Finding Home (20 page)

The tenderness on Natalie’s face nearly melted Sarah’s heart.

“I’m glad we’re friends,” she said quietly.

“Me, too,” Sarah said. She cleared her throat, embarrassed by her sudden display of weak emotion. “So, tell me more about this camping excursion.”

• 164 •

FINDING HOME

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

What do you think?” Andrea used her eyes to point out Mary Beth Carhart, one of the newest additions to their camping gang. Unbeknownst to either Andrea or Natalie, their friends had invited Mary Beth along speciÞ cally because they thought she’d hit it off with Andrea. They hadn’t been wrong.

“What do
you
think? That’s really what’s important here.”

Natalie kept her voice to a whisper as she and Andrea sat on a log near the Þ re, their heads tilted toward one another, each gripping a cold bottle of beer. Within the past week, the temperature had dropped signiÞ cantly enough to announce the impending arrival of autumn, and the campÞ re was a welcome burst of warmth on the cool evening.

Andrea sighed and for the Þ rst time that Natalie could remember in ages, she faltered slightly. “She seems pretty cool.”

“I think so, too.” Natalie smiled at her feeling giddy inside but not wanting to betray any of that on the outside. It would be too easy for Andrea to get her hopes up and have them shattered by an insensitive soul. But Mary Beth seemed genuine. She was kind, attractive, funny, and knew all about Andrea’s history.

“We’ll see.” They sat quietly for several minutes, and Andrea took a swig of her beer before asking, “How come you and Ellen don’t just hook up for good?”

Natalie sucked in a much-put-upon breath and blew it out

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GEORGIA BEERS

slowly in a wordless
here we go again
. “You ask me that every year.”

“But you sleep with her every year.”

Glancing around, Natalie punched Andrea lightly. “Why don’t you announce it to the entire campground? Jesus.”

“Oh, come on, Natty. You think everybody doesn’t know?”

Of course they knew. It was no secret. Hell, it was practically tradition. Natalie glanced across the site to her friend of more than ten years. A red Melissa Etheridge baseball cap covered most of Ellen’s short blond hair, and her eyes crinkled in the corners as she smiled at one of the other women. With her perpetually suntanned face and her preference for hats, she had always reminded Natalie of a professional golfer.

“It’s not like that.”

“Not like what?”

“Andrea, you and I have had this conversation before, more than once. Ellen and I…we’re not…relationship material.”

Natalie struggled to Þ nd the words to best describe what she had with Ellen. “We’re just…”

“Good in the sack? Or the sleeping bag, as it were?” Andrea winked.

“In a nutshell, yes.” Natalie felt her face grow hot and was surprised that she could become embarrassed in front of Andrea, a woman who knew just about everything there was to know about her. “We…help each other. You know that.”

“Is that what they call it nowadays?”

“Shut up,” Natalie said good-naturedly, poking her in the shoulder.

“Hey, I’m just looking out for you.” Andrea’s expression became unexpectedly serious. “I don’t want you to be alone, that’s all. Life’s too damn short, Natty. Believe me, I should know.”

Natalie nodded her somber agreement and they took tandem slugs from their beers, mirror images of one another.

“So how’s the Hot Business Exec?” Andrea asked after a few minutes.

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FINDING HOME

“She’s Þ ne.” Though Andrea had taken to being a bit kinder about Sarah, knowing that she and Natalie had become friends, by unspoken agreement they didn’t really talk much about her.

“How come you haven’t asked
her
out yet?” At Natalie’s wide-eyed surprise, Andrea laughed.

“You’re kidding, right?” Natalie took another large gulp of her beer, but this one went down the wrong way and sent her careening into a Þ t of lung-rattling coughs.

“Yeah, I am.” Andrea pounded her on the back. “She’s hot, though.”

Getting a hold of herself after what felt like hours of sputtering and struggling for breath, Natalie replied in a raspy voice. “I thought you didn’t like Sarah.”

“I didn’t say I liked her. I said I think she’s hot.”

Natalie groaned in exasperation. “You’re such a guy.”

“Are you saying you disagree with me? You don’t think she’s hot?”

“Yes, I think she’s hot. She’s also completely out of my league and
so
not my type.” She wiped her tearing eyes, coughing one last time for good measure.

