Finding Home (14 page)

You love him, he loves you, it’s obvious to anybody who sees you together. And despite the whole legal ownership part of it, I don’t think taking him away from you completely would be a good thing or the right thing. I don’t want to do that to him. Or to you.”

Natalie didn’t know what to say. She felt clogged with emotions: joy, gratitude, hesitation, wonder, confusion. “Joint custody?” she said for clariÞ cation.

Sarah lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “I couldn’t think of a more appropriate term. I think it would work well, plus it will be good for us as well as him. If I have to go someplace, you could watch him. If you have to go someplace, I could watch him. We’d each have a built-in dog-sitter and he’d never have to go to the kennel again.”

“He’d still get to stay with me sometimes?”

“Absolutely. We can work out a schedule so I have him some nights and you have him some nights.”

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Natalie had begun to nod slowly as Sarah talked, the idea of sharing Chino—er, Bentley, which she was going to have to start calling him—sounding not altogether bad. And the idea of not continually worrying about whether or not Sarah would wake up one day and decide to come take him away sounded even better.

She must have been quiet longer than she realized. Sarah’s voice prodded her.

“So? What do you think?” Surprisingly, Sarah looked almost anxious as she waited.

“Like I’m going to say no?” Natalie said.

“Good.” Sarah’s entire face lit up, her smile showing perfectly straight white teeth. “That’s great. We’ll want to keep in contact, make sure we’re feeding him the same food and the same treats so his system doesn’t rebel.”

Natalie nodded. “Makes sense.”

Growing serious, Sarah said, “Look, Natalie, I know you were worried. About his state when you found him and whether or not I’m…mean to him.” It seemed hard for her to say the words, and at that moment, as Sarah lovingly stroked Bentley’s furry back, Natalie knew she couldn’t have been more wrong, that Sarah would never abuse him. “But this way, you can keep an eye on him and make sure I’m not. Right?”

Feeling terrible about her unfounded assumptions but elated at the unexpected turn of events, Natalie couldn’t speak. She simply smiled in agreement. Sarah held out her hand.

“Deal?”

Natalie took it, surprised by the warmth of it and Sarah’s Þ rm grip. “Deal.”

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CHAPTER TEN

July slipped away in a wave of heat, and August arrived in just as steamy a fashion. By the middle of the month, Natalie and Sarah had fallen into a gentle and easy routine of sharing custody of Bentley. Sometimes he stayed with one of them for a couple nights in a row. Sometimes they alternated nights and he took turns at their places. They walked him together almost every evening, unless Sarah had to work late or it was raining. It was working out very well for all involved.

Sarah sat at a large oval conference table and made what could only be considered a valiant effort to stay attuned to the words being spoken in the meeting. The marketing consultants were making a good presentation. It wasn’t that. It was simply that Sarah had found herself feeling restless lately, a symptom of what, she didn’t know. She also had no idea how to pull herself out of it. Maybe she just needed to relax a bit. Or maybe she was relaxing too much and needed to get more involved in…

something. A sport? A book group? Something. Scowling at the incompleteness of her thoughts, she turned her attention back to the meeting.

Suzanne Kennedy was fun to look at, so at least there was that. As she went on with her presentation, relaying to Regina Danvers, Sarah, and four other members of upper management why her marketing promotion was the way to go, she made eye

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contact, stopping on Sarah more than anybody else. Something about the penetrating gaze made Sarah squirm as if Ms. Kennedy could see right through her clothes and Sarah was sitting there nude before her. Shockingly, the feeling wasn’t altogether unpleasant for Sarah. When her assistant, Mike Something-Or-Other, took over, Sarah could still feel Suzanne Kennedy’s eyes on her. She hazarded a glance once or twice, each time Þ nding herself held temporary prisoner by a jade green intensity that sent a tingle down her spine like gentle Þ ngertips.

