Year of Living Blonde (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 1) (26 page)

When Natalie goes downstairs, she finds Anthony leaning against the wall in the front entryway, studying his phone. He looks up, meets her eyes, and her heart nearly stops. He’s so blindingly handsome it’s like having a movie star in the house.

“Hel-lo,” she manages to choke out.

He smiles. “Hi.”

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“That’s okay. Are you ready to go?”

“Almost, I just need to get something from the kitchen.”

Star Wars
music starts playing on Anthony’s phone and he glances down at it. “Excuse me, but I have to take this. I’ll just wait for you outside, if that’s all right?”

“Sure.” She watches him walk toward the door and wonders if it’s another woman calling.
This isn’t a date, so what do I care, right?

Natalie gets the container of cookies she baked that afternoon and checks on some dough she has rising on the kitchen counter.

Lindsay comes downstairs, carrying her laptop. She glances around. “Where did he go?”

“He’s outside on his phone. I’m leaving now. I’m not sure if I’ll get cell reception out where we’re going, so if there’s any problem I told Chloe to call you.” It was Peter’s weekend so Chloe was staying over there. She seldom called, but Natalie still worried anyway.

“Sure, that’s fine.”

“And you don’t have to bother waiting up for me. I doubt I’ll be home until well after midnight.”

Her sister puts her laptop down on the coffee table. “Hey, stay out as long as you want. Ride that man like a bronco and don’t come home until you’ve put him in the hospital.”

“Lindsay!” Natalie bursts out laughing. “It’s not like that!”

“Whatever. Just tell him you want to play with his big
hard
telescope and that you know he has one.”

“Oh, my God, I’ll talk to you later.”

Natalie is still chuckling when she finds Anthony on her front porch. He appears to be finishing up his phone call.

“Yeah, brah, no problem. Thanks, Graham.”

“Oh, is that Graham? Please tell me you’re finally giving us that space.”

Anthony stares at his phone. “Uh, no, not yet.”

“How many more weeks do you think we’ll have to wait?”

“I’m not sure. What’s in the container?” he asks her.

“Chocolate chunk cookies. I put a couple extra dozen aside this afternoon to bring for the star party.”

“That was nice of you.” He smiles, but she can tell he’s distracted by something. “Shall we go?”

They both head over to Anthony’s black SUV. He holds the passenger door open for her, which flusters Natalie.

“I thought this wasn’t supposed to be a date.” She tries to climb inside, but stops because there are books and papers all over the seat.

“Sorry,” Anthony says. He reaches past her to grab everything and tosses it into the back. “There you are . . . oh, wait.” He brushes the crumbs away.

Natalie climbs inside, kicking aside a few more papers on the floor. She reaches down and adds them to the backseat.

“You need an assistant or something,” she tells him as he’s getting settled in the driver’s seat.

“I have one.”

“Really?” She glances at him, but when she tries to look away discovers she can’t. His profile draws her back. Anthony’s nose is straight, his jaw square. His lips aren’t full, but they’re even. He’s like something out of an Italian Renaissance painting.

She notices his hair is long in back and a strong desire to touch those dark curls takes hold.

It’s with real effort that she finally forces herself to turn away.

But then Natalie notices his scent is everywhere in the car. A woodsy smell mixed with something else, something musky and delicious that can only be Anthony himself.

Lust spirals through her.

I could sit in this car smelling him and worshipping his profile all night.

She shifts in her seat. Being this close to Anthony is doing funny things to her insides. There are butterflies dancing in her stomach and her breathing is erratic.

To take her mind off it she asks him where he was raised. “Are you from Seattle?”

“No, I grew up mostly in L.A.”

Natalie nods. “Los Angeles. That definitely explains it.”

Anthony glances over at her as they pull out onto the main road. “Explains what?”

“The way you talk.”

“How do I talk?”

“Well, you’re obviously very intelligent. Sometimes you sound refined, almost snobbish. But other times you sound like a surfer dude.”

Anthony merges lanes so he can get into the correct lane for the Interstate. “I can’t tell for sure, but . . . are you insulting me again?”

Natalie laughs. “I hope not. I’m trying to behave.”

He gives her a look from the corner of his eye. “Miss Natalie, what am I going to do with you?”

“I’ll be good the rest of the night. I promise.”

“And if you’re not, do I get to decide your punishment?”

Natalie is tongue-tied at his flirtatious tone. She’s not sure what to do. Her flirtation skills are as rusty as an old hippie bus full of Grateful Dead fans. “So, uh, why did you move to Seattle?”

“Mostly work and some other obligations. I was offered tenure track at the UW and decided to take it.”

“What’s tenure track?”

“It means I’m on track to be a tenured professor, but they haven’t offered it to me yet. I have to prove myself first.”

“Sounds stressful.”

Anthony lets out a breath. “Yeah, it can be.”

“So, why else did you move here? You said you had other obligations.”

Anthony gives her a smirk. “What is this, an interrogation? I refuse to answer any more questions until you give me one of those cookies.”

“But these are for the star party.”

He reaches over and tries to take them from her and she squeals. “Hey, hands off!”

“You wouldn’t even be going to this star party if it weren’t for me.”

“Maybe so, but I brought them to share with everyone.” Her hands are on top of the container, holding it shut. “You’ll have to wait.”

“Why are you so cruel to me?”

