Leaving Normal (25 page)

"All right—since you don't mind."

"Not at all. I'm planning on buying the latest
Popular Science
, so I'll give it a look over while you're being given the look over by your boss." He took a sip of his slushy and added, "I hope you do okay."

"I don't worry too much about it. I've worked here for three years. If I can't pass a performance assessment by now, then I'd better start looking for another job."

"What would you do?"

Iris pondered that a moment. "Honestly…I don't know. But I'd think of something. I'm not one to rest on my laurels. I have to save for my retirement."

For some reason, what she said made him smile. He spoke with a quiet tone, one reserved with admiration. "I'm looking forward to this evening, Iris."

His smile was infectious, a spark of something burning to life in the core of her heart. "Me, too, Fred."

Guns and Hoses

Aunt Natalie, I think you should wear this top instead of the one you have on."

Natalie gazed at the slinky, black silk blouse on a hanger that BreeAnn held for her inspection.

Sydney agreed. "Yeah, it's sexier."

Her eleven- and thirteen-year-old nieces had come over with Sarah. They'd said it was to bring back the lawn chairs Sarah had borrowed. If it hadn't been six months ago and the weather too cold to sit on the patio, Natalie might have bought into it. But since she recalled telling Sarah she could have the chairs, the excuse was thin, not to mention, concocted.

The three of them had come over to offer their clothing and makeup suggestions to get her ready for the hockey game.

In hindsight, Natalie never should have told Sarah that she'd gone to Chuck E. Cheese's with Tony, much less that he'd invited her, as
friends
, to a Steelies game.

But with a careless comment on the phone this morning during her conversation with her sister, she'd blabbed. Maybe it had been the rush of excitement that Natalie had been trying to keep at bay—whatever it was it had gotten the best of her.

She didn't know why she was so anxious about tonight. Probably because her sister and nieces had gone into overdrive making sure she looked perfect.

The special attention was unnerving.

BreeAnn and Sydney were like miniatures of Sarah; they liked to dress the same, wear makeup and their hair was always styled. Natalie thought it a bit much, but then Cassie had preferred to play sports than take an hour to flatten her hair. BreeAnn was the queen of hair design.

Grudgingly, Natalie allowed BreeAnn to fix her hair and it had turned out really good. Great, in fact. BreeAnn had gotten the layers to curl just right so that they fell in soft curves around her cheeks and lay against her neck.

Sydney was the makeup expert. She wore hers a little too dark for Natalie's tastes, but Sarah had no problem with it. Natalie had to admit, Sydney did a nice job applying eyeshadow for her. When she did it herself, she usually applied two colors, a light and a dark and hoped for the right contrast. Sydney had used five different colors of browns and applied them in layers, but not heavy. The look was natural, yet it was apparent that she had on eye makeup. Her green eyes seemed to pop, her. lashes even longer. Lash primer—that's what Sydney said was the magic trick.

Natalie rose from the chair she'd been sitting on in the bathroom while the girls worked on her, Sarah sitting on the toilet with the lid down.

"I think that top is too much for a hockey game," Natalie protested.

Sarah joined her in the bedroom. "I don't. I think it looks great. Hey, the tag is still on it."

"I've haven't worn it yet."

"Why not?"

"No place to wear it."

"Put it with jeans," BreeAnn suggested.

Natalie frowned. "Jeans?"

"Sure," Sydney chimed in. "You can wear anything with jeans."

Sarah took the blouse, held it up over the top Natalie was wearing, which was a plain white cable-knit sweater. Nothing fancy, but it was very pretty and practical to wear inside a cold ice arena. The silk…she'd be freezing in that.

"I think you should wear the blouse." Sarah held it out to Natalie and she was forced to take it as her sister invaded her closet. "And I think you should wear these shoes with the jeans."

She held up a pair of four-inch heels Natalie reserved for a business suit. "Those? They won't look right with jeans."

"Sure they will." Sarah propelled her to the bed, sat her down and within several moments, the three of them had swapped out a perfectly good sweater and Doc Martens for a black silk blouse and heels.

They urged her to stand up and give them a turnaround. She felt self-conscious—it was too much. "I can't wear this."

"But you like him, Aunt Natalie," BreeAnn said, her face beaming. "You have that look in your eyes that Sydney gets when she likes a boy."

Raising a hand to her cheek, Natalie replied, "I do? I mean, I do not."

"Yeah, you do." Sydney brought the blush brash over and dusted a final trace across the bridge of Natalie's nose.

BreeAnn fussed and fixed her hair one last time, then the girls went downstairs to microwave some popcorn.

Sarah stared at Natalie so long that she finally said, "What?"

"I think you should just have fun."

"I intend to, but you're making a huge deal out of this. It's nothing."

"It could be something. The man was just too gorgeous for words when he was on TV. He's intelligent and, from everything you've told me, he's adjusted to being single in a relatively short amount of time. The fact that he asked you out says he's ready to move on."