“But you like her.”

“Yeah, I do. So?”

“And you’ve spent a lot of time with her.”

“I suppose.”

“And you like spending time with her.” Natalie just glared at Andrea, willing her to get to the damn point already. Andrea shrugged. “What? I’m just thinking out loud here.”

Before Natalie could make another attempt to pinpoint exactly what Andrea was trying to say to her, Mary Beth appeared in front of them. She held her hand down to Andrea.

“I’ve been ordered to Þ nd marshmallow sticks. Want to help me?” The ß ash in her eyes was unmistakably seductive.

“Go into the deep, dark, scary woods?” Andrea asked. “With you?”

“Uh-huh.”

• 167 •

GEORGIA BEERS

Andrea grabbed Mary Beth’s hand. “Hell, yeah.”

Natalie shook her head and grinned, wanting to tease Andrea about her lack of skill at playing hard to get, but too happy about Andrea’s obvious enjoyment to spoil it for her. She watched as the pair disappeared into the nearby trees, giggling and bumping shoulders, and felt an unexpected pang of envy.

Her thoughts drifted back to the conversation with Andrea and her desire to pair Natalie up. But she didn’t focus on Ellen.

She focused on Sarah, and for just a fraction of a second, she wondered to herself,
What if I did ask her out? Would that be so
crazy?

Immediately, she snorted at the ridiculousness of it, a resounding
Yes!
echoing through her head. There was no way. It was ludicrous to even joke about it. Sarah didn’t think of her that way. Did she? She couldn’t possibly. They were so different. Their lives were different, their jobs were different, their habits were different. Sarah was so perfect, so put together, so everything-in-its-place. It was practically a sickness. She imagined Sarah didn’t do a lot of things she could hire somebody to do for her, and she had the money to do so. Natalie had never been like that, had never wanted to be. Ask her out? God, Sarah would probably laugh in her face. Besides, she had Suzanne the Tongue now. Unintentionally wrinkling her nose as that thought hit her square in the face, she blew out a breath. Never in a million years.

Absolutely crazy idea.

Natalie took a long pull from her bottle and forced herself to admit that she did enjoy spending time with Sarah, more than she’d ever expected to and in spite of their opposite personalities.

Sarah was smart, funny, and fun to talk to. And she
listened
.

Natalie had discovered during her adult life that because of her youthful appearance and her penchant for things classiÞ ed as a little “wild” for an adult—the streak of bright color in her hair, for example—people had a hard time taking her seriously, actually paying attention when she spoke. They tended to write her off as a kid, or worse, an airhead. She didn’t have that problem with

• 168 •

FINDING HOME

Sarah. Sarah looked her in the eye and heard her, and Natalie liked that.

She’s hot, though.

That was the one thing Andrea was absolutely right about.

Natalie squinted into the dancing ß ames as she wondered if Sarah had any clue how attractive she was, and then she immediately responded in the negative.
She’s probably too busy worrying
about whether or not her suit’s wrinkled to realize that most
people would rather see her out of it.
Natalie’s libido threw her an unexpected vision: Sarah’s tall, beautiful body, lean and muscular yet femininely curved, in full Boss Mode, hovering over Natalie’s prone and naked form, pinning her wrists above her head, piercing her with those blue eyes, telling her just exactly what she wanted and how she intended to take it…

“Jesus Christ,” she muttered, gulping down the rest of her beer in the hopes of drowning out the sudden scalding burst of desire she felt.
Okay, okay. There’s nothing wrong with a
little fantasy here and there.
She forced herself to her feet and wandered over to the enormous cooler to grab another cold one and brieß y toyed with the idea of shoving it into her jeans to cool herself off.

“Hey.” Ellen sidled up to her with a grin and a wink.

“Hey, yourself.” Natalie, as always, was happy to see her old friend. Though Ellen only lived two hours away, the annual camping trip was one of the few times they saw each other during the year. In college, they’d gone through the coming-out phase together, and because of that, shared a special bond.

A sharp, stinging whack to her behind suddenly pulled all Natalie’s focus away. “Ow!”

“Good one, huh?” Andrea held up a thin switch of a stick for their inspection as Natalie rubbed her ass and glared. “This one’s mine.”

