Southern Comfort (7 page)

Where did she begin with that? “Let’s just say that I know reporters who feel it’s okay to stop at nothing to get the story, including making it up. And that is something you had better not do.”

“Why, Natty Nat, I’m injured. I have never made up a story of my life.”

“That talking dog in Nebraska? That was a real story?”

“He did talk. It was creepy but he talked.”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “What about the twenty pound newborn in Canada?”

“Hey, I can’t change the weight of babies. It’s all documented at the hospital.”

“And the levitating rug in New Orleans?”

Newland stopped. “That was hair-raising. Like voodoo.”

“But not true?” Natalie pinned him for the answer.

“What are you getting at?”

“My family has a reputation to uphold. And it’s awfully hard to keep everything on the up and up if we have paparazzi and reporters here making up stories about ghosts that don’t exist. I’m just saying if there’s a ghost, fine. Report the ghost. If there’s not, there’s no story,
capisce
?”

Newland saluted her with one hand and clicked his heels together. The effect was lost on the rubber soles of his Converse. “Aye-aye, Captain.”

Natalie rolled her eyes and started up the stairs. “Did you see Aubie come in?”

“Not while I was here. Are you having trouble keeping up with your brother?”

Natalie shook her head. “That boy …. He needs his own keeper.”

She started up the stairs to the room where she knew Aubie stayed when he was here. She could hear Newland’s footsteps behind her as she walked, but she didn’t care that he was following her. It had nothing to do with anything. Nothing at all.

She opened the door, and peered inside.

“That’s my room, and I consider that a bold invasion of my privacy.”

Natalie quickly pulled the door shut, staring up at Newland as he drew nearer. “I’m sorry. That’s where Aubie usually sleeps when he’s here.”

Newland shrugged. “That’s where your aunt put me. I can move if you like, but Aubie’s not in there.”

“I guess she didn’t expect us to stay here.”

“Why should she? She’s a grown woman.”

“Don’t you say she can take care of herself. She is almost eighty-six years old.”

“I was right! I guessed eighty-five.”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “You can sleep here, but I have to find Aubie.” She started going down the line of bedrooms. Aside from the one downstairs, there were four bedrooms upstairs. Her stuff was in the pink room up front, Newland’s stuff was in the yellow room, the blue room was empty, and the white room had nothing in it as well. Why Aunt Bitty called it the white room Natalie could never figure out. There wasn’t much in there that was white except for the walls. She supposed that was enough for her aunt.

Natalie shut the door and leaned against it. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and let out a low growl.

“I take it he’s not in there?”

Without opening her eyes, Natalie shook her head. There were several places he could be, but she knew exactly where he was. Home. At their apartment. She stood there for a moment, eyes closed, but she could tell when Newland drew nearer. It was his warmth, his scent, or maybe just his presence that stuck in her head like an annoying song.

“I guess I should go get him.” She pushed herself off the wall.

“Go get him? Where is he?”

“At home. At least I think that’s where he is.”

“If he’s at home, why not let him stay there? I mean, he’s sixteen and he is the mayor. You can’t let him stay by himself for one night?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, and I’d appreciate if you didn’t jump into my family matters.”

He looked around as if pointedly saying he was already in the middle of her family matters if he was standing on the second floor landing of her aunt’s house.

“More than you already are,” she qualified.

She started down the stairs, intent on getting her brother and bringing him back to his aunt’s house. Once again she could hear Newland behind her.

“You want me to go with?”

She shook her head. “No, and it’s go with
you
.”

Newland shrugged. “I said I spent some time in Tennessee. I didn’t say I moved in.”

“Spoken like a true Yankee.”

He laughed. “I’ll go with you.”

She shook her head. “Not necessary. This is my responsibility.”

• • •

It took some convincing on Natalie’s part, but she managed to get Aubie in the car and back to Aunt Bitty’s house without too much fuss. Threatening to cut off his allowance usually did the trick and this time was no different. She knew he was angry as she pulled her car into Aunt Bitty’s uneven drive. Aubie was out the door before she had completely stopped the car. He slammed it behind him and loped up the porch steps without waiting for her at all.

