She threw an arm up in the air, frustrated. “They all look alike! I’m having a hard time choosing.”
We laughed.
“But Nathanael has blue eyes and he seems to be more my type,” she observed, nodding to herself to confirm it.
Mumbling under my breath, I commented, “They’re more green/blue.”
“You like him!” she threw out.
It startled me. “No, I don’t. I don’t even know him.”
Sure hope I get to, though.
She had a devilish grin on her face. “Okay, I’ll take that to mean hands off!”
“No, it doesn’t!” It snapped out a little bit too loudly, forcing me to look out the window.
“We’ll see,” Angie confirmed.
We rounded the corner onto the tree-lined street where the triplets lived. The wind blew softly, taking some of the colored leaves with it from the branches. Cars lined both sides of the street and Angie whistled through her teeth. “Wonder what’s going on?” The question was directed more to her than me.
The old house stood out in a stately manor type of way. Years before it had been the envy of everyone and by its current looks, was about to be again. Even though it was the end of October and it was chilly outside, maybe only five degrees Celsius above zero, kids stood on the front porch, some were walking in, some were hanging out in the front yard—it was a party.
Angie shrilled, “Look, they’re having a party!”
“Is that Todd?” I asked, plastering my face against the window.
“Yeah it is! How did he know about it so fast?”
It was almost like he heard us, because he turned around and waved, jogging to the front fence. I rolled down my window.
“Hey, I was just going to call you,” he said.
Angie bent over a little so she could see him. “When did this all happen?”
“Don’t know...we ran into Jimmy and Danny outside Becky’s house, they heard about it from Jason. Find a spot to park and come in! It looks like it’s going to be explosive!”
For someone who, not more than twenty minutes before, showed enormous dislike for the triplets, Todd was pretty excited.
“Where are Norma and Becky?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “They’re already inside. They wanted to get their claws into them before the other three.”
Angie bounced up and down in her seat. “’Kay, get away from the car, I want to find a parking spot!”
With that, Todd backed away and I rolled my window back up.
“Angie, can you take me home first?”
“Oh, come on, Saydi! Don’t be such an old maid. Come in for a minute and introduce yourself.”
I sighed, not really wanting to do that, but gave in easily. “Okay, but can we be quick? I have to work in the morning.” Working as a cashier at the local grocery store on Main Street every Saturday gave me spending money and took the pressure off Mom.
“Saydi, it’s only five o’clock,” she pointed out, and with that, steered the car around the corner to park a block away.
If she only knew how the thought of “introducing myself” had my stomach in knots and as we walked closer to the house, that knot got bigger and bigger. The enormity of it squeezed against my throat and deposited the fear of not being able to speak, front and centre. Then again, why should that bother me, when my palms were hot and sweaty, too?
Oh great! First I’ll gag on my words, then if he wants to shake my hand...eww gross!
Over thinking it only made things worse, especially when I realized how those ol’ green/blue eyes intrigued me, yet there wasn’t a big hurry to actually personally meet him.
Every kid in town is here; the chances of actually running into one of the hosts is minimal. I can avoid them, I hope.
“Angie, who has a party the day they move in? The place must be a wreck.”
Grabbing my hand, she trotted faster. “
They
do,” she squealed with delight.
The self-induced, comforting thoughts of not running into them were short lived. As soon as we started walking up the sidewalk, Angie waved wildly, pulling me along behind.
“Hi!” she yelled out, embarrassing me to no end.
All three brothers were standing on the front porch surrounded by a horde of kids, some recognizable from school and some not. Green/blue eyes was sandwiched in the middle of his brothers—his brothers held drinks and he held the railing, watching us with a huge smile on his face.
The heat rose in mine when our eyes locked.
Saydi, stop staring! Turn away from the hunk!
I lost the fight—something about him held me.
“Hi, yourself,” green/blue eyes parroted Angie. “I’m glad you could come,” he said, pushing away from the railing and hopping down the steps to meet up with us.
Tongue please work, please work—wipe hands on gloves, wipe hands on gloves
.
It was a good thing I did, because when he was close enough, he extended his out toward me. “We weren’t formally introduced at Sloppy’s. I’m Nathanael Braxton.”
The second our fingers touched, my breath caught and everyone around me disappeared. It was only him and me—my heart pressed once against my chest before suddenly stopping. The green/blue swirled under his thick black eyelashes as my heart slowly started again...but there were two distinctive beats. One version was normal, coming right after the other with each pump of blood that burst through my veins—the second version edged closer and closer to the first, until there was only one.
“I’m...um...Saydi.”
There was an intensity in the way he analyzed my eyes, as though we were literally lost within each other, completely captivated and...comfortable.
“You’re not going to hog all the beautiful women all night are you, brother?” one of his brothers asked.
His eyes fluttered slightly as he shook his head. “Ahemm, gmm,” he seemed to stutter, then ran his fingers through his thick hair. “I...apologize.”
No longer comfortable, I flung my eyes to the ground, my face on fire.
With one finger he lifted my chin to meet his eyes and quietly said, “Hi, Saydi.”
“Hi.” Relief! The word didn’t come out with a side helping of spit.
He looked over my shoulder and acknowledged Angie again. “Hi, Angie. How are you this evening?”
She giggled a little girl giggle and I was sure her face was bright, right along with her eyelashes busily batting at him. “I’m good, thanks. You?”
He released my hand, only to move it to the small of my back, guiding me in the direction of the house. “Well, now that you guys are here, I’m perfect. Come on, I’ll introduce you to my impatient brothers, Saydi.” His touch was warm, even with my coat on.
