When You Come to Me (19 page)

“Thank you,” she said quietly. “I
suppose
that you are forgiven…”

“As I hoped I would be,” he told her, reaching for her bag. “Get in this car…”

“Do I have to? Where are we going?”

“You’re not a big fan of surprises, are you?”

“I have my reasons,” she said, watching him open the passenger door.

“Tallie, baby,” he began, reaching for her hand. “It’s not a booby trap…it’s my car…you love my car…”

“Not the way it smells…”

“Stay on task, please, stay on task…”

“Sorry,” she said. “Fine, I’ll go…I’m interested to see what y’all have been keeping from me for the past week…”

And Brandon drove, that sunny, breezy Friday morning, and the poor girl sat back, attempted to be calm, attempted to breathe, stealthily searched the car for any clues, for any sign, while Brandon sang his heart out to an alternative group that she didn’t recognize.

“Stop looking around,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road.

Natalie gasped, smiled and her cheeks warmed. “I wasn’t looking at anything.”

“Oh, don’t you lie,” he said. “Me singing doesn’t make me blind, you know…”

“Well, that’s funny because, it makes me deaf,” she laughed; attempting to move as his hand tickled her thigh.

“You’ll find out in good time,” he told her. “It might not be anything…it could be a cruel joke that I’m playing on you…”

“I hope not…”

“You won’t know, will you? Just try breathing, okay?”

She’s tried that already. She’s tried that and failed. So, she opted to reach for his hand, and he squeezed it in return. As if he knew that she were being completely paranoid and needed to calm down. She loved that about him. She loved that he calmed her down.

She wondered how she got to be so lucky the moment that Brandon pulled into the rock-laden driveway of a wood cabin that sat on the bank of Hartwell Lake, where the Savannah River flushed through, sitting placidly on the border of sweet Georgia and South Carolina, where the leaves of lofty birches and maples appeared to be set ablaze, fencing in deep blue waters with small, sun-smeared waves, and the occasional dinghy, bobbing in the wind.

“We’re here,” Brandon sighed, looking at her.

She was speechless, of course, plumb speechless! She managed to get out of the car and stand on two feet, but her knees buckled a little, and she attempted to wrap her mind around it all, attempted to make sense of the breeze brushing against her warmed brown cheeks, of how calm Brandon seemed to be. She then allowed a wave of guilt to run over her, recalling the bottle of cologne and trip to a restaurant downtown that she’d gotten him for his twenty-third birthday. What she did definitely didn’t compare. What on earth was he thinking?

“Well, just don’t stand there with your mouth hanging open,” Brandon said to her, pulling her out of her trance. “Come inside and pick your bed…”

She trailed behind Brandon, who carried both of their bags, up to the arch head brown door, watching him reach into his pocket for a set of keys. He unlocked the door with ease, saying, “Here we go.”

Lord, she nearly fell over and died when Scotty and Asha jumped out from obscure locations in the den to spray her with silly string, and laugh at her. She waited for the moment where someone assured her that she deserved all of this, in the meantime she would attempt to figure out how these people who loved her were able to keep this a secret from her for so long.

While Brandon helped her get the silly string out of her hair, she asked, “How?”

“We all came down last night,” Scotty said. “That’s why we couldn’t do anything with you…Brandon drove back to Athens this morning to get you…”

“We wanted to make sure everything was set up right,” Asha said.

“Yea, it smelled pretty bad in here when we first came,” Scotty laughed. “So please excuse all of the Glade Plug-ins that you see…”

“And make sure that you thank Brandon appropriately,” Asha said. “It was his idea, his money, et cetera, et cetera…”

Oh, Natalie, don’t you do it! Don’t you dare start to cry!

But, she did anyway. She, who didn’t even care if she had a birthday in the first place.

And they all hugged her, making her feel even more pitiful than before, making her cry harder.

#

Upon sunset, after they’d unloaded their things, and designated sleeping arrangements, they hopped into Brandon’s truck, and headed into Hartwell, where they bought groceries to make dinner with, and where the boys bought enough beer to give to an army. Natalie only shook her head. They returned to the cabin, sometime after nightfall, and Natalie started the gas stove and rumbled through the cabinets in search of the right pan for her pork chops, while Brandon, Scotty and Asha argued over how to start a fire in the stone-lined fireplace in the narrow living room, with an ancient quilted tapestry, hanging overhead, and a vaulted ceiling.

