Heat Wave: Nerds of Paradise (A Magnolias and Moonshine Novella Book 18) Read online

  “Even after they told her not to give away anything unwrapped,” Angelica said.

  “And because of peanut allergies.” Dennis grinned from ear-to-ear. “Those things were still my favorite Halloween treat. Better than Butterfingers.”

  “Uh-huh,” Angelica laughed. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who loved those things.”

  “Those things were gross.” Leon made a face.

  “They were a sticky pain in the neck,” Mrs. Jones said.

  “I liked them,” Angelica said.

  “They were the best,” Dennis said at the same time.

  They exchanged a look, then burst into chuckles. Dennis’s heart and hopes rose higher than they’d been all day. Maybe this wouldn’t be a total disaster after all. Maybe he had a chance.

  “Well, we’ve been working on Mrs. Brown’s house since Easter,” Angelica went on. “She’s got Mr. Fellowes and Mr. Jeffries living there with her to help with costs, and all the neighborhood old folks hang out there. The place needed a lot of work, though, and I wanted to get it all done before I moved on to wherever I move on to.”

  “So you really haven’t decided yet?” Dennis asked, as serious as he was encouraged.

  Angelica shook her head, glancing down. “It’s a big decision. It could affect the rest of my life. And I have a lot of things to make up for…I mean, to consider first.”

  Dennis had to tamp down the thrill of victory that rose up in him. He hadn’t won anything yet. In fact, Angelica’s statement made him feel like he had his work cut out for him. It wouldn’t be easy to turn her head. But at least it wouldn’t be easy for NASA either. Something he was incredibly grateful for when Holstein finished his phone call and rejoined them.

  “Sorry about that,” he said, stepping back into the conversation. He had the audacity to rest his hand on the small of Angelica’s back as he did. “As you can imagine, any phone call from the home office is too important not to answer.” He winked at Angelica.

  Angelica slid subtly away from him. “That’s all right, Mr. Holstein. Dennis here was just telling me a bit about Paradise Space Flight while you were on your call.”

  Holstein made a dismissive noise. “These flashy, independent space flight companies have big plans, but they don’t have the establishment and the track record to back them up. Between navigating government regulations and running out of capital, they’re always a risk. But NASA is a world-renowned organization, as everyone knows. We can offer you things that start-ups can’t even dream of.”

  The only thing that kept Dennis from launching into a detailed defense of PSF and everything they were working on was the fact that he wanted to punch Holstein in the face for the way he stood too close to Angelica.

  “I’m not so concerned about what NASA can do for me as I am with what I can do for NASA.” Angelica beat him to it, crossing her arms and staring at Holstein with a challenging look.

  Holstein blinked, then shrugged. “I’m not sure what you mean, but I look forward to discussing it with you. You mentioned dinner.”

  “You mentioned dinner.” Angelica stared blankly at him.

  “Then let’s set a date. I’m only in town for the weekend, so how about tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow would be just fine.” She sent a brief, unreadable glance in Dennis’s direction. Dennis wasn’t sure if he was supposed to do anything about it, other than grumble about the fact that she was making a date with another man right in front of him. Not that he was looking for a date with her…necessarily. “How about Mary Mac’s Tea Room?”

  Holstein sent her a sly grin. “I was thinking someplace quieter. My hotel has a nice restaurant.”

  “Oh, but Mary Mac’s is an Atlanta legend. They serve the best authentic Southern cuisine around. I’ll meet you there at, say six o’clock?”

  “You sure you don’t want to make it later?” Holstein’s grin was fading to disappointment.

  “I might be busy later that night,” Angelica replied, gaze drifting over to Dennis. A faint smile touched her lips.

  Dennis had to be seeing things. There was no way Angelica would flirt with him. Then again, the bizarre relationship they’d had as kids could have been described as flirting, if yanking him around by a chain could be construed as romantic. Although they had kissed that one time. And that one other time.

  Angelica bumped him out of his memories by saying, “So I’ll see you at Mama’s house tomorrow afternoon?”

