Filed to story: Love on the Sidelines (Natalie & Karl)
“It won’t,” I promised. “Everything will work out fine.” He left shortly after that, and Hugh came out of the bedroom. If he’d heard the conversation with my father, and I didn’t see how he could have missed it, he never mentioned it.
By the day of our party, the house was finished except for the bright corner room.
We had reserved that one for a nursery. It was early that afternoon when Jenna paid us a visit.
I was in the dinning room with Hugh, unwrapping the last of the china we had bought and placing it in the cherry cabinet, when the doorbell chimed.
“I’ll get it.” He vanished into the living room.
I heard the door open and then the low murmur of voices. It seemed to go on for a long time. Curious, I was about to join him when he reappeared.
“Look who’s here.”
One glimpse of that red hair was enough to have my spine stiffening and my chin going up. Hugh crossed the room, kissed me, and then stuffed his wallet in his back pocket. “I told Dad I’d run by the office for a while today.” I nodded. “Don’t stay too long. We have to get ready for tonight.” I turned back to the china, pretending to ignore Jenna. She had hurt me and I wasn’t going to let it go easily.
She hovered in the doorway until Hugh was gone, then hesitantly crossed the room. “Natalie, I’m sorry. I’ve been miserable these last few weeks. Hate me if you want to, but at least talk to me.”
“Why? So you can call my baby a bastard again?”
“I didn’t mean it. You know I could never feel that way. I was hurt and upset and it just slipped out. That whole day was terrible for me. Scott was leaving, my father acted like he couldn’t care less that I’d graduated with honors, and then you and Hugh sprang the news that you’d gotten married and hadn’t bothered to tell me. I overreacted. You don’t have to beat me up, because I’ve been doing it myself every single day since then.”
She put her hand on my arm. “I’ve missed you. You’re the only real friend I’ve ever had and I don’t want to lose you. We always promised each other that if one of us had kids, the other one would be their aunt. Please, Natalie. Don’t shut me out because of one mistake. Let me be the baby’s aunt.”
Tears filled my eyes and clogged my throat. It couldn’t have been easy for her to come to me and apologize, and the truth was, I’d missed her too. Badly.
“Okay,” I choked. Then we were both crying, hugging each other while we tried to wipe the tears away. She kept apologizing until I finally threatened to hurt her if she didn’t stop, and that brought on the laughter. After we calmed down, I showed her around the house and she oohed and ahhed over everything and promised to help me with the nursery.
But something else was bothering her, and I knew her well enough to sense she wanted to tell me but was reluctant to bring it up.
“You might as well get it off your chest,” I told her when we got back to the kitchen.
She sighed and took the glasses of tea from my hands.
“I’ll carry these. You better sit down.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Yes, I think it’s going to be.”
“Okay, I’m sitting.” I plunked myself down on a chair and she took the one across from me.
“If there was any way I could keep you from finding this out, I wouldn’t tell you.
But everyone will know soon and I’d rather you heard it now, from me.” My heart quivered. “Jenna, you’re scaring me.”
She toyed with the condensation on her glass for a second. “You know Sheriff McAbee plays poker with my dad occasionally?”
“Yes.”
“Well, he was there last night and I heard them talking.” She looked up and met my gaze. “Liz Swanner reported Lindsey missing yesterday morning. The sheriff told Dad it took him about an hour to discover what had happened to her. Lindsey caught a bus out of town.” Jenna took a deep breath. “Natalie, she went to join Karl.” I stared at her as nausea roiled in my stomach. “He’s positive?”
“As much as he can be without talking to Lindsey. She went to the same town, and Liz said she didn’t have any money. The only way she could have gotten a ticket was if Karl sent it to her.”
I barely made it to the bathroom before my stomach emptied.
“Oh, God. I knew you were going to be upset.” Jenna rushed around frantically, wetting a washcloth and putting it on the back of my neck. “Maybe I better call Hugh and tell him to come home.”
“No.” I sank weakly to the floor and rested my head against the cold tub. “There’s nothing he can do.”
She lowered herself to the floor in front of me and rubbed my wrist. “I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that. I’ve never been good at this kind of thing.”
“It isn’t your fault.” A hysterical laugh bubbled out of me. “I told him he couldn’t have me and Lindsey both, that he had to choose. Looks like he finally did.”
“Maybe there’s a good reason. We have no way of knowing what’s going on.”
“Oh, there’s a reason all right. He loves Lindsey. God, Jenna, I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been.”
“You love him.”