“Brandon, give me the matches before you burn down the cabin,” Asha demanded, snatching the packet from his hands.

“Brandon, don’t let her have them,” Scotty said, snatching the packet from her. “That girl is dangerous…”

“Am not,” Asha said defensively. “I am perfectly capable of creating a fire…”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Natalie added, turning the dial on the stove, watching the burner set ablaze.

“Nat, what are you talking about?” Asha said. “You’re supposed to be on my side…”

“I stand neutral,” she chuckled. “Because you can’t start a fire without…
wood
…”

“Wow,” Brandon started, getting to his feet. “I know I started dating her for a reason…”

Natalie smiled.

“Well, aren’t you just
pleased
with yourself?” Scotty said.

“Just stating the obvious,” Natalie replied, taking the pork loins from their packaging. “And while I’m cooking, maybe one of you would like to go and find some wood to put in the fireplace…”

Brandon, Scotty and Asha looked at each other.

“Well, I’m not cold anymore,” Asha began with a heavy sigh. “What about you guys?”

“Yea, I felt this sudden blast of warmth come over me,” Scotty chuckled.

“You two are the
laziest
,” Brandon said, rolling his eyes. “
I’ll
go get some wood…”

Natalie turned off the burner and sighed. “Hmm, I’ll go with you…”

Brandon looked pleased, and he extended his hand for her to grab.

They headed out the front door and into the fresh air.

“Thank you for walking with me,” he whispered down to her, squeezing her hand a little tighter.

She nodded and her head found his shoulder blade. She wouldn’t admit to him that any opportunity she got to be alone with him she’d seize it. Being close to him was always the best opportunity…

“They’ve been driving me a little crazy the past couple of nights,” he admitted quietly with a chuckle. “I don’t know if they were more concerned about making your birthday special or with each other…”

“You sense it too?” she asked him, watching him lower his head toward the ground.

“Are you kidding me? All they did yesterday was argue about this and argue about that…what Asha should write on your birthday cake…how Scotty should wrap your birthday present…which bedroom they should sleep in…I swear, I’ve never been happier that you’re here…”

Likewise
, she wanted to say. But it didn’t come out. She only let him lead her into the woods, with the moon watching overhead, the crickets crying in the distance and the faint current brushing against the bank. She held close to his hand, walked close near him, and brushed her brown, warmed cheek against his black jacket, that she bought him for his twenty-second birthday.

Brandon leaned down to pick up a few puny twigs stuck to moistened fallen leaves, and he sighed. “This is
not
going to build a fire…”

“No kidding,” Natalie agreed, squeezing his hand tighter. “I wish there was an axe around here or something…”

“What for? It’s not like any of us can chop wood…”

Natalie looked at him. “Speak for yourself…”

“You can chop wood?”

“Maybe…maybe my granddaddy taught me…”

“Are you kidding?”

“Nope,” she said. “My granddaddy Joe was the outdoorsy type. He’s the only man that I didn’t mind getting dirty with. I’d help him rake leaves and he’d give me a little money for it…and when I was about twelve, he taught me how to chop wood…”

“You surprise me more and more each day,” he chuckled. “So, you’re telling me that if I found an axe around here, you could chop up some wood for us?”

“Well, yea,” she said with a shrug. “I think I could get the job done…but I don’t see any stumps or anything…”

“Maybe you should wear the pants in this relationship from now on,” he teased, nudging her with his elbow.

“Oh, don’t be overdramatic, Brandy,” she said with a wave of her hand and the roll of her eye. “I’m wimpy with everything else…”

“How can I be so sure?”

She turned to face him, reached for the collar of his jacket, and pulled him into her.

“Shut up,” she whispered to his lips, leaving a kiss against them. Yes, being alone with Brandon, beneath a shadowed red-leafed oak, and the moon watching overhead, made her feel that the world was just as it should be.

They settled in front of a fireless fireplace following dinner, beneath a set of four blankets, that Asha brought from the apartment back in Athens. Brandon popped a cap on a bottle of Heineken, looking at Natalie as she sat on the wooden floor, curled up with Asha, beneath a patchwork quilt and a wool blanket.

“Brandon’s got taste, I must say,” Asha commented, raising her head from its place on Natalie’s shoulder. “How’d you come up with this place, Bran?”

