Be Mine (5 page)

Eden could feel tears welling in her eyes again. She reached for another tissue and blew her nose.

She didn't know what to do.

All she did know was that she was going to be alone on Valentine's Day.

That thought made her cry even more.

“Bonnie, please stop crying.
Please
,” Natalie begged. “If you stop crying, I'll buy you any toy you want.”

Natalie hated resorting to blackmail, but what else could she do? Claudia had been gone for twenty minutes and Bonnie was
still
crying and showing no signs of winding down. Where did she find the energy?

Natalie had tried everything to get Bonnie to stop crying. She sang, she danced. She offered to put on her favorite DVDs, play with her toys, bake cookies. Nothing worked. Bonnie just kept crying and crying, running from room to room and screaming at the top of her lungs. She was like one of those car alarms that wouldn't turn off!

What if someone walking by heard Bonnie crying? She didn't want them to think she was hurting her. And whoever said toddlers went through the Terrible Twos had never dealt with Bonnie and the Terrible Fours!

Natalie wished she wasn't all alone. How could Claudia have left her? Duh! Dumb question. Because that was Claudia. The only person she ever thought about was herself. Eden never would have left her alone. Eden would have stayed and tried to help calm Bonnie down. Instead, she was all alone with no clue about what to do! This was crazy! She couldn't let a four-year-old defeat her!

Then Natalie heard it. The sound of the doorbell.

Natalie raced to answer it. Anything to get away from Bonnie and her tears.

She opened the front door and as she did, the crying stopped.

“Uncle Leo!” Bonnie happily shrieked, running across the front hall and throwing her arms around the legs of the teenage guy standing on the porch.

Natalie recognized Leo Barnes. Everyone at North Ridge High knew who Leo was. Overweight Leo was known for his huge appetite and huge size. He wasn't flabby fat — he didn't jiggle when he walked — but he
was
fat and could stand to lose some weight. He definitely had a big belly, although he didn't have a double chin. He had a mop of crazy brown curls on his head and gold-flecked green eyes.

Leo would eat anything if someone dared him to. Last semester someone had offered him twenty dollars to eat a whole can of sardines. He had.

Natalie often wondered what Leo went through. Even though Leo had a bunch of friends at North Ridge High, a lot of students laughed at him behind his back. They called him the Human Garbage Disposal and Mr. Jelly Belly. They asked if he had his own zip code or if he needed to buy two seats when he was on a plane.

If the barbs bothered him, Leo never let it show. He always had a smile on his face and was ready to help someone out if they needed his assistance. Every Christmas he volunteered as Santa Claus in the children's wing of the local hospital.

Natalie never laughed at Leo or made fun of him. Her heart went out to him because she knew exactly what he was going through.

“Hey, peanut! What's up? What's with the tears? Big girls don't cry. Is Natalie not being nice to you?”

“How do you know my name?” Natalie asked in surprise.

Leo rolled his eyes. “Everyone knows your name. You're one of the popular girls from school. Unlike me, who's unpopular.”

“What's unpopular?” Bonnie asked, wiping her runny nose across her sleeve.

Leo lifted Bonnie into his arms and gave her a kiss on the cheek before putting her back down. “Something you'll never be!”

“I didn't know you were Bonnie's uncle.”

Leo squeezed Bonnie's nose with two fingers and hid it behind his back. “Oh no! I stole your nose!”

Bonnie giggled as she touched the tip of her nose. “No, you didn't, Uncle Leo. It's still here.”

“Are you sure?”

Leo turned to Natalie. “My brother Stan is married to Lisa. She gave me a call on my cell phone a little while ago. She was worried you might be having some problems with Bonnie,” he said, putting his fingers back on Bonnie's nose before pressing his mouth to her belly and making a farting sound. Bonnie instantly erupted into a burst of giggles. “I can see she was right. Someone was being bad!” he scolded. “Tell Natalie you're sorry for crying when Mommy went away.”

Bonnie stared down at the floor, twisting her right foot into the carpet. Then she stared at Natalie from beneath her bangs. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“Good girl,” Leo said, kissing her on top of her head.

“I wouldn't say you're unpopular,” Natalie told Leo. She didn't know why, but Leo calling himself unpopular bothered her. It made her feel like he thought she was better than him, and that wasn't true.

Bonnie began tugging Leo by the hand, trying to drag him into the living room. “Uncle Leo, come and have a tea party with me!”

“A tea party! Really?” Leo happily clapped his hands. “Oh boy!”

Natalie watched as Bonnie led Leo to a tiny table and chairs situated in the corner of the living room. Leo couldn't fit into the chair, but he got down on his knees and let Bonnie drape a purple feather boa around his neck and place a huge straw hat on his head. Bonnie then added a colorful silk scarf to her own neck and sat across from Leo. She reached for a pink teapot and poured her uncle a cup.

“This tea is deee-liss-eee-us!” Leo proclaimed with a loud slurp. He held out his cup. “More, please!”

Natalie couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Leo sitting at Bonnie's table. They looked so cute together. It was obvious that he adored his niece and she adored him.

“Hey, Natalie, want to join our tea party?” Leo looked at Bonnie. “It's okay if Natalie joins us, isn't it?”

Bonnie's head bobbed up and down. “Yes!”

“I'd love to,” Natalie said, hurrying to join them.

“How's your essay coming?” Violet asked, looking up from her American History notes.

“What essay?” Jennifer asked as she ripped a piece of lined yellow paper from her notepad, crumpled it, and tossed it on the floor, where it joined a growing pile in the corner of her kitchen. Her Siamese cat, Sheba, walked over and sniffed the page. After discovering it wasn't something edible, she twitched her tail and walked out of the kitchen.

