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“They do too, Patrick.” Sam got up as well, thinking about how much Hazel’s reactions bothered Natalie.
Waving goodbye to his friend, he headed back to his house, grabbing his lawnmower on the way. After a quick shower without Natalie, he sat on the couch to wait for her to come home. Though her energy was draining sometimes, he loved having her live with him. They hadn’t talked about it, but she never talked about going to stay at her dad’s house. After the first night, she even parked in front of his place now, not going through the yards to her dad’s house.
But it was worrying him that she wasn’t moving her stuff over, just little things now and again. Maybe she wasn’t as into living with him as he was. Once she figured out the coaching thing, he would have to talk to her about it.
CHAPTER23
Closingthe book as the story ended, Natalie leaned back in her chair. Looking at the cover again, she was so excited she couldn’t contain it. But she had to because she was in the library.
Today the library had gotten the latest in the Z. Connor book series, and Natalie was the first to have read it—in less than two hours. She had been waiting for today since her mom had told her who the author was.
Flipping through the front of the book and then the back, she had never noticed there was no information on the author in this series. Most books were big on promoting their other works, but not this one. Smiling, Natalie looked around the library; nobody was looking at her, so she hugged the book to her chest.
Getting up to put the book back on the shelf, she wondered if Della could have her aunt send her a signed copy. Her aunt Zephyr, the author. Her aunt, who talked to her like she was just Della’s little sister. Not a best-selling author with a movie about the first book in theaters.
Ruth was an author too, so it wasn’t all that odd, but Natalie had been reading her aunt’s books for years. She had every book in the series on the family room bookshelf. Soon she would have to dust them off so her new brothers could read the series she had so enjoyed.
She was glad she finished before she had to start the children’s reading time; she hated to put a book down before she finished it. But today, she was reading one of her favorites, and she had asked Hazel to bring in John Henry. Natalie was a little nervous to see Henry’s mirror image and her friend. Natalie hadn’t seen Hazel since book club when she had said she was going to quit. So far, she hadn’t talked to the rest of the group, feeling it was her who Hazel had an issue with. Not them. But today, she wanted to talk to the person who knew her best. Besides her dad, that was Hazel, and she would tell Natalie how it was. Hazel doesn’t hold back in case it hurt her feelings.
As Natalie grabbed the book she was reading to the kids off her desk, she caught Hazel coming in out of the corner of her eye and sighed with relief that she had actually come. Now she would have to get her to talk to her.
Taking her seat in front of the children, she noticed that John Henry had sat in the back. He wasn’t outgoing and active like some little boys. His personality reflected his mom’s: quiet and reserved.
Natalie had memorized the children’s book years ago, so she looked around the library to see if Hazel was there as she read the story out loud. Of course, she didn’t leave. She would never leave John Henry alone. Her friend was in the library somewhere.
Closing the book, she got up to make sure Hazel didn’t sneak out before she could talk to her. Watching where John Henry ran, Natalie followed, and she found Hazel in the kid’s section, reading a book that was not from the children’s section. John Henry climbed onto her lap, and she quickly closed the book on Jeffrey Dahmer.
“Hazel, can I talk to you?” Natalie asked as Hazel started to get up.
“I thought that you were just being nice inviting John Henry to listen to a book. But you actually were just using him. So, no,” Hazel accused.
“Please, Hazel, I just want to talk. Nothing about the accident.”
Hazel looked at her for a while before replying, “Fine, five minutes.”
“John Henry will be fine out here alone for a few minutes,” Natalie said since the boy had gone to see what another boy was looking at on the bookshelf. Leading her to a meeting room, she closed the door behind them.
Neither spoke for a while. It wasn’t easy to start. There was always too much between them. Too much that needed to be said. Too much that couldn’t be said.
“Do you want to sit?” Natalie asked.
“No.” Hazel leaned against the door, glancing out the window that looked out at the rest of the library to see John Henry still playing.
“I will.” Natalie sat on the edge of the table, feeling uncomfortable sitting while Hazel stood, angry. “I want to talk about high school.”
“I thought you said we wouldn’t talk about the accident?” Hazel’s hand went around the doorknob.
“Not about the accident. About me in high school,” Natalie assured her.
“What do you want to know?” Hazel’s eyes were on the floor between them as her hand stayed on the knob.
“Was I a bad person? You know, all around? Mean to people and hard to get along with?” Natalie knew Hazel would know. She was there.
“Sometimes. I think we all were then. You were …” She paused. “You were you, outgoing and opinionated about everything. I think you thought you were better than everyone. I mean, you were. You were smart and funny and good at sports. But you were also a little self-centered and treated the rest of us like we were in the way.”
Natalie had expected her to be truthful, but she didn’t think the truth would hurt so much. Had she really been that cocky kid Hazel was describing? But she knew she was. Hazel might not like her much, but she wouldn’t lie to her. That was not who Hazel was.
“Is that why you stopped hanging out with us the last year?” Natalie asked, hoping it wasn’t her that pushed Hazel away before the accident even happened. Because looking back, she could see Hazel had stopped being there. At some point, she had stopped being around.