When the presentation was over, Sarah found herself lingering in the conference area, unnecessarily shufß ing papers and organizing already organized memos, covertly studying this woman who’d so easily captured her attention. She was tall and lean, deÞ nitely athletic, and Sarah wondered not
if
she played any sports, but which ones. Her short blond hair was cut stylishly, tapering into a gentle V at the back of her neck. Though she carried off the business suit look very well, it was apparent to Sarah that Suzanne Kennedy’s outÞ t of choice would be jeans and a T-shirt any day of the week, and that she’d look femininely powerful in them.

As if sensing the pheromones ß oating in the room, Mike told Suzanne he was going to grab a bottle of water and meet her in the lobby. With a quick tip of his chin to Sarah, he took his leave.

Sarah had paid so little attention to him that if he robbed the front desk at that moment, she’d be of no help to the police, unable to even pick him out of a lineup, but his exit left the two women alone in the room, and for that, she was inexplicably grateful.

“Great presentation,” she ventured, addressing her comment to Suzanne Kennedy’s back as she packed her materials into her wheeled case. When she turned to meet Sarah’s eyes, Sarah found herself once again captured.

“Thanks. Glad you liked it.” She smiled, sort of a half-grin, the same type of casual, self-conÞ dent expression that the star athlete in high school might sport, knowing he had the head cheerleader in the palm of his hand.

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“Very impressive. You made some good points.”

“Did I?” Suzanne took a couple steps toward her, briefcase in one hand, handle of the wheeled case in the other, sexy smile still caressing her face. “Maybe you’d like to discuss them further?

Over drinks tonight, perhaps?”

Sarah hoped the heat rushing through her body didn’t show on her face. Quirking an eyebrow, she said, “My, my. Impressive again. You could be taking your future working with our company into your hands right now.” She winked to take any threat out of her words.

Suzanne simply grinned rakishly. “True. But I realized once I hit forty that life is too short to hesitate. I see something I like, I go for it. Besides,” she lowered her voice just slightly, “my gaydar hasn’t failed me yet.”

At that, Sarah laughed outright.

“So? What do you say?” Suzanne asked. “Meet me at McGinty’s at six?”

Sarah liked the location, a casual but not dumpy Irish pub only a few minutes from the ofÞ ce. “I’ll be there.”

“Great.”

Sarah watched as Suzanne and her paraphernalia left the conference room and headed down the hall to meet up with Mike What’s-His-Name in the front lobby. She felt inexplicably energized, like she’d been asleep and suddenly woke up, ready to face the world. How long had it been since a sexy woman had made a play for her?

Too long!
came the loud answer, as if somebody shouted it through her head.

The restlessness and uncertainty that had bathed her earlier was abruptly nowhere to be found and she giggled like a schoolgirl.

“I have a date,” she said to the empty room, then headed toward her ofÞ ce to call Natalie. They were supposed to meet tonight and walk so that Natalie could take Bentley home. She’d just have her pick him up instead.

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“Why?” she asked herself aloud.

“Because I have a date,” she answered herself, unable to keep the grin off her face.

v

Natalie liked the way things had worked out. It was funny when she thought back on all of it, on how panicked she’d been about Þ nding Bentley, then over maybe losing him, about facing Sarah, how angry she’d been with her, how determined she was to hate her, and now…how much she actually liked her. Life was strange. Strange in a good way, and she was okay with that.

Andrea, however, hated the whole thing. She’d been scowling since she entered the coffee shop through the back door ten minutes earlier, making it apparent to the whole world that she was ticked off today.

“Want to see a movie tonight?” she asked Natalie. “That new Jodie Foster one just opened in Pittsford.”

Natalie shook her head as she wiped down the front counter between the cash registers. “Can’t. It’s my night with Bentley and I have to go get him.” She could almost hear Andrea roll her eyes.

“Now she’s got you going to pick him up?” The disgusted disbelief in her voice apparent, Andrea punctuated it with a snort.

“She got stuck at work. She called a few minutes ago.”

“Figures.”

Natalie stopped working to rest her eyes on her. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

Andrea sighed. “Nothing.”

They stared at each other for several seconds before Natalie decided she wasn’t in the mood for an argument and went back to swabbing the counter. She knew Andrea was becoming frustrated with her inability to Þ nd enough courage to date, that she was going through a period of feeling worthless and unwanted, which

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happened to her on occasion, and Natalie vowed to cut the girl some slack. But not if it meant she had to argue with her.

