long after that, Connie had scooped up Buddy and headed off into a back room with him. Since Jett had the leash around his wrist, he went along to help.
Natalie attempted to follow, but the remaining two sisters intercepted her. As if trying to learn all they could in a short span of time, they fired casual and friendly questions at her. They asked about her work, her hobbies, even her vacation, but they never once crossed the line into prying. Apparently they saved that for Jett.
After remarks about the cooling weather, the talents of teachers, lakes, dogs and other mundane topics, Heidi remarked about Natalie’s “beautiful” hair. Ill at ease, Natalie tucked a springy curl behind her ear. Her stepmother had always described her wildly curly hair in none-too-flattering terms. She’d grown accustomed to hearing that she looked tawdry, unkempt, cheap and tangled.
As yet, Natalie wasn’t used to flattery from Jett, and now she heard it from his sisters, too.
Heat flooded her face as she stammered her thanks. “You’re very kind.”
Waving that off, Betts started a new thread on how sweet it was for Natalie to take Buddy along on her vacation. “You’ve changed his entire life. Dogs are meant to be part of a family, not alone on the street. It’s fantastic that you’re including him like this.”
More heat scalded her neck. “Jett’s the one who first thought to keep him. I’m not really used to animals—”
“You’ll be great. I can tell.” She brushed her hand along Natalie’s arm, disturbing clinging dog fur from her sweater. Grinning, Betts said, “Looks like he’s already breaking you in.”
“And I don’t hear you complaining,” Heidi added with a wide smile. “I like a woman who doesn’t get all fussy over the little things. Shows you’re a natural with pets.”
The inane chitchat and unending good humor wore on Natalie. “I hope so. But I’m glad I’ll have Jett to help me get acclimated.”
Both women grinned hugely. “Oh, you definitely have him,” Betts said, again poking her elbow at her sister. Heidi chuckled in agreement.
Just when Natalie thought she’d expire from awkwardness, Jett stuck his head out of the back room. He looked at Natalie’s drawn expression and then scowled at his siblings.
Having no real clue what had transpired, he said to them, “Mind your own business,” and then he held out a hand to Natalie. “Come on in. You can help us with Buddy.”
But the sisters didn’t take Jett’s comment to heart. If they did, they wouldn’t have followed her into the back room and turned Buddy’s appointment into a family affair.
There was laughter, warmth and jokes aplenty.
It would have been wonderful—only Natalie wasn’t family, didn’t know anything about family and had no idea how to take part in the camaraderie they all shared. It wasn’t that they excluded her, only that she didn’t know where or how to jump in. She answered questions directed at her, laughed quietly at the humor and watched it all in yearning.
She and Jett were at the clinic for almost two hours.
Two hours that felt like ten and left her starkly aware of the vast differences in the components of her family and Jett’s.
Not once since they’d gotten on the road had Jett mentioned his family, why they’d all been there waiting, what they had wanted or what he thought about it.
Now, after so much silence, Natalie felt strained to the breaking point. She glanced at Buddy, well-groomed and worn out, settled in his cushy bed on the floor between the seats in the back of the SUV, gnawing on a giant chew bone. He’d really been worked over with a flea bath, shots, ear cleaning, nail trimming, tests for parasites, a good brushing and various other things that had all combined to make him forget his displeasure with riding.
Without the dog’s anxiety to occupy her, Natalie had no way to distract her turbulent thoughts.
Trying for subtlety, she shifted her gaze to Jett’s profile.
She wasn’t subtle enough.
“All right.” While still appearing very pleased about something, Jett gave her a quick telling look. “Out with it.”
“It?”
“You’ve been over there stewing about something.” He flipped on the wipers to counter the growing accumulation of fat snowflakes on the windshield. “After the onslaught of my loony sisters, I wanted to give you some time, but the silent treatment is making me nuts.”
Making him nuts? Fine, he wanted to talk about it? She’d talk about it. Natalie turned off the radio and folded her arms to glare at him. “Was that whole scene with your family familiar?”
Laughing, Jett cocked one brow. “In some ways, yeah. Real familiar. My sisters have always been lovable pains in my ass.” He grinned at her. “In other ways, hell no. That was about as atypical as it could get.”
She didn’t understand him. “How was it unfamiliar?”
“I’ve never seen my sisters so agog. It was downright hilarious. You probably don’t realize it, but they were trying hard to rein themselves in—without much success.” He reached over to brush the backs of his fingers across her cheek. “It was funny to see them tripping over themselves trying to make you feel welcome.”
So he didn’t always get those gibes when introducing a woman? Natalie didn’t want him to misunderstand. “They were very nice.”
“I’ll interpret that as your polite way of calling them overwhelming. But yeah, they are nice, honey.” In the distance, thickening snowfall turned the sky white. The dropping temps fogged the windshield, so Jett turned up the defroster. “I know they liked you.”
With that odd yearning still ablaze inside her, Natalie bit her lip. “They told you that?”
“I know my sisters. If they hadn’t liked you, I’d have heard all about it.” They passed a car that had slid off the road, with a police cruiser already on the scene. Jett scowled in concern.
A second later his car phone rang. He pushed a button on the bottom of the rearview mirror and Heidi said, “Hey, Jett.”
First thing, Jett said, “You’re on speakerphone, sis.”
Natalie narrowed her eyes at him. What did he think his sister would say? Something about her?
Heidi laughed at him. “Thanks for the warning. But no worries. I wasn’t going to embarrass you. I just wanted to check on you. The weather reports are showing some unexpected heavy snow. Not just Ohio, but Kentucky and Tennessee, too.”
“We’re seeing signs of it now.” He peered through the windshield. “Starting to look nasty.”
“Bummer. It’ll be terrible if you two ended up stranded, all alone together, in a cozy little cabin in the woods. Whatever will you do to pass the time?”
Laughing, Jett said, “I’m sure we’ll think of something.” Then he tacked on, “Brat.”
Heidi
