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CHAPTER22
The August afternoonsun was hot as Sam finished mowing his lawn. Natalie had just mowed it on Saturday, but it was supposed to rain for the next few days, and he didn’t want it to get too long. He loved mowing his lawn; it relaxed him. When Natalie had done it for him earlier, he was a little upset, but then again, he had already been on edge with her nervous energy.
Looking over his little lawn, he was happy with the results: it was neat and trim and smelled of freshly cut grass. Now all he had to do was wait for Natalie to come home from the library, but that was still hours away.
Movement caught his eyes, and he waved at his neighbor, who was mowing his lawn today too. Patrick shut his mower off and waved Sam over. Leaving his mower where it was, he headed over to talk to his old friend.
He sat down at the patio table across from Natalie’s father for the first time since the man’s daughter had moved in with him. It should be more awkward than it was. Sam was glad Natalie had told him Patrick was more than okay with them being together. Falling for his friend’s daughter behind the man’s back was the last thing Sam wanted to do.
Wiping the sweat off his brow, he asked, “How is it going? Faith move in yet?”
“No, not yet. We’re getting everything organized. We have two houses to fit into one. And a bunch of kids,” Patrick said with a smile. Sam knew the kids were the least of Patrick’s concerns.
“Just tell me when you need help to move stuff. I’ll have Natalie come over and help you.” He laughed when Patrick caught the joke.
“Good luck with that. She hasn’t even moved anything of hers to your house.” Patrick looked across the yard at his house.
Sam stopped laughing. She hadn’t brought anything over, hadn’t even asked. Did she feel she needed someplace to land if things didn’t turn out? Most of her clothes were even still at her dad’s house. She seemed more than okay to wear his clothes.
“How is Natalie? Jumpy?” Patrick asked.
Sam turned to the older man. “How did you know she would be jumpy?”
“Nervous energy. She’s always been that way. In school, three sports were not enough sometimes. Was her mom that way?” Patrick asked with interest.
Sam wondered if he had asked anything more than what Natalie had told him about the woman, or if he had just let his daughter ramble when they had talked.
“No, not her mom. One of the sisters seemed a little like that, but maybe it came from the dad.” Sam hated to say ‘dad’ because Patrick would always be her dad, even if someone else provided half her genes. “But her brains came from her mom.”
“Natalie said she’s a judge. I guess you have to be smart to be a judge.”
“Yes, and she skipped grades and got through college in three years. I wonder if Natalie wasn’t challenged enough in school. Maybe her mom was just able to focus the energy into something else.” Sam stated his theory.
“I know she wasn’t challenged, but I hated to push too much. Lara had her reading by three, but after she was gone, I didn’t know what to do. If I had her skip grades, she would have lost her friends. By the last years of high school, she was physically busy but was still not mentally challenged. I don’t even know if she has ever been mentally challenged,” Patrick admitted and looked off into the back yard.
“I think her job bores her.” Sam looked at the half-cut grass in Patrick’s backyard, not at his friend.
“I know. I wanted her to do something else, but she said she could do this degree from a hospital bed, so she did. Once she sets her mind to something, there’s no changing it,” Patrick said on a sigh.
“I’ve asked her to coach the volleyball team,” Sam told him, wondering if Natalie had talked to him about it already. They were close, after all.
“I know, she told me. She’s thinking about it. I think she would be great at it, except she’s very competitive. Too competitive sometimes.”
Sam was shocked. So maybe the man did know of her faults. “Do you think she’ll do it?” Sam knew the man knew her mind better than she did on some things.
“In the end, yes. She needs convincing and reassurance. I told her to talk to the one person who knows her best, see what they think.”
“Hazel?” Questioned Sam.
“I didn’t say who. We’ll see who she talks to. But I have a feeling it will be her also,” Patrick agreed.
“Will Hazel talk to Natalie?” Sam didn’t know the answer to that.
“Maybe, maybe not. Hazel’s not the same person I knew.” Patrick had known the girl since she was five or six.
“Natalie said that she wasn’t a great friend to Hazel. It’s been bothering her lately.” Sam remembered the pain in her green eyes when she had told him what Hazel had told her.
“I saw that back then. Hanna was always Natalie’s best friend, but Hazel was always there. Hazel’s best friend was also Hanna. It made it hard for Hazel. She wasn’t as competitive as Natalie, and I’m afraid she let Natalie win and, in the end, lost more than her friend. Her sister. I just wish they could be friends again. I miss those days.” Patrick pushed away from the table and stood up.
