Unexpected

by Karen Tuft

  “That’s big talk, coming from a sassy little girl,” he called back. “You’re on. Double or nothing.” He crunched his Styrofoam cup menacingly at her and glanced at Jim. “We’ll finish this later.”

  “Yeah. And my money’s on Bob, buddy. Sorry.”

  * * *

  When Jim actually called Ross to set up lunch for later the following week, Ross was surprised but definitely interested in continuing the conversation they’d started at the midnight sledding adventure. He’d thought of little else and had plenty of questions.

  He was even more surprised when Tori showed up for lunch as well. Jim shrugged. “Tori knows more about it anyway, so I thought I’d let her tell you firsthand.”

  As Ross listened to Tori tell the story, he could hear the guilt she felt for encouraging Natalie to go to the dance, her inadequacy at protecting Natalie, and her own successes and happiness in contrast to Natalie’s life of hardship.

  Buck had always been successful with the girls, always had at least one on a string. Tori had known of his reputation and was afraid he would tire of Natalie and move on, like she’d seen him do with other girlfriends in the past. Natalie only knew she was in love and Buck seemed perfect.

  Tori’s worst fears were realized that Thanksgiving when Natalie informed her that she’d missed her period, and Tori was sworn to secrecy. When Natalie’s father became suspicious of her ongoing flu symptoms, he confronted her, and she tearfully confessed. Natalie’s very solemn and sober father invited Buck to have a chat, and when he left that evening, it was with the clear understanding that he would be marrying Natalie in the immediate future.

  Two weeks later, she secretly became Natalie Jacobsen, with only their parents in attendance at the county courthouse. She stayed at home to hide her pregnancy and worked to get her diploma while Buck continued to live with his parents and finish up his senior year.

  Tori would never forget the day she broke an awful reality to Natalie, that Buck had been seeing different girls at school. Natalie had gone pale and denied it was true. Buck wouldn’t do that to her. But Tori suspected from the forcefulness of Natalie’s words that she was mostly trying to convince herself.

  When Natalie questioned Buck about it later, he angrily told her they had a marriage on paper only and that if she thought she could trap him by getting pregnant, she was mistaken. She countered that he was as responsible for their situation as she was, that she was a prisoner in her home while he strutted around school as though he were free. And he wasn’t—not any more than she was. He slammed the door on his way out.

  She sat at home on graduation, swollen with pregnancy, feeling like she was being kicked on the inside by a bucking bronco. Aaron “Buck” Jacobsen walked across the stage wearing his cap and gown and then took a cheerleader he’d been seeing to an all-night graduation party up Logan Canyon—Tori saw him there, and when she confronted him, he just blew her off.

  On the Fourth of July, as Tori and Natalie and her father watched the fireworks in the distance from the front porch, Natalie went into labor. Just before dawn on the fifth of July, she welcomed a nine-pound boy into the world and named him Ryan. On the sixth of July, Buck’s father visited the hospital with a small gift for the baby and divorce papers in his hand. Buck also stipulated that he was relinquishing parental rights. Mr. Jacobsen flatly stated that Buck had given the baby his name, if it even was his baby, and that was more than enough for any eighteen-year-old boy with a bright future to do. Mr. Jacobsen didn’t touch his grandchild.

  “She’d been awarded a four-year scholarship to Utah State. Instead, she stayed home, divorced, with a baby, a job as a waitress, and a broken heart—at eighteen.” Tori laughed bitterly. “It sounds like an awful country song.”

  Tori’s comment reminded Ross of the first time he’d seen Natalie. Beautiful, tense Natalie staving off the advances of the Hulk while his coworkers joked about out-countrying each other with heartache stories. Natalie won the contest hands down, owned it, and didn’t complain about it.

  Tori continued. “I was still away at college when she wrote and asked if I’d be her maid of honor when she married Wade. It should have been nice. Wade was nice looking, Natalie was thrilled, and Ryan was adorable in his little tuxedo. I had this feeling though.

