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Only just then realizing what she’d said, she gasped, “Oh, no! I didn’t mean—”
Laughing, he sat back to grin at her. “I was just kidding. The class is hard enough as it is. So tell me what else you’ve been doing besides taking care of your kids, working and studying. Have you joined a sorority yet?”
“Yeah, right.” She chuckled. “Somehow, I don’t think I would fit in very well with the eighteen-year-olds.”
“I think you’d fit in with just about anyone,” he replied honestly. “What about football games? Dances? I know it’s early in the semester, but you are planning to get involved in the social scene, aren’t you?”
“Oh, no,” she said, horrified at the very suggestion. “I’m thirty-six years old—”
“So?”
“I’ve got kids!”
His mouth twitched. “I know I sound like a broken record, but…so? And don’t say you won’t fit in,” he added quickly. “You’ve obviously waited a long time to go to college. It should be about more than studying, don’t you think?”
He had a point, one that Natalie hadn’t considered. She had waited years to go to college. Why shouldn’t she enjoy it? Just because she was a little older and had children didn’t mean she couldn’t be a part of university life like the rest of the freshmen in her class.
“I’ll think about it,” she promised.
“Good.” Glancing at the clock on the wall across from their alcove, he said, “I hate to break this up, but don’t you have to get to work?”
Natalie took one look at the clock and gasped. “Oh, my God! Where did the time go? I’ve got to go!”
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” he called after her as she snatched up her things and ran for the door. “Have a good day!”
Never looking back, she waved and disappeared from sight. Chuckling, Max sat back with a smile on his face. As a quiet stillness settled over the small alcove, he should have turned his attention back to the reading he’d come to do. Instead all he could think of was that he’d never be able to sit in his favorite alcove again without thinking of Natalie.
Racing down Main Street, every tick of the clock echoing in her head, Natalie groaned when the traffic light thirty feet in front of her abruptly turned red. She had no choice but to hit the brakes. She was going to be late. Resigned, she knew she had no one to blame but herself. She’d lost track of the time talking to Max.
No, she corrected herself as she raced into the parking lot of Finn’s, the restaurant where she worked. She hadn’t just lost track of time—she’d forgotten about it altogether. When Max turned his blue eyes on her and grinned, he made her forget her own name. Did he realize that? Just thinking about it mortified her.
When she pulled open the back door of the restaurant and stepped into the kitchen, she wasn’t surprised when Sam Finnegan, her boss, immediately spied her. His office had a wall of windows that gave him a bird’s-eye view of the kitchen, and it didn’t matter how busy he was at his desk, he saw everyone who came and went.
Looking up from his paperwork, he drawled, “Well, as I live and breathe, if it isn’t my star waitress. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to put in an appearance today. What’s the matter? Couldn’t tear yourself away from your sorority?”
Well used to her boss’s caustic, teasing remarks, Natalie stepped into the open doorway of his office and said dryly, “I’m not the sorority type, Sam. You know that.”
“So where you been?”
“I had to do some research at the library before work and I sort of lost track of time. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, tossing her one of the company aprons that all the waitresses wore. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. You get your head stuck in a book and you’re on another planet.”
She couldn’t deny it. Everyone who knew her knew she loved to read. She never went anywhere without a book in her purse. “Isn’t it awful?” she said with a grin. “I’ve got a whole new library to explore. I’m loving it.”
When he just sniffed and gave her his patented scowl, she wasn’t surprised…or fooled. At first glance, Sam Finnegan appeared to be one of those men who didn’t have a soft bone in his body. He was gruff and sarcastic, and no one in their right mind would ever mistake him for a teddy bear…until they got to know him.
When Derek had suddenly walked out on her and left her penniless when she was pregnant, Sam had turned out to be her knight in shining armor. He hadn’t asked her why a woman who was big as a house needed a job or where the hell her husband was. He’d simply looked at her with those piercing brown eyes of his, told her he had an opening for a waitress, then asked her if she could start immediately. Then he sat her in a corner and had her do book work for him so she wouldn’t be on her feet all day. When the boys were born, he gave her maternity leave and refused to let her return to work until her doctor gave the okay. That kind of generosity in the restaurant business was unheard of in a college town where there were always students looking for a job.
