Heart of Danger (5 page)

Kelly laughed. “Who are we kidding? We both know I have a potty mouth and it’s not going anywhere sweetheart.”

Natalia nodded. That potty mouth had gotten Kelly in trouble quite often when they were younger. Ironically she had picked every word up from her mother who insisted that ladies did not use that kind of language but still used it herself whenever she got frustrated or angry about something.

“Is your mom okay with you living here?”

“She told me to go,” she laughed. “Honestly I think she doesn’t care so much. She wanted a boy, not a girl. They had Hank for five years before I came along and they were really hoping for another son.”

“Your mom loves you.”

“Oh, no doubt, but she would have preferred it if I had been a boy. It’s why she let me swing from trees and play with frogs.”

“Hmmm…she freaked out when she caught us kissing.”

“Yeah, then it became less about me being a boy and more about me not being gay,” she fell on her back laughing. “I told her I was just teaching you how to get it right next time. When N’kosi broke up with you because you weren’t a good kisser I could tell that hurt you.”

“I wasn’t a good kisser because even in eighth grade I wasn’t allowed to date and I knew I was doing something wrong by having a “walk me to class” boyfriend.” She laughed.

“Mom goes, how do you know about kissing young lady?”

“And you told her it was because you had kissed every boy in the eighth grade at least twice.”

They laughed so hard Natalia felt her sides aching as she gasped for breath.

“You were the first and only girl I kissed though. You weren’t that bad, squirt.”

“Watch who you’re calling squirt, bean pole.” She tossed back out the childhood nicknames that had them kicking butt if anybody else called them that. Kelly was the same age as she was, but she was like her protector, her confidant, the sister she never had and the only woman she would trust to watch her back in battle. Heck, Kelly wouldn’t be watching her back she would be on the front line kicking butt.

“I love you, Kelly. I’m going to miss having you near home.”

“I love you too, hun. I wish you could stay here with me.”

“I can’t.”

“Because you’re in love,” she nodded. “If it weren’t for Micah you would have moved here with me and you know it.”

Natalia couldn’t deny that. If it weren’t for Micah she would have left Austin eight years ago. “Maybe I should do it,” she placed her hands on her hips and titled her head to push her nose up higher.

“Oh please, you are not moving in with me so you can pout day in and day out because you’re missing your love interest.”

“I would not pout.”

“You’re already pouting,” she pushed another box over for Natalia to start unpacking. “You were pouting on the plane that’s why you didn’t notice the hunky air marshal checking you out.”

“First of all, that man was not checking me out. Secondly, how did you know he was the air marshal?”

“Because when I went to the bathroom he asked me about you and I chatted him up for a few minutes. He let it slip…trying to toss out some impressive credentials I guess.”

“What did you tell him; that I was madly in love with my boss and could not be swayed?”

“No,” she handed her another picture frame to put with the pile of art that still needed to be hung on the wall. “I told him you were my lover and I’d appreciate it if he wouldn’t try to get in your pants.”

“Wh—what?”

She laughed hysterically. “I’m just joshing with you. I told him you were in Australia for the week, but you’d be back in Austin after that. I gave him your name and since he lives in Round Rock he said he’s going to look you up. Yeah baby,” she purred on a high squealed yelp as she wiggled her eyebrows.

“How I survived being your friend for this long is a mystery to me. I’m surprised you haven’t landed me in jail already.”

“Ooh, now there is a plan. Let’s go get arrested.”

“You’re nuts! You are certifiably nuts. But I still love you,” she put another picture in the pile. “You have too many photos and not enough walls. We’ll have to get creative here.”

“Let’s ditch unpacking. You’re here and we should have some fun. Let’s take a tour.”

“I’m here to help you get settled. I can come back next year to play.”

“No, let’s do it. I even picked up this pamphlet at the airport. Come on Natty Pattaty; come play with me.”

Natalia laughed at Kelly’s obsessive use of their childhood play names. They really were kindred spirits. They were different as summer and winter, but they were still like magic together. She remembered the first time Kelly had called her Natty Pattaty; the same words had followed but they had an entirely different meaning because they were in the same youth orchestra ensemble and Kelly needed a duet partner. That one moment in her past had changed everything.

“You’re my bestest friend in the whole-wide world,” Kelly cooed in her innocent child-like voice.

 
“Okay, let’s play; but book it for a couple days out so we can get some unpacking done.”

“Will do…so long as we get to go shopping tomorrow. You are my guiding light, my north star, my beacon of hope when it comes to fashion.”

Natalia sighed. “Don’t dramatize it, silly.”

