Met Her Match Read online

  She looked back up at the ceiling. “You’re more than that. You work a lot too. You—”

  “Hey!” He cut her off, as though he wanted to stop this serious talk. “Are you hungry?”

  “Not especially, but I’d put money on it that you are. I’m sure Della would love to have lunch with you.”

  Nate got off the bed. “It’s 3:00 p.m. and I haven’t eaten since breakfast. I’ve been listening to stories of how great each man used to be. It seems that today we whippersnappers don’t know what real work is. This was said while I was pulling some black strings off my arms. Got them while diving for trash.”

  “You shouldn’t have gone shirtless.” She stood up.

  “If a pretty girl is watching me, I tend to strip off. Can’t let all those bench presses go to waste. Why don’t we—”

  There was a knock at the door. “Terri? Are you in there?”

  “That’s Della,” Terri whispered.

  “I can’t find that nice young man who is engaged to marry Stacy Hartman,” Della said through the door. “He isn’t alone in your bedroom with you, is he?”

  “Subtle,” Nate whispered, then slid open the door to the outside. “Follow me.”

  Terri practically ran past him.

  Outside, there were two men attending the big barbecue grill that had magically appeared at Terri’s house. It was covered with sizzling meat. When Nate grabbed sausages and bread, Terri opened a cooler and took out three small bowls of food. She had no idea what they contained.

  “Here,” Elaine said from behind her, and handed her a big pink tote bag. “I put a jug of lemonade inside. Take your time. This party hasn’t officially started yet.”

  Terri knew she should protest that she and Nate weren’t running off to some love tryst, as Elaine seemed to be implying. They were escaping Della’s nosy questions. But Terri just smiled. “Thanks.”

  Minutes later, she was running toward her boat, Nate close behind her.

  And not far behind him was Della Kissel calling to Terri.

  “Go!” Nate said and Terri stepped up her pace.

  They practically leaped into the boat. Nate untied it while Terri started the engine. She took off so fast that Nate nearly flew out the back, but he just laughed.

  Terri headed toward Club Circle, where all the shops and public buildings were, but then she made an abrupt turnaround and headed back toward her house. She thought Nate would ask what she was doing, but he didn’t. She stayed close to the east shore, went into a little cove, then came back out near one of the three bridges. It was a place Nate had not seen before.

  Terri cut the engine to low, then slowly went near the south side of a piece of land surrounded by water that was known as the Island.

  Nate jumped into the shallow water to pull the boat onto shore. There was a stake where he could tie it.

  “Damn!” Terri said as she looked at the water. She had on tight jeans and the absurdity of high heels.

  Nate walked through the water and held out his arms. He didn’t need to tell her to jump.

  Terri decided to forego the girlie protest of “I’m too heavy” and “I could take off my shoes and wade in” etc. In a very practiced gesture, she stepped up to the side and fell backward.

  Nate caught her without so much as a grunt and carried her to the sand. “You’ve done that before, haven’t you?”

  She did not say “a hundred times” as those words would require explanation. “Maybe. Della is going to torture both of us.”

  Nate noted that she didn’t answer his question.

  “You can put me down now.”

  “Not until we get somewhere we can sit and eat.”

  “Ah yes, food. Your number one concern. Did you get me out just to save time?”

  He didn’t reply.

  She loved the feeling of his big body against hers, and she wanted to lean her head against his chest. If she did, she’d be able to feel the warmth of him, hear his heartbeat. For a moment she’d be able to imagine that this was real and that he belonged to her.

  Abruptly, he dropped her legs to stand her on the ground. “I’ll get the food.”

  Half an hour later, they’d eaten the food they’d brought. Nate congratulated her on having so wisely chosen two delicious salads and a whole bowl full of brownies. They laughed over how they had blindly snatched and run.

  But through it all, she kept feeling that he had something serious he wanted to say to her. Please, she thought, don’t let it be questions about the gossip she was sure he’d heard by now.

  When they finished their meal, Nate stretched out on the grass in some dappled sunlight, while Terri sat a few feet away. “I got bawled out by Stacy,” he said.

  “Oh? Any reason?” It wasn’t easy to keep the hope out of her voice.

  “For imposing on you.”

  “Because you make so much noise in the morning? And because you hog the remote and you seem to think that televisions are made only for watching sports? Or is it that you put so much chili pepper on that chicken yesterday that I could barely eat it? And you—” She broke off because he was smiling broadly.

  “She doesn’t know about those horrible things.”

  Terri drew in her breath. “Are you saying that you haven’t told her that you’re living with me?”

  “I’m just renting. We’re not living together.” He turned his face to the sun, enjoying the warmth. “Stacy was quite...uh, vexed with me for inviting people to your house. She wanted to know if I’d asked your permission and I said I had.” He turned toward Terri. “I did, didn’t I?”

  “You asked if a ‘few friends’ might come over. And you ignored my warning about the whole lake showing up.” She was teasing him.

  “If you want them to leave, I’ll kick them out.” He started to get up.

  “No!”

  Smiling, Nate lay back down. “I told Stace I didn’t think you were upset, but I promised to make sure.”

  “And that’s why we’re here?” Terri realized that she’d had a bit of hope that it was for another reason. She knew he was staring at her, but she didn’t dare look at him. He was much too good at reading what was inside people’s minds for her to meet his eyes. “So what else did Stacy say?”

  “She reminded me that I have brunch at her parents’ house tomorrow at eleven.”

  That idea made her laugh and she turned to look at him. “That sounds exciting. I bet they’ll be overjoyed when you show up in a rugby T-shirt and grab your food with your hands.”

  Nate didn’t smile. “Her parents hate me.”

  Terri gave a snort of disbelief.

  “I’m serious. They can’t stand me. Her dad thinks I’m going to knock over the furniture.”

  “Bull in a china shop?”

  “Exactly.”

  Terri stretched out a few feet from him. Her feet were bare and the grass felt good on her toes. Nate sounded truly upset by this. “I doubt if they actually dislike you. It’s just that you’re not Bob and your parents aren’t the Aldersons. Why don’t you get your mom and dad to come to Summer Hill and court the Hartmans? Or maybe your money uncles could befriend them. Then they might forgive you about Bob and—”

  Nate sat up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He sounded shocked. “Who is Bob? I’ve never heard of the Aldersons.”

  “Oh dear.” Terri stood up and reached for her heels. “I think we better go back. Della will be telling everyone that you and I are here doing the naughty. We need to cut the gossip off before it begins.”

  “Sit!” Nate ordered.

  She obeyed. “Wow. Do you know that you sounded just like Kit? Did I ever tell you that he once stopped three boatloads of people with just his voice?”

  “I know all about Kit Montgomery. What I don’t know about is Bob and company.”