After the Rains Read online

  Natalie felt as though someone had just punched her in the stomach.

  “Evan—” She couldn’t get another word to form over the lump in her throat.

  “He’s in our English class. You know, the kid that sits—”

  “I know who Evan Greenway is. What? He couldn’t call me himself?” She prayed Jon wouldn’t hear the tremor in her voice.

  “It’s not that. C’mon, Natalie. He’ll call you. He just—well, he wanted me to feel you out first. He was afraid you’d turn him down—”

  “I’ll have to think about it, Jon.” She pushed the button to end the call and sank down to the floor with her back against the bathtub. She put her head on her knees, and the tears that had been threatening spilled over now.

  There was a soft knock at the door. “Natalie, are you off the phone yet?” Nicole’s voice was all sweetness.

  Natalie swallowed hard. “Hang on,” she shouted through the bathroom door, struggling to keep her tone from betraying her emotions.

  That traitor. How could she do this to me? She knows that I have a crush on Jon. Natalie had let it slip once last summer during a rare heart-to-heart. She and Nicole had never really been close. It was always Nikki and Noelle. Noelle and Nikki. Her sisters were only a year apart in age, and until recently everywhere they went they’d been mistaken for twins. But over the last year Nicole had blossomed into a striking beauty, while Noelle, an eighth grader, was still in that awkward, gangly stage of adolescence. Now that Natalie and Nicole were in high school together, it could have been a time when they grew closer. Instead, having Nicole in the same school had created a whole new set of problems. Suddenly it seemed she was in furious competition with her sister—both at home and at school—over everything from clothes, to the use of the car, to grades.

  But Nicole had hit a new low this time.

  Natalie pulled herself up from the bathroom floor and looked at her face in the mirror. Her eyes and nose were red and ugly, her usually clear skin was puffy and mottled. Rubbing the tears from her cheeks, she turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on her face. She pulled a rumpled towel from the bar and scrubbed her face dry. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door.

  Nicole was standing in the hallway, waiting for her with a desperately hopeful grin plastered on her face. She looked at Natalie and did a double take. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Good grief! Can’t a person have a minute of privacy in this house?” Natalie lashed out. “What do you want?”

  Nicole took a step back, searching her face. Then she said in a syrupy voice, “Will you do it, Nattie? Please. Evan really likes you.”

  Natalie stared at her. “I can’t believe you’re asking this.”

  Nicole stared back “What? What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, please. You know exactly what I’m talking about.” She turned her back on her sister and started for her room.

  Nicole grabbed her arm. “What? I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You knew I liked Jon.”

  Nicole had the audacity to look shocked. “Nattie, you still like him? But that was … so long ago. Honest, I had no idea you still had a crush on him.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I didn’t. I promise you. That was way back last summer, and you’ve never said another word—”

  “Whatever.”

  “Nattie, please! I didn’t know. Honest.” She suddenly became preoccupied with a loose button on her blouse. “But … well, the truth is, I like him too. And he likes me back.” Nicole looked up at her, pleading now. “C’mon, Nattie, I’m begging you. You know Dad won’t let me go if you don’t go with us.”

  “It doesn’t have to be me. Can’t you get one of your little freshman friends to go with you?”

  “Natalie. Come on. I promise, I’ll do anything. You can wear my K-State sweatshirt anytime you want. You don’t even have to wash it. I’ll take your turn at dishes for a week—two weeks. Please. You’ve got to do this. I’ve been wanting Jon to ask me out half my life. You can’t blow this for me.”

  The thoughts that assaulted Natalie’s mind were definitely not ones she would be sharing in Sunday school class next Sunday morning. It was news to her that Nicole had wanted Jon to ask her out for “half her life.” If that was true, why hadn’t she said anything when Natalie made her confession last summer?

  Turning her back on her sister, she mumbled, “I’ll have to think about it.” She went upstairs to her room and slammed the door behind her.

  Two

  The sun reflected off the asphalt in the church parking lot. Twelve-year-old Natalie listened as Daddy invited the new family to have lunch with them.

