Always Be True (2 page)

“Good idea. I'm sure they would all appreciate the business.”

Natalie pulled on a pair of disposable gloves. “Is everything set for lunch?”

Rosalie nodded. “We should be ready to go at the stroke of twelve. I'm assuming you want to serve the pizza again, so I've saved that spot for you.”

“That's great. By the way, I promised Clarence I'd set aside a couple of the brownies for him. Where can I stash them?”

Her friend rolled her eyes. “He can come get his own brownies if he wants some that bad.”

But even as she spoke, Rosalie grabbed a small paper plate and stalked over to the counter where the desserts had been set out. She picked out three of the brownies, two of the chocolate chip cookies, and a lemon bar. After covering the goodies with plastic, she wrote Clarence's name on a sticky note and stuck it on top.

Natalie hid a smile. Rosalie and Clarence circled each other like a pair of feral cats trying to establish their territories. Natalie suspected that there was more to it than that. Like maybe they were both fighting a strong attraction that neither of them was ready to acknowledge. She knew for certain that Clarence was a widower and Rosalie was divorced, so there was nothing keeping them apart except for sheer stubbornness. It was tempting to play matchmaker, but she didn't want to risk her own friendship with each of them if things didn't work out.

One of the other women called out, “Heads up, everybody. The hungry mob has arrived.”

Natalie took her usual spot at the head of the line and opened the first three boxes of pizza. They always ordered an equal number of pepperoni, cheese, and vegetarian pizzas. It would be interesting to see which one Tino would ask for. She was betting a big guy like him would go for the pepperoni, the only one with meat on it. She spotted him making his way toward her as the line snaked forward.

He noticed her looking at him and nodded with a smile. She smiled back. At the same time, she had to fight to keep from checking her hair to make sure it was behaving itself. When his tray was finally in front her, she asked, “What kind of pizza do you want, and how many slices? We always order more than we need, so don't hesitate to take as much as you like.”

He studied the selections. “In that case, I'll have two pieces of the veggie.”

Okay, so she would've lost that bet. She dished up two of the bigger slices and handed him the plate. “There you go, and thanks again for volunteering today, not to mention the lesson in repairing drywall.”

“Anytime. Let me know if there are any other skills you'd like me to demonstrate.”

One problem with having such fair skin was that she blushed too easily. Right now, she suspected her cheeks were bright red, because the skills that came to mind had nothing to do with fixing up the community center. He knew it, too, because he winked at her as he continued down the line toward the salad bar.

“He's new, isn't he?”

Natalie glanced over her shoulder at Rosalie. “Yep, it's his first day here. I'm hoping he comes back. He's definitely got the kind of skills I covet.”

When her friend started laughing, Natalie replayed what she'd just said. Once again, she wanted to bang her head on something. “Lady, you have a wicked mind. The man knows basic carpentry, plumbing, and stuff.”

Rosalie patted her on the shoulder. “You just keep telling yourself that's all you're interested in if it makes you feel better. I might be old enough to be that man's mother, but I'm not blind to his particular…skill set.”

Normally, Natalie loved Rosalie's husky laugh, but not at this particular moment. For one thing, she was pretty sure she was blushing again, not to mention Tino had just glanced back in her direction. Had he figured out that he'd been their topic of discussion? From the small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, she suspected the answer was yes.

To make matters worse, she'd fallen behind in her duties. Time to get her head back in the game. She turned her attention to the next person in line. “Thanks so much for coming today! What kind of pizza would you like?”

Tino had a call to make. As he waited for his brother to answer, he guarded the empty spot next to him and kept an eye on Natalie Kennigan. The long line of volunteers was finally winding down, and he wanted to see if she would make good on her promise to join him for lunch. When he'd glanced back at her while he'd still been filling his tray, she'd looked almost guilty, like maybe he'd caught her and her friend talking about him. If so, he wondered what they'd said. Something interesting, for sure, considering the way she blushed.