  Dennis glanced from Mrs. Jones to Holstein—who looked like he’d lost a prize—to Leon, who was still trying and failing to hide his laughter. “Yeah, that sounds great,” he said at last.

  “Come on over early and I’ll feed you lunch,” Mrs. Jones added, patting his arm, then giving it a squeeze. “Whoo! That western air has done you a world of good. You’re a regular cowboy now.”

  Dennis blushed. “Well, I wouldn’t go so far as that.”

  “Don’t you think Dennis looks like one of those rugged cowboys you see in the movies, Angie?” Mrs. Jones pressed on.

  Angelica still had her arms crossed from dealing with Holstein, but now she turned her unimpressed look on her mom. “Weren’t you going to take me out to lunch to celebrate my degree?”

  “I certainly was.” Mrs. Jones nodded, then turned to Dennis. “You coming with us?”

  The urge to show up Holstein by accepting the family invitation—and to grab a few more hours in Angelica’s company—was almost too much for Dennis to resist. But if he was going to be professional about this and not fall back into old patterns of jumping every time Angelica crooked her finger only to be let down later, he needed to stand up for himself.

  “I’ve actually got plans for lunch today, Mrs. Jones, but I’ll take you up on that lunch tomorrow.” He shifted to look at Angelica, wishing he had the time to just stand there and drink in the sight of her for a while. “I’ll catch you later,” he said at last. “Leon, do you still need a ride home?”

  “Yeah, man.”

  With one final nod for Holstein and hugs for Angelica and Mrs. Jones, Dennis turned to march off, Leon close by his side.

  “What are you doing?” Leon asked as they walked away. “Angie was really into you.”

  “Was she?” Dennis resisted the urge to look back over his shoulder to see if he was right. He shrugged and walked on. “I don’t want to get caught in her net again like I used to.”

  Leon shook his head. “You’re missing out. Rumor has it that she hasn’t been dating because she’s been carrying a torch for you all these years.”

  Dennis nearly stumbled. “Really?”

  “She says she hasn’t had time to date because of her research and all,” Leon went on.

  “Oh, then that’s probably it.” And it made no sense for him to be depressed about that.

  “No, man, it’s not,” Leon insisted. “I tell you, Angie’s never gotten close to anyone else because she’s been waiting for you to come home.”

  “Right,” Dennis drawled. “Like the dog I am. The one she’s always kicked every time I’ve come back.”

  Leon let out a breath as they stepped through the auditorium’s front door and into the soupy, Atlanta heat. “I can see how you might think that, but I’m telling you, you’re wrong.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll find out in the next few days, then,” Dennis said, following the flow of people heading to the parking lot. “But I’m not ready to put my heart on the line like some dumb kid anymore.”

  “Uh-huh.” Leon smirked.

  He may have had a point. Dennis wasn’t sure the resolve he’d built up over the last decade would hold out in the face of Angelica’s smile.

  Chapter Three

  There were few emotions in life that couldn’t be resolved by breaking out a crowbar and tearing up a floor. Angelica jammed the tool into the old, crumbling kitchen floor in Mrs. Brown’s house, focusing on the heat and pull of her muscles as she tore out the old to make way for the new.

  If only it was as easy
to do the same with life. Weeks ago, when she’d first gotten the letter from Paradise Space Flight letting her know Dennis would be coming to discuss the job they’d offered her, she’d shrugged it off. She knew Dennis worked for PSF. That was the whole reason she’d applied for the job in the first place. Although it was nothing personal. Not at all. Dennis had always had good taste. Any company he worked for had to be solid.

  She jammed the crowbar into the boards again and tugged with all her might.

  “Careful, Angie,” her friend and the project’s manager, Latoya called to her from the other side of the room. “You’re gonna go straight through the sub-floor to the basement if you keep at it like that.”

  “Right.” Angelica nodded and straightened. She tossed the rotting boards into the pile of debris near the door, adjusted her work goggles, then bent to tear up the next board.

  It was nothing personal. She hadn’t been intrigued by PSF because it could be a chance to right a thousand past wrongs. The possibility of living close to Dennis again was the furthest thing from her mind.