Natalie sighed, then grabbed up Oskar and headed for the door. Her job as family caretaker was highly overrated and very underappreciated. But somebody had to do it.

She let herself into the house, locking the stained-glass inlaid door behind her. Aubie had long since disappeared up the stairs, without Natalie even being able to tell him that Newland was in the room Aubie normally slept in.

She shook her head. He’d figure it out soon enough.

“I’m glad to see you made it back okay.”

She pressed a hand over a heart that was beating crazily in her chest. “Newland! You scared me.”

“Definitely not my intention.”

“Then why are you lurking about out here in the foyer?”

“Well, first, I wasn’t in the foyer, I was in the parlor, and second, I was waiting on you to come home.”

“Why are you waiting for me?”

“I know that Turtle Creek is little and all, but crime happens everywhere. I just wanted to make sure you got home safely.”

Natalie was not going to let herself be touched by the gesture. He was just trying to get in her good graces so she would spill some other family dirt or worse. Then he would have the story he needed to get himself back on top in the journalism world. Though for him back on top might mean a desk job with
The National Enquirer
.

She pushed away that mean thought. “I’m touched, really.” She was, but she made sure her voice did not reflect it. “But you can go to bed now. I’m sure you have a long day of ghost hunting ahead of you tomorrow.”

She moved to go past him toward the staircase, but he stepped in front of her, effectively blocking her escape.

“Why is it that you’re always trying to run away from me? Are you scared of me or something?”

Natalie scoffed. “Of course not. Why would I be scared of you?”

His eyes darkened to a shade akin to black, their depth bottomless as he stared at her. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out myself.”

Something in the room seemed to change. If Natalie believed in the ghost, she might’ve said his spirit had walked in. She had read about spirits making the room colder and scarier, but this was something else entirely. She felt flushed and warm. Again, like that magnet drawn closer and closer to Newland Tran.

How had she gotten so close to him? Had she taken a step forward? Or had he?

If she had thought he was tall before, he seemed doubly so now. She had to crane her neck back to stare at him as he moved closer to her still.

“You don’t need to be afraid of me. I wouldn’t hurt you.” His voice was nothing but a whisper.

Natalie nodded mutely. She wasn’t afraid of him, just this. This way that he made her feel. Like a magnet, like warn chocolate sauce, like she’d never been kissed before. “I need to go to bed.”

Whoa, too intimate a thing to say.

Heat rose into her cheeks. Natalie knew that she had turned an uncomfortable shade of red, yet she couldn’t move past him, couldn’t look away, could only manage to stare at him and wait to see what happened next.

“Yeah, we should go to bed.”

“We?” The one word was nothing but a rush of air from her lips.

“You … we … ” He seemed as confused as she was.

“Okay.” Though she had no idea what she was agreeing to. That she needed to go to bed? That they needed to go to bed together? What was wrong with her?

Somehow she managed to move past him, brushing against him as she took the first stair. But like that magnet, he somehow turned her around so she was facing him once again. This time they were on a more even plane as she was standing on the step ahead of him. It would be just so easy to lean in … Closer … And touch her lips to his just to see … what all this was about … This pull ...

Maybe she wasn’t the only one drawn like a magnet. He moved closer and closer still until she could count every dark lash on those exotic eyes.

Before she could protest—not that she wanted to—he kissed her.

Natalie sighed and leaned into him, thankful for his strong presence to hold her upright. As his mouth moved over hers there was something sweet and thrilling and somehow forbidden in that wonderful kiss. Forbidden … Not because he was a tabloid reporter, not because he was a Yankee, but she was almost engaged.

The thought swirled around in her head like the stars in that famous painting, but she couldn’t quite grasp its meaning. Almost engaged wasn’t engaged. And she wanted to experiment just a smidge. Just to see why every time she got close to Newland Tran her heart knocked in her chest like the trill of a woodpecker.

Almost engaged. Somehow she grabbed hold of the thought and realized this was wrong. She was kissing another man when she was nearly engaged to Gerald Davenport, the man of her dreams.

