Georgia On My Mind (32 page)

She heard him come down the stairs and turned to him. “I need to take care of some things—things that are important to me.”

“All right.”

“That doesn’t mean I never want to see you again. Far from it.”

“Okay.”

“Will you call me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“If you want me, Georgie, you know where to find me. I’m not going to chase you anymore. I’m all done banging my head against a hard wall. It’s starting to hurt. And it’s starting to make me mad, which worries me.”

His words resonated through her like painful arrows, knowing the battle he’d fought against anger in the past. “It’s okay for you to get mad with me. God knows I’ve given you enough reason. It doesn’t scare me when you get loud or angry.
You
don’t scare me, Nathan.”

She could see that he was relieved to hear that. “I prefer happy over angry any day.”

“Thank you for this,” she said, gesturing to the skyline mural. “Tell your brothers, too. It was a lovely thing to do.”

“You’re welcome.” He stood with his hands in his pockets, the way he had that night in the street when he had brought her flowers to apologize for upsetting her, the way he had in the hospital when he’d come right from court to be with her after Gus’s surgery.

But this time the stance wasn’t welcoming. It was defensive. She had finally succeeded in pushing him away. At the door, she let her hand rest on the doorknob. Keeping her back to him, she said, “I enjoyed every minute I spent with you, Nathan, and despite what you think, I
do
care about you. More than you’ll ever know. I’m just not ready for all the things you want from me.”

Without giving him the chance to reply, she went out the door and down the stairs.

Cat lasted a month. Thirty long, draining days spent running from the simple fact that she was in love with Ian—desperately and completely in love. Over and over, his parting line ran through her mind, torturing her with its exquisite truth.
Did it ever occur to you that you might have a lot in common with a little girl whose mother abandoned her?

Standing at the bathroom sink, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She’d gone to a lot of trouble to cultivate a reputation as a badass. It had served her well as the manager of one of the hottest clubs in town, but as she reached up to remove the ring from her brow, she knew her badass reputation had no place in the life of a soon-to-be four-year-old girl.

Wetting her hair, she combed it out until the spikes collapsed into soft waves around her face. In her room, she bypassed her trademark tank top for a black T-shirt that covered the mermaid tattoo. Buttoning the only pair of jeans she owned that didn’t hug her hips, she checked herself in the full-length mirror one last time, grabbed her purse and keys, and went downstairs before she could lose her nerve.

As she parked in front of the big yellow house, it occurred to her that she had no idea what their schedule was like during the day. What if they weren’t home? Would she ever again work up the courage to do this?

Probably not.

Tucking her purse under the seat, she took only her keys with her when she got out of the Jeep and started down the long driveway. Behind Kevin’s house, Ian pushed Rosie on the swing. Relief coursed through Cat at the sight of them, making her want to laugh and cry at the same time. When he saw her watching them, shock and surprise registered on his face.

Rosie’s lips curled with distaste. “What does
she
want?”

“Actually,” Cat said, crossing the yard to them, “I came to see you.”

“Why? You don’t like me.”

“That’s not true. I don’t know you well enough not to like you. So I was thinking, maybe we could take a walk to the park and get to know each other. After that, maybe I won’t like you, but at least I’ll have given you a chance. What do you say?”

Rosie glanced up at her father and then back at Cat. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

Smiling, Cat said, “Why don’t you come with me and find out?”

“Can I, Daddy?”

“Only if you want to.”

Rosie studied her for a long,
long
moment, during which Cat tried to decide what she would do if the child said no. In planning for this mission, she hadn’t considered that possibility.

“Okay.” Rosie jumped off the swing and took Cat’s outstretched hand. “We’ll be back in a little while, Dad.”

“Take your time,” he said softly.

Cat didn’t dare look at him as she led his daughter to the driveway. One thing at a time.

They walked to Morton Park in silence until Rosie looked up at her. “Why is your name Cat? That’s kind of a weird name.”

Cat laughed at her bluntness—a woman after her own heart. “It’s short for Catherine.”

“That’s an old lady name.”

“Why do you think I go by Cat?”

“My real name is Roseanne, which was my daddy’s grandmother’s name, so I guess that’s an old lady name, too.”

“It’s a beautiful name.”

“Do you love my daddy?”

Resisting the urge to suck in a sharp deep breath of surprise, Cat glanced down to find Rosie’s cherubic face turned up, watching her intently. “I do. I love him a lot.”

“That’s good, because he’s been really sad since you broke up with him.”