“You spend an awful lot of time with her,” Andrea stated after a few minutes of silence.

“It’s for Bentley,” Natalie responded matter-of-factly, as she did every time Andrea made the same comment—which was every other day at this point.

“Yeah, well, I don’t like her.”

“I know you don’t.”

Andrea ß opped down into a wooden chair as Natalie lifted the others and placed them seat-down on the tables they surrounded. She heaved a mighty sigh, so “oh, woe is me” that it made Natalie laugh out loud.

“Okay,” Natalie said, still chuckling. “I get the hint.” Taking on a sweet, girly voice, she asked, “Whatever is the matter, Andrea, darling?”

Andrea smiled in spite of herself. “I feel like shit.”

Natalie grew serious. “What? What is it? Have you called the doctor?”

Shaking her head, Andrea said, “No, no, not that kind of shit.

I feel like shit up here.” She tapped a Þ nger against her temple.

Relieved but still sympathetic, Natalie kissed the top of Andrea’s head. “I know, sweetie.”

“I’m lonely, Natty.”

Natalie nodded, having no solution for her problem and not knowing what to say to make it any better.

“Internet dating really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“I can only imagine,” Natalie scoffed. She knew it worked for a lot of people. She had friends who’d met online and had fallen instantly in love. But Natalie also knew how her own mind worked, and she needed to be around somebody, be near them physically, in order to develop feelings. Pretty words on a screen weren’t going to make her heart go pitter-patter. She was sure of that. Despite her own misgivings, though, she’d hoped it would work for Andrea instead of depressing her further.

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“I need to get laid!” Andrea shouted at the ceiling. Her statement was immediately followed by a loud clang coming from the kitchen, the unmistakable sound of a stainless steel mixing bowl crashing to the ß oor. Natalie turned wide eyes to Andrea, who in turn pressed her lips together in an effort to keep from giggling.

“You’re going to give poor Mr. Valenti a heart attack,”

Natalie whispered, barely able to keep from laughing.

Andrea lowered her voice as Natalie headed to a nearby closet. “I can’t help it. The vibrator just isn’t doing it for me anymore.”

Returning with a broom, Natalie commented, “Maybe you need a bigger vibrator.”

Andrea snorted a laugh and Natalie could tell by her expression that she was feeling the slightest bit better.
Thank
God,
she thought. It could be nearly impossible to pull Andrea out of a funk if she was determined to stay there, and Natalie just didn’t have the energy for it tonight, something that made her feel guilty.

“I can’t wait for that damn camping trip,” Andrea said after watching Natalie sweep for several minutes.

“Good. It’ll be fun. An entire weekend of nothing but drinking and friends and eating and drinking and playing cards and drinking.”

“But will there be drinking?”

“As a matter of fact, there will. You can forget everything for a while.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Half an hour later, Andrea had headed home and Natalie was navigating her beat-up Toyota Corolla to Sarah’s townhouse, using the directions she’d scribbled on a piece of scrap paper. It was a nice section of town, not far from the shop at all, in a buried treasure of a development, which couldn’t be seen from the road and which Natalie hadn’t even known was there.

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FINDING HOME

“Nice,” she said softly to the interior of her car as she coasted along the road scanning the house numbers. Finding 1228, she swung into the short driveway outside the garage and turned off the ignition. It was a gorgeous place, bringing to mind a bungalow along the coast of Maine. The siding was blue-green and all the trim was a rich-looking off-white that was so creamy, Natalie was tempted to taste it. Finding the extra key hidden on one of the decorative pieces of wood that trimmed the entryway right where Sarah had said it would be, Natalie let herself into the foyer and shut the door behind her.

The silence was immediate and so complete that for a split second, Natalie thought she’d lost her hearing. Then she adjusted and could hear the gentle snifß ing sound of Bentley in his crate in the kitchen. Personally, she didn’t think the crate was necessary, but she was beginning to get the impression that control was an important thing to Sarah, so she simply went along good-naturedly. In the kitchen, she released the catch so Bentley could come out.