Heat Wave: Nerds of Paradise (A Magnolias and Moonshine Novella Book 18)

by Merry Farmer

  As suddenly as they’d been interrupted, they were alone again. But the mood had changed completely. Angelica sighed and kicked herself inwardly before slumping over to retrieve her scraper and water bottle. She was catching up to the section of wallpaper that Dennis was working on. It was almost a shame that they were so close to done tearing things down. She could have done with a few more ways to expend her restless energy.

  “You don’t have to say anything,” Dennis said quietly as they returned to work.

  “What? I wasn’t going to say anything.”

  He glanced sideways at her. “We’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.”

  Angie’s back ached with frustration. “Why should we pretend it didn’t happen?”

  Dennis finished scraping a stubborn section of paper in front of him, then said, “Obviously, you’re still uncomfortable with people seeing the two of us together. They might get the wrong idea and think you’re not cool or something.”

  Tears stung at the back of Angelica’s eyes. It wouldn’t have bothered her if he had it wrong. The problem was that he was justified to think the way he was thinking. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically bleak. “That’s not how I feel at all, but I can see how you would think it is.”

  He paused in mid-scrape and glanced at her. His brow lifted, and he seemed to be studying her as if she were an experiment that had produced unexpected results. Angelica waited and waited for him to say something, anything, to let her know everything was okay, she was forgiven, even that he wanted to try out the whole passionate kiss thing again. Instead, he let out a small “Hmm,” and went back to work.

  The hope she’d built up so fast fizzled out. She blew out a breath, setting her squirt bottle aside and taking her scraper to the wall, wishing there was a way to go back and rewrite history.

  It had always bothered Dennis that nerdy guys had a reputation for not dealing well with other people or with emotions, but dangit, after the last five minutes, who wouldn’t have a hard time processing things? It had felt so uncommonly good to hold Angelica in his arms and kiss her the way a woman deserved to be kissed, and to have her respond with equal passion. But he wasn’t sure it was worth it to get knocked the hell down again when she yanked away and insisted to Mrs. Brown and the others that it was nothing serious.

  Nothing serious. I’ll just get your blood pumping to the point where you can’t see straight, then I’ll drop you like a hot brick. Story of his life.

  And yet, that tiny voice in the back of his head that had always whispered about how Angelica had trouble with what she saw as losing face in front of her friends was back once more. He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. His mom’s words about how hard it was for a girl to survive in the world if she got a bad reputation—kind of like his mom had when she ended up pregnant with him her senior year—had always been his guideline for dealing with Angelica.

  Now he wondered if he’d been kidding himself all these years and if he wouldn’t be better off finally cutting himself loose from the net Angelica had caught him in. It pissed him off that the net was still there, a decade later.

  “Okay, what are your plans now that we have all the old wallpaper down?” he asked after half an hour of silence, once all of the old paper had been removed.

  Angelica still bristled with tension, but she shrugged and bent over to gather up an armful of ancient, disintegrating wallpaper. “We take this all out to the back dumpster, then prep the wall for the new paper.”

  Part of Dennis wanted to banter with her, to tease her for putting up more wallpaper when it was out of fashion and argue in favor of painting. Enough of him wasn’t sure he wanted to get more involved than he already was, though.

  “Let’s do it,” he said instead, gathering up paper himself.

  He followed Angelica out of the front room, down the hall and through the kitchen where Latoya was working, and out to the back porch. A rental dumpster stood in the driveway by the side of the house, and they managed to deposit their loads without saying a single word. As soon as Dennis saw the disheartened look in Angelica’s eyes as they made their way back to the front room, his resolve to protect himself crumbled.

  “Angie, stop,” he said as they reentered the front room.

  Angelica hesitated just on the other side of the doorway, then turned to him. “I said I’m sorry,” she said. “I won’t let it happen again.”

  There was more to her words than an apology over one kiss.

  “I know.” He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “You do understand where I’m coming from, though, right?”