“Seriously, without you I would be lost. I’d just throw on some jeans, a worn t-shirt and my sneeks, you know. I want to enter that music school with style. My students will not say bad things about me.”

“Of course they will, because that’s what students do when you assign Dvor’ak and Tchaikovsky simultaneously and expect them to have it perfect before they leave the class for the day.”

Kelly giggled. “Oh please, you would be hard on students too…wish you hadn’t quit playing viola, squirt. We could be doing this together.”

“You were floors above me in talent, Kella Manella,” she winked at her. “You deserve to be here; I don’t. And you know why I stopped playing.”

“I do, but that wasn’t your fault and you know that right?” She placed her hand on Natalia’s thigh. She was always the voice of reason, but that didn’t stop the pain Natalia felt in her heart every time she thought of what she had lost.

“I know. I just wish I had done something different, you know. Maybe if I had then Greg wouldn’t have tried to make me go down on him and my mother wouldn’t have jerked me out of the orchestra.”

“They should have kicked his sorry ass out,” she snapped.

“He was the conductor; I was just the “mediocre” violist. Why would they keep me?”

“Because he was wrong and you were right. And if your mother and I hadn’t come in he would have made you finish what he was trying to make you start. He’s a bastard pedophile and they covered for him because—”

“Because he’s a musical genius.”

“It wasn’t right.”

“I didn’t say that it was, but it is what it is and it’s in the past—has been for many years now. And I do still play you know, just not as I should if I wanted to do something great with my talents. Maybe I’ll move here after all. I can enroll in your classes.”

“Oh I will ride your tail hard, missy. You will hit that shift…”

“That A sharp…”

“Also known as B flat,” Kelly chuckled.

“Or I will drill you until your fingers fall off,” they said in unison before laughing hysterically.

“That woman was…”

“Crazy as hell,” Kelly chuckled. “But she was the best instructor we ever had.”

“True…although she really did have days when you could tell she went off her meds,” they laughed. Mrs. Jasmine Trankof was insane. She was the hardest, meanest, craziest teacher they had ever had, but she was good. She was really good. They had started their group lessons with Mrs. Jasmine, as they had always called her because they were all too young to be able to adequately pronounce her last name.

“Do you miss it, Nat? Do you miss playing on stage?”

Natalia shrugged. “Every time I see you up there, or here you talk about some amazing concert piece you’ve just won over the heart of the audience with it makes me miss it a little. But then I look at pictures like these and I remember the way we were,” she turned the photo outward. Kelly was still missing her two front teeth, but this time her mother had snapped a photo when she was running around on her uncle’s ranch and had fallen face first in a pile of horse manure.

“Give me that!” Kelly tried to snatch the photo out of Natalia’s hand and she wouldn’t let her. Several minutes of being chased around the house, one massive tackle from her sister in arms and the photo in dispute went to the victor—Kelly, who had tickled the darn thing away from her.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I have another copy at my place.”

“You,” Kelly frowned. “I have some damaging photos of you too you know. How would you like it if I sent a few to that hunky man you’re head over the moon in love with?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” she gasped.

“When you get back you hand over that photo or I’m mailing the package.” She laughed hard, which told Natalia her friend was not as serious as she seemed. But just in case, she would send her a copy since she did have three more at home.

“I’m going to book our outback tour. It’s going to be so much fun. The angel and the devil tearing up the outback,” she hooted.

Kelly’s mother had always said she was a little devil while everybody always thought that Natalia was an angel. “Don’t let her corrupt you,” Miriam, Kelly’s mother, had said as they sat at the table eating a bowl of her homemade ice cream. “That one I’ll have to bail out of jail someday, but not you Natty Pattaty. You are going to be a good girl.” And she had been good. She was always good. While Kelly was always the little hellion, but never once did she land in jail. She may have almost landed there, but she never did. Her good looks allowed her to flirt her way out of any situation. Natalia thought back to the officer who had stopped them when they were out joy riding in Kelly’s father’s car. Kelly had her license, but giving the keys to a Lamborghini to a seventeen year old was just asking for trouble. Going a good sixty miles over the speed limit had caught the attention of the state trooper set up with his radar. He was ready to slap the cuffs on her for the criminal speed limit she was doing, but one smile, her batting those cute blue eyes at him, and a little subtle flirting and she had a free pass, plus the cop’s number. Now if only he had known that Kelly was seventeen Natalia wondered if things might have gone differently. Kelly always could pass for a few years older than what she was.

“All set,” she rounded the corner. “We are going to the outback,” she hummed in a perfect G-Major tune.