CHAPTER SIX
Natalie
I laughed and talked with Tim over lunch at La Cocina the next day. “God, it’s been forever since I’ve had good Mexican food,” I moaned.
I looked up to find him staring at me while the bite of food he’d just put on his fork fell back to his plate.
I waved a hand in front of his face. “What is wrong with you?”
He stared at me a second longer before seeming to snap out of it. “Nothing. Sorry.
He then regaled me with funny stories from the past year. I was still recovering from him telling me he fell down in front of a bunch of cute sorority girls when the server came to refill our drinks.
Our laughter faded and there was a lull in the conversation. I had told myself before coming out with him today that I wasn’t going to ask why he never came to see me in France. But I couldn’t restrain myself.
“Why didn’t you visit me?” I blurted.
He looked away, but not before I saw a flash of guilt in his eyes. “Tech is hard. Especially the first year. You know that.”
I studied him. “And the breaks? Were you studying during the six weeks you were off for the holidays when you had no classes?”
He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “No, Nat. I wasn’t.
Look,” he finally looked up at me, “I never got over you leaving. I know it sucks, and I’m selfish, and all of that, but it’s true.
We had it all planned out for years. I’d go to Tech and you’d go to Emory, and we’d hang out all the time.
Then you chose to just… leave. You didn’t even give me any real warning.
It hurt my feelings and made me feel—I don’t know.
Like I didn’t matter, I guess. Like I wasn’t important enough for you to let me in on the decision. ”
I stared at him. “You thought I needed your approval to go visit my dead mother’s twin sister after I found out my dad had been sabotaging any attempts at a relationship with her since I was ten?”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “God. I suck. I’m sorry, Nat. It was… incredibly selfish of me. It was. I knew it at the time, but I pushed it down and refused to admit it, even to myself. I was an idiot. Can you forgive me?”
I met his eyes. We’d been through everything together.
Of course I would forgive him. That was never in question.
“It was your loss, dumbass. You missed what could have been one of the best experiences of your life because you had ‘hurt feelings.’ The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, random bookstores and boulangeries, the Champs de Elysee, the fucking food and wine.” I tossed my hands in the air.
“It was amazing! And I wanted to share it with you, my best friend. But I didn’t get to, and that sucks. ”
He shook his head, obviously contrite. “I wish I could have a do-over.”
I looked at him, a smile I could no longer hide playing over my lips. “Well, you can’t have a do-over, exactly, but Sabine invited me for the entire Christmas holiday—all six weeks of it—and said I could bring you with me.”
His head shot up. “Are you serious?”
I nodded. “And she has a bajillion points saved for frequent flyer miles because of her job. We can go for free, basically. Paris for Christmas. What do you say?”
“Yes!” He looked relieved. “I say yes.”
I chomped down on a churro. “Good. I want to introduce you to all my friends.” I looked down at the Cartier watch Jacques gave me.
“Who gave you that watch?” He knew it was an expensive gift. I’d seen him eyeing it. “Sabine?”
I shook my head. “Jacques,” I said simply.
He frowned. “Who the hell is Jacques?”
I smiled. “You’ll meet him, too. Don’t worry.”
We spent the rest of lunch talking about all our experiences over the past year while we’d been apart.
***
My father only stuck around for a couple of days after my return from France. I woke up one morning to an empty house and found a note on the kitchen counter telling me he had to go out of town for work unexpectedly. He informed me that he didn’t expect to return before the end of the summer.
It was the first week of June.
I knew the truth. He couldn’t stand to look at me. I reminded him too much of my mother. So, after being apart for an entire year, I’d only been around him for a handful of hours before he’d been ready for me to leave again. He knew that wasn’t going to happen, so he chose to leave instead.
I made myself some toast and ate alone at the table.
I sat there long after I’d finished, just thinking over my options.
It was too late to start summer school at Emory.
I wondered if I could get a job or if all the part-time summer work had been snatched up in town.
That tended to happen in a town the size of Indigo Falls.
I ended up working part-time for Snow Cone Hut with Tim’s sister Alexis.
She was about to start her senior year of high school and needed a job for the summer, too.
There was a guy in Halliwell who owned ten portable mini food trucks that were outfitted as Snow Cone Huts.
He handed me the keys, gave me a working area and turned us loose.
We got to keep forty percent of the profits for the summer. Easy peasy.
Our area turned out to be one of three places.
