“Well, okay. Thanks.” She handed him a long metal key. “It looks really old. I hope it works.”
She thought he meant help with the antique lock. He accepted the key automatically and turned to the door, glad to have something to do until he could think straight again.
The lock was tarnished and flecked with decades of old paint, but the key turned easily enough. He pushed the door open, and a puff of musty air brushed their faces.
The door opened into a small rectangular living room. Dust flurried in the weak sunlight coming through the generous windows, and furry gray cobwebs dangled from the bead board ceiling.
The room looked like it had been furnished by somebody’s maiden aunt. There was a beige camelback sofa and two drab olive armchairs, all sporting fussy lace circlets on their arms and backs. A couple of spindly legged tables laden with dusty knickknacks were angled in the corners.
“Oh my,” Natalie breathed beside him, poking her head in to get a better view. He glanced down and was surprised by the rapt expression on her face. He’d expected a wrinkled nose, but she didn’t seem put off at all.
He frowned and took a second look at the room. Maybe it did have a certain appeal to it.
If you didn’t have a dust allergy.
Natalie edged past him into the house and touched one of the lace doilies with a gentle finger. “It’s like stepping back in time, isn’t it?” She opened a nearby door and disappeared into the adjoining room.
“Watch your step, now.” Jacob warned as he followed her. He hoped the rest of this place was sturdier than that porch.
The house was tiny, so their tour didn’t take long. They passed through two small bedrooms furnished with iron beds and discovered a bathroom complete with a stained claw-foot tub. When Natalie paused to twist a faucet on the pedestal sink, a stream of clear water ran into the grubby basin. She glanced up at him, smiling.
“This water doesn’t smell all chemically like the water back in Atlanta.”
“This far out of town, it would have to be well water. No chlorine.” He hadn’t seen Natalie Davis really smile until now. He’d thought she was a nice-looking woman before, but with that happy expression on her face, she was downright beautiful.
The smile lingered on her lips as she pushed open the last door. It led them into the kitchen.
Natalie halted on the threshold. “Oh!”
Jacob took in the sight in front of them, and his lips tightened. No wonder she didn’t want to go any farther. The other rooms hadn’t been very clean, but this one took dirty to a whole new level.
Once upon a time, somebody had painted the kitchen walls a light yellow, but the cheery paint was filmed over with a thick layer of dust. Dingy white curtains embroidered with trios of red cherries hung limply at the windows. A small red-and-white enameled table, its surface covered with food wrappers, sat in the middle of a scabby linoleum floor. A generous double-basined sink was positioned underneath the window, flanked by old-fashioned metal cabinets. A boxy gas stove with two ovens hunkered in one corner, and an elderly refrigerator chugged next to it.
Every available surface was littered with trash. If Adam Larkey had gone through with his wedding, this was what he’d have brought his pregnant bride home to? After what had happened back at the church, Jacob hadn’t thought his opinion of the guy could drop much lower.
He’d been wrong.
“I think we’ve seen enough,” he said quietly. “I’ll drive you back to town.”
Natalie didn’t answer. She was standing with her eyes closed, her whole body tensed. One hand was clutching the door frame, clenching down so hard that her knuckles were white.
“Natalie?” He wasn’t sure what was happening, but from the look on her face, it couldn’t be good.
“Contraction,” she whispered.
Finally the cramp ebbed away. Natalie relaxed and opened her eyes. Jacob was watching her, his face tight with concern.
“I’m okay,” she said quickly. “That was just a Braxton Hicks. I’ve been having them for a while now. The doctor says they’re perfectly normal.” She managed a shaky smile. Normal, yes. Fun, not so much.
“Whew.” Relief washed over his face. “I thought it was the real thing there for a minute.”
“Not time for that yet.” She spoke lightly, but she remembered another thing the obstetrician had said on her last visit to the clinic. First babies don’t pay much attention to their due dates.
She sure hoped her baby would be the exception because she wasn’t even close to being ready. All her plans were falling apart. She had no husband, no money. She didn’t even have a crib, and all the secondhand baby clothes she’d bought had driven away with Adam in the back of his Jeep.
Natalie straightened her shoulders. There was no point wasting time feeling sorry for herself. She had more important things to do right now. She needed to sit down and start figuring out how she could manage on her own until Adam showed back up.
If he showed up.
“Thanks for driving me out here, Jacob. I don’t want to take up any more of your time, so I’ll let you get on back to town.” She tilted up her chin and tried a smile. “And anyway, it looks like I have a little cleaning to do.”
“No.” Jacob was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “I’m not leaving you out here alone. Not in your condition.” He scanned the messy room, his face tight with disgust. “And you definitely shouldn’t be cleaning up a disaster like this.”
In spite of the day she’d had, Natalie nearly laughed out loud. There was nothing wrong here that some soapy water and a few big trash bags couldn’t fix. Jacob might have had a lot more schooling than she’d had, but right now he didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
She’d cleaned up messes way worse than this. “I’m not afraid of a little dirt.”
“This is more than a little dirt. Look, let me give you a ride back to town. We’ll find you another place to stay. If money’s an issue, I can give my church a call—”
Cora’s warning replayed itself in Natalie’s memory, and she cut him off firmly. “I appreciate that, but I’m staying here. Adam’s grandma is sure he’ll be back by tomorrow or the next day.”
Jacob looked around the room again and started rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt. “Then I’ll help you clean this up.”
Natalie felt a stir of panic. “No need for that. I’ve worked as a waitress ever since I...got out of school. Believe me, I can clean up a kitchen without any help.” She’d almost said dropped out, but she’d caught herself just in time. She didn’t want to admit to this man that she’d quit school when she was sixteen. It was a choice she’d always regretted, but at the time it had seemed like the only way to get out of her mother’s apartment—and away from her mom’s endless parade of hard-partying boyfriends.
A little over a year ago, she’d gathered up her courage and enrolled in free GED classes at a nearby community center. To her relief, she’d managed the classwork pretty well, and she’d passed the test with flying colors. She’d daydreamed about taking some college night courses, maybe even becoming a teacher one day. She loved the idea of teaching children.
Of course, when two blue lines had shown up on her pregnancy test, all those plans had come to a screeching halt. Dreams like that were for women who didn’t have babies to take care of.
Jacob was