"I keep telling you, we're going as friends. This is nothing. He's not ready to get involved. I saw a picture of his ex-wife and stepdaughter in his fireman's helmet. He took it out in front of me, made an excuse why he'd left it in there."

"Not necessarily a bad thing," Sarah justified. "That shows he's not vindictive. He's sweet and compassionate. He didn't have to take the photo out in front of you, but he did. That says a lot. Who knows, you could be 'the one' for him. After all, he gave you those fabulous flowers."

"As a thank-you for
friendship
. I am absolutely not 'the one' for him." Natalie walked through the bedroom. She got her watch, put it on; then selected a pair of hoop earrings. "He wants kids, he told me. I have a daughter in college and the next baby I hold will be my grandchild."

"He didn't ask you out tonight to make a baby with him."

"I couldn't do it even if I wanted to—I'm sure of it each month when my period is late or early or whatever it decides to do." Natalie smoothed her hands down the blouse, still not convinced it was the right choice. "So why invest in something that won't go anywhere?"

"How can having fun be a bad investment for the night?"

Not responding, Natalie sat on the bed, composed herself and took a deep breath. "I shouldn't be going anywhere with him. It's like leading him on or something. I think maybe he's hoping there could be something more. But if I'm wrong, it would be extremely presumptuous of me to blurt out I can't have kids. I can't win for losing. I never should have said I'd go."

Sarah sat beside her, took her hand. "I think you're nervous because you like him more than you're willing to admit. You said you had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese's. Why not have more great times?"

Quiet a moment, Natalie said softly, "I can't afford to get attached to him. I think I could…very easily. It scares me."

"Don't be scared."

Natalie met her sister's eyes. "After my surgery, my outlook on life changed. I've thought about it—I don't want to have doubts about things, I want to plunge in and hope for the best in everything. To live each day to the fullest."

"That's what Mom wanted for us," Sarah said quietly.

"I know. And I forgot about what that meant until I woke up on that hospital bed and had a reality check." Natalie looked at her hands and the pink polish she'd painted on her nails. "I don't know what's ahead for me. I want to stay hopeful that I'll find the right man even-tually, but I know it's not Tony Cruz. He's at a totally different place than I am, wanting different things in life than I do. If I were ten years younger and had never had Cassie, I'd be on him so fast he wouldn't know what hit him."

Sarah's soft laugh filled the bedroom. "And he'd love every minute."

Natalie lifted her chin. "So would I."

"Then don't let anything stop you. Have fun with him."

"I will, I do… Yes. Fine. You win. I'll be happy tonight and he'll never know that I'm giving him up for a good cause—his own future with the woman of his dreams." She straightened and gave Sarah a silly grin. "Now get out of my house."

Sarah put on a face of mock indignance. "How's that for gratitude? We come over here and get you beautiful and you kick us out before we can greet him at the door."

"My point exactly." Natalie stood and headed downstairs to let her sister and the girls out. "I don't want you guys here when he comes over. You'll all drool on him or say something that will embarrass me."

"We would never."

"Maybe not on purpose."

Sarah rounded up her daughters and they departed with well-wishes. As soon as they were gone, Natalie went back upstairs, took the heels off and put on her Doc Martens, and swapped the blouse for the sweater..

She felt more herself, although her nerves were still stretched thin.

A quick check of the clock. Tony would be here in less than fifteen minutes.

She had thought about his kiss on more than one oc-casion, not even bringing it up to Sarah who would have had a field day with it and put far more into the kiss than she should have.

Natalie wasn't sure why Tony had done it other than he was charmer and perhaps that was just how he was…or maybe not. Who was to say?

All she knew was she hadn't been prepared to have such hot feelings for sex hit her so soon. But the second Tony's mouth brushed the corner of hers in a kiss good-night, she was a goner.

He was so masculine, so incredibly solid and strong; it had taken all her willpower not to lift her arms around his shoulders and hold him close, enjoying and savoring the way he felt.

It had been so long since she'd wanted to be wrapped up in someone's arms, to have them be inside her and fill her mind, body and soul.

The rapid, almost reckless way she'd reacted to Tony's chaste kiss both thrilled and frightened her.

Natalie hated to acknowledge the signs. He had ignited in her a driving need to kiss him again, and to kiss him fully on the mouth…with more than a quick touch. She fantasized about slipping her tongue around his, tasting him, putting her arms around his broad shoulders and holding him close. Bringing him home, taking him upstairs and undressing…

Blinking, her mouth went dry. Her pulse was tripped up, missing a beat. She felt flushed, anxious. The very thought of him sent a warming shiver through her body.

She was in trouble. Deep trouble.

The Bank of America Centre came alive with cheers from the crowd as the Steelheads skated out on the ice. The fans had been given boxes of macaroni and cheese when they came into the arena and everyone went a little nuts shaking the boxes and making noise to spur on their home team.