I felt bad kind of leaving Shelley behind, but she didn’t seem to care.
“You remember that time Natalie decided she could balance on the bike seat?” Sadie asked.
“Oh my God, y’all, we do not need to tell that story again!” Nat said, covering her face for a moment.
My eyes did a quick sweep of her body while she wasn’t looking. Was she less curvy than all the girls I used to want to hook up with? Yes. But in my eyes, she was perfect. It had been a while now since I’d moved on from that particular look.
I glanced back up and realized she’d caught me looking. For a moment, my eyes were lost in hers, that unusual blue-green color sucking me in.
“Guys? Are you going to tell it or do you want me to do it?” Sadie’s question was directed at Natalie and me.
I turned and saw that a lot of the others were waiting to hear it. “I got it. You’ll mess it up, Sadie.”
“Whatever.” I got a good-natured eye roll from her.
“Yeah, so, I’d just taught Natalie to ride a bike…”
“Why didn’t your parents teach you?” Shelley interrupted.
We all got quiet, until Melinda said, “Tim just did it better.”
It wasn’t true, but it got the conversation back to something that wasn’t depressing.
“Anyway, she hadn’t known how to ride for long, but she was really, freakishly good at it. So, when we were riding down this hill, Nat jumped up on the bike seat, held her arms out, and tried to balance.”
There were shocked exclamations all around.
Carrie’s eyes were big, “Natalie! I thought you were smart about everything you did.”
“Not even close,” Nat replied, smiling.
“It gets worse,” I kept going. “She actually stayed up for a long time, but when the bike started to slow down and wobble, she got scared. Instead of just grabbing the handlebars and jumping back down, she decided to jump off the bike seat and try to land in the closest yard. It didnotturn out well. She landed in loose gravel that was on the side of the road. She was going so fast when she landed, she kind of skidded along on her knees.”
Sadie winced at the memory. “Oh my God, there was so much blood. Tim had to carry her home. There was no way she could walk.”
“Wait,” Natalie was already laughing, “in my defense, we’d been to the circus the weekend before that, and I decided I could do some of those circus tricks we’d seen the acrobats do on bikes.”
I stared at her, giving her a look. “I’m not sure that’s a good defense…”
She splashed me with cold river water.
All I could do was laugh and try to cover my face when Sadie joined her. When they were finally through, I reached over and grabbed Natalie’s tube bringing her close to me. I grabbed her knee. “Look,” I gestured for everyone to come over, “here’s her scar. Even with stitches, she’s still got it.”
Everyone looked, laughing. When I turned to look back at her, she was watching me. Suddenly, it was like just the two of us there in that river. Everything else faded—the laughter, the sounds of nature all around us, the beauty of the day—all I could focus on was her. The way she was looking at me, and the way touching her was making me feel was hitting me harder than the cold water ever could have.
“Tim, I think I’m getting sunburned. Can you take me home?” a whiny voice cut in, breaking the spell.
I was dazed for a moment, and it took me longer than it should have to let go of Nat’s knee. I locked eyes with her one more moment before I forced myself to let go and focus on my boss’ daughter.
“Um, yeah. Sure.” I tried to smile at her, but I knew it was weak. I got out of my tube and helped Shelley get hers to the side of the river and get out. She gave me a lingering hug of appreciation. I wanted to push her off me, but I knew I couldn’t do that. My boss wouldn’t be pumped to hear I wasn’t nice to his daughter.
We stood on the shore and waved goodbye as everyone floated off.
The last thing I really noticed was the way Natalie looked at me when Shelley was hugging me.
It was like I was confirming something she’d already thought.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
