FAE-ted (5 page)

"Of course not. I'd date...if the right guy came along."

Nate's frown deepened. "But so far he hasn't?"

I pointed to the TV, which he'd muted when Anna began her
concert. "They've broken in for an announcement or
something."

Nate picked up the remote and turned up the sound.
...headed our way. This storm will enter the state by midnight. It's a
slow-moving system, which isn't good news for Arkansas since these
types of volatile fronts can result in high winds, flooding, and possible
tornadoes...
"I think we're in for a rough night."

I agreed. "You might want to rescue Sparky before it gets
any worse out."

"Oh yeah." Lifting Anna's legs off his, Nate eased off the
couch and left us. I tipped my head back and closed my eyes, thinking
about him. Who would ever have guessed that I'd not only run into
the guy of my dreams, but actually hang out with him? Not me, the
girl who'd loved him from afar for years without one shred of hope
such a thing could happen. Yet here we were in his house. I'd walked
on his floors, sat on his couch, even cooked in his kitchen--the
Christmas miracle to end all Christmas miracles.

"Are you asleep?"

My eyes flew open. I realized that Nate had returned, his
T-shirt spotted with raindrops, and now stood right in front of me. A
quick glance to my left revealed that he'd laid Sparky on Anna's
tummy. "No."

"Can you get loose?"

"Maybe." I gently lifted Anna's head from my lap and slipped
out from under her. Nate tucked a sofa pillow where I'd once been.
Anna never moved. We didn't go any farther than the bay window
ten feet away, where we both sat on the cushioned seat and looked
outside, me hugging my bent knees so I could rest my chin on them.
"I wouldn't mind a white Christmas."

He gave me a wry smile. "Don't get your hopes up. You know
how rare they are around here, and it's not looking good at the
moment."

I couldn't argue. "I remember a couple. Do you?"

"Yeah. Dad took me and Neil to this hill on Hwy 10 to sled.
We had so much fun."

"Neil's your big brother, right?"

"Stepbrother. We're a modern family. One dad who's had
three wives, two of which had prior husbands and a child
apiece."

I silently worked that out. "Where's Neil's mom?"

"She died while married to my dad."

"I hope he and--" I couldn't think of her name. "Anna's
mom?"

"Ginny."

I nodded. "I hope they have a long, happy marriage."

"So do I." He said it as if he really meant it. "You know, of all
my friends, I can just think of one who has parents who've only been
married to each other."

"You can add my parents to the list...if you think of me as a
friend, that is."

"Of course I do."

Oh how I wished he'd said he did, but wanted to think of me
as more. It would've been the perfect segue, after all. But he didn't,
so I took what I could get, which was more than I'd ever expected.
"Why do you think there are so many divorces today?"

Nate blinked. "This got heavy fast."

"Sorry. It's just something I've been thinking about. I see my
grandparents, who've been together for fifty years, and I have to
wonder how they made it that long when so many other couples
haven't. I mean, they all probably started out with the same high
hopes and good intentions."

"I happen to know the answer to that." Nate turned slightly
and rested his back against the paned glass behind him. His steady
gaze held mine. "I recently watched a documentary about an aging
rock star the other day. Someone asked his long-time, long-suffering
wife how they'd managed to stay together all those years. She said,
'We didn't get a divorce.'"

"So that's how Nana and Pawpaw have done it!"

We shared a laugh before Nate went very quiet and stared
out the window again. "That's it, you know. Instead of running for
the door, the man and woman talk it out, compromise, and make
up."

"How do those kinds of men and women find each
other?"

"Has to be fate." He looked so wistful.

"I think you're right." I changed the subject. "Did you move
those clothes to the dryer?"

"Shit. I'd better do it." He swung his body around and stood,
moving his head as if trying to get a kink out of his neck. "Make that
shoot
."

"It's not that I mind the cursing," I said as I slid off the seat.
"I have a potty mouth, myself, thanks to my brothers. It's just that
little kids pick up bad words so fast and instinctively know when to
use them."

"Tell me about it."

"And we don't want Anna to get in trouble."

"Nope."

"Why don't I clear the bar and wash up in the kitchen while
you're taking care of the laundry."