  She crossed her arms and nodded, not meeting his eyes.

  “If you’re at all interested in coming to work with me at PSF, you’ve got to understand that the days of running hot and cold on me are over. Pick one. Stick with it. Save us both time.”

  She glanced up at him. “I—”

  He held up a hand. “Think about it before you answer.”

  She pursed her lips and sent him a look like she was annoyed with him. Of all things, that made him smile. That was the Angelica he was used to. It was the Angelica he wouldn’t mind kissing again. In fact, a reckless part of his brain told him that maybe if he kissed her now, just a little kiss, it would speed things along in a direction he liked. He took a halting step closer to her.

  “So I guess the rumors are true.”

  A flash of frustration had Dennis spinning to see who the new intruder was. That frustration grew into a momentary frown before he worked his way into a tight smile for another old “friend.” Not just one. Just like in high school, Angelica’s old girlfriends, Vanessa and Emily, stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway.

  “Vanessa.” Dennis did his best to sound happy to see the women again. “Emily. What a surprise to see the two of you here. How have you been?”

  He had a hunch he could see how they’d been. Both had put on a little weight since high school, but each of them were dressed in the kind of glittery track suits that he’d only ever seen on reality tv. They wore enough make-up to be the stars of those reality shows, which told him not much had changed for the pair in ten years.

  “I’m fine,” Vanessa answered, her smile as false as her eyelashes. “I just couldn’t believe it when I heard that Dennis Long was back in town. Of course, I knew that wherever Angie was, that’s where we’d find him too.” She and Emily laughed as though that were some kind of inside joke.

  Judging by the way Angelica tried to hide a cringe, it probably had been an inside joke, and not a nice one. She wiped her hands on her shorts and moved to stand next to her friends. “I’m here working on the house.”

  The comment hit Dennis wrong, but it wasn’t something he could argue with.

  “Sure you are.” Emily winked at Vanessa.

  Angelica laughed as if she were in on the joke.

  That only increased Dennis’s sense of being on the wrong end of something. He did his best to play things casual. “What have you two been up to all these years?” he asked.

  “Oh, getting married, having children, spending our husbands’ money,” Emily said, then burst into a laugh. “We keep trying to set Angie up with guys so she can get a taste of the good life too, but she refuses.”

  “Hmm, I wonder why,” Vanessa added, sending a blatant look between him and Angelica.

  “I think it probably has something to do with the doctorate in Astrophysics she’s just earned,” Dennis said. The fact that the two women hadn’t come right out and congratulated Angelica on her accomplishment knocked them down another notch in his estimation.

  “Right, that was Saturday,” Vanessa said.

  “Congratulations, by the way,” Emily added with a dismissive wave of her hand.

  “So Angie,” Vanessa went on. “Now that you’re done with your degree, when’s the wedding?”

  “I’m sorry?” Angelica stood a little straighter. Not fully confident, though. Dennis frowned.

&nb
sp; “Word on the street is that Dennis wants you to come work for him,” Emily said, a tang of taunt to her tone.

  “And we know how you like to work it for those nerdy guys,” Vanessa said, causing the two friends to dissolve into laughter again.

  With that, Dennis was done with the conversation. He glanced across the room at the rest of the old wallpaper and thought about ditching Angelica’s friends to take care of it. Only the tiniest thread of politeness and respect for Angelica kept him where he was.

  “Why are the two of you here?” Angelica’s question was more of a relief to Dennis than he’d have thought. Maybe she wasn’t into Vanessa and Emily’s shenanigans.

  “We came to say hi to Dennis,” Vanessa said with false sweetness, sliding up to Dennis’s side. She grabbed his arm like she was going to hug him, then did a double-take, giving his arm a second squeeze.

  Dennis was hit by a sudden regret that he’d put so much effort into getting in shape. The only thing worse than the condescending looks Vanessa had always given him was the way she licked her lips now.

