by Merry Farmer
“But hey,” Latoya went on, proving her right. “Instead of taking up a table of our own, why don’t we join you guys? Would that be okay?” She turned to ask the hostess before anyone could object.
“Uh, yeah,” the hostess said.
“This is actually a business meeting.” Nathan was still seated, glancing up at the trio, his face still flushed from realizing where he’d gone wrong with his pitch.
“Isn’t Dennis supposed to be in town doing the same thing you are?” Latoya asked Nathan. “Aren’t both of you trying to convince Angie here to come work for you?”
Several details fell instantly into place in Angelica’s mind. Latoya hadn’t asked who Nathan was. She already knew. Which meant she had inside information. Probably from Leon, since Dennis wasn’t the sort to go telling tales out of school. Which meant Tee had known where Angelica would be and with whom. And all that added up to her friend plotting something that was supposed to end up with her and Dennis being alone.
“We can sit over there,” Dennis said, the color on his cheeks bright. “We don’t have to interrupt them.”
And that told Angelica that Dennis wasn’t in on the plot. She wasn’t sure if that boosted her impression of him for not getting involved in nonsense, or disappointed her, since he wasn’t trying to make a statement or stake a claim on her.
She had three seconds to decide how to play the situation. Her glance darted to Nathan. Did she really want to sit there, alone with the man, for who knew how long it would take for them to eat, listening to him yap on with no clue he was being offensive?
“Sure,” she said, scooting down one chair at the table to make room. “You guys are welcome to join us.”
“Good.” Latoya nodded, edging her way around Nathan—who still hadn’t gotten up to properly greet the new arrivals—to sit in the chair across from Angelica.
That, of course, left Dennis to sit down right next to Angelica. And considering that he was always one size too big for the standard seating in most restaurants, it meant his leg brushed up against hers as she pulled her chair into the table. The heat of his body went straight to her head.
The hostess handed menus to Latoya and Dennis, the waitress came over to take their orders, and within a few minutes, the entire mood and trajectory of the evening had changed completely. Angelica started timing how long it would take for her friend to make the inevitable next move.
“So what does NASA have to offer my friend here that Dennis’s company doesn’t?” Latoya asked.
Angelica would have shaken her head and called her friend out for being a mother hen, except she was interested in how Nathan would answer.
It took Nathan a minute to adjust from being the one in charge of the presentation, such as it had been, to being in the line of fire. “Well, we’re NASA. Your friend isn’t going to get much higher than that.”
“You mean she should settle for what everyone expects because no one’s going to give her any better?” Latoya shot across the table.
“Well, no, uh…that’s not…I mean to say….” Nathan stammered and blanched.
“NASA is undoubtedly the institution with the highest prestige.” Dennis, of all people, came to Nathan’s rescue. “It’s an honor to be sought after by them.”
To be sought after. The way he phrased it filled her with the desire to be sought after by him. He made her sound desirable.
“Yes, that’s it exactly.” Nathan perked up a little. “Our program is far-reaching and multi-layered and would give Angelica a chance to work with some of the finest minds in astrophysics.”
“Dennis is one of the finest minds in astrophysics,” Latoya said with a shrug. “What would make working with you better than working with him?”
“But, uh…Mr. Long is…um….”
A twist of satisfaction filled Angelica as Nathan attempted to wriggle his way out of saying something derogatory about the man who had just pulled his ass out of the fire. She was sure it made her all kinds of bitchy, but she couldn’t help saying, “Dennis is the most brilliant man I know and always has been. Are you saying that his research isn’t far-reaching or that his program’s scope isn’t multi-layered or prestigious?”
“You think I’m brilliant?” Dennis spoke softly.
Angelica turned her head slightly to peek up at him. The faint pink splash on his cheeks had her squirming in her seat, but for an entirely different reason than Nathan. “Brilliant and a gentleman,” she replied, her tone just as private as his.
Well, almost as private. She shot a look across the table to Nathan to see if he’d gotten the message to think carefully before opening his mouth again.