“Has he?” Cat’s heart thumped with excitement and hope. For the first time in a month, she had reason to hope.

“Uh-huh.
Really
sad.”

Cat cleared the emotion from her throat. “What’s your favorite thing to do at the park?”

“Swing.”

“Then swing it is.” Facing the child, Cat lifted her onto the swing, but before she gave her a push, she clutched the chain with both hands. “I love your dad very much, and I want to be with him more than anything, but I’m afraid I’d make a lousy mom to you, Rosie. How do you feel about that?”

“My real mom was kinda lousy. She didn’t want me.”

Cat gasped. “That’s not true! Of course she did.”

“No, she didn’t. My daddy made her have me.”

“Rosie . . .”

“It’s okay. I don’t care. Why would I want a mom who doesn’t want me?”

Cat wondered how she ever could have thought this child wasn’t worth her time.

“Could we maybe make a deal? If I’m lousy, will you tell me? Will you come right out and say, ‘That was lousy, Cat’? Whatever I did, I’ll never do it again.”

“Okay.”

“You promise?”

“I promise,” Rosie said solemnly.

“Do you know what I could really use right now?”

“Nope.”

“A hug. Would it be okay, if, you know . . .”

Rosie held out her arms.

Cat scooped her up and clung to her. “I’m so sorry you thought I didn’t like you.” The sweet smell of baby shampoo and little girl filled her senses and her heart. “You deserve so much better than that.”

Pulling back, Rosie placed her pudgy hands on Cat’s face. “My very
favoritest
thing to do at the park is play cloud art, but Daddy hates it because he never sees
anything
.”

“Oh, I love that game! I used to play with my brother and sister all the time.”

Rosie looked up at the puffy clouds. “Want to play?”

“I’d love to.” Cat carried Rosie to the grassy field where they stretched out next to each other and gazed up at the sky. They studied the clouds for several quiet minutes before Cat pointed to one.

“Elephant!” Rosie cried.

They exchanged a high five.

“Daddy would say—”

“There’s no elephant up there.” Ian’s shadow covered them both. “I don’t care what you guys say.”

Rosie rolled her eyes at Cat. “See what I mean?”

“We’ll have to work on him.”

Ian lowered himself to the ground next to Rosie.

“Cat loves you, Daddy. She told me.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep. You should tell her you love her, too, so you can stop being sad all the time.”

With amusement and love and relief and joy dancing around inside of her, Cat watched him struggle to decide how he felt about his daughter managing his love life.

“Not until she tells me herself,” Ian said, his fierce blue eyes issuing a dare.

Cat met his steady gaze. “I love you, Ian.”

“I love you, too, Catherine.”

“That’s an old lady name,” Rosie informed him. “You can’t call her that.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Can we go back to our game now?”

Ian reached over Rosie for Cat’s hand. “Absolutely.”

On the same day Cat sealed her fate, Georgie sat alone in the apartment she had worked hard to turn into a stylish, comfortable home. After she had fallen in love with the apartment’s high ceilings, big windows, and elaborate crown molding, she had obsessed over every piece of furniture, accessory, and detail. But as she let her gaze travel from one corner of her living room to the other, she realized she had felt more at home in Nathan’s empty house than she ever had here.

Not a day had passed in the long month since she last saw him that she hadn’t thought of him. Well, if she were being truthful, she would admit to thinking about him all day
every
day.

During the lonely weeks in
Atlanta
, she had waited on pins and needles for the results of her blood test and had driven Tess and Cat crazy calling to ask if anything had come from the lab. She finally broke down a week ago and called the doctor’s office only to learn they hadn’t heard yet. They promised to notify her as soon as they could. Since then, her heart had raced and her stomach lurched every time the phone rang. The good news from the calls home had been how happy her friends were with Nathan’s brothers.

It had occurred to Georgie earlier, during an endless, boring meeting at work, that she had failed to properly appreciate the lessons of her mother’s life and death. She was putting work ahead of what really mattered, and if she had learned anything from the last few months, it was that life is too short to waste on something your heart is no longer in. Her priorities needed a serious reordering, and they needed it now.

Yes, the promotion had been nice. Yes, the extra money came in handy. Yes, it was gratifying to hold a prestigious position with more authority than she’d ever expected to have. But none of it satisfied her half as much as a day at the senior center had.

That realization had made her laugh out loud in the meeting as she came to a decision she would put into motion tomorrow. Her time in
Atlanta
had come and gone. It was time to go home. She had followed Gus’s advice, played it out, and figured out where she belonged. Now she could only hope that she would still be welcome there.