She’d accused him then of being a sweetheart of a man, and he’d flat-out denied it. But over the years he’d given himself away time and time again. Whenever the boys were sick or had a doctor’s appointment or needed her for anything, he grumbled and complained…and let her off with pay. And when she’d approached him about going to college, he pretended to be totally against the idea, then he told her that he’d been thinking about changing her shift so that she worked every other day. He’d claimed that he was going to change everyone’s hours—it would make the running of the restaurant more efficient—but he never changed anyone else’s but hers.
“You know it’s all your fault,” she said lightly as she stepped further into his office and dropped into the chair in front of his desk. “If you hadn’t changed my hours and made it possible for me to go to school twice a week, I never would have had access to the university library.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he growled. “You’re not blaming this on me. I had nothing to do with you going to college. All I did was change your shift. And I’m going to change everyone else’s as soon as I have time to work out a new schedule.”
If Natalie hadn’t known him so well, she might have believed him. But she’d worked for him for over five years, and she knew from experience that when he decided to make changes around the place, he moved quickly. Once, he’d changed the entire menu and had the restaurant painted in a week. If he was going to change everyone’s shifts, he would have already done it.
“Okay,” she said, fighting a smile. “I guess I’m just a victim of coincidence and there’s no one to thank.”
“I guess so,” he grumbled. “Of course, you’re losing a lot of hours by missing two days of work every week. And I’m short-handed Saturday afternoon since Evelyn quit. I could really use some help if you’re interested in putting in some extra hours.”
Bent over his paperwork, he never looked up as he casually threw out the offer of more work. Watching him, torn between tears and laughter, Natalie could have kissed him. The rat! He didn’t need extra help on Saturdays—Evelyn had quit two months ago and he’d said on more than one occasion that he hadn’t really needed her, anyway! He was just trying to help her out financially.
If the world had been a perfect place, she would have sincerely thanked him for the offer and turned him down. She was spending too little time with her boys as it was, and she hated being away from them. But money was tight, and she had to make up the time and money she was losing wherever she could.
The boys would understand, she assured herself. And it wouldn’t be forever…just until she finished college and got a teaching job. Then she would be home whenever the boys were out of school, and she would no longer have to feel guilty for leaving them.
“I would love to work Saturdays or any other time you need me when I’m not in class,” she said huskily. “Thanks.”
Not surprisingly, he only grunted, “Don’t thank me. You’re doing me a favor. Now get to work before I dock you for standing around shootin’ the breeze.”
“Yes, sir,” she retorted, saluting smartly. “Anything you say, sir. I’ll get right on it, sir.”
Whirling, she stepped out of his office…just as he hit her in the back with a wadded up piece of paper. Grinning, she went to work.
Chapter 3
“Hi, sweetie. Did everything go all right at school?”
“Harry put a worm on the teacher’s desk after recess,” Tommy said proudly. “You should have heard her scream, Mom. She thought it was a snake.”
Natalie groaned. She always called the boys during her break and checked with Susan Reed, their babysitter, to make sure everything was all right. Invariably, the boys had one outlandish tale after another to report. “I’m sure the entire school heard her,” she said dryly. “Let me speak to your brother.”
“Sure, Mom. Is he in trouble?”
“What do you think?” she replied. “Let me speak to him.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. Not wanting to get in trouble himself, he quickly handed the phone to his brother. “Hi, Mom,” Harry said glumly.
“You got in trouble, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Am I going to have to meet with your teacher?”
“She sent a note home.”
Natalie could just imagine what it said. “We’ll discuss this later,” she told him grimly.
Thankful to get off so easily, he said quickly, “Luv ya, Mom,” and hung up before she could ask to speak to Susan and get the real lowdown on what happened.