Luckily for Nathan, the waitress delivered their food to the table before he had to go rent a shovel to dig himself out of the hole he’d fallen into. And luckily for Angelica, she could dig in to her fried chicken with white pepper gravy, instead of having to tell Nathan he was doing nothing to sell NASA without coming right out and giving him a lesson in class.
“So, Mr. Long…Dennis, is it?” Nathan finally started up again when his catfish was nearly gone. “What exactly is Paradise Space Flight working on these days?”
Dennis cut a dumpling doused in gravy with the side of his fork and answered, “At the moment, just your run of the mill orbital resupply rocket for cargo missions to the International Space Station. But Howie has dreams of reaching Mars before you guys.” He grinned and gestured with his dumpling-topped fork.
When he went to eat the dumpling, gravy dripped onto his shirt. He didn’t notice. Memories of countless summer picnics and school lunches, blueberry pie, peanut butter, and ketchup all dripping onto his shirt at various times, hit Angelica. She couldn’t stop herself from grinning, her heart speeding up, as she remembered how many times she’d mopped him up while lecturing him about taking better care of his appearance so that the bullies didn’t get him.
Her smile dropped. The bullies. Like she’d turned out to be. Other memories hit her—memories of leading the taunts and calling him a slob in front of her cool friends all those years ago. She put down her fork, appetite gone.
“…and if we manage that, we should be able to launch our first prototype in about two years.” Dennis had continued with his explanation while Angelica’s mind drifted.
“So soon?” Nathan blinked, every hint of the suave recruiter gone, leaving a regular guy who liked rockets. “Aren’t you finding that government regulations on private missile launches are getting in your way?”
Dennis shrugged. “Howie has a way of getting what he wants when he wants it.”
Angelica wished she could say the same. Right about then, she wanted the past erased and a second chance to be the friend to Dennis that she should have been. She wanted more than that, if she was being honest.
A flicker of movement caught her eye, and Angelica glanced up to find Latoya grinning at her like a cat covered in cream. She darted a look to the guys, who were still talking, then sent her friend a look as if to say “What are you up to?”
Latoya merely wiggled one eyebrow and fixed her gaze on Dennis. Angelica peeked sideways at him too. Yep, he sure had grown up, even if he did have gravy on his shirt. Maybe he’d let her take that shirt off to wash the stain out, giving her a chance to see if the rest of his body had firmed up the way the lines of his face had.
“So yeah,” Dennis finished up. “Once we do move into phase two, we should be able to accelerate plans for the Haskell I rocket. Of course, it’d be a lot easier to manage if we could convince Angelica to hop on board.” He turned to her with a smile.
Angelica suddenly wished she’d paid a lot closer attention to the conversation and focused less on memories that had her running hot and cold. She smiled back, and when that lit a spark in Dennis’s eyes, her carefully trained, logical brain short-circuited. Should she make a play for him? Would he even let her? Was he just being his usual, nice guy self, and would he pull away if she pushed something more than a job?
“
Is everybody ready to order dessert?” Once again, they were saved by the waitress.
“I wouldn’t say no to some peach cobbler,” Dennis said, sending the waitress that delicious smile of his.
Angelica’s heart sank. Maybe she’d just read the signs wrong. Dennis always had been nice to everyone. It was the same in interpersonal relationships as it was in science—care had to be taken not to anticipate the results you wanted just because that’s what you hoped to find.
“I’ll have the hot brownie sundae,” she said without hesitation. At least she’d have a consolation prize if her instincts about Dennis were off.
“The peach cobbler looks good,” Nathan said, then reached to his back pocket as a quiet cellphone ring sounded. He took out his phone, looked at the screen, then said “Excuse me,” and got up, walking away.
“I’ll just nibble on Angie’s sundae,” Latoya said, her smile bigger than ever. The waitress nodded, repeated their orders, took some of the finished plates from the table, and headed off. “But right now, I’m going to go use the little girl’s room. Be right back.”