"But I haven't paid you for that."

"So do it now," I said, crazy words that resulted from my
own wistfulness.

Our eyes met. Nate leaned close and touched his lips to
mine. When he pulled back, I sort of stumbled forward, a totally
humiliating move that made my face flame. I pivoted on my heel and
made straight for the kitchen, where I tried to catch my breath. If I
wasn't careful, I'd give myself away, and I did not want to do
that.

When I risked a glance in Nate's direction, I saw that he'd
moved on, something I probably needed to do, myself. After all, I was
eighteen now--too old for crushes on guys who might call me 'friend'
to my face but would never call my number unless they needed help
with their little sisters.

I worked in the kitchen for a good twenty minutes, dragging
out a five-minute job. That done, I looked over our art. Anna had
colored my castle and Nate's car, as well as her own drawing of a
rainbow and butterfly with three stick people and something that
might've been a horse or, more likely her unicorn, under them.

Just as I set them down, Anna began to wail. I ran into the
living room to find her sitting up on the couch, clearly disoriented.
Nate got there a heartbeat after me and took over, dropping to one
knee in front of her before I could even speak. "What's wrong?"

"I want my mommy."

"She's in Branson with my dad, remember?"

Anna's bottom lip trembled. "Call her."

Nate's gaze collided with mine. "Should I?"

Last resort
, I mouthed, stepping around the couch so
Anna could see me. "Did you have a bad dream, Faerie Rose?"

I watched everything came back to her. "Uh-huh."

"Tell us about it." I scooted her legs back so I could sit on the
cushion. Nate sat on the floor.

"Sparky got aten up."

I put my hand on my heart. "Oh my goodness! By
what?"

"A monster."

"What did it look like?" asked Nate, no doubt as curious as
me about what she'd consider a monster.

"It was big and purple and had lots of legs."

"That sounds like Henry the Octopus on 'The Wiggles.'"

Nate's words made me look at him in surprise and a little
awe. Though I loved kids and had done my share of sitting for them, I
was nowhere near that smart about what they watched on TV.
"Would Henry eat a unicorn?"

Anna thought for a moment. "Nooo."

"Then it was a sil-ly dream, wasn't it?"

She thought about that, too. "Uh-huh."

I tried to share my theory regarding routine dreams without
making things too complicated. "When I go to sleep at night or even
in the afternoon, I sometimes dream about things I've seen that day.
For instance, tonight I might dream about red soup, or McDonald's,
or--"

"Nate?"

The truth of Anna's innocent question rattled me. "Um, sure.
Or even about you." Was Nate staring? I was afraid to look since my
hot cheeks meant I was probably blushing again. Only a fool
wouldn't suspect her question had flustered me. Valedictorian Nate
was no fool.

Anna, clearly feeling better already, turned to her big
brother. "What will you dream about tonight?"

"Two beautiful faeries and your stinky feet." He tickled her
bare toes.

Now she giggled. Nate slowly exhaled his relief and mouthed
a
Whew!
Anna didn't see. Crisis averted.

"Let's hang our art." I stood and offered Anna a hand, which
she took. We went to her room and hung the pictures on the tent
walls with more of the safety pins.

Nate and I deliberately kept Anna busy for the rest of the
afternoon. Candy Land, Memory, Barrel of Monkeys--we played them
all with her making up her own rules, which could also be called
cheating. And though used to babysitting, which had been my sole
source of income before Festivities, by the time the dinner hour
rolled around, I was whipped. Poor Nate looked even worse than I
felt, making me glad I'd hung around. He'd never have made it
without me.

After eating the burgers I cooked for dinner, we watched a
little more TV and then finally headed upstairs so she could take a
bath. Nate took charge of filling the tub, adding so many bubbles that
it took forever for them to pop and vanish, which was apparently
Anna's usual signal to get out of the tub. The water, which had gone
quite cool, would've done it for me long before that.

We both put on our PJs and crawled into the tent, leaving
Nate to turn off the light. That's when things began to fall apart. First
Anna didn't like the dark. I let her turn on the lantern, thinking I'd
turn it off when she fell asleep. Then as the house got quieter inside,
the storm got louder outside. We heard rain slashing against the
windows. We heard wind howling around the corners. The frequent
lightning strikes made everything that much worse because thunder
immediately crashed. Lying on the floor, we felt the house tremble
beneath us every single time.