Her break over, she didn’t have time to call Susan back, so she returned to work. When Derek had walked out on her, she’d readily admitted that the thought of raising boys by herself terrified her. She was an only child with no close male cousins, so boys had always been a mystery to her. How could she teach them to be boys?
Even now, thinking about her mindset before they were born made her want to laugh. Obviously, her sons needed no help being boys. They were wild and outrageous and a constant source of delight to her, despite worms and snakes and frogs and an endless array of clothes that would never come clean. Given the chance, she wouldn’t have traded them for anything.
Wondering how she was going to discipline Harry without breaking into a smile, she headed back to her station, grabbing a couple of menus for the couple who’d just claimed one of her tables. She couldn’t see the man, but the woman was drop-dead beautiful. Blond with a sophistication that was seldom seen in Eagle Creek, Colorado, she was simply dressed in a black knit top and white slacks, yet she still managed to draw every eye in the room.
Wondering if she could wear her hair in the same sleek style, Natalie approached with a friendly smile. “Hello,” she began. “My name is Natalie. I’ll be your server for the evening—”
She always introduced herself to her customers, then told them the day’s specials, but when her eyes fell on the woman’s companion, the specials flew right out of her head. “Professor Sullivan!”
A slow grin curled the corners of Max’s sensuous mouth as his dancing eyes met hers. “Mrs. Bailey! You know, it’s funny the way we keep meeting this way. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were following me.”
“Actually, you’re the one who turns up everywhere I am, Professor,” she retorted, “so I believe that’s my line.”
“I beg your pardon.” He chuckled. “You’re right.” Suddenly remembering his manners, he turned to his companion. “Katherine, this is Natalie. She’s one of my most promising students.”
“I don’t know about promising,” Natalie said ruefully, “but I’m certainly one of his oldest. It’s nice to meet you, Katherine.”
“You, too,” she said easily. “I bet Max is a hard taskmaster.”
She sent him a smile that told Natalie that this was no first date—they knew each other well and liked each other. And something twisted in Natalie’s heart, something that felt an awful lot like disappointment. From the first moment she’d met him, she’d known that he was a man who enjoyed the company of women. And why shouldn’t he? He was young and carefree and didn’t answer to anyone.
So why was she suddenly so sad? she wondered. If she was in the market for a man—which, again, she wasn’t—he was nothing like the kind of man she would pick, anyway. She needed a family man, someone who was responsible and settled and ready to be a father to her boys. As much as she was attracted to Max Sullivan—and there was no point in denying it further—she didn’t think he would be ready for fatherhood anytime soon.
“It’s too early in the semester to tell,” she replied. “I’ll know more after the first test.” Handing them each a menu, she took their drink orders, then added, “If you like fish, you might consider trying the grilled rainbow trout. It’s fantastic.”
Giving them time to study the menu, she hurried away to fill their drink orders, and in the quiet she left behind, Max looked up from his menu to find Katherine studying him with a glint of amusement in her brown eyes. Surprised, he lifted a dark brow at her. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“She’s very attractive.”
“Mmm.”
She grinned. “And older than most of your students.”
“I believe she did mention that.”
“You like her.”
“I like all my students.”
“Max! Stop that. You know what I mean.”
He did know what she meant—and he wasn’t going there. “I don’t date my students, Katherine. You know that.”
“I know you haven’t in the past,” she replied. “But you’ve never been interested in eighteen-year-olds. Natalie’s different. What’s her story?”
“None of your business—”
Natalie arrived then with their drinks, and he shot his editor a quick, quelling look. Ignoring him, Katherine sat back in her chair and looked up at Natalie with a friendly smile. “I don’t get to meet Max’s students very often. How long have you been working here?”
“Over five years,” she replied. “I started here two months before my twin sons were born.”
Surprised, Katherine said, “Your boss hired you when you were seven months pregnant?”
Natalie grinned. “He told me later he must have been out of his mind. He likes to think he’s a tough guy.”
“I know the type.” Katherine chuckled. “My first boss was that way. He grumbled and scowled…and gave me a month off with pay when my mother was dying.”