As if she’d sat on a bee, Latoya hopped up from the table and bolted for the restrooms. Angelica would have bet money that her friend’s bladder was just fine. She fell back on her usual sassy look as she twisted to face Dennis. “She put you up to coming here, didn’t she?”
Dennis slipped into one of his lop-sided grins. Funny, but when they were kids, that grin made him look like a doofus. Now, however, there was something decidedly sexy about it. “She asked if I wanted dinner. She didn’t say where we were going. I tried to tell her this wouldn’t be the best spot.”
“Are you trying to avoid me?” she asked. The urge to bait him, get a rise out of him, make him feel something that might open the door to the kind of electricity she’d felt in the upstairs bathroom earlier was too tempting to resist.
“I’m not trying to avoid you. Why would I try to avoid you? I came back to Atlanta specifically for you—uh, to talk to you.”
His surprised expression made Angelica feel restless. “I’d’ve thought you and your girlfriend would want a little privacy for dinner,” she went on.
“My girl—Latoya isn’t my girlfriend.” He frowned.
Angelica arched an eyebrow. “The two of you looked awfully cozy coming in here.”
“We—no, it was nothing like that. We were just catching up on old times.”
She was teasing him. She kept telling herself she was teasing him. She was giving him a hard time for old times’ sake. That was all. “You can date whoever you want. It shouldn’t matter to me.” Her words came out too sharp, too serious. Her heart felt them too genuinely. She reached for her sweet tea and took a gulp to ease the sudden dryness in her throat.
“Wait. You…you didn’t think I asked Latoya out on a date, did you?” Dennis shifted in his chair to face her more directly.
Angelica shrugged. “It’s none of my business if you did.”
He shook his head. “I’m here in Atlanta on business, and that business is you.”
Her breath caught in her lungs, and she raised her eyes slowly to meet his.
“I mean,” Dennis stumbled, closing his eyes. “I mean I’m here to convince you to come work for Paradise Space Flight.”
“Oh, is that all?” She forced the question to sound casual, but her heart cried out, is that all?
“Well, yeah.” He laughed nervously, cheeks splotching red.
Angelica’s heart dropped off the cloud of expectations and possibilities it’d risen on.
“I mean, I came to visit and hang out too,” he rushed on. “To see the old neighborhood. You know.”
“To have dinner with old friends.” Angelica swirled her half-full glass of tea on the tabletop, making the ice cubes clink against the sides.
“I have a right to have friends too, you know.” The edge in his voice hit her like shards of glass. She peeked up at him. “I have a lot of friends back in Wyoming. Are you going to be jealous of them too?”
“I am not jealous,” Angelica snapped, knowing full well she was.
“Okay.” Dennis nodded. “Not jealous. Possessive, then. Just like you were always possessive of me back in the day.”
“I was not.” She gaped, sitting straighter.
Dennis fixed her with a look that was as pitying as it was unconvinced. “Come on, Ange. I’m not sixteen anymore. I’ve lived a little since then. Enough to know that if you really don’t want someone in your life, you let them walk away. You don’t keep reeling them in, even after you’ve turned cool and landed a bunch of popular friends.”
It stung. He could have slapped her and it would have stung less. Because what he said was absolutely true. “I’m sorry.” She shifted in her seat to face forward, picking up her tea and taking a long, cooling draught. When she was done, she put the glass down, and against her better judgement, said, “You were the only one who understood me.”
Dennis laughed, the sound somewhere between scoffing and tenderness, and faced the table too. “You’re wrong.”
“No, you were.” Angelica nodded, gaze fixed on a spot on the table.
Dennis shook his head. “I never understood you.”
“I hope you two didn’t seal any deals while I was gone.” Nathan strode up to the table, tucking his cellphone in his back pocket. “This is supposed to be my recruitment dinner,” he teased Dennis. “You can wine her and dine her and pitch woo to her some other time.”
Dennis managed a humorless smile for the remark. “Been there. Tried that. Paid the price.”