Natalie reached forward, still glaring, and picked several dead leaves and a small twig from Andrea’s spiky dark locks.

“Nice hair. Make out in the woods much?”

• 169 •

GEORGIA BEERS

Andrea feigned an expression of affront, pressing her hand to her chest as if she’d just been insulted. “I never kiss and tell.”

Ellen snorted. “That’s the biggest crock of shit I’ve heard today.”

“Hey!” Andrea said with indignation as the other two chuckled and walked away.

“So what’s new?” Ellen asked as they wandered back to the Þ re where Natalie had been sitting previously and plopped back down. “How’s the coffee shop-slash-bakery biz?”

“It’s great. I love it.”

“Still doing the books?”

Natalie nodded. “I’m looking into a class at the community college in January, just to brush up. I like it, though.”

Ellen shook her head. “I never would have pegged you as a small-business kind of girl, Nat.”

“Neither would I,” Natalie responded good-naturedly. “But I like doing it.”

“It seems to suit you. You look happy.”

Natalie grinned at that, valuing the opinion of somebody who’d known her for so long. “I am. I love the Valentis so much and the shop means a lot to them, so I like helping to take care of it.”

“You always were a bleeding heart.” Ellen patted Natalie’s thigh with affection, taking any sting out of the words. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“They’re good people, El.”

“I’m sure they are,” Ellen said. “And they’re lucky to have you.” She held up her beer and Natalie clinked hers against it.

They sat quietly, perfectly content in their companionable silence, watching as their camp-mates got out bags of marshmallows, boxes of graham crackers, and bars of Hershey’s chocolate.

“Want me to make you a s’more, Natty?” Andrea asked across the Þ re, standing so close to Mary Beth, she was almost on top of her.

• 170 •

FINDING HOME

“I’d love it,” Natalie called back. “Thank you, sweetie.” She felt Ellen’s gaze on her and turned to meet it. “What?” she asked softly.

Ellen’s voice was just as soft. “I was wondering if you’re up for a visitor tonight, that’s all.”

v

The lamp was off in the living room and the light from the television screen sent ß ickers of strobing color across the walls and ceiling like Sarah was parked on a couch in some sort of funhouse. The only things missing were the wacky mirrors.

Head propped up by her hand, she lay on her side, her other arm hanging off the couch and absently scratching Bentley’s fur as he snufß ed quietly on the carpet. She was enjoying the Þ lm she’d rented, called
Red Eye
. Her mother had seen it several months ago and recommended it to Sarah as a fun, suspenseful, adrenaline-Þ lled ride worth the cost of admission, and she’d been right. Sarah watched as Rachel McAdams ran across the screen and searched in her closet for an unseen weapon with which to Þ ght off the psychopath who was chasing her. Squinting a bit, Sarah mused that Rachel reminded her of Natalie a little bit.

The hair was the same, minus the streak, of course. Their builds were the same, and Rachel seemed to have a similar friendly, everybody-likes-me-immediately face to Natalie’s, one that made it nearly impossible to think anything bad about her.

“Do you wish we were camping, too, Bent?” she asked.

Bentley’s eyes popped open, and not for the Þ rst time, Sarah marveled at the dog’s ability to go from a sound sleep to wide awake in the space of a split second. His eyes focused on her, but he made no move to get up as she continued to pet him. “Yeah, me neither. Bugs. Dirt. Peeing in the woods. Wearing ß ip-ß ops in the shared shower. Sleeping in a bag on the ground. No, thanks.

I’m perfectly happy on my couch with my remote and my dog.”

Making an honest attempt to refocus on the movie, she found her

• 171 •

GEORGIA BEERS

thoughts drifting to camping, to Natalie, to Natalie tucked snugly into a warm, fuzzy sleeping bag. With that Ellen.

She sat up abruptly, startling Bentley to his feet. Refusing to give undeserved attention to her thoughts, she paused the movie and headed with determination into the kitchen. “Hungry, hungry, hungry,” she muttered, in order to keep her mind focused on something over which she had control. “What should we have, buddy?” The refrigerator slapped her with its emptiness, nothing but a half gallon of milk, three cans of Diet Pepsi, various condiments that were older than her single status, and a plastic-wrapped plate of leftovers from dinner with Natalie last week.