“I don’t know.” Natalie knows he’s only joking, but she finds herself pondering his words.

“Come on, Natalie, just one cookie.”

Anthony surprises her by sliding his hand on top of hers. His touch sends a shock wave through her whole body.

“Did you notice what time I showed up at your house tonight?” he murmurs.

“Yes,” she says, trying to hide the breathless quality in her voice. His hand is warm. He slides his fingers between hers to the edges of the lid, trying to get inside. “You were on time.”

“And where were you?”

“Late.”

“Exactly. So where’s my cookie?”

Natalie laughs, surprised at her own sultry tone. “Okay, I’ll give you a cookie.”

He takes his hand away and Natalie opens the container, releasing the aroma of fresh chocolate and vanilla into the car. She takes one out and hands it to him.

“Thanks,” he says. “You’re formidable when you’re guarding your . . . cookies.”

Their eyes meet and Natalie feels herself pulled in.

If I’m not careful I could get in deep trouble here.

She knows about men like him and they typically aren’t worth the trouble. But a little voice inside her is saying, so what?

Have some fun. When was the last time a man like this flirted with you?

Uh, never.

So there you go.

But she knows she can’t let her guard down. It isn’t in her nature to be reckless. Lindsay’s maybe, but not hers.

They talk more on the drive, though Natalie notices how cleverly he deflects answering any real questions about himself. For all his friendly charm, she suspects Anthony is a deeply private person.

“So what area of astronomy do you work with again? Gamma radiation?” She’d looked up both “astronomer” and “gamma radiation” when she got home from work that afternoon, figuring it might come in handy. “I remember it was kind of like the Hulk.”

“My main area is gamma-ray bursts. Particularly long gamma-ray bursts.”

“So what about gamma-ray bombs? Are those real?”

“No,” he chuckles, “but I’m impressed. You know your Hulk superhero origin pretty well.”

“I’m kind of a closet fantasy sci-fi fan.”

“Yeah? I remember you mentioned liking
Star Wars.
”

“I’m big on
Lord of the Rings,
too. I have this cool hoodie, but I’m not allowed to wear it anymore. Actually, my daughter and sister hid it from me.”

Anthony laughs. “Why would they do that?”

“Apparently, it’s ugly.”

“You should show it to me sometime.”

Natalie imagines modeling her
Lord of the Rings
hoodie for Anthony and the thought makes her chuckle to herself. Lindsay would have a fit. “I don’t think I’m allowed.”

“I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.” Then he looks over and flashes one of his boyish grins and all Natalie can think is,
deep trouble.

THEY PULL UP
to a ranch-style house that’s on some land with a row of evergreens in front. A number of cars are parked in the long driveway, but with the exception of a glowing red porch light, everything else is completely dark.

“Is anybody here?”

“Don’t worry. They’re all in the backyard.”

They both get out of the car, with Natalie holding the cookies and a thermos of coffee Anthony asked her to carry. He walks around to the rear and opens the trunk, fiddling with something in back.

Eventually, he comes around to the front carrying an enormous case.

“What on earth is that?”

“It’s my telescope.”

“It looks huge.”

He glances down. “This is nothing. Just wait until you see some of the other scopes people have. ”

“Really? I thought telescopes were slender brass tubes like the one Galileo used.”

Anthony chuckles. “Not quite. That was four-hundred years ago.”

They make their way around to the back of the house, following a footpath lit by a row of small red lights. It’s so dark, she can barely see anything.

Natalie starts to wonder if coming here was a bad idea. It only now occurs to her that she’s at an astronomy party with a bunch of super geeks. Everyone there probably has an advanced degree, while she never even finished college.

How long is it going to take them to figure out that I’m a science doofus?

Not long.

She clutches her cookies.
Well, super geek or not, I can bake the pants off anybody here.

Once they round the corner, she finds herself in a large open field. It’s dark but she can see there are people milling about, with more flashes of red light everywhere.

“What’s with all the red lights?”

“It helps protect your night vision. Otherwise you’d have to readjust your eyes every time you turned on a flashlight.”

Natalie hears voices. She and Anthony head toward them. It’s pitch black outside and people are standing around talking to each other.

“Anthony, glad you could make it,” an older guy says. “And it looks like you brought Cassie.”

“I did. She’s ready for some clear skies tonight.”

“Yes, we got lucky with the weather for a change.”

“Rick, this is my friend, Natalie.”

“Hi there, Natalie. Welcome.”

Natalie widens her eyes trying to get a better look at Rick. “Thanks, it’s nice to meet you.” Widening her eyes doesn’t make any difference though. She still can’t see him.

“I need to talk to you, Anthony,” some woman across from them says. “It’s about the Smyth Medal. The
Seattle Times
has been trying to get ahold of you.”

“Yeah, thanks. I already got the message.”

Anthony introduces her to the rest of the group. Natalie smiles and says hello, but it’s so dark out she doubts she’d recognize any of them in the light of day.

“And what do you have there?” Rick asks her.

“I brought some chocolate chunk cookies to share.”

“Thank you. You can put them on the table if you like.”

There’s a picnic table a short distance away with a dim red lantern on it. Natalie starts to walk over, but her foot hits something and she stumbles. Suddenly, there’s a firm grip on her arm.

“Are you okay?” It’s Anthony. She didn’t realize he was following her.