  Sara, the new girl, eyed Natalie cautiously, while her brother leaned against the family’s car with an air of indifference. Jon Dever was cute, no doubt about it, but Natalie had no intention of letting him know she thought so.

  Feeling self-conscious, she turned her attention to the grownups’ conversation. She thought her mother looked especially pretty this morning. Her hair fell in golden waves over her shoulders, and her blue eyes sparkled with life as she spoke. Natalie glanced at her own reflection in the window of the Devers’ car. She had her mother’s heart-shaped face. Her hair, too—well, the pale, straw color anyway. Mom’s hair was coarse and wavy, not fine and silky like Natalie’s.

  She heard laughter, and her attention was drawn to the sidewalk in front of the church where Nikki and Noelle were playing a boisterous clapping game.

  Mom called across the parking lot, “Girls … quiet down a little, please. We’re trying to visit.”

  Maribeth Dever smiled in the girls’ direction. “I can’t imagine trying to keep up with twins.”

  Mom laughed. “Well, they are a handful, but the girls aren’t twins. They’re a year apart. A lot of people make that mistake though.”

  “Oh, my!” Mrs. Dever exclaimed. “I would have sworn they were identical! They certainly are the spitting image of their father.”

  Natalie watched the smile that spread across her father’s face, watched his chest puff out with pride. How she longed for him to feel proud of her the way he did of his own daughters.

  And that was exactly the problem. For though she called him Daddy, just as Nikki and Noelle did, she did not truly belong to Cole Hunter. Didn’t her very name remind her of that fact every single day she lived? It was hard being a Camfield in a house full of Hunters—always having to explain why she had a different name than the rest of them.

  “Natalie,” her father called, “come on. Time to go.” The family climbed into their van. Sara was invited to ride with them, while the Devers followed in their car. Nicole and Noelle chattered together in the middle seat of the van, while in the back, Natalie and Sara gave each other sidelong glances and said not a word the entire way home.

  Dinner was an apparent success. Natalie’s mother made roast beef sandwiches, and the adults laughed and talked as though they’d known each other forever.

  The kids were relegated to the kitchen table. Though Natalie was feeling rather timid in the presence of their visitors, Jon Dever kept them all laughing. He entertained them by telling stupid jokes and doing disgusting things with his Jell-O salad. And though she would never have admitted it to anyone, by the time dessert was served, Natalie had developed a serious crush on the boy.

  After they ate ice cream, Mom called over the clatter of dirty dishes and silverware, “Natalie, it’s a beautiful day. Why don’t you girls take Jon and Sara outside and show them the barn?”

  “Just don’t let Rufus jump up on your good clothes,” Cole Hunter interjected. “You watch him, okay, Nattie?” Daddy turned to Jon and Sara’s parents. “Sometime you’ll have to ask Natalie about the time she and Rufus took a little impromptu swim in the creek.”

  “Daddy!”

  He winked and cautioned her again. “Just make him behave. I don’t feel like playing lifeguard today.”

  “I will,” she promised, as s
he led their guests out the back door.

  They headed toward the barn. “Do you have animals?” Jon asked.

  “Well, we have a dog—Rufus—that’s who Daddy was talking about. And some cats. But not cows or horses or anything, if that’s what you mean. My dad’s a vet, so he gets enough of animals at work.” She was repeating what she’d heard her mother tell people countless times, but talking to Jon, her heart felt all fluttery and funny in her chest.

  The big golden Labrador came loping up the lane as fast as his old bones would allow. Jon Dever ran ahead to meet the dog. Nicole and Noelle dashed after him.

  “You girls be careful,” Natalie called after them. “Remember what Daddy said.”

  Nicole turned in the middle of the lane and put her hands on her hips. “You are not our mother, Natalie Camfield. Quit being so bossy.” She whispered something in Noelle’s ear, and the two giggled wickedly and ran on to the barn.

  Natalie rolled her eyes to cover her embarrassment. “Sisters can be such a pain.”