When the doorbell rang, she pulled on her mother’s robe and got up to answer the door.

A delivery boy held a huge bouquet of pink roses.

Georgie’s heart raced with excitement as she signed for them. She put them on the kitchen counter and dug out the card, expecting to read about organic farming. However, there was no mention of organics. “Heard you were back in town. Give me a call. I’ve missed you. Love, Doug.”

Georgie laughed so hard she cried.
So predictable!

“Oh, Nathan,” she whispered. “I hope you waited for me. I really hope you did.”

Drained after an emotional good-bye with her coworkers, Georgie took a cab home the following afternoon, since she had never gotten around to shipping her car back from
Rhode Island
. Carrying a box of personal items from her office, she trudged up the stairs to her second-floor apartment and came to a halt on the landing.

Nathan.

Sitting outside her door eating . . . a
peach
? Nathan was sitting outside her door eating a peach and letting the juice run down his chin like a six-year-old boy.

“You are
not
here,” she said as she stepped in front of him. “You can’t really be here on the same day I quit my job and told my boss I’m moving home to
Rhode Island
. That only happens in really bad movies.”

Letting his gaze wander from her stiletto heels to her pencil skirt to the tailored blouse she had left unbuttoned as low as she dared for work, he swallowed—hard—and took another bite of his peach.

“I thought you weren’t going to come after me.”

“I didn’t think it would take you this long to come to your senses.”

“Your mother said the same thing about your father when he took months to chase her to
Utah
.”

“Clearly, I’m much smarter than him, because it only took me one month—a month too long, I might add.” He took another juicy bite of peach. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, because it’s kind of my secret shame, but chicks dig me.”

Resisting the urge to howl with laughter and weep with joy, she kicked off her shoes and slid down the wall to sit next to him. “Is that so?”

He offered her a peach from the bag on his lap. “It’s my burden in life.”

She picked a fat, ripe peach and took a bite. “You carry it well.”

“I try,” he said gravely. “Anyway, as I was saying, chicks tend to dig me. So I thought if I came down here, took a look at the place, and tried the peaches they’re so famous for in these parts, then maybe I could figure out why the only chick
I
dig would rather be here than with me.”

“You did hear me say I quit my job and I’m moving home to
Rhode Island
, didn’t you?”

Wiping the juice off his chin with the back of his hand, he said, “What I didn’t hear is why.”

“You know why.”

“No way,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re not getting off that easily, Georgie Quinn.”

“I love you, Nathan.” Suddenly, it wasn’t hard at all to tell him what she’d always known, from the first time she saw him run by her house. “I love you so much that if I have to spend another second without you, I’m going to lose my mind.”

“That’s good, because I love you, too, and if you don’t come home with me right now, today, I’m going to have to quit
my
job to move down here
and start all over again as a lowly patrolman in the Atlanta Police Department. You wouldn’t do that to me, would you? You know I was
born
to be a detective.”

Exasperated, she said, “Have you heard
anything
I’ve said?”

“Only the parts I like, which, for once, was all of it.” He flashed that grin she loved so much. “But I had the other thing, about moving here and being a lowly patrolman, all rehearsed, so I couldn’t let it go to waste.” He reached out to caress her cheek.

She turned her face into his palm and pressed her lips to his warm, peach-flavored skin.

“I also wanted you to know how far I was willing to go, what I was willing to give up, to be with you, Georgie.”

“You were supposed to stop saying those things,” she reminded him with a teasing smile.

“Never.” He ran a finger through the groove in her cheek. “Since I’m on a roll, I may as well tell you I fell in love with your dimples first.”

She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Well, if you’re offering. . .” He shifted his hand from her face to the back of her neck and brought her in for a deep, soulful kiss that made her heart sing and her blood boil.
God, how she had missed him!

He tugged a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. “Tess asked me to give you this. It came to the house yesterday.”

“What is it?” Georgie glanced down at the postcard and gasped when she saw the return address for the medical laboratory. “Oh! Oh God.” She turned the card over. The only word that registered was “negative.”

He kissed her forehead. “I knew what I was doing when I bet on you.”

Overcome with relief unlike anything she had ever experienced, she swiped at tears that flowed unchecked down her face. “Nathan?”

“What, sweetheart?”

“What’d you think of the peaches?”

“They’re sweeter at home,” he whispered as if he was afraid he’d get run out of town if he got caught dissing
Georgia
’s peaches.

“Isn’t everything?”