Filed to story: Love on the Sidelines (Natalie & Karl)
The same chair still sat in a corner. But the large room hadn’t stayed empty all this time.
Cody, my cousin, had used it for several years when he’d first returned from college, and he’d added an apartment-sized stove and refrigerator, and a four-foot-long section of cabinets, the base holding a kitchen sink. He’d also had a phone line installed.
Cody had turned out to be something of a surprise. He’d majored in criminology and as soon as his degree was in his hand, he’d moved back to Morganville and went to work as a deputy. Now he was the sheriff and one of my very best friends.
Once, he’d tried to apologize for that night at the Burger Zone when I was a kid, but I cut him off. I refused to think about Karl, or remember that night. I refused to feel anything. People who felt got hurt. Hadn’t I learned that the hard way? I wasn’t going to let it happen again. Which is why I took the news of Karl’s return without so much as an increase in my heartbeat. Oh, yes. I had learned.
It was an early spring day, the first green shoots beginning to push their way out of the ground. I locked the doors of Southern Supply and climbed into the Chevy, piling the sheaf of papers I carried on the seat beside me. Kenny Millsap, my general manager, ran the store on Saturdays, but I always took paperwork home with me on Friday nights. It gave me something to do on my days off.
I was a bit puzzled to find Jenna’s Lincoln parked in front of the barn when I got home. Five years ago she’d bought out Mid-Delta Real Estate and I knew she’d had an appointment scheduled early this evening. If it was already over, it probably hadn’t gone well.
“Hi. What’s up?” I asked, as I caught sight of her pacing the length of the aisle in front of the empty stalls. She looked agitated and upset, and the horde of cats that normally hung around had all found cover.
She followed me to the door of my room before answering. “Natalie, you aren’t going to believe who my appointment turned out to be.”
“Who?” I put the papers on a small table against the back wall and pulled a pair of jeans and a shirt out of the closet. I wanted to take a walk in the woods behind the barn before supper, get a little exercise and fresh air.
“Will you stop and look at me? This is important.” Still holding my clothes, I turned to her. “Okay, you have my complete attention.
Now, who was it?”
“Karl Hayes.”
I remained silent, didn’t even blink. If her news startled me, I let none of it show in my face.
“Well, aren’t you going to say something?”
“What do you expect me to say?” I draped the clothes over a chair and stripped off my dark blue tailored suit, balancing myself with one hand on the chair back.
“I expect you to be upset, or mad, or something!” She waved her hands in the air.
“He’s back, Natalie, and he’s staying. He’s buying the twenty acres next to the farm. He’s going to be your neighbor. Hell, he’s planning on building a house five feet from your property line. You’ll be tripping over him every time you walk outside.” I shrugged as I stepped into the jeans. “It’s a free country.” With an air of disgust, she plopped onto the easy chair. “Now I’m really worried. I thought for sure this would get a reaction out of you. You loved him, Natalie. How can you be so calm after what he did to you?”
I pulled a T-shirt over my head, then raked a hand through my short hair to fix it.
“That was a long time ago. Karl means nothing to me.”
“Does anything?” Her gaze was piercing. “You walk and talk, you breathe and eat, you work and sleep, but you aren’t alive anymore. I thought once you got away from
Hugh things might be different, but they aren’t. You’ve only changed location. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve heard you laugh?” I knew exactly. The last time I’d laughed, the last time I’d cared about anything except my business, was the day before Katie died.
As usual, she seemed to read my mind. “You’re going to see Karl sooner or later.
Will you tell him about Katie?”
I stiffened, then forced my tense shoulders to relax. No one had mentioned Katie in my presence for years. It was as though she’d never existed for anyone but me, and her name sounded alien on Jenna’s lips.
“No. Katie is none of his business.”
But Jenna had discovered the chink in my armor and she prodded it unmercifully.
“Katie was his daughter, too. Don’t you think he has the right to know about her?”
“No.” I threw my suit onto a hanger and slammed it into the closet. “She was never his child and she never will be.”
“Ah-ha! Is that a bit of anger I detect? Maybe there’s some life in you after all.”
“Drop it, Jenna.”
With a sigh, she watched me take out a sweater and tie the arms around my waist.
“Okay, okay. It’s just that you’re scaring me, Natalie. You act like that damn robot on Star Trek. No, I take that back. At least Data wants to feel human.”
“Jenna, I’m fine, really.”
“Where are you going?”
“For a walk. I’ve been sitting at my desk all day.”