Heroes In Uniform (258 page)

Cade shoved at John’s shoulder, but it was good-natured. “She loves it. She squeals every time I put her up on Millie. Besides, I don’t actually let go of her or anything. Laura walks Millie and I hang on to Jamie,” he said, appealing to Katelyn for approval, but all she could do was laugh at the picture of this big tough guy leading a ten-month-old around on a pony.

Katelyn couldn’t stop thinking about John and his hand. It was still on her back. He still stood much too close for comfort. Close enough for her to smell the barely-there scent of a subtle cologne. And, she was still much more distracted by the nearness than she wanted to be. She breathed a sigh of relief when he dropped his hand to pick up his beer.

“So, Katelyn, you seem to be surviving coming home to Evers. You’ve been away a long time, right?” Cora asked, and Katelyn couldn’t tell if she was digging for gossip or not. Her face seemed openly kind, so Katelyn assumed she was genuinely trying to make conversation.

“Yes, I’ve been in Austin, but I plan to stay here now. I’m leasing space in town for a studio and I’ll stay at my dad’s for a while, until I figure out where I want to live,” she said, trying to think of a way to steer the conversation away from her. She really wasn’t any good at that, though. She just drew a blank when she tried to think of new topics.

They must have seen the panic on her face. Ashley waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry. We won’t grill you about your dad and why you haven’t lived at home all these years and where you’ve been and all that.” Cora burst out with an objection and Laura laughed, but Ashley kept right on going, ignoring them. “We’re used to being around freak shows. Heck, we are the freak show most of the time.”

John’s hand had resumed its protective place on Katelyn’s back, no doubt to show his support. Ashley continued, “Take Laura. Well, you know all about her. It was all over the news. People still occasionally gawk and stare at her, especially since her wicked ex-mother-in-law moved to town. We just pretend it’s not happening when people point and whisper.”

Katelyn didn’t know what to say, but she was beginning to get the feeling it wasn’t unusual for people to be speechless with Ashley. Ashley plowed right on. “My family is another great example. Cora, here, is my sister. Yup, that’s right. Sisters who look nothing alike. Our brother, Nathan, is black. So, obviously, again with the ‘nothing alike’ thing. Sam and Emma are natural siblings, but they’re also adopted so our mom and dad aren’t really their parents. Not by blood, anyway. So, we’re a walking, talking freak show in a town like this.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t use that phrase, ‘freak show.’ It’s horribly rude. And, we’re not freaks. We just have a very eclectic family,” Cora said, a small pout on her face.

Laura shook her head at Ashley, still laughing. “You’ll get used to our Ash, Katelyn. She tries to keep it all together when she meets new people and she really did a nice job with you for—” she glanced at her watch, “an hour and a half. That’s practically a new record. She just can’t help it. She has zero filter when it comes to saying whatever crosses her mind, and she makes no effort to word things a little more, um, diplomatically.”

Ashley rolled her eyes and shrugged. “I only tell the truth. People just aren’t used to it, that’s all.”

Katelyn laughed, but a small part of her had to admit she liked Ashley’s approach to things more than she liked the whispering and stares she’d felt all week. Maybe there
was
something to just speaking your mind.

“I saw your ex-witch-in-law recently, by the way,” Ashley went on, talking to Laura. “Came to the library to get a library card, so it appears she plans to stay in town.”

This brought a low growl of displeasure from Cade, but Laura brushed it off with a hand to his arm. “I know. She’s moved here to try to be closer to Jamie and Justin.” Laura turned to Katelyn to explain the pieces of the story Katelyn didn’t know. “The quick and dirty version of my past life: you know I was married to Patrick Kensington, right?” Katelyn nodded, even though the question was a bit silly. Everyone knew Laura had been married to Patrick Kensington.

Laura continued. “The witch-in-law is my former mother-in-law, Martha Kensington. Justin is Patrick’s brother. He tried to help me last year and ended up getting shot by the man who killed Patrick. Justin lives here now. He hasn’t been speaking to his mom since he discovered that she knew Patrick was abusing me and didn’t help.”

Laura turned back to the group after finishing her rundown. “Apparently, she’s been to rehab and is clean now. She wants to try to rebuild the relationships she damaged over the years, or something. I haven’t let her see Jamie yet, but Justin told me he’s seen her once or twice.”

“Mrs. Kensington was apparently too damned drunk the whole time Laura’s ex-husband was beating the crap out of her to step in and help Laura,” Ashley said, but Laura smiled gently at her.

“I wasn’t able to help myself back then, either, Ash. It took a lot to get me to run. Some women never get away.”

Cade looked positively reverent as he gazed at his wife. “She and Justin now have a foundation to help women leave abusive relationships. Laura speaks out for women who are feeling as trapped as she was,” he said.

“That’s amazing that you can put what happened behind you and help other women, Laura,” Katelyn said. She didn’t know if she would have the courage to share so much of her story the way Laura was doing.