Brandon shrugged his shoulders and took a long swig from his bottle before answering. “I just looked it up,” he said quietly, keeping his eyes focused on the brown glass before him. “It just looked really nice…and Tallie deserves something nice…”

Natalie met eyes with him. She peacefully mouthed Thank You in his direction as she tugged on her quilt a little. He nodded in return.

“How rude,” Asha began, looking in Scotty's direction. “How dare you not offer me a beer…?”

“I didn’t see you put any money up for some,” Scotty interjected, popping the cap on his second bottle. “And we don’t supply alcohol to minors.”

“I’ll be twenty-one in two weeks,” Asha defended. “I might as well start the celebration now…”

“I’m not sure I want to see what alcohol would do to you,” Scotty said. “And the last time that I checked, we were here to celebrate Nat’s birthday…you can’t stand to let anyone else have the spotlight, can you?”

“Oh, God, here you guys go
again
,” Brandon said lowly, rolling his eyes.

“What are you trying to say, Scott? Of course I can…it’s Natalie’s twentieth birthday…of course I’m here to celebrate her birthday! All I wanted was a bottle of beer…”

“Why, Ash? So you can be even more annoying than you already are?”

“Take that back, you skinny bastard…”

“What for? Because you know it’s true…”

Asha then looked at Natalie. “You know, this cheap son of a bitch wasn’t going to put any money forth for your present, but I made him…I made him for being a cheap, country bastard…”

“Not all of us get our money from our rich daddies, now do we, Asha Castile?”

“Great, now you have two things to take back,” Asha said, folding her arms.

“You know that I’m not going to do it, so why don’t you just hush,” Scotty said. “Could you do that for me, Ash? Could you hush for once?’

“I won’t,” Asha said. “I won’t ever shut up...cheap bastard..."

"Why don't you both try shutting up for once?” Natalie said. “It would do you both good, I think…”

“I will if
she
will,” Scotty mumbled.

“She will,” Natalie assured him. “If you give her a bottle of beer…”

Asha smiled in Scotty’s direction, appearing pleased with herself and the outcome.

Scotty hesitated for a moment, rolled his eyes, and said, “Alright, alright…they’re in the fridge…keep in mind that I’m only doing it because it’s Nat’s birthday…”

“And it’s almost midnight,” Brandon reminded them, looking at the clock on his cellular phone. “I say we
all
drink to that…”

Natalie’s eyes widened in his direction as he winked at her. “Brandon!”

“Baby, I’ve seen it in your eyes,” he told her with a teasing laugh. “You want to try it…”

“No I don’t,” she said, folding her arms. “You’ve seen nothing…”

Brandon held up his bottle to his eye level, jiggling the bottle gently. “Look, baby, I only have a swallow left…you can have this…”

“Oh, great,” Natalie began. “So, I can have your backwash as my first drink…”

“Glad you said that, Nat,” Scotty said. “There’s a brand new bottle waiting for you in the kitchen…”

“An even better idea,” Brandon agreed. “I knew you were my best friend for a reason…”

Brandon and Scotty looked at each other and laughed.

“Nat, you don’t have to drink anything that you don’t want to drink,” Asha said, rejoining them on the floor. “Don’t succumb to peer pressure…”

“Thank you, Asha,” Natalie said with a nod of her head.

“There you go, flapping your big lips again,” Scotty said.

“Oh, don’t give me that crap, Scotty,” Asha told him. “I’m simply doing my job by suggesting that she not drink if she doesn’t want to…”

“Why don’t you allow her to make that decision for herself?”

“She already has, you dummy,” Asha sneered. “I was just supporting her decision…”

“I have a proposition,” Natalie voiced quietly, raising one, delicate finger.

“Yes?” Brandon answered.

“If I drink a whole bottle of beer, then Asha and Scotty
have
to stop arguing,” she suggested with a grin.

Brandon nodded, and they both watched their friends look at each other.

“
And
,” Brandon continued. “You both have to kiss each other…and
mean
it…”

“
Hell
no,” Asha exclaimed. “I refuse to agree to those terms! When the hell did this become Truth or Dare?”

“Wait a minute, Ash,” Scotty began, waving his hand in her direction. “I see the game that Brandon’s trying to play…but I’ll up the ante a little…”