Nate motioned to the chairs they’d brought out earlier and propped against the tree. “You kidding? And miss out on one of Bugle’s hidden talents? No way.” And no way was he missing out on a single minute with McKenna when he could help it.
She gave him a sweet smile as she unfolded one of the chairs. “I’m going to grab us some water bottles. Be back in a minute.”
While McKenna ran back inside the house, Nate took the opportunity to check in on his mom. He hadn’t heard any Aunt Susie updates in a while. “Hey,” he said as soon as his mom answered. “Everything going okay?”
“Nate! Glad to hear from you! Yes, yes. Susie says I’m really starting to annoy her, so I feel like we’re finally getting back to baseline here. I think being back in her own home and her own bed did the trick. How’s things back in Bugle? Are people going bonkers over Harry yet?”
“Oh, you know...” More vehicles swarmed the driveway. A man climbed out of a Jeep with a sock puppet on his hand. “Everything’s pretty much going how you would expect.”
“You don’t know how much it’s killing me not to be there. Speaking of dying, I can’t believe you haven’t said anything yet about theverrrryinteresting pictures multiple friends sent me of you from the Dominoes Dance the other night. Is there, uh, something you’d like to tell me?”
“Hmm...” Nate watched as another man holding a ventriloquist’s dummy on his arm stopped to carry on a conversation with the sock puppet while a woman walked past them carrying a cardboard sign that readHarry, will you marry me?“Can’t really think of anything. Other than Harry, everything’s pretty much status quo.”
“You were dancing. Closely. With a woman.”
“Yep. Same old, same old. You know how it is around here.”
“I believe she goes by the name McKenna?”
“Weather’s been a little hotter than usual, I suppose.”
“Nathan Lambert!”
He smiled, probably the first time since Monday morning, and wiped a trail of sweat off his forehead. “Sounds to me like you already know plenty.”
“Not nearly enough. How long is she staying? Am I going to get the chance to meet her?”
He watched the woman in question jog down the steps, gripping a water bottle in each hand, and wished once again that it was just the two of them. Alone. Without any complications. Without anydistractions. Without any people wearing gold-sequined leotards. “I don’t know, Mom. But I hope so. I really like this one.”
He took the water bottle from McKenna and gave her a wink. She did something twitchy back with her face. Was that supposed to be a wink? Okay. Good to know. The girl couldn’t wink. Based on his experience with Wendy, Nate didn’t exactly consider that a bad thing.
“You do realize,” his mom was saying, “that was probably the first time in your entire adult life where you’ve given me a straightforward answer about a woman.”
“Guess she’s bringing out a new side of me.”
Now if only McKenna could bring out some straightforward answers for how this was all going to play out for them after this Saturday.
Didn’t matter how many showers Nate took, he wasn’t going to stop sweating until Bobbi said yes, so McKenna could say yes to some sort of future between them.
He massaged his forehead. “Hey, Mom, I’m going to have to let you go. A church van full of elderly women waving kazoos out the window just pulled up.”
“I don’t even know how to respond to that.”
“Honestly, neither do I.”
“Nate?” McKenna whispered into his dark bedroom, where he’d disappeared a few hours ago as soon as the last auditioner had left.
Poor guy. She should’ve made him go inside sooner. She could tell he’d been feeling miserable all afternoon.
Easing back into the hallway, she tried closing the door without making a loud click. “McKenna?” his low sleepy voice rumbled before she had the door entirely closed.
She inched it back open. “Nate?” she whispered.
The bedspread rustled. “McKenna?”
She pushed the door further and leaned inside his room. “Nate?”
“McKenna?” The hallway light showed his hand reaching toward her.