He realized he'd missed hearing his brother answer. “Tino, I'm guessing you called me for some reason other than so I could hear you breathe in my ear. Because, I'm telling you straight up, that's kind of creepy.”

“Stuff it, Jack.”

His brother laughed, something he seemed to do a lot more lately. Tino tried not to envy his brother's newfound happiness with his wife and adopted teenage son, but it was hard. Once again his gaze wandered over toward Natalie, the reason he'd called his brother in the first place.

“I wanted to let you know that I'm not going to make it today. Something's come up.”

There was a second or two of silence before his brother responded. “Is everything okay? I thought you were putting in a couple of hours of volunteer work at that community center just to keep Mom off your back.”

“Yeah, I was. It's turned out to be more complicated than I thought.”

More silence. “Any chance the complication is female and attractive?”

No way was he going there, not with Jack's tendency to give him grief every chance he got. “They don't have anyone else here today who can do a decent job patching the walls. I'd like to finish what I've started. If I get the drywall taped and mudded, next week they can finish painting the gym.”

“Need a helping hand? Ricky and I could be there in twenty minutes.”

Oh, hell no. Considering Jack now ran their family's construction company, he definitely had the necessary skills. What he didn't have was the ability to keep his nose out of Tino's business.

“No, I don't want to take you away from Caitlyn and the kid on your day off. I can handle it.”

“Okay, if you're sure. Ricky will be disappointed that you're not coming over. He mentioned something about kicking your ass at that new video game you got him. He's been practicing.”

“Tell him I also bought a copy for myself, and my avatar will eat his for breakfast. Apologize to Caitlyn for me for ducking out on dinner.”

“Not a problem, little brother. See you on Monday.”

Tino bit back the urge to remind Jack, yet again, that there was only a four-month difference in their ages. “I'll be ready.”

Jack did the bulk of the work in the family business, but Tino helped out whenever his brother needed an extra set of hands. He'd also taken on all the paperwork that their mother had done when their late father had run the business. As always, a sense of loss washed over Tino when he thought about the man who had been his anchor in this world. Joe Lukash's sudden death had left a big hole in all their lives.

“Is that seat for me?”

How had he missed seeing Natalie approach? He lowered the phone long enough to say, “It sure is.”

Time to hang up. “Look, I've got to go. I'll see you on Monday.”

“Sounds good.” There was another pause. “And, Tino, if she's the reason you're bailing on us, I'm all for it.”

Not about to encourage his brother's matchmaking efforts, Tino kept his response to a simple goodbye, but he was pretty sure his brother was laughing when he hung up. No doubt he'd get the third degree on Monday, but he'd deal with it then.

Meanwhile, he shoved the phone back in his pocket and scooted his chair over a little to give Natalie more room to maneuver. She put her tray down next to his and sat down with a sigh. “Boy, it feels good to get off my feet for a few minutes. I've been on the run since about five thirty this morning.”

“How long have you been working on this particular project?”

“About a year and a half now.” She popped the top on her drink and took a quick sip. “That's including the planning stages, though. The actual work started about three months ago when we had a professional contractor gut the kitchen and rebuild it pretty much from the ground up. After that, the entire place was wired for Wi-Fi and the phone system upgraded. Next up is the computer lab. We plan to offer adult training classes at low cost as well as making the lab open to students in the area to use.”

Then she grimaced. “Sorry, I didn't mean to go on and on about it.”

When was the last time he'd been that excited about anything? Maybe never. Rather than pursue that depressing thought, he told her, “Don't apologize. I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't interested. I will say that you were smart to let the pros take on the hard stuff. It might cost more to begin with, but at least you know it's all being done right.”

Natalie glanced around the room. “I really appreciate everyone's willingness to pitch in and help, but there are limits to what can be done with volunteer labor.”

Her dimples made an appearance. “But enough about me. So, how about you, Tino? What do you do when you're not saving damsels from marauding buckets of paint?”