  “I thought I was being silly, cautious for Natalie’s sake. When she’d written, she’d told me it was a civil wedding, that there were a few things keeping Wade from the temple at the time, but they didn’t want to wait. That made me wonder. After everything she’d been through with Buck, she’d really relied on her faith to get through. Church had become really important to her. She’d write and tell me how she was going to do things right the next time around. So when all of a sudden I got this new line of thinking from her, I was concerned. She kept saying, ‘Look at the two of them together.’ Wade and Ryan, you know? ‘Doesn’t it melt your heart?’ Well, it was pretty cute, so I started to relax a little.”

  “How did this—Wade—how was he with Natalie?” Ross asked.

  “Well, like I said, he was cute with Ryan, piggyback rides, things like that. He seemed crazy about Natalie, really. I did notice that he liked things his way, and she was always eager to please. I know now that he’s selfish; he didn’t love her enough to begin with and didn’t care enough to make it last.”

  “That’s pretty harsh. Doesn’t it take two people to make or break a marriage?”

  Ross was just playing devil’s advocate, but Tori bristled more than he’d anticipated. “Do you know why Natalie cleans houses? Because this bright woman who earned a four-year academic scholarship was convinced by her ‘loving’ husband that she wasn’t competent enough to do anything else.

  “She was competent enough for him to marry. After that, she did everything he demanded of her, but she never did anything good enough to make him happy. Eventually, she heard rumors about other women. It decimated her. Her only escape for years was her kids’ lives and her art. She was committed to keeping her family together, tried hard to make her marriage to Wade work. But the rumors persisted. When she finally got brave enough to confront him about it, he didn’t deny it, and he convinced her it was her fault. When all you’ve heard about yourself for years is how pathetic you are, you believe it. It was the final straw. But not the way you think.” Ross watched Tori twist her napkin. His stomach twisted too. “She wasn’t the outraged wife, cutting the loser loose. She was giving him his freedom because she couldn’t make him happy, because she didn’t have the qualities he needed in a wife. She heroically fell on the sword for that selfish bully.”

  Ross had heard about all he could stand. He took a long drink of water and breathed deeply. “He took her to the cleaners in the divorce.”

  Tori snorted. “Yeah, he knew just how to play it. And Natalie was under some misguided idea that if she could keep things amicable, it would be better for the girls. Wade still knows how to play that with her.”

  “It sounds like Natalie could use a new attorney.”

  Tori and Jim eyed each other, smiled, and nodded. “Know anybody?”

  Chapter 18

  Natalie spent Christmas Eve day with the Emma and Callie, baking cookies and delivering them to the neighbors. After an early dinner, they opened gifts, read the traditional Nativity account from the New Testament, and curled up on the sofa together to watch the Grinch. Then Wade showed up to take the girls to his house for the rest of the evening. It was his turn to have them for Christmas.

  But at least this year she wouldn’t be spending Christmas home alone reading or watching old movies on TV. Ross picked her up first thing Christmas morning and took her to his mother’s house. Dorothy welcomed her with a warm hug. “I’m so glad you’re here, dear. The old place needs some brightening up, and you’re just the ticket.”

  After what Ross called their traditional Christmas breakfast of eggs and sausage a la Ross and waffles loaded with berries and whipped cream, compliments of Dorothy, he dragged Natalie into the fa
mily room for some serious board-game competition. He beat her soundly at chess, but she managed to actually outdo him in a heated game of Scrabble. Before she knew it, it was nearly eleven o’clock. Then the doorbell rang.

  “Let’s see who that could be.” Ross took her by the hand, and they went to the door together. There were Emma and Callie, with Wade standing uncomfortably behind. As she hugged the girls, Wade said, “The girls wanted to be with you when Ryan called. They said you’d be here. I told them they could stay for a half hour.” He shot a scowl at Ross and headed back down the sidewalk to his car.

  He’d told her only yesterday when he’d picked up the girls that he wasn’t going to interrupt his Christmas morning lugging them back and forth to speak to Ryan. Now here he was, and here they were.

  “Wade!” Natalie called. He turned. “Do you want to come in?” she asked.

  Wade glanced back at Ross, then at Natalie. “Nah, it’s okay. I’ll stay in the car. Tell Ryan hello for me.”

  “I will. And, Wade,” she said as he started back down the walk, “thank you. And Merry Christmas.”