  “Just like big brothers.” Sara smiled knowingly, her pale carrot-colored hair glinting in the sunlight. Then, as though the discrepancy had just occurred to her, she asked, “How come your sister called you Natalie Camfield?”

  Natalie rubbed a finger across the frayed edge of her coat sleeve. “Because that’s my name.”

  “Oh. That’s a funny middle name.”

  “No. It’s my last name.”

  Sara wrinkled her freckled nose. “I thought it was Hunter.”

  “My last name is Camfield. Daddy isn’t—” she pointed a thumb over her shoulder, back toward the house. “Well, see, he isn’t my real father. It’s a long story,” she explained.

  Sara inclined her head toward Nicole and Noelle, who were leading Jon through the gate to the barnyard. “Is their name Camfield too?”

  She sighed. “No. Just me. Nikki and Noelle are Daddy’s real kids.”

  “Oh.” Sara brightened. “Kind of like me and Jon.”

  Natalie wrinkled her brow. “Huh?”

  “I’m adopted, but Mom had Jon,” Sara explained.

  Something about those words made Natalie feel energized, but she shook her head. “Oh, I’m not adopted. Daddy is my stepdad. My mom was married before.”

  “Really? Where’s your real dad?”

  Natalie usually hated telling her story, but something in Sara’s eyes told her that this girl would understand. After all, Sara apparently knew what it was like to be the oddball of the family. She took a deep breath. “My real dad lives in South America—in Colombia. He’s a missionary doctor.”

  Sara gasped. “A missionary? And he got divorced?” She said it as though it were the sin of the century, and Natalie felt her defenses rising.

  “No,” Natalie went on, “It was … well, see, there was a really bad fire in this village, and my mom thought my dad got killed—in the fire—so she came back over here, and that’s when I was born. Then she got married again, but after that they found out my real dad wasn’t dead after all. He was just, like, trapped there or something. It’s kind of complicated. But anyway, when he found out my mom had gotten married again and I already had a really good dad and everything, he decided to go back to South America.”

  She waited for the disbelieving reaction she usually got when she recounted these events, but Sara only said, “Wow. That’s amazing. Have you ever met him?”

  “Sure. I don’t see him very often ’cause Colombia’s, like, hundreds of miles away. But he comes back sometimes, and then I go visit him at my grandparents’ house. They live in Kansas City. He’s really nice—my dad, I mean.”

  “That’s cool.”

  “Well, not always. It kind of stinks sometimes. I always have to explain it to everybody. And then they go crazy, like”—she laid a hand on her chest and put on her church-lady voice—“ ‘Oh, you poor girl, how awful, how tragic, how terrible it must be for you.’ ”

  Sara broke into contagious laughter that warmed Natalie’s heart and made her laugh too. When they finally quit giggling, Sara said, “Well, my story isn’t quite as good as yours, but I know what you mean. I hate having to explain about Jon.”

  “Well, why is it you’re adopted and he’s not?” She hesitated. “Oh … sorry. Here I go making you explain it.”

  Sara put a hand on Natalie’s arm. “No. I don’t care if you ask. My mom had to have surgery after Jon was born. It made it so she couldn’t have any more babies, but she and Dad wanted a whole bunch of kids, so they decided to adopt. That’s where I came in. They might even adopt some more kids someday.”

  “That would be cool,” Natalie told her. A thought struck her, and before she had time to think about it she blurted out, “Hey! If you guys adopted more kids, then Jon would be the oddball.”

  Sara screwed her face up and pronounced in a cartoon-character voice, “Oh, believe me, honey, he’s already an oddball!”

  They dissolved into laughter again, and Natalie decided then and there that Sara Dever would be her best friend forever.

  The parking lot of the Sonic Drive-In was almost empty in the lull between the supper crowd and the late-night Coke-and-burger runs. Natalie sat behind the wheel of her mom’s car, the cherry limeade in her cup holder barely touched.

  Beside her, Sara sipped a slush and shivered. “So, are you going to tell me what’s bothering you or not?” Sara asked.