Once we were up the porch steps and weaved through the crowd, Job and Joshua moved to meet us.
“Job, Joshua, this is Saydi,” Nathanael introduced me as if he had known me forever.
“Hi,” I said, a little leery to have one of their hands touch mine, wondering if it would spark the same electricity as Nathanael’s.
“Hello, I’m Job,” he said, taking my hand and kissing it.
Yep. As I feared, the minute his fingers touched mine, every nerve in my body fired at once, like an inside, quick lightning bolt. I almost jerked my hand away, but instead forced a smile. “Hi.”
What is with these brothers?
When it was Joshua’s turn, I really hesitated to touch his hand. He didn’t seem to notice though, because he grabbed mine. “Hi, I’m Joshua. Nice to meet you, Saydi.” He shook so darn hard he rattled my wits around. If there were a surge of nerves or anything else, I didn’t notice.
“Ahemm, gmm.” Angie cleared her throat and stepped on my other side. “Hi Job, Joshua.”
Job looked her up and down, almost in a sleazy way. “Well, hi again, Ms. Angela,” he crooned, reaching for her hand. “Let’s go see if we can find a refreshment for you.” She hated being called Angela, but you would never know it by the way she giggled. He held her hand tight as they disappeared into the house.
It was time for me to mosey on along. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, it was nice to meet you.” I took two steps back. “I’m going to go find Becky and Norma.” My eyes looked to the floor as I reeled around.
“Whoa! Not so fast,” Nathanael commanded, taking my arm. It was too late; I slammed face first into the back of someone.
Taris spun around, holding his arms out to the side, half his drink gone. “Hey, watch it!” he barked, shaking the liquid off his hand. Taris Boomer always hated me. I never knew why and never asked; we just kept our distance.
I knew he was going to be mean, which in turn, replaced the mortification with caution. “Sorry, Taris.”
“You’re such an idiot, Saydi!”
Nathanael stepped in front of me and with a low grumble, said, “Taris, I’m going to strongly suggest you apologize to Saydi.”
“What the h...” Taris’ eyes got big as saucers, then looked around Nathanael at me. “I’m sorry, Saydi, you’re not an idiot.”
It felt good to have him finally apologize for at least one of his torments, and there had been so many through the years. “Apology accepted. I’m sorry too.”
Taris glanced very quickly up at Nathanael and withdrew to another part of the porch.
When Nathanael pivoted around and faced me, the caution quickly transformed to the resulting embarrassment. “Thank you.” I looked to the ground again. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t in the house. I’m sure your parents wouldn’t appreciate fresh spills on their new floors.”
“You are welcome. As for my parents, it’s only us and my father. He’s upstairs working.”
His voice, so soft and understanding, had me enamored and prompted me to pay attention to his facial features. How tall he seemed, standing right in front of me, at least six foot one. “And he allowed this, on the day you moved in?”
He chuckled. “Of course. He wants us to meet friends quickly.”
Cocking my head to one side. “Really?”
“It’s the truth,” he declared easily.
“Huh! Well, be careful who you befriend in this bunch,” I warned. “Anyway, thanks again,” I added and made my escape quickly.
The house could have been featured in a magazine and was easily something for the town to brag on. A staircase rose in front of me that led to a landing which went both ways at the top. On my left, old dark wood pocket doors opened to a room full of kids. On my right, the same kind of doors opened to another room, also full of kids, but was also filled with floor to ceiling bookcases. A hallway lay off to the side of the stairs that led to the back of the house. It was in perfect order—not one box, carton or piece of newspaper anywhere.
My attention was drawn to the bookshelf room, and in hopes of finding my friends, I snaked through the people, working my way to the back. Not one friend was to be found and instead of fighting the crowd again, I used the door in the back of that room. It, in turn, stopped me in my tracks. It wasn’t the hallway as I had anticipated; it was another room, not quite as big as the other one, but much more beautiful—to me, anyway.
The earthy scent of leather coated my senses. Shelves upon shelves were filled with leather-bound books of all colors and shapes.
“Wow!” slipped from my mouth as I walked closer to a glass cabinet that displayed some old scroll-like papers written in a different language. Then my gaze moved on to the other bookshelves that lined each and every wall, all had to be at least sixteen feet tall, some displaying special treasures.
With each book spine I could reach came an overwhelming desire to touch and read them. Some were written in different languages and some sounded incredibly interesting—especially one. In simple type, the spine read:
The Two Thousandth Year War of the Spirit Light
. Even though it was obvious the room was supposed to be off limits, I couldn’t help myself and gently pulled it from its resting place, touching the cover. I knew from research that the oil in people’s hands could deteriorate the pages in an old book, and so, being even more nosey, I pulled my sleeve over my fingers and opened it. The writing was English and each letter swirled with curlicues, like old English script. There was no dedication to an author, nor a date of publication. Only the title graced the first page. A few pages later came the first chapter: “The Discovery.”
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
I jumped; the booked slipped from my fingers and landed on the floor with a light thud. “I’m sorry!” For a second I hesitated, wondering if I should make a break for it and just leave the book there—but my conscience wouldn’t let me. My hand shook as I picked it off the floor and prayed that upon inspection, there wouldn’t be any rips, tears or bends.
Nathanael stepped further into the room, holding a drink. “That’s father’s favorite book,” he said, tipping his glass slightly my way.
Great!
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, pushing the book back into its rightful spot. I moved quickly toward the door, not looking at him when I passed.
“Where are you going in such a hurry?” he asked.
“I should go home...I’m sorry. Truly...I usually know better. Bye!”