He had just taken a big bite of pizza, which gave him a few seconds to decide how much he wanted to share. “Well, up until recently, I was in the army.”

Before she could ask for details, he added, “I served in the military police with multiple tours in the Middle East.”

Maybe she sensed he really didn't want to elaborate, because she changed the subject. “I don't know about you, but I want to hit the dessert table before all the good stuff is gone. A lot of it is homemade.”

As they stood up, he asked, “Did you make any of it?”

One of the women sitting on his other side immediately snickered. “I hope not.”

Even though Natalie joined in the resulting laughter, Tino winced. “Sorry, did I touch on a sore subject?”

Natalie's smile didn't fade at all. “Not at all. Even if I can't bake as well as Rosalie, I have other talents.”

The other woman nodded in agreement. “That's true enough. None of this would have gotten done without our Natalie riding herd on this project.”

“Now, Brenda, you're going to have me blushing.” She turned her attention back to Tino. “I think my friend Rosalie is serving up a couple of her blackberry pies, which are to die for. I will not be happy if I don't score a piece. I consider it my reward for working hard this morning.”

Then she charged off across the room, leaving Tino to follow in her wake. A piece of pie would be nice, but watching Natalie's cute ass in those form-fitting jeans as she made a beeline straight for the dessert table was definitely a sweet reward all on its own.

He'd noticed she'd scrubbed that streak of paint off her cheek and also tried to tame her hair since he'd last seen her. That was too bad. He would like to see it loose and tumbling around her shoulders. Or better yet, spread out on his pillow. He caught himself flexing his fingers, imagining what it would be like to tangle them in her soft curls as the two of them got to know each other a whole lot better.

Natalie picked up two plates that held generous pieces of blackberry pie. As she handed one to him, she performed introductions. “Tino Gianelli, this is my friend, Rosalie Earle.”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Earle.”

From the considering look her friend gave him, she must have picked up on the direction his thoughts had taken regarding Natalie. He smiled and did his best to look innocent. That had never worked well with his adoptive mother, and Tino suspected this woman had that same scary ability to see past the bullshit.

She glanced at Natalie and then back at him, her expression cautiously friendly. “You're the new guy, the one with the impressive skill set that she was admiring earlier.”

He pretended not to notice Natalie's reaction, although he suspected that Rosalie wasn't talking about how well he could patch drywall. “This is my first time here, and Natalie has gone out of her way to make me feel welcome. I'm not sure whether it's because I know how to patch drywall or because I let her play with one of my power tools.”

Rosalie's eyes flashed wide and her laugh rang out across the room. “Well, you are a brave man.”

For some reason Tino felt compelled to defend Natalie. “She did great.”

“Well, you should've been here the time she—”

Natalie cut her friend off mid-sentence. “Rosalie, I warned him that there'd been an incident. Now, we need to eat our pie. It's almost time to go back to work.”

Tino smiled at Rosalie again before following Natalie back to their seats. “I'm looking forward to trying your pie.”

As he walked away, Rosalie called after him. “I hope we see you again soon, Tino.”

He hadn't made up his mind if he would come back. He'd enjoyed the experience more than he'd expected to, but since leaving the army, he hadn't been in the mood to commit to anything further away than getting through the day at hand. That didn't mean he wouldn't mind spending a little more time with Natalie Kennigan. Of course, no one said hanging out here at the community center was the only way he could enjoy her company.

The other people were already drifting back to work, but Natalie seemed willing to linger a little longer over her pie. As soon as he sat down, she set down her fork and looked at him. “I will tell you all the sordid details about the unfortunate incident if you'd like. It appears my so-called friend is determined to bring up the subject.”

He took a bite of pie before answering. “Two things—first, you're right about the pie. It's delicious. Second, you don't have to share the details, sordid or otherwise. I think a relationship should have a little mystery to it.”