“Oh!” Cora sat up straight with a wide smile on her face. “We should introduce you to Justin. He’s great, and single,” she finished with a singsong lilt to the end of her sentence, and Katelyn noticed she may have slurred a word or two there at the end. She was a tiny woman so it didn’t come as a surprise that a couple of beers might be too much for her.

“No, you shouldn’t,” came John’s deadpan response as the rest of the people at the table hid smiles, and Katelyn tried to hide the blush crawling up her cheeks. John stepped even closer to her, if that was possible.

“Oh no, really, John,” Cora said with a swish of an unsteady hand in John’s direction. “Really. I promise. Justin’s fine. He’s not at all like Laura’s husband was. He’s the sweetest guy,” she said with a sly smile at Katelyn. “And sooooooo gorgeous,” she stage whispered as Katelyn’s eyebrows went up and everyone gave up on their attempts to stop laughing. John glared, Katelyn burned bright red, and Cora looked around in confusion.

“Well, he is gorgeous.” She looked to her sister for help. “You said so yourself, Ashley. A butt like a Greek god, remember?”

Ashley shook her head at her sister. “I’ll explain later, sweet girl.”

The chatter resumed for a few minutes but was interrupted again by Cora’s sudden realization. “Oh!” She looked back and forth between John and Katelyn. “Oh,” she said again, drawing the single syllable out.

“And, that’s our cue to go. Night, everyone!” Ashley said as she slid from her seat and pulled Cora from her chair. She gathered their purses and started to herd Cora toward the front door. “I’m really glad you came out with us, Kit Kat,” she called out over her shoulder.

Katelyn didn’t have a chance to be dismayed at Ashley’s apparent choice of a nickname for her. She was too busy trying to talk her fluttering heart down out of the clouds. So what if John had just acted as if there was something between them? So what if he almost acted as though they were together—or at least acted as though he wanted them to be together. The fact that he told Cora in no uncertain terms that setting Katelyn up with another man was off limits shouldn’t have sent her heart into a stuttering, stumbling mess. But it did.

* * *

Katelyn hadn’t stopped thinking about the previous night out with John all day, and it was beginning to irritate the daylights out of her. The whole ride home, she’d fantasized about what it would be like to be on a date with John. Which was ridiculous since John Davies was the last man she’d want to be on a date with. She didn’t like him. She resented him. She wanted him to buzz off and leave her alone.

Oh, who was she kidding? Those feelings were long gone. Somehow, in his steadfast support for her in the middle of all that was going on with her father, he’d wheedled his way in. She was flat-out, dead-on attracted to the man. She didn’t know if it was the dimples or the muscles…oh, the muscles. God, what that man did to a shirt when it stretched out over his chest and hugged his arms with just the right amount of tautness to set her eyes wandering along hard lines and a well-cut six-pack.

So annoying.

Katelyn focused on putting one foot in front of the other as she pushed herself on a five-mile run. It was meant to take her mind off John, but it wasn’t having the desired effect at all. She’d thought of nothing but the way he’d grazed his hand over her back or whispered in her ear last night. Of the way he’d looked for a split second when he’d walked her up to the door last night, as though he might kiss her goodnight. As though he would close the inches between their mouths and press his lips to hers. Those lips that made her want to lean in and nip at them just to see what he’d do. To see if she could break that cool, collected facade he always had going.

She’d held her breath, not knowing if she wanted him to kiss her or to stop, and somehow wanting both things at once.

He hadn’t kissed her. He’d said goodnight and walked away, making her wonder if she’d imagined things.

Katelyn pulled herself out of her thoughts and realized she’d seriously miscalculated her run. It had gotten darker much earlier than she thought it would. Either that or she’d been out a lot longer than she’d realized. As she jogged along the old dirt road that would bring her back to her father’s house in another half mile, Katelyn frowned. It was dark and getting darker by the minute, with no street lights.

It hadn’t even occurred to her that there weren’t street lamps on most roads out here. The houses were much further apart and set back from the road once you got outside of town, so porch lights were no help either. She picked up her speed realizing she couldn’t be seen easily if a car passed by. She was wearing a gray shirt and black running pants and she hadn’t worn her reflective vest.

She immediately went to thoughts of John coming to her rescue, and she actually rolled her eyes and fought the urge to slap herself silly. Just because she was running after dark on an old dirt road didn’t mean she needed John to come and save her. And even if he did save her, that didn’t mean it would end in her kissing him senseless at the relief of being safe. And, even if she
did
kiss him, she had to wonder now if he would kiss her back. Why hadn’t he kissed her last night? Maybe all the touching last night had just been his way of being supportive? But then why freak when Cora mentioned setting Katelyn up with Justin? Katelyn groaned in frustration.

Forget him!
She knew she had a tendency to over-analyze things, but this was plain ridiculous.

Headlights cut through the dark coming toward Katelyn, and she raised her arm to protect her eyes from the glare at the same time that she went further onto the shoulder in case the driver couldn’t see her. Nerves danced through her body, as what looked like a truck seemed to slow for a minute. She wondered if the driver was going to offer her a ride. Evers may be