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Chapter 12
Natalie
The bar was noisy.
As the night went on, people got rowdier, their voices rising with drunken laughter filling the air. Zac and I played some pool and chatted to Denise, who eyed me warily. We had never gotten on and I didn’t try very hard to establish a friendship with her, I must admit. I had watched her flirt with men too many nights, waiting for Zac to come along. She was the kind of woman who liked men and men liked her too. It was obvious to me why she liked Zac, of all the men she must have come across, she must have known he would never let her down.
I was hoping I might see Tucker. When I was at the house earlier, my mother had told me that he had a girlfriend. She was the daughter of a property developer with a holiday house in Martha’s Vineyard. Tucker was living with her, practically. My mother said she was sure he was using drugs. Days would pass and they wouldn’t see him. He’d agreed to the rehab and said he’d go whenever we were ready to take him. But he meant to live it up until then. My mother was scared he would overdose or do something irresponsible before we could get him help. I told her I had the money and would take him over the weekend. But first, I had to get hold of him. Calling him and texting him didn’t work. He simply didn’t answer the phone.
After a few hours at the bar, I’d had enough. I thought about going to Martha’s Vineyard in the morning to go looking for this girl. We had a name at least, Lexi Tennant. Zac was sitting at the bar, chatting to Denise whenever she had a moment free, and I could tell this was what he did most nights. But I was tired, it had been a long day and I’d had enough. I’d started thinking about Ethan and whether his new nanny had put him to bed all right, whether she’d been able to handle any problems with dinner. I remembered putting his favorite Spiderman t-shirt in the laundry the night before. Would the new girl realize the importance of doing laundry right away? He only had one other Spiderman t-shirt and was currently wearing no other Superhero. Ethan didn’t like changes to his routine. I didn’t want to think about an unhappy Ethan. I told Zac I was leaving and got a taxi to take me home.
When it stopped in the street, I noticed the car parked in front of my parents’ house.
I knew that car.
It was Sam’s.
I felt my heart stopping. I almost couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t possible. Sam couldn’t be here, could he?
I got out and walked up to the car. He’d fallen asleep in the driver’s seat, his neck at an uncomfortable angle. I tapped the window, and he woke up with a start. When he saw me, his face lit up and he jumped out of the car.
“Thank God, Natalie!”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Looking for you, of course!”
“Why?”
“We’ve got to talk, Natalie!”
“About what?” I needed to keep my voice down, I didn’t want my parents to hear.
“Will you get in the car, just to talk?” he asked me, his voice pleading.
I didn’t want to get into the car with him, but it was freezing, and we couldn’t go into the house.
“For a minute,” I said.
“You’re cold,” he said. “Here, take my jacket.” He took off his jacket and gave it to me.
I sat huddled in the seat, unsure what to say.
“Why did you run away like that, Natalie?” he asked me, his voice gentle. “Why won’t you take my calls?”
I shrugged.
“Just talk to me,” he said.
“Why? What difference will it make?” I said, surprising myself.
I could see he had not expected that.
“But… that kiss, you felt something, didn’t you?”
“So, what if I did?” I was sounding argumentative, and I knew it. He wasn’t used to me talking back. Maybe women didn’t talk back to him, period. I thought of what Holly would do and bit back a smile because I knew she would have scratched his face by now.
He tried again, “Don’t you think we should give this a go? See if whatever is between us, is real, because I think it is! Come back to Boston with me, come help me with Ethan, we need you!”
