Leaving Normal (33 page)

Reality Check

"Her name is Iris," Fred Miller announced over dessert.

The weekly Sunday dinner at his home quickly quieted down as he waited for the onslaught of questions. And he knew there would be a hell of a lot of them.

Sarah was the first to ask, "Where did you meet her?"

"Target, sort of."

"I knew it," Natalie replied, bright-eyed, as if she'd just won the lottery. "You got all bent out of shape about Target with me that day you gave me the crumb duster."

"I did no such thing."

Steve, his son-in-law, rose from his chair, reached across BreeAnn and shook his hand. "Good for you, Fred."

Fred took Steve's hand, thinking it a bit stupid. So what was the big deal? He had a woman he was dating and he liked her. No reason to take out a headline in the damn newspaper.

It had been increasingly more difficult to keep his feelings under wraps with his two daughters so suspicious of his every cough or sneeze.

He and Iris had been enjoying time together on her days off. They'd gone to the zoo yesterday. He'd forgotten how much he liked the Boise zoo. Afterward, they'd walked through the park holding hands like two lovebirds. It felt good to be out with her, look over and see her in the passenger seat of his Elantra with the sunroof open, wind in her hair.

"Did she like the balloons?" Natalie asked, ignoring the bowl of vanilla ice cream in front of her.

"She did. Very much."

Natalie smiled.

Sydney chimed in, "What balloons?"

Sarah supplied the explanation—Natalie must have blabbed. Why wasn't he surprised? "Grandpa got some pretty, round balloons and a red heart one and he gave them to Iris."

"Why do you like Iris, Grandpa?" BreeAnn scooped her ice-cream bowl clean.

"Because I just do." He felt his cheeks grow hot, red. He didn't like the scrutiny. Scraping his chair away from the table, he went to put away the dishes.

While it wasn't as hard as he thought to confess his love interest, he felt a sense of guilt just the same. Guilt for bringing a new woman's name into the family-dinner conversation. God forgive him.

But Fred was alive. And he wanted to live it with someone who put a skip in his step.

Iris was the bright spot of his day.

"We're glad you met her, Dad," Sarah said, coming to stand next to him and rinse her plate. "I'm not surprised she shops at Target."

"She works there."

Natalie joined them. "Really?"

"Housewares."

"That explains the new kitchen gadgets."

Fred sheepishly shrugged. "I can't resist."

"Her or the gadgets?" Sarah teased.

Putting hands on her hips, Natalie said, "Well, I think we should meet her. I want you to invite her for Easter dinner at my house."

Fred felt an instant's panic. He'd just barely gotten over admitting he had a thing for Iris. Now they wanted him to bring her into their fold? His daughters might question her to death and scare her off.

He begged off. "I'm sure she has other plans."

"She might not." Natalie held firm. "Ask her."

"Maybe."

"Dad, please." Sarah snuggled up next to him. "We want to meet her."

"But Easter is for family." He rejected the idea, didn't want things to get mucked up too soon.

"Oh, good grief," Natalie said. "I invited Greg and his girlfriend, so it's already going to be a merry bunch."

"You invited Greg?" Sarah's gaze widened.

"He's picking Cassie up at the airport on Easter Day and driving her to my house. It would have been awkward if I hadn't invited Greg and his girlfriend in for a drink and hors d'oeuvres…I don't know. I figured I'm an adult and I should act like one."

The fact that Natalie had invited Greg was pretty big.

Fred mulled over the possible scenarios if Iris came, and the best he could say was, "I'll let you know. Maybe I'll ask her. We'll see."

His daughters smiled, two broad smiles that worried him. They'd be after poor Iris like fingers in icing on a cake.

He didn't know if he was ready to do that to his Iris.

Natalie stared at the phone when she got home from her dad's. She took a long hard look at it and decided it wasn't going to get any easier the longer she waited.

She picked it up, dialed a number and waited.

The line was answered on its second ring. "Hello?"

"Hi, Tony. It's Natalie."

"Hey. What's up?"

She bit her lower lip, gathered her thoughts. "I was wondering if you were free on Tuesday to come over for dinner."

"Sure."

Just like that. Sure. "Well, great."

"What can I bring?"

"Wine would be nice."

"Merlot?"

"Whatever you want would be fine."

She tucked her hair behind her ear, paused, and tried to think of something else to say. She couldn't. She grew anxious, uncertain.

This seemed so staged…so set up.

"Thanks for inviting me, Natalie," he said, pulling her from her thoughts.

"I wanted to." Before she could change her mind, she said, "Why don't you come over about seven."

"Sounds good. See you then."

He hung up and she disconnected the call.

Natalie sighed, straightened her shoulders and set the phone down. It was a done deal now.

She'd just sealed her fate. The ball was in motion.

Heading for the stairs, the phone rang and she had a moment of dread.

He's calling back to say he can't make it after all.