Silence thudded around the table as Nathan took his seat. The man might have been a boor, but he wasn’t stupid. Realization dawned in his eyes. He only let it show for half a second before putting on a game face that would have made the Falcons proud.
“So tell me about this peach cobbler I ordered,” he said, clearing his throat. “Is it as good as I hear it is?”
“It’s amazing,” Dennis said. “I don’t know what they put in it to make it special, but it’s as good as the stuff Angelica’s mom makes.”
He sent a short, apologetic glance her way. Leave it to Dennis to feel bad about a fight that never really got off the ground. Angelica had a feeling that they both knew who was the one who really needed to do the apologizing. Only, it was sure to be too little too late.
Chapter Five
Coming back to Atlanta had been a bad idea. Dennis came to that conclusion halfway through dinner at Mary Mac’s on Saturday. He’d mulled it over on Sunday as he hung out with Leon and Latoya’s family, and confirmed the thought as everyone from Leon to his grandma teased him about Angelica. And as he walked up the cracked concrete path to Mrs. Brown’s house on Monday morning, he was absolutely certain he never should have mentioned to Howie that the same Angelica Jones he’d been scouting through grad school was his childhood friend.
“Dennis Long, Dennis Long,” Mrs. Brown sang, pushing herself up out of the chair where she sat on her porch with a trio of other elders from the neighborhood. “You don’t know how much it does my heart good to see you walking up that path.”
“Don’t get up, Mrs. B.” Dennis jogged up the stairs, intending to save her the trouble of rising, but he reached her just in time to get a big hug instead.
Mrs. Brown immediately held him at arm’s length, a concerned look on her face. “Uh oh. What’s got all those big, strong muscles of yours clenched up like Terrance there on Tax Day.”
Old Mr. Fellowes, sitting in a rocking chair at the end of the group, laughed.
“Don’t you know what a man with woman trouble looks like?” Mrs. Miniver, a new addition to the elder crew, chuckled from her chair beside him.
Mrs. Brown raised an eyebrow at Dennis with a look that said she knew full well what the problem was, and Mrs. Miniver had a big mouth for saying it out loud. It was a dead giveaway that he’d become the talk of the neighborhood.
“It’s nothing.” Dennis shrugged. “Just some loose e
nds from the past.” And if he believed that, not only could he sell Angelica on coming to work for PSF, he could also sell swamp land to Eskimos. “I came by to help with the renovations today.”
Mrs. Brown resumed her seat. “Go on in. They chased us out of the parlor today, ’cuz they’re putting up new wallpaper.”
Dennis leaned over to give her a kiss, waved to the others, then headed into the house. Already, someone had a radio blaring. Upstairs, he could hear the sound of power tools, and out back someone was hammering something. The house felt comfortably busy and full of distraction. It was exactly what he needed to break the storm of frustration that being around Angelica had stirred in him so far.
And he was frustrated, on too many levels. He was supposed to be there to convince Angelica to come work with him. Instead, after the sparks that had flown at Mary Mac’s, he’d bounced back and forth between wanting to convince her to get horizontal with him and wanting to tell her off for being as fickle as ever. In fact, he had just worked out the perfect way to tell her to take the NASA job because Haskell wasn’t big enough for the two of them to live in without causing an earthquake, when he stepped into Mrs. Brown’s front parlor and saw her.
Paint-splattered tank-top with her bra straps showing. Tight jean-shorts that hugged the generous curve of her backside. Long, brown legs that went on for days. Silky-smooth arms that any man would want wrapped around him. And then she turned around.
For half a heart-stopping second, Dennis saw fear in Angelica’s eyes. A moment later, that unguarded expression disappeared, replaced by a controlled smile.
“Hey, stranger. Nice of you to show up.” She turned away from the wall where she was stripping the paper and started across the room to him. Her soft lips curved into a cool smile that was at odds with the flecks of wallpaper dust on her cheeks.
Dennis knew he had to play the situation as cool as she was playing it. He would not be that sad puppy boy again. The days of Angelica yanking his chain were over, and she was going to know it.