  “Yeah. Thirty minutes, Em.”

  “Okay, Dad.”

  The call from Elder Ryan Jacobsen was wonderful and frustrating. He sounded happy, teased his sisters like normal, and tried to make the telephone conversation last as long as he possibly could. By the time he had described every member of his small branch in Falkirk, all of the elders in his zone, and each tie he’d collected while in Scotland, Natalie knew she’d have to be the tough one who ended the phone call. It was well past the allotted half hour.

  Natalie was pretty sure Wade wouldn’t ring the doorbell and throw his weight around in front of the McConnells, but she didn’t want his ire to upset Emma and Callie’s holiday or their conversation with their brother. Maybe he’d leave it be since it was Christmas, but she couldn’t count on that being the case.

  Emma and Callie each gave Natalie a final hug and danced out the door. “See you tonight, Mom,” they sang. “Dad says he has one more present to give us. We’ll tell you all about it tonight.”

  Ross came up behind Natalie as she waved good-bye to them from the doorway. He and Dorothy had left her alone with her girls and son. He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “How’s the missionary?”

  Natalie smiled and brushed away a lone tear that had managed to escape. “He’s great. Really great. I could even hear a bit of a brogue when he spoke. He told the girls to expect a present in the mail. I got the impression they’re getting clan tartans. Forrester is a clan name.” She thought for a minute. “Is McConnell?”

  In his best Scottish impersonation, he told her, “Nay, lass, we’re but a wee family that owes our allegiance to the MacDonalds.” He dragged her toward the family room. “And right now, I want a rematch at Scrabble.”

  Natalie laughed. Her heart was full. Her girls were happy; her son was doing well. “All right, laddie, but stand warned. Ye havna seen the best of Nat Forrester yet.”

  And she was right. She beat him two games straight. Granted, their scores were close, but she beat him fair and square. She also saw him get a look in his eye that she was sure had intimidated many an opposing counsel. During the third game, he placed his tiles on the board.

  “Ross, voxism is not a word.”

  “Sure it is.”

  “No, it’s not. You made it up.”

  “Voxism. From the Latin, vox, meaning ‘voice’, -ism, meaning ‘the state or quality of.’ Voxism, therefore, is the state or quality of the voice.”

  “Totally made it up.”

  He grinned. “You wanna bet?”

  Well, she didn’t. Not with Mr. Columbia Law Review.

  “That’s a triple letter score for the X. Thirty-four points for me. Write it down.”

  “Wait a minute.”

  “Thirty-four points, gorgeous.”

  He should take up high-stakes poker, Natalie thought. And he was closing in fast on her lead. That meant only one thing: it was time to match fire with fire. She looked at all the letter A tiles she kept picking out of the pile and said, “Okay, buster, you asked for it.” She laid down her tiles. “Using your V and the double letter and the double word score, that’s forty points.” She picked up the pencil.

  He laid a heavy hand on her wrist. “Hold on there, sweetheart. You think you can get away with aviaqua? Aviaqua?”

  She smiled at him smugly. “From the Latin, avi meaning ‘bird.’ Aqua for ‘water.’ Aviaqua. Waterfowl.”

  Ross choked. Then he threw his head back and laughed. Natalie wrote forty down on the score sheet, picked six replacement tiles, and groaned. Three more As. Ross was still laughing. She took the time he needed to compose himself to rearrange her new tiles into potential words.

  “What is going on in here?” Suzie asked as she pulled off her jacket. Ross continued to laugh, wiped his hands over his face, and pointed at Natalie.

  “I’m beating him at Scrabble,” Natalie said simply.

  “Nobody beats Ross at Scrabble,” Suzie said. “He knows too many fancy words.”

  “He cheats.”

  Ross started laughing all over again.

  Suzie glanced suspiciously at Ross. “I don’t get the joke.”

  “I’m being toppled as king of the hill.” He leaned over the table and kissed Natalie loudly on the mouth, shocking both Suzie and her. “You’re one in a million. Come on, I bet I can cream you at Halo. If we can beat the boys to the Xbox, that is.”