Natalie glanced at the caller ID, saw it was Cassie and let out a sigh of relief.

"Hi, Cassie."

"Hi, Mom."

The distance between them seemed so far. Sunday nights weren't the same without Cassie with them, and this Easter it would be nice to have her back.

"How're things going?" Natalie asked, walking through the house and turning off lights to head upstairs for the night.

"Good."

There was a pregnant pause.

Cassie didn't have to say anything. By the faintest sound of her daughter's breathing, Natalie could read into the length of silence. It wasn't good news.

"What happened?" she blurted, fearful.

"Nothing, Mom. Geez."

"Well, something's on your mind. I can read you like a book."

Cassie waited a few seconds, then she said, "I'm not coming home for Easter. I'm going to Minneapolis with Austin."

The news didn't readily register.

"You're what?"

"I'm taking spring break at Austin's house with his mom. I already changed my ticket, so you can't say no. Northwest flies into Minneapolis and the fee to reroute me wasn't that bad."

"Cassandra, I paid for that ticket," Natalie reasoned, trying to keep her voice calm. "You had no right to change it and have my credit card billed with the higher fee. Not to mention, you should have run this past me first."

"If I had, you would have told me I couldn't go."

"You are so right. We had plans for Easter. You knew you were expected here."

"I know, but Austin—"

"Austin came for Christmas and I was nice about it. I'm not going to be nice about this. I'm upset with you."

Natalie felt her ire rising. Cassie might be on her own, but she still had certain family obligations, especially when that airline ticket was already bought and paid for.

"Mom, I don't want to get into it with you and I'm sorry if I hurt yours and daddy's feelings."

"Greg knows about this, too?" That dinner invite was going to be yanked right out from under him if he had any clue about the change in plans.

"No, I was hoping you could tell him for me."

"Absolutely not. You'll have to call him."

"Okay. I will." Defiant, she continued, "Mom, this is important to me and I wish you could understand. Austin asked me to go to his house and that's a big deal for him. He wants me to see where he lives."

Once more, silence stretched between them, Natalie thinking how extremely unhappy she was.

And how she wished her daughter had never met Austin Mably.

"Mom?"

"I'm still here."

"Mom, please don't be angry. I'll come home soon. We'll look on the calendar and we'll set a date for a long weekend. Okay?"

Natalie dragged in a breath. "I'm disappointed."

"Oh," Cassie groaned. "Kids always hate it when their parents say that. Please don't."

"Well, it's true. I'm disappointed you didn't check with me first."

"I'm sorry."

Natalie couldn't say much of anything else. The reality was, an eighteen-year-old who thought she was in love thought she knew all the answers. But the real truth was Cassie didn't have enough experience to know that they weren't all the right ones.

In a case like this, Natalie had a feeling her daughter was just going to have to learn the hard way. And maybe the increase in airline fare was a small price to pay for the lesson.

Sheet Music

Tony couldn't remember the last time he'd had a dinner cooked for him. Kim had never been big on domestic skills but that had never really been a problem for him. He knew how to cook, plus he ate a lot of his meals at the fire station.

Going out to dinner was a nice break from cooking. He had his favorite places and liked being waited on. But a home-cooked meal by a beautiful woman was far more preferable.

Tonight Natalie had set the table with place mats and red napkins. She'd put flowers in the center and had lit candles, as well. He sat sipping a glass of wine, watching her at the stove. She was doing something with pasta. If she was nervous, she didn't show it. She moved with efficiency, much as she probably did at work.

He was glad she'd invited him over for dinner. And he knew full well she would be offering herself for dessert.

While he wasn't planning on turning her down, on a core level, he wanted to be in love with someone, and that sort of surprised him. He would have figured after the divorce he'd be turned off love and not wanting to fall into it again.

But, in rethinking his marriage, he realized that he'd been trapped in the emotional aspect of Parker needing a dad, and unconditional love for Kim had been part of the equation.

His gaze followed Natalie as she moved a pan from the stove to the sink and drained the water. The house smelled like garlic and onions, some kind of sauce— tomatoes in it maybe. She threw some spinach in another pan and put a lid on it. She had pine nuts on the counter. He was hungry.

He liked everything he saw, and the smells had his stomach growling.

"Can I pour you more wine?" she asked, taking a sip of hers. She'd been drinking at the counter, pausing every now and then to pick up her wineglass.

"I'm good."

"Dinner should be done in a minute."

"No rush."

And he meant it. He had all the time in the world tonight. He knew she had to work tomorrow, but he didn't. Having forty-eight hours off was one of the perks about his job that he enjoyed. He could take two days off at a time and do things he wouldn't normally get accomplished if he was a nine-to-fiver.

"Do you usually work six days a week?" he asked.

"It depends on the time of year. Around holidays, yes. I'm crazy this week with Easter so I've gotta be at the store by eight. Sometimes earlier."