Filed to story: Love on the Sidelines (Natalie & Karl)
He used one finger to push his glasses back up his nose, then peered at me over the rims. “You want to walk over there and keep an eye on me?”
“Thanks, but I’ll have to trust you this time. I’ve got too much work left to do.” I wouldn’t be able to avoid Karl forever, not in a town the size of Morganville, but I sure wasn’t going to look for him. I didn’t even wonder why he hadn’t tried to find me yet. It was obvious. He hadn’t wanted me fifteen years ago; I had no reason to think he’d changed his mind now. No doubt he was happily married to Lindsey. I only wished they’d found somewhere else to settle down. I wasn’t sure Morganville was big enough for the three of us.
Late Monday afternoon, my time ran out. I was on the loading dock at Southern Supply, chewing my bottom lip while I tried to figure out if the custom-cut countertop a contractor had ordered could be salvaged. The inside corners had been cut and joined at the wrong angle and it was looking hopeless.
“Natalie?” The intercom crackled with static as Kenny paged me.
“Yes, Kenny?” I was still distracted. It looked like we were going to take a loss on the countertop. “Reorder it,” I told Doug, my dock manager. “And tell them they better get it right or I’ll find someone else to do my cabinet work. This is the second time they’ve messed up this month.”
He jogged to the phone as Kenny spoke again. “Got a customer at the front desk who wants to open an account.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there.”
I was proud of what Southern Supply had become. It was the biggest store in Morganville and second only to the lumber mill in employing the people in the area.
We had building contractors from all over the northeast part of the state who used us exclusively for their material. Hardly a day went by when several new customers didn’t apply for accounts, so I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary as I walked to the front desk.
Reaching under the counter, I picked up a credit application form and straightened, facing the man now standing casually in front of me.
“Hello, Peewee.” Karl’s soft voice rolled over me like molasses over a hot biscuit.
I stood there frozen, my heart pounding an erratic rhythm that made it hard to breathe, while my subconscious automatically catalogued his appearance. If anything, Jenna had understated the facts. He was taller, at least six-two, maybe more. No silver marred his thick hair, but it was shorter than I’d ever seen it before.
When he’d left fifteen years ago, his body, while well-developed, still retained boyish overtones, lanky and lean like the healthy young animal he was. Nothing about the man standing here now was boyish. He was dressed in black slacks, a black pullover shirt, and a black linen jacket that hit him just above the knees, the dark color serving to emphasize the deep bronze of his skin. And not even his clothing could hide the long thick muscles of his legs, the broad shoulders or the flat stomach.
His face had changed, too. All the roundness was gone, leaving hard lines and chiseled planes that loudly proclaimed here was a man who knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. A five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw. Only the dimples and the gray eyes were the same, and those I would have recognized anywhere.
The smile curving his lips faded a bit as I continued to stare at him silently, and he took a step closer. He held a set of rolled-up plans in one hand.
“Natalie? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me?”
By some miracle my voice came out cool and steady, even though inside I was trembling with a dozen conflicting emotions. “Karl. Jenna told me you were back.” I put the papers down and shoved them toward him. “If you’ll fill these out, we can see about getting your account opened.”
A puzzled expression filled his eyes as he reached inside his jacket for a pen. “You look great, Natalie.”
“Thanks.” I forced a smile. I’d gotten real good at pretending. I could do it even when I wanted to scream.
He pulled the forms closer and studied them a second before glancing back up.
“How have you been?”
“Fine.”
His gaze searched mine as he hesitated. “And Hugh? I heard the two of you are separated.”
“You heard right.” I pointed to the form. “Just fill in your address, phone number, social security number, and the name of your loan officer. We’ll do the rest.”
“I don’t have a loan officer.”
“Then the name and address of your bank will do.” He put down the information I’d requested, shooting glances at me the entire time.
When he finished, he handed it across the counter.
“It was great seeing the Judge yesterday. He looks just like he always did.”
“Yes, he does. I take it you’re building a house on the land you’re buying?”
“Natalie, is something wrong?” His brows were lowered, mouth curving downward in a worried frown.
“Of course not.” I refused to meet his eyes. He’s simply another customer, I told myself. Ruthlessly, I ground my building anger under my heel and reached for the plans.Icouldn’tbelievehewasactingasthoughnotimehadpassed,asthoughwe could take up right where we’d left off. “It usually takes the bank a few days to get back to us on the applications, but if you’d like, we can make up a material list for you and have it ready to go.”
“That will be fine.”
Karl’s gaze burned into me while I unrolled the plans, but I ignored him. “Have you decided on a contractor yet? If you haven’t, we keep a list…” My voice trailed off as I stared down at the blueprint, and everything in me went still.
The year I was eighteen, when Hugh had been after me to go look at the houses in Fair Oaks, I’d come across a picture in a magazine. It was of an old farmhouse that had been restored, and I’d fallen instantly in love with the sweeping porches, wide expanses of glass, the half-dozen gables, and the old-fashioned flower beds full of hollyhocks, roses and honeysuckle. It hadn’t been just a house to me; it was what a home should be.
Cutting it carefully from the magazine, I’d clipped it to a blank sheet of paper and then spent hours designing the inside. It was my dream house, the one I would have built if I’d had any choice in the matter. And now it stared back at me from Karl’s blueprints, every detail exactly as I’d drawn it.