I began to make up stories starring Faerie Rose and her
faithful unicorn Sparky. It took a while, but Anna finally became
engrossed in them, even throwing out plot curves I could barely
work in. I had honestly decided she'd be up all night when she failed
to beg me for another story. A hopeful glance proved that she'd
finally dozed off. I quickly doused the camp light and settled in,
myself.

I swear I hadn't been asleep two seconds before the tornado
sirens went off. Anna and I both bolted upright. She shrieked her
terror just as Nate tossed one of our tent walls aside and reached for
her. "Come on. We're going to the basement."

Anna went to him, burying her face in his neck. I crawled out
and followed as he jogged down the hall to the stairs. Just as we
reached the first floor, Anna screamed, "Sparky! I forgot
Sparky!"

Nate ignored her. I couldn't. Turning, I ran back upstairs and
snagged the unicorn, which took mere seconds. So I couldn't have
entered the basement more than a moment or two after they did. All
the same, Nate caught me up in his arms, hugging me so tightly that I
gasped with pain.

He abruptly let me go, but not without yelling. "What the
hell were you thinking?"

"She needed Sparky." I thrust the unicorn at Anna, who
sobbed and cowered in the corner. She hugged it as hard as Nate had
hugged me.

Inhaling sharply, he grabbed my wrist and Anna's so he
could pull us both into the bathroom. Nate flipped on the light and
shut the door before turning to me. "Sparky is replaceable. You're
not."

"Chill out. It's all good." Patting Anna's head, I noted that she
seemed a little calmer even if her big brother didn't.

"But you scared the shi--"

I slapped my hand over Nate's mouth. Feeling how he
trembled, I began to get how truly frightened he'd been for me. As
touched as I was surprised, I tried to think of something to say. "I'm
sorry, okay? I was just doing what had to be done. Will you
fae
-give me?"

He groaned. "That's terrible. You know that, right?"

"Worst one yet." I waited for his smile, and finally got a
reluctant one. "All better now?"

"Getting there." Nate sighed. "This babysitting thing? Kicking
my tail. Totally kicking it."

"Yeah, well you're great at it, anyway. Isn't he, Anna?"

Faerie Rose nodded as if she'd understood every single
word. I closed the toilet and sat on the lid, taking her into my lap just
as the lights flickered and went out. In the resulting pitch black, we
both squealed. Then a square of light miraculously appeared--Nate's
cell phone. I hadn't even thought of grabbing mine.

For a good thirty minutes, Nate tracked the storm front on
his cell while it blasted Barney tunes. He turned up the music really
loud, which pretty much drowned out any storm sounds that had
might have made down to the cellar. We barely heard the all-clear
siren over it, but hear it, we did.

I wasn't sorry to emerge from the bathroom and head
upstairs. Anna didn't even stop at her own door when we reached
the second floor. Instead, she went straight to Nate's and crawled
into his bed. Nate and I exchanged a glance and then wordlessly
joined her, him on one side and me on the other. And once I closed
my eyes, I didn't wake up until morning.

For a couple of seconds, I couldn't figure out where I was. As
reality caught up, I registered two things: hair tickling my nose, and a
weight across my middle. I lifted the hair and saw that it was red.
Anna's. I lifted the weight and saw that it was an arm. Nate's. How
the heck had he gotten on my side of the bed?

"She cuddles."

I turned my head and saw Nate awake, lying on his side, and
looking me in the eye.

"I moved because she cuddles."

So we were back to the perv thing. "So do I on occasion.
Hopefully I didn't last night..."
Or fart, or snore, or drool, or moan
your stupid name in my sleep.

He just grinned that grin that would've taken me to my
knees if I'd been standing.

I sat up and wiggled out of the covers, scooting to the end of
the bed once I'd managed that. Walking over to Nate's window, I
looked out to check the weather status. Though the sky still looked
stormy, the window pane felt cold to the touch, which meant the
storm front had brought us cooler air, always welcome around
Christmas. How people in the tropics got into the holiday mood, I just
didn't know.