  “Well, you’ve said hi,” Angelica pushed on with a hollow laugh. “Don’t you two have a nail appointment to keep or something?”

  “Honey, the only one here who needs her nails done is the one who’s been wrecking her manicure fussing around an old house,” Emily said.

  “Nerd boy here doesn’t count,” Vanessa added. As if there were any doubt.

  Dennis could only stare at the pair as they checked their own nails, probably out of instinct. In high school, he’d considered the pair, and the rest of Angelica’s cool friends, to be somewhere high above him, even if he never really cared for them. Now, however, they seemed as vapid and pointless as the clothes they wore.

  “I doubt Dennis cares about nails one way or another.”

  Dennis’s heart stopped at Angelica’s statement. It wasn’t so much what she said as the way she’d said it. He’d come within millimeters of believing that Angelica had changed, that they could reignite the good parts of their friendship and bury the bad. But the woman standing in front of him, her hip cocked to the side and her arms crossed, was so much like the girl who’d made him miserable that it turned his stomach. Slowly, he turned his head to stare at her. “Excuse me?”

  The stressed, half-grin tugging at Angelica’s lips grew tighter. “I mean, you’re a boy,” she went on, her words clipped and breathless. “You don’t care about nails.”

  For three, gut-wrenching seconds, Dennis considered letting it slide the way he always had. The same litany of excuses that had become ingrained in his soul popped to mind—she was feeling insecure in front of her friends, she didn’t really mean to be insulting, she needed the approval of others in a way he didn’t. But no, he’d left excuses behind when he’d moved on with his life. This time he wasn’t going to lie down and let her walk all over him. He’d grown some self-respect since high school, and it was about time he used it.

  “I’m sorry, Angelica, but I don’t think that’s what you meant at all,” he said as softly as he could.

  “Oooh!” Vanessa and Emily crooned in unison.

  “Looks like somebody’s in trouble,” Emily added.

  “It’s not—” Angelica started. “I’m not—I didn’t—”

  “Actually, I’m pretty sure you did,” Dennis went on. “Back then and now. And I can understand that you might be surprised to be caught kissing a guy when you’re supposed to be stripping wallpaper, but that’s no excuse to look like you’ve committed a felony.”

  “Wait, you kissed him?” Emily asked.

  “Just now?” Vanessa added.

  “No, it wasn’t like that,” Angelica explained to the two, her voice so high it was nearly a wisp.

  That did nothing to calm the anger and disappointment that were building in Dennis’s gut. “So you didn’t cross the room to kiss me in the middle of me telling you about the job you could have working with me?”

  Behind him, Dennis could feel the old folks looking in through the windows. He hated that anyone had to see him on the cusp of losing his temper, but he wasn’t going to back down. Not anymore.

  “I didn’t—” Angelica tried again, glancing anxiously between her friends and Dennis. “I mean, I did kiss you, but—”

  “You kissed him?” Vanessa snorted.

  “Mrs. Cracker,” Emily muttered.

  “It wasn’t like that.” Desperation shone in Angelica’s eyes.

  Dennis’s heart bled for her. He could see she was on the edge of tears. It ripped him apart. If he could have erased the whole situation and gone back to a time before social status mattered to Angelica, he would have. But the past was there no matter how far behind you it was, and he couldn’t take on responsibility for Angelica’s problems anymore.

  “I tell you what,” he said, stepping back toward the table where he’d left the keys to his rental car and his wallet. “When you decide what it was, call me and let me know if it’s going to get in the way of making a decision about your future.” He tucked his wallet into his back pocket and twirled the keys around his finger. “I don’t have the authority to rescind the job Howie has offered you, but if coming to Haskell is going to mean more of this—” He waved a hand toward Vanessa and Emily. “—then I suggest you take the NASA job.”

  It wasn’t pretty, but it was all Dennis had to say. He nodded to Vanessa and Emily—who stood there watching the scene with mouths dropped open—and marched out through the open front door to the porch.