The rec center pool, the tennis courts, or the Indigo Falls Country Club.
We’d set up in the parking lot of one of the three places and stay there from seven in the morning until seven at night.
We’d each take two thirty-minute breaks a day, never at the same time.
I posted a set schedule online of when we’d be at each location, and I wrote it on a sandwich board we’d set up each day with our flavor of the day on it.
Tim worked at the quarry. He’d been working there every summer since he was old enough to work legally.
We all knew he wanted to be run the place one day after graduating from Tech.
Each summer he got stronger and stronger as he did a mix of manual labor and office jobs at the quarry.
The manager there said he’d be extremely marketable with a degree from Tech, but even more so if he’d done every job there was to do around the quarry.
Understanding what all of your employees did made you a better boss to work for, according to him.
He had a point.
Tim and a couple of his pals from work would often come to the rec center pool when they got off work. They’d cool off and splash around for an hour or so before coming to buy snow cones from us.
I didn’t mean to, but I often found myself staring at Tim as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on a lounge chair before diving in.
He was… cut. His muscles had muscles. I knew he’d always tended towards that body type, but he’d gotten nothing but bigger and broader over the past year or so.
“What are you looking at, Nat?” Alexis asked one evening in a sing-song voice with a little grin on her face.
“Nothing, squirt,” I replied holding the container of blue raspberry syrup threateningly over her head.
“Don’t you dare,” she squealed, and I laughed as she burst out of the truck to get away from me.
“I wasn’t really gonna do it,” I rolled my eyes.
“Do what?” Tim walked up, still dripping wet. Damn. I watched as water ran down his chest in little rivulets. For a moment I pictured myself licking the water off him, before I shook the thoughts away. What the hell?
When I looked up to answer him, he was staring at me as if he’d read my thoughts. I flushed and cleared my throat.
“I, uh, threatened to dump syrup on her head.”
“Oh.”
“Man, are you going to move so I can ask her?” Hunter, one of Tim’s friends who was also beautifully cut and tanned, asked him. He was very handsome, with dark hair and eyes, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Tim.
No one could.
Tim nodded his head in Alexis’ direction. “Dude. She’s right there.”
Hunter frowned looking confused. “What? That’s your little sister.”
Tim turned his head sharply. “Right. That’s who you wanted to ask out, right? Alexis?”
Hunter gave him a look. “No. I’m twenty, man. Isn’t she, like, sixteen or something?”
Tim’s mouth dropped open a little. “She’s seventeen, but…” his voice trailed off as he realized it was a bad idea. “Who did you want to ask out?”
“This is going great,” Hunter looked at me and winked. He stepped around Tim. “I don’t know if you had figured this out or not, Natalie, but I wanted to see what you’re doing Saturday night.”
Tim made a strange noise. “Natalie? You wanted to ask Natalie out?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’s weird about that?”
“Nothing. Nothing, it’s just… I thought we were going on a double date where I’d be with you, and he’d be with Alexis.”
“You wanted to go on a date with me?”
Tim’s ears turned pink and he rubbed the back of his neck.
“I thought you said y’all were just friends,” Hunter said.
“We are. I just thought—never mind. I’ll leave y’all to it.” He hurried across the parking lot to where Alexis was flirting with a couple of guys from school.
“That was weird,” Hunter chuckled. “Anyway, are you busy Saturday?”
I stared after Tim.
“Natalie?”
I jerked back to him. “Um, yeah. I mean, no. I’m not busy.”
“Great. Maybe we can grab a bite to eat. I’ll see if Tim wants to ask one of his many admirers to go, too, and we can hang out with him, if you’d like.”
I’d looked back to where Tim had now been mobbed by several girls. I couldn’t tell if they were Alexis’ friends or older, but I didn’t recognize them. “Sure. That sounds fun.” I smiled at him and exchanged contact information.
“I’ll look forward to it.” Hunter said, giving me a grin that caused a few butterflies to take flight in my stomach. “I told Tim at the start of the summer that I thought you were beautiful. He said you were dating someone, though, so I was glad to hear that you were single again.”
“Oh, right,” I said a little awkwardly, trying to mask my confusion.
“See you, Nat,” Hunter said, and turned to jog over to Tim.
Tim’s eyes flew to mine as soon as he saw Hunter. He gave me a little wave and indicated he’d call me later.
I just waved back.
Why had Tim told Hunter I was dating someone?