  Natalie had been stewing in silence, forcing Sara to carry the conversation, ever since the carhop had brought out their drinks. “Did you know Jon was asking Nikki to the dance?” she blurted.

  Now it was Sara’s turn to be silent.

  “You did, didn’t you?” Natalie accused. “Why didn’t you say something, Sara?”

  “And why would I think you’d care, Nattie?” The knowing look on Sara’s face made Natalie nervous. Sara looked at her lap. “Because I knew it would hurt your feelings.”

  It took Natalie a minute to process the implication of Sara’s comment. “Why would you think that?” she hedged.

  “Look, Natalie, you aren’t even making sense. It’s your business if you don’t want to talk to me about your crush on Jon, but if I’m not supposed to know about it, then don’t go getting mad when I don’t report his every move to you.”

  Natalie looked hard at Sara. “You knew?”

  “I guessed.”

  “How? Did Nicole say something to you?”

  Sara shifted in her seat and turned toward Natalie. “I hate to break this to you, Nattie, but I’m your best friend. I can read you like a book. I’ve seen how you are when we’re over at my house and Jon’s around. And the way you’re always asking about his plans. Why would you give a rip what my brother does if you didn’t have a thing for him?”

  Natalie’s palms grew clammy, and she hoped the pinkish glow from the neon lights on the restaurant’s signs hid the warmth she felt rise to her cheeks. “Is it that obvious?”

  Sara nodded. “Did Nicole know you like Jon?”

  Natalie’s anger at her sister returned with a vengeance. “Yes, she knew. I told her last summer. I thought I could trust her.”

  “So, she’s known all along that you like Jon?”

  Natalie nodded.

  “I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t sound like Nikki. She’s such a sweetheart,” Sara said.

  “Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving.” Feeling strangely disloyal to the sister who had stabbed her in the back, Natalie picked up her drink and took a long slurp. “Does Jon like Nikki, Sara? Has he said anything?”

  “Natalie, you are really putting me on the spot, you know?”

  The last meager ounce of hope she felt dissolved. “So I take that as a yes?”

  Sara nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry. He likes her a lot. I … I didn’t want to say anything because I thought this all might pass—either Jon’s crush on Nikki or your crush on him. But I don’t think it’s going to, Natalie. Sorry to be so honest, but he likes Nikki a lot.” She paused. “So … you real
ly have it bad for him?”

  Unexpectedly tears came to her eyes. “Oh, Sara. I think I love him. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve always loved him. Ever since we were kids he’s been … I don’t know. Just special, you know?”

  Sara gave a smirk and held up a warning hand. “Hey, you forget the boy is my brother. I have a hard time seeing him as anything but the annoying pest he is.”

  Natalie smiled through her tears and stared, unseeing, out the windshield.

  A pickup roared through the Sonic drive-through, rap music blaring, jarring Natalie to the present. She picked up her cherry limeade and rattled the ice in her cup. “Sara, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I just … well, I didn’t figure I had a chance with Jon, and I didn’t want you to feel like you had to play matchmaker or something.”

  Sara shrugged. “It’s okay, Nattie. So … are you going to go with Evan?”

  “I don’t know,” she sighed. “I guess it beats sitting home on homecoming night.”

  “I think you should go, Nattie. Evan Greenway is pretty cute, if you ask me.”

  Natalie gave her friend a close look. “Don’t tell me you have a crush on him?”

  “No way! You know who I like.”

  “Oh, yeah … Brad-ley.” She singsonged the name like a playground taunt.

  Sara blushed. “All right, all right. Back to the subject at hand. Are you going with Evan?”

  “I guess I might as well,” she sighed. “I’ve wasted years trying to get Jon to notice me, and look where that’s gotten me. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

  “And nothing to lose,” Sara pronounced with a bob of her chin. She looked at her watch and gasped. “But if you don’t get me home in five minutes flat I’m going to have plenty to lose—like any curfew past nine o’clock for the rest of my natural life.”