  * * *

  Natalie set a steaming cup of cocoa on the table and settled in next to Ross on the sofa in her living room. He watched her take a cautious sip from her own cup. “Ooh! Still hot.” She fanned herself. “You may want to give it a couple of minutes.”

  “Uh oh, you got burned. We need to kiss it better.” He leaned over and brushed his lips over hers, letting the kiss linger. He could feel her lips curve up in a smile. “There. All better now. At least I am.” He smiled back and scanned her face.

  “Merry Christmas, Ross.”

  “It has been, for me at least.” Today had been a perfect day. He had enjoyed being with her and hadn’t enjoyed a Christmas as much as he had this one in more years than he could remember. He studied her again, this time more seriously. “Has it been a good day for you?”

  “Yes, it’s been wonderful.”

  He was happy that she’d enjoyed the day. It couldn’t have been a perfect day for her, with her girls spending most of Christmas with their father, but Ross had done what he could to at least make the day nice for her. “My mother loved the little papier mâchè nativity you made for her. I think her exact words were, ‘I never knew funky could be so religious.’ I didn’t know my mother knew words like funky.”

  “It was my small way of thanking her for letting me spend the holiday with her and her family.”

  “By the way, what did you end up making as Christmas gifts for your friends, since I commandeered all of your Santas for the boutique?” he asked.

  “Oh, I managed to squeak out a few you weren’t able to get your hands on.” She smiled. “I made a couple of gifts out of other odds and ends. I also broke down and bought a few gifts at the very last minute. Nothing too expensive, of course, but it was still nice to feel like I could actually afford to do it.” She shook her head. “Who could have imagined that my silly little creations would sell as well as they have? It’s unbelievable.”

  “Not silly. And not unbelievable at all.” He’d already heard from Jackie how well Natalie’s sculptures were continuing to sell, but it pleased him no end that she had told him herself.

  “Well, it still seems that way to me,” she said. “I needed to pinch myself when I got the second check from the boutique yesterday. It was enough money that I’ll be able to pay for Ryan’s mission for the next few months without Wade’s help and still have enough to add a chemistry class to the biology class I’m taking next semester. Plus, the boutique owner wants to arrange a meeting
so she can see what other things I’ve done. I already have a few more ideas for Valentine’s and Easter.”

  She didn’t know yet that he’d already paid Natalie’s bishop enough to cover Ryan’s entire mission. The only mystery that remained for him was why she was taking chemistry and biology, as artistically gifted as she was.

  “Speaking of chemistry and biology . . .” Ross said, but Natalie stopped him with a gesture.

  “Stay here,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

  She sprang up and was out of the room before he could react. He wondered if she misinterpreted his intentions with his reference to chemistry and biology. He grinned. There was plenty of chemistry between them, that was certain. But she’d seemed nervous just now for the first time all day, for the first time in weeks, actually.

  She returned to the living room carrying a large wrapped box and sat back down next to Ross.

  “What’s this?” he asked. He slid their mugs to the side as she set the package down on the coffee table.

  “Merry Christmas, Ross.” She choked a little on the words, and when he looked up, he was surprised at the emotion he could see in her misty eyes. “I guess my voxism is a little unsteady tonight.”

  He chuckled at the Scrabble allusion. “Yes, the quality of your voice seems a little impaired at the moment. Do you want me to open it now?”

  She nodded, words gone. He shot glances at her as she waited, seemingly breathless, while he tugged off the bow and slipped a finger under the taped edges and pulled off the lid. And then he sat silently and looked at what was inside while his heart beat wildly in his chest.

  “It’s not much—”

  He turned abruptly and looked at her.

  Looking embarrassed, she explained, “I was going to make a fanlight for my front door,” she gestured with her hand, “but when I saw that magnificent window in your kitchen and the sunshine that pours through it in the morning, I changed my mind . . .”

  Ross gently lifted the object from the box. It was a large stained-glass diamond shape with a rich wood frame that had been polished until it gleamed. But it was the image the bright colored shards of glass created that made him catch his breath. It was the rising sun, a blaze of abstract flames in all the colors of the rainbow. It burned and bloomed. He could already envision the explosion of colors it would create. It was glorious.