“I thought you said writing the essay was going to be the easy part.”

“So did I.” Jennifer sighed. She had been trying to write her essay for the last three hours, ever since she and Violet had come to her house after classes had ended. She still didn't have anything on paper. “I was wrong. How can I write about my perfect boyfriend and our perfect relationship when I don't know anything about him?”

“You don't have to know anything about him,” Violet pointed out. “Just make it all up! The deadline for essays is Friday. You have to write one. Otherwise, you can't compete.”

“I'm trying, but the words aren't coming out. Whatever I say needs to fit the guy I wind up with. And because I don't know anything about him, I'm having a hard time.”

“Can't you give him a copy of your essay once you find him? You're going to have to do that anyway so your stories are straight.”

“Yes, but it's not the same thing. If I knew something,
anything
, about him, it might make the writing easier.”

“Why don't you write about the guy you wish was already your boyfriend?” Violet suggested.

“There isn't anyone at school,” Jennifer said.

Violet shook her head. “That's not what I meant. Don't you sometimes wonder who you're going to marry someday? What he looks like, how you fall in love with him, how he proposes to you?”

“Not really. Why? Do you?”

Violet slowly nodded her head. “I'm going to meet him in college during our sophomore year and I'm going to be late for class. We're going to crash into each other in the hallway and our books are going to fall to the floor. He's going to help me pick everything up, but before I can thank him, he's running off to his class. One thing I notice about him is how messy he is. His clothes are all wrinkly and look too big on him and he needs a haircut. The other thing I notice are his eyes. They're big and brown and there's something about them that I can't forget.”

Violet left her seat at the butcher-block table and walked over to the stainless-steel refrigerator, reaching in for a bottle of water. She opened it up and took a sip. “Later that day I run into him at the campus coffee shop and I offer to buy him a coffee. We talk for hours and he walks me back to my dorm. After he does, he asks if I'm doing anything on Saturday night. At first I want to play hard to get and pretend I already have plans, but I like him so much that I say yes. On our first date, he takes me bowling and then we go out for Chinese food and he teaches me how to use chopsticks. When he takes me home and kisses me good night, I know that he's the guy I'm going to marry. And when he does propose to me during our senior year, it's going to be at the same Chinese restaurant where we had our first date. When I crack open my fortune cookie at the end of dinner, my fortune is going to say,
Will you marry me?
Of course my answer will be yes!”

“Violet Wagner!” Jennifer exclaimed. “Who knew you were such a romantic!”

Violet blushed as she sat back down next to Jennifer. “You don't daydream like that?”

Jennifer reached for Violet's bottle of water and took a sip. “I'm too busy worrying if I'm going to have a date for the prom. I have plenty of time to worry about finding a groom.”

“Do you want me to write the essay for you?” Violet offered.

Jennifer shook her head. “Thanks, but I have to do this myself. Don't worry, it'll get done.”

“You're still going to have to find the guy you're writing about,” Violet gently reminded. “Saturday night isn't that far away.”

“I know,” Jennifer groaned. “I know.”

“You probably don't want to hear this, but there's still time to back out.”

Jennifer stubbornly shook her head. “And give Claudia the satisfaction of knowing I lied? I don't think so!”

“But if you don't confess now and you still don't have a boyfriend by Saturday night, what are you going to do?”

Jennifer didn't say anything. She just stared at Violet, who gasped.

“You're not going to go to her party
alone
, are you?”

“Why not?”

“Because you'll be humiliated.”

“I'm not going to hide!” Jennifer exclaimed. “That's what she expects me to do. She thinks I won't show up, but I will. I'm not afraid of Claudia. Besides, once I go to her party, it'll be over and done with. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.”

“Ouch!”

“I still have tomorrow and Friday to find someone. Don't count me out yet.” Jennifer pushed her chair away from the table. “I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. How about we order a pizza? My parents are both working late tonight so it would be nice not to eat alone. Maybe after I have something to eat, I'll be able to write my essay.”

“Sure. Let me just call my mom and tell her I'm not going to be home for dinner,” Violet said, whipping out her cell.

Jennifer walked over to the counter and opened the drawer where there were a bunch of take-out menus. Jennifer's mother, who worked long hours at an advertising agency, didn't cook much and was always ordering in. Jennifer started searching for the pizzeria menus so she could find a place to call. “How does half pepperoni, half mushroom sound?”

“Sounds yummy!” Violet exclaimed as her stomach rumbled in agreement.

Thirty minutes later, there was a knock on the back door.

“Pizza!” Violet happily exclaimed, closing her textbooks.

Jennifer rummaged for her wallet in her shoulder bag before going to open the door. As she walked across the kitchen, Violet called out, “Wouldn't it be great if we could order up a boyfriend the way we just ordered this pizza?”

Jennifer laughed. “If only!”

Then Jennifer opened the back door and was left speechless when she saw the delivery guy.

He was
gorgeous.

His face was all chiseled cheekbones, with a small cleft in his chin. His jet-black hair was straight and parted on the side, falling smoothly across his forehead and bringing attention to his piercing blue eyes. He was wearing a green plaid flannel shirt with a white waffle T-shirt underneath it and a black leather vest on top. His jeans were faded and his motorcycle boots were dusty and scuffed.

Jennifer instantly knew who he was.

Every girl at North Ridge High did.

Will Sinclair.

The Heartbreaker.

He held out the pizza box. “Are you Jennifer Harris? Half pepperoni, half mushroom?”

“Come in,” Jennifer said, holding the back door wide open. “You must be freezing out there.”