Filed to story: Love on the Sidelines (Natalie & Karl)
“What do you think?” he asked, his voice soft, hopeful.
“Where did you get this?” My hands were shaking so hard the paper rattled.
“From you. You left it in my room one night, and I’ve been carrying it around with me for the last fifteen years. When I knew we were coming back, I had the plans drawn up from your sketches. I wasn’t sure you’d remember it.” Not only did I remember it, I remembered the night I left it. We’d made love, one of the last times we’d spent together in his room, and I hadn’t thought to take my drawings with me when I’d left. By the time I did think about them again, Karl was gone and I’d married Hugh. I had assumed the plans were thrown away when Aunt Darla cleaned out the room.
Now Karl was going to build it. For him and Lindsey. My anger boiled, seethed until I could barely speak. “I see.” The plans rolled up with a snap as I released them.
“Kenny can figure it up for you. When you get the foundation down, just call him and he’ll get the material delivered out to you.”
“Natalie…” He reached for my hand, but I pulled away just as movement from his left caught my attention. I never found out what he intended to say because my legs went rubbery and I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was stare at the boy who’d stopped beside him. It was like seeing Karl again as he’d been at fifteen, like seeing a male version of what Katie would be if she’d lived.
“Hey, Dad. Bowie is taking Lindsey and me to Jonesboro for supper and to do some shopping. He wants to know if we should wait on you.” The expression on Karl’s face when he looked at the boy screamed love and pride.
Casually, he slung an arm around the young man’s shoulders. “Daniel, this is Natalie Collins. Natalie, this is my son, Daniel.”
Twin dimples popped out when Daniel grinned and my heart stuttered to a standstill. Agonizing pain ripped through me as he extended a hand.
“Hi. It’s a pleasure. Dad’s told me all about you.”
Somehow, I managed to shake his hand and welcome him to Morganville, all while my brain chanted over and over, ” he’s Katie’s brother
– he’s Katie’s brother.
” It had honestly never occurred to me that Karl might have other children. Maybe because I hadn’t wanted to think about it. Stupid of me, in retrospect, but I now felt doubly betrayed and was even more determined that he’d never find out about Katie.
“You go ahead,” Karl was telling Daniel. “I’ll see you guys later.” Dear Lord. Even Karl’s accent was gone. He didn’t exactly sound northern, but he didn’t sound southern anymore either.
As Daniel headed for the door, I waved Kenny over. “Kenny, this is Mr. Hayes.
You’ll be taking care of his account from now on.” Picking up the form Karl had filled out, I shoved it in Kenny’s hand and turned, fully intending to leave Karl standing there.
“Natalie, wait. How about letting me buy you dinner tonight? We can talk over old times, catch up with what’s been happening.”
I suspect my hair was standing on end when I rounded furiously on Karl. My anger and pain had finally reached the point of no return.
“Old times? Listen to me, you bastard. The only thing I want to do is forget you ever existed. And if that’s not clear enough for you, let me spell it out. I will not have dinner with you, ever. Not only do I not want to ‘catch up’, I don’t give a damn what you’ve been doing all this time. In other words, leave me the hell alone!”
Jenna would be proud of me , I thought a bit hysterically. I certainly wasn’t reacting like an unemotional robot now.
The blood drained from Karl’s face, and poor Kenny’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. “Kenny, you’re in charge,” I snarled, grabbing my purse from beneath the counter. “I’m leaving early.”
But I’d forgotten how stubborn and determined Karl could be. He caught up with me as I reached the Chevy and grabbed my arm. All over the parking lot, customers stopped what they were doing to watch.
His eyes narrowed as he stared at me. “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”
“Think about it.” I struggled to retake possession of my arm, but he hung on, his grip firm yet gentle.
“I’ve thought about a lot of things the last fifteen years, things we need to talk about.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk to you.” Oh, God. I sounded like a spoiled four-year-old, and the situation was deteriorating rapidly. I had to get away from him. “Please let go of me.”
He hesitated, then released my arm. But he didn’t back off. Instead, he cupped my cheek with one hand, his thumb caressing my skin. “I’ve missed you, Peewee. I don’t know why you hate me now, but I’m going to find out, and I’m not going to leave you alone. I came home thinking you were happily married to Hugh, but even then I hoped at the very least we could still be friends.”
“Oh, is that what we were? Friends?” I jerked away from him, climbed into the Chevy, and slammed the door shut. “You know something, Karl? That may just be the only truthful thing you’ve ever said to me. And you know something else? I don’t need or want friends like you.” I started the car and put it in gear. “Say hello to Lindsey for me,” I snapped as the car shot backward out of the parking space.
It was a miracle I didn’t hit someone. When I glanced back at the store, Karl was standing there watching me leave, his hands knotted into fists at his sides.
Take that, you asshole , I thought.
Morganville had changed drastically since my childhood. The old general store had been converted into an IGA, the benches adorned with old men in deep conversations were gone from the front sidewalk now. The one-room plank post office with the rickety steps had been hauled to the middle of a field where it sat alone, falling into more disrepair every year. The new one was a modern brick building on Main Street and the old site now held the barbershop and a laundromat.
The streets were paved instead of the gravel I had once scampered over barefoot, and city hall had been moved to a newer building with more office space, the old one sitting empty, used only for meetings of the senior citizens’ group. At the traffic light that had been installed on the highway, a convenience store sat on the corner to the right, and what had once been Hawkins’ Gas Station on the left was now an auto parts store. But I saw none of the changes as I drove through town this time. Anger blurred my vision.
By the time I made it home, I was shaking. What the hell was wrong with me? I never reacted like that, never. The last time I’d lost control of my temper had been that night at the Burger Zone, and I figured being drunk was a pretty good excuse for that episode.
This time I had no excuse. I’d done exactly what I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do.
I had let Karl get to me. He’d have to be pretty stupid not to figure out how I felt about Lindsey after that fit I threw, and Karl had never been stupid.