  “Sorry, guys.” He apologized to the old folks on the porch, but didn’t have the heart to stay and say a proper goodbye to them. Coming back to his old neighborhood, revisiting his past, had been a worse idea than he ever could have suspected. He just hoped he didn’t get stuck regretting it for the rest of his life.

  Chapter Seven

  Cold prickles spread across Angelica’s skin as she stood frozen in horror, watching Dennis walk out. Her mind screamed “No, no, no!” She hadn’t meant to make it sound like she was embarrassed they’d kissed. There was no doubt in her mind that Dennis had taken it that way, though. He thought she was as embarrassed to be seen with him in front of her friends as she’d been all those years ago. But she wasn’t. Was she?

  No. She didn’t know what she felt, and that was the problem.

  “Wait,” she called out, much too late, and pushed past Vanessa and Emily on her way out the front door. “Wait!”

  Dennis had already reached the curb on his long legs and didn’t turn back. Behind her, Vanessa and Emily burst into laughter.

  “Oh my God, did you see that?” Emily snorted.

  “It’s so dorky for a guy to throw a temper tantrum,” Vanessa said.

  “Yeah. I don’t know why you agreed to see him again, Angie,” Emily finished.

  Rage swirled with desperation in Angelica’s chest. She whipped back to her so-called friends, hands balled into fists at her sides. “Why the hell are you two here?”

  Vanessa reeled back, surprise and fear stretching her face. Emily’s expression pinched to anger. “Because we’re your friends, and the rumors we’ve been hearing are awful.”

  “Yeah, we came here to stop you from making a stupid mistake.” Vanessa recovered her superior air.

  “What are you talking about?” Angelica twisted to check on Dennis. He’d reached a tan sedan farther down the road and climbed inside. She ran a hand over her hair, every nerve in her body telling her to run after him.

  “We can’t let you run away with a nerd,” Emily said. “Everyone is talking about how the two of you hit it off again.”

  “People are saying he’s turned really hot, but I don’t see it.” Vanessa sniffed and crossed her arms, the dark flush on her cheeks betraying her lie.

  Dennis started his car, pulled into the road, and drove off. Angelica felt her heart ripping out of her chest to go with him. A moment later, her friends’ words hit her. She turned back to them, mouth dropped open with incredulity. “Dennis is
a top astrophysicist working in a lead role with an exciting new company. He left here and made a success of himself, in spite of the way you all treated him. What have you done with your lives, other than marrying gullible men and wasting their money?”

  “That’s not fair,” Vanessa snapped, narrowing her eyes.

  “You’re right, it’s not fair.” Angelica strode past them, down the hall toward the kitchen where she’d left her purse and car keys. “It’s not fair for people as pitiful as you to make any sort of comparison to a smart, accomplished, attractive man like Dennis.”

  “That’s not what she meant.” Emily persisted in her stubborn bitchiness. “She meant that dweeb boys aren’t in the same class as girls like us.”

  “Latoya, I have to go,” Angelica said as she marched through the kitchen to grab her things.

  Latoya’s only answer was, “I heard. Go out there and get your man.” She sent Angelica a triumphant smile.

  “I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” Emily continued, both she and Vanessa following Angelica as she pushed past them and headed for the front door. “Have you lost your mind?”

  Angelica stopped when she reached the porch and spun to face her two friends, the old folks looking on. “First of all, you and I are not in the same class. Not even close. I chose to do something with my life that involves more than manicures and credit cards. I have not lost my mind. In fact, I think I just might have found it, and my pride, after burying them under the need to be popular all these years. And second, if you can’t see a good man when he’s standing right in front of you, then you deserve the sad, shallow lives you’ve made for yourselves.”

  She turned and marched on, heading down the stairs and out to the curb where she’d parked her car. Mrs. Brown’s laughter rang behind her, even as Vanessa called out, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  It was up to Mrs. Brown and the old folks to answer, and if Angelica knew them like she thought she did, Vanessa and Emily were about to get an education. She had other things to do.