She used her hands to push Newland away. How had they gotten to his chest to begin with? Hadn’t they been at her sides just moments before?

“No.” Her voice was a breathless whisper as threadbare as the rugs in the hallway.

Despite the insubstantial word, he took a step back.

She swayed in place and he steadied her.

“I’m sorry,” she said, though she wasn’t sure for what or to whom was she apologizing. Him for stopping their kiss? Herself for enjoying it? Or for Gerald because he wasn’t standing there?

She shook her head.

“I’m not.”

Her eyes flew open and she studied his expression. He didn’t look sorry at all. In fact he looked quite satisfied with himself.

“That can never happen again.”

“Why, because you’re engaged to a stuffed shirt?”

“Gerald is not a stuffed shirt.”

“Oh yeah, and I forgot. You’re not exactly engaged, now are you?”

Her palm itched to slap his face, but even as she wanted to, she knew he spoke the truth. She wasn’t engaged to Gerald. Not yet. But she would be and that in itself would put her life in brilliant order. Just the way she liked it.

“It’s only a matter of time,” she said.

He nodded, but she could tell from the smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth that he didn’t believe it, not for a second.

“Uh-huh,” he said. Then he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked away whistling as he went, leaving Natalie staring behind him, her lips still throbbing with his kiss.

Natalie was exhausted by the time she pulled up in front of her aunt’s house the next evening. She had gotten up before everyone that morning and was out of the house before they even knew she was gone. And that was just how she wanted it. She would call the school later and make sure that Aubie had made it to his classes.

But it wasn’t her brother who had her lingering in the car. Nope, it was him, the last person she wanted to see. Newland Tran.

She sat in her car for another moment under the shade of that big sycamore, with Oskar next to her whining a bit, wondering why they were inactive.

She reached over and scratched the pup behind his ears, effectively stanching his worry. “I know, boy. It’s not the best situation, hmmm?”

That was an understatement.

Despite her sleepless night she still hadn’t figured out what to do about that kiss. That bad night coupled with the busy day she had was the reason she hadn’t figured out what to do. Or at least that was what she was telling herself. There was more to it than that. Much more.

Her day had been busy, including a lunch with Gerald. That hadn’t been as busy as it had been uncomfortable. She couldn’t help but think of kissing Newland as she sat across the table from her almost fiancé. But it was only a kiss.

A kiss that curled toes and melted plastic.

“But that’s not important, right?” She looked to her dog for answers but Oskar simply wagged his tail and gave her that sweet look she loved so much.

“If only men were as easy to get along with as you, my baby.”

She grabbed her purse and her dog and got out of the car. No sense putting this off any longer than she had to.

So she had kissed Newland. That didn’t mean anything. It was simply a kiss, and an unwelcome one at that.

Liar!

She pushed that word away. So what? She might’ve kissed Newland Tran, but that didn’t change anything. She was still almost engaged to the most handsome and influential man in Turtle Creek. In all of Alcorn County perhaps. And that was not something that could easily be changed. Not that she wanted it to.

They would be a wonderful, loving couple doing good work for the community and all of its citizens. The thought made her warm inside.

“Aunt Bitty,” she called as she entered the house. “I’m home.” She expected to walk in and find no one, except maybe Bitty in the parlor. Instead she found Newland painting the foyer. “What are you doing?”

He looked down at his paint splattered clothes to the brush he held in his hand to the wall. Apparently he had just slapped on a wet coat of Mint Dream semi-gloss. “I’m painting.”

Natalie shook her head. “Why are you painting?”

“Your aunt asked me to.”

And that was the power of Bitty Duncan. Somehow she could charm the birds out of the trees and sell ice to Eskimos. It had always been that way, and it would be that way until she went to meet her maker.

“Just because my aunt wants you to paint, don’t think you have to.”

Newland turned back to the work at hand. He had done well for a day’s work—almost the entire foyer had a fresh coat of paint. “It wasn’t like I have a lot of other things to do. I spent the morning at the library, then came back to this.”