  And if she kept telling herself that, maybe a unicorn would swoop out of the sky and whisk her off to fairyland.

  She sighed and set the crowbar aside to pry up the stubborn board with two hands. She was a PhD now, an astrophysicist. The top aerospace industries in the country were courting her. She’d proved every nay-sayer in her life wrong, proved that a woman of color could excel in a field dominated by white men. So why did she feel like the same confused thirteen-year-old girl who cried herself to sleep at night over having to choose popular girls she didn’t like over a dorky boy she really liked?

  “Whoa, whoa, hold on, girl.” Latoya straightened from the pile of new boards she was nailing into the floor. The fine sheen of perspiration on her bare arms and wetting the neck of her tank-top made her friend look good, tough, while Angelica was sure it only made her look nasty. “You sure you’re up to this today? You’re tossing that mess around like it insulted your mama.”

  Angelica managed a tired smile as she rocked back to sit on the floor. “Yeah, I’m okay. I guess I’ve just got post-graduation let-down or something.”

  It didn’t feel right lying to Latoya. Latoya was the only friend from the neighborhood who had stuck by her when she decided to break all the molds and study science instead of boys. She was the only one willing to hang out with a pop-turned-geek when the mean girls turned their noses up at her. And she was the only one that would have been missed if she’d ditched her too.

  Latoya crossed her arms. With her hammer still in hand, goggles still in place, and her close-cut, natural hair glistening with sweat, Angelica felt like Latoya was some kind of avenging angel come to call her out on everything she’d ever done wrong.

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with a certain old friend coming back to town, does it?”

  Angelica looked away. It wasn’t enough to avoid the swoopy feeling in her gut. She picked up her crowbar and went back to work on the floor.

  Latoya stayed where she was. “Leon told me all about it,” she said, returning to work at her end of the room.

  Of course he would. Angelica should have figured he’d give her the full report of graduation.

  “It doesn’t bother me,” she insisted. “In fact, I was really happy to see Dennis again.”

  “Mmm hmm.” Latoya arched a brow as much as she could with the thick goggles on and started hammering.

  “No, really, I am happy,” Angelica insisted.

  “I don’t doubt that.” Latoya raised her voice to be heard over her hammering. “I’m just curious about how happy you are.”

  “Very happy.” Angelica tried to shrug casually.

  “Mmmm hmmm.” Latoya drew the two syllables out even longer this time.

  Angelica shrugged. “What, was I supposed to be angry at him for coming back? Sad? You got some other emotion you’d rather I felt?”

  “Girl, don’t get defensive with me.” Latoya rocked back on her heels and pointed her hammer at Angelica. “You forget, I was there that year after he left. I saw how listless you were. You, my friend, pined.”

  “I did not pine.” Angelica sent her a frown. “I was sorry to have lost a friend is all.”

  “Friend? Is that what you call it?”

  Angelica’s face flooded with heat. “Yes. Dennis and I were friends.”

  Latoya shook her head. “You led that poor boy around by the nose and you know it.”

  “I was just a kid, Tee. I didn’t know what I was doing.” Angelica’s face burned even hotter.

  “Even kids know when they’re being nasty.” Latoya went back to hammering. “What always surprised me was why he kept sniffing around after you, year after year.”

  “Because we shared common interests,” Angelica said, straining as she pried up another board. “He was the only one who would do experiments with me.”

  “Oh, experiments? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Latoya laughed.

  Angelica huffed out a breath. “See, that’s exactly my point. All the princessy girls ever wanted to do was paint their nails and straighten their hair and make eyes at the boys. Dennis actually talked about things, did things. Interesting things.”

  “Like making out in the science lab after chemistry club?”

  Angelica tossed a rotting board aside, smirking at her friend and trying to play it cool. “Once.” Or maybe twice. And it had been nice. At least, it had been nice until Jane Peterson had caught them in a clinch and spread the rumor all through the school that Angelica was a nerd slut. Damn, she’d hated high school.

  “Everyone thinks I was a mini dominatrix bitch to Dennis,” Angelica went on, standing to take her load of boards to the pile by the door, then climbing around Latoya to dump those boards on the back porch. “It wasn’t always like that, though. We had a lot of good times that none of y’all know about.”