“Sam did the same thing for me when my sons were born. And I’d only worked for him for two months!” Five years later that still amazed her. Pulling out her order pad, she smiled. “So…have you decided what you’d like to eat?”
They both ordered the fish, and Natalie only took time to find out what dressing they wanted on their salad before she once again left them alone. She was hardly out of earshot before Katherine leaned across the table and said softly, “She’s not wearing a ring. Has she mentioned a husband?”
“Dammit, Katherine, I told you—”
“Oh, hush,” she scolded. “I’m just teasing you. So…is she married?”
He shouldn’t have answered her, but he could tell from the glint in her eye that she wasn’t going to let it go. “She’s divorced. Okay? All I know is her husband left her a long time ago. Obviously, he was a jackass.”
“See! You are interested! I knew it!” He started to object, but she held up her hand, stopping him. “You would be interested if she wasn’t one of your students,” she corrected, biting back a smile. “I suppose I should admire your scruples, but…”
“Don’t say it!” he warned.
“I just don’t think you should let that stop you. She’s not a kid, and neither are you. What if she’s your soul mate? What are you going to do? Just let her walk away? That’s crazy!”
Staring at her in amazement, he said, “You’re something else, you know it? You’re an editor—you work with words. How many times do I have to say I’m not interested?”
“You can say it until the cows come home, but it’s not going to mean a damn thing as long as you can’t take your eyes off her,” she retorted. “Admit it. You’re fascinated with her.”
When he just looked at her and didn’t say a word, she chuckled. “C’mon, Max, don’t be mad. I’m a sucker for romance—you know that. Indulge me.”
When he rolled his eyes, she laughed and reached across the table to pat his hand. “Trust me, this is just what you need to shake you out of the slump you’re in with your writing.”
“There is no this,” he insisted. When her eyes just twinkled in understanding, he had to laugh. “I think I need a new editor.”
As she waited on Max and Katherine for the rest of their meal, making sure they had everything they needed and that the food lived up to their expectations, Natalie couldn’t help but envy Katherine. Max was teasing and attentive and made no effort to hide the fact that he thoroughly enjoyed Katherine’s company. And for the first time since Derek had walked out on her, Natalie wished she had a man in her life.
Shocked by the thought, she told herself that it had been a long day and she was just tired and feeling sorry for herself. But later, as she watched Max and Katherine walk out of the restaurant with eyes only for each other, the emotions tugging at her heart had nothing to do with tiredness.
And things didn’t get any better over the course of the next week. She was lonely and more than a little restless. As she watched the young eighteen-year-old girls in her archeology class flirt outrageously with Max in an effort to get his attention, she felt all alone…and far older than her years. She found herself examining her life, the choices she had made, and she realized that nothing had turned out the way she’d expected. She’d always wanted a home and family and a husband she could go through life with. She had two out of the three, and most of the time, that was enough. She adored her sons and thanked God for them every day. And even though her home was a cottage and not a grand showplace, it was nice and, most important, all hers. Derek had signed it over to her in the divorce. It was the only decent thing he’d done to provide for his children.
She tried to convince herself she was content, but she couldn’t count the nights when she lay awake in the dark, aching to have someone beside her. She was an independent woman, but she didn’t thrive on her single status. In spite of the way her marriage had ended, she’d loved being in love, loved being married. Nothing had ever felt so natural. Yet she was alone. And she had a sinking feeling she always would be.
By Saturday the walls were closing in on her and she couldn’t stand the thought of staying home to study. She had to work the dinner shift at the restaurant, but she had hours to kill before then, and the boys were just as anxious as she to get out of the house. Thumbing through the newspaper in search of a movie to take them to, she arched a brow at the headlines of the sports page. Eagles Take On Bobcats.
You’ve waited a long time to go to college. It should be about more than studying, don’t you think?
Max’s words echoed through her head, tempting her. Why not? she thought, smiling for the first time in what seemed like days. Going in search of the boys, she found them in the backyard, playing with Bongo. “Hey, guys, how would you like to go to a football game?”
