze everything Max said and try to read hidden meaning into his every word, or she would drive herself crazy. This was probably the only chance she’d ever have to go on a dig, and Max had made that possible for her. She was going to take him at his word and have fun.

  Satisfied that she had her emotions well in hand, she and the rest of the students helped load the last of the personal items on the bus, then it was time to board. The majority of the group moved to the back of the bus as Max conferred with the driver on the route they would take, but she wanted to be at the front, so she could see where they were going. So she sank into a window seat in the second row and pulled her camera from her purse. She’d brought far more film than any reasonable shutterbug would need, but she didn’t care. She wanted pictures of everything!