  “So you’re saying that you were friends with him behind closed doors, but too embarrassed to be seen with a smart, dorky, white boy out in public.”

  Angelica fumbled the boards, crushing her fingers between two of them as they spilled to the pile. She swore under her breath, her face burning hotter than ever. It had taken years of bitter soul-searching to admit to herself that yes, that’s exactly how she felt. And just because she’d been able to admit it didn’t mean she had the first clue how to fix things.

  “Dennis was okay with our arrangement,” she said, feeling the lie down to her toes as she stepped back into the kitchen, shaking out her bruised hand. “He didn’t have all that many other friends anyhow.”

  Latoya looked up at her as she passed. “Please tell me you’re not forgetting that he and Leon were bros, or that I witnessed your whole deal as it was happening.”

  “No, I’m not forgetting,” Angelica sighed. “But what am I supposed to do about it now? I can’t go back and change what a bitch I was to him. And even if I could, what would I have done? Ditched him entirely so I could be accepted at school? Been best buddies with him and lost my street cred with the people who made sure I was senior class president?”

  Latoya responded with a disapproving hum instead of the sage words of advice Angelica would have preferred. The only thing she could do was go back to work, thanking God in Heaven above that she wasn’t in high school anymore.

  Those prayers of thanks were cut short less than a minute later by the sound of heavy footsteps from the front room and Dennis’s voice ringing, “Hey, Mrs. Brown.”

  Every nerve in Angelica’s body tensed. So much for avoiding Dennis by skipping lunch at her mom’s house. She caught her breath and turned to the door leading from the kitchen to the hall.

  “Well, Lordy, if it isn’t Dennis Long,” Mrs. Brown’s voice answered Dennis’s.

  Angelica stood, listening to the sound of feet shuffling and a long, happy sigh as Mrs. Brown presumably got up to hug Dennis hello.

  “Look at you,” old Mr. Fellowes added to the greeting. The o
ther elders, fanning themselves and watching tv in the front room, while Angelica and Latoya and the upstairs crew worked on renovations, all began to talk and greet Dennis at once.

  Angelica didn’t realize she’d been holding perfectly still, heart pounding, until Latoya cleared her throat and said, “Why don’t you go up there and give your boy a big kiss hello.”

  Angelica made a sound and tugged off her work gloves, throwing them at her friend with a smirk and a shake of her head. And then she rushed with far too much eagerness out into the hall and up to the front part of the house.

  The sight that met her zinged like lightning in her blood. Dennis—all six-feet-whatever of him—stood in a circle of wrinkled, brown faces shining up at him with adoration. He had his arm around Mrs. Brown while Mr. Jeffries held his hand in both of his and said, “We were so proud when we heard about how you earned your PhD from Cal Tech. You did the neighborhood good, son.”

  “How’d you hear about that?” Dennis asked.

  “Angie told us.”

  Angelica chose that moment to step into the room. Dennis’s eyes zipped up to meet hers, and for a moment, the world tipped off its axis.

  “Angie’s been keeping us up to date on all your goings on,” Mr. Jeffries said.

  Dennis could have said anything. He could have cut her down with just a few words, built himself and his accomplishments up and revealed what a bitch she’d been to him all those years ago. Instead, he smiled at her and said, “Thanks. I never would have thought anyone would be interested in all the stuff I was doing.”

  “Nonsense, son.” Mr. Fellowes thumped him on the back. “We old folks just love hearing stories of what you young people get up to. In my day, no one on this block would have ever heard of Cal Tech, let alone earning a PhD in Astrophysics from there and going off to build spaceships.”

  “So you really have been keeping tabs on me.” Dennis beamed.

  Angelica’s whole chest squeezed. Of course Dennis would be all smiles and kindness with the old folks of the neighborhood. He’d been the one who delivered their papers and weeded their gardens for pocket money back in the day. Other kids might have laughed at him and thrown rocks when he walked by, but the old folks had shone their love on him like he was God’s gift to Ormewood Park. And deservedly so.