Good Husband Material. Kara Lennox

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      “I’m a pediatric nurse. I work in the neonatal unit, so all of my patients are newborns.”

      Josh smiled again, a little sadly. “I can definitely see you doing that.”

      Of course he could. From the time she could walk and talk, she’d been fascinated with babies. How many times had Josh been forced to stand around while she oohed and aahed over some baby she’d spotted at the mall? She’d volunteered to take care of babies at the church nursery and she’d babysat every chance she got, looking forward to the day when she could hold her very own newborn in her arms.

      Only that day never came. She’d thrown away her birth control pills the day she’d gotten married, with Josh’s full blessing. Though they had no money and no plans, they knew they wanted kids.

      But the pregnancy never happened.

      They saw a fertility doctor. The problem was Natalie’s—she had under-functioning ovaries. If she ovulated at all, it had been extremely erratic. They’d tried fertility drugs, which hadn’t worked, and they simply hadn’t had the money to pursue the next step, which would have been in vitro fertilization.

      The constant efforts, continual worries and monthly disappointments when pregnancy tests came up negative combined to put stress on a marriage already overburdened with money problems. They’d both been going to college and holding down various jobs, all while navigating around the strident disapproval of Josh’s parents, who’d been horrified by the sudden marriage of their only son.

      Natalie hadn’t been willing to give up. She was going to get a baby, no matter what it took. She’d wanted to adopt, and she’d been ready to put them on a list, figuring that by the time a baby became available they would have the money for all the legal fees. But Josh drew the line. He’d wanted to raise his own child, and had insisted that they keep trying, pretending that some miracle was just around the corner.

      In hindsight, she understood his hesitation. But at the time, she’d thought he was being narrow-minded.

      Her attention was jerked back to the present when the lights dropped down low and the band switched gears to a slow song.

      “Maybe we should sit this one out,” Natalie said nervously.

      But Josh didn’t look nervous at all. “Aw, come on, Nat, lighten up. It’s a twenty-fifth class reunion. Comes along once in a lifetime. You’re supposed to get a little bit crazy.”

      “Who says?” But she didn’t object when he put his arms around her and pulled her closer. They did a slow glide around the dance floor, passing Melissa and her husband, Beau. Melissa grinned and winked at Natalie. Little did she know the revenge Natalie was planning even now.

      By the end of the song, Natalie had relaxed to the point she was resting her head on Josh’s shoulder and thinking about things she shouldn’t. It had been a very long time since she’d been intimate with a man. Years, in fact. There’d been a couple of boyfriends after her divorce, but every time a relationship seemed as if it might take a turn for the serious, Natalie had ended it. She hadn’t been able to bear the thought of falling in love with a man, then telling him she couldn’t have children.

      Then she’d adopted one-year-old Mary. After that, she simply hadn’t had time for any other relationships—if anyone had wanted to be with her, which they hadn’t. It wasn’t a myth, that most men viewed single moms as if they had leprosy. But she hadn’t cared. Raising a daughter was completely fulfilling—she hadn’t needed a man in her life, hadn’t even missed having one.

      Or maybe she had.

      She’d forgotten how good Josh smelled. “Oh, my God.”

      “What?”

      “You’re wearing Stetson aftershave.”

      “I might be.” She heard the grin in his voice.

      It was one of the first gifts she’d ever given him, a bottle of Stetson. The smell had seemed incredibly macho to her back when she was seventeen. He’d worn it for her, and it had been a couple of years before he’d been brave enough to tell her he didn’t really like aftershave, that he preferred to smell simply like soap.

      Yet he’d worn it tonight. “Is it that same bottle?”

      “The old bottle turned to turpentine some years ago. I went out and bought a new one.”

      “But you don’t like aftershave.”

      “Sure I do.”

      No, he most certainly didn’t. His decision to stop wearing it had hurt her feelings, so she darn well remembered it. “Let’s go get something cold to drink.”

      On the way back to their table, Bobby Salazar stepped into their path. He stared at them drunkenly. “Thought you two got divorced.”

      Josh slapped the other man’s shoulder. “Hey, Bobby. Thought you got sober.”

      It took Bobby a moment to process the comment. “Heh, good one.” Then he grinned and staggered off.

      “I’m sure we’re confusing a number of people,” Natalie said as they reached their table.

      “Yeah, but we won’t see them again for another twenty or so years, so do we care?”

      She shrugged. “Not really.”

      “I’ll go get us a couple more beers.”

      Melissa, of course, made a beeline for Natalie as soon as she was alone. “So, y’all are getting along, it looks like.”

      Natalie narrowed her eyes. “You are in so much trouble. You lied to both of us.”

      “They were just little white lies. Oh, Nat, you two should be together. I always told you so. Now there’s nothing keeping you apart. He’s been divorced from Beverly for, like, eons, and you’re single.”

      “There’s a lot of painful history keeping us apart,” she reminded her friend. “We can’t undo the train wreck we made of our marriage.”

      “But you were so young back then. You’d do better now.”

      Would they? Certainly she’d matured in the past twenty years. She had mellowed, didn’t see things as black or white anymore.

      “We’ve built separate lives,” Natalie said.

      “So? You could merge them again. I mean, the issue, the big issue—that’s not even relevant anymore, right?”

      She shot Melissa a dangerous look. “Melissa. Stop it.”

      Melissa sighed. “You’re missing a great opportunity.”

      Josh returned with the beers, which ended that particular conversation. Natalie was hot and thirsty—the old air-conditioning system in the VFW Hall didn’t begin to keep up with the heat, which was why Natalie had worn a sundress and most of the men had removed their jackets and ties, including Josh.

      She took a long sip of beer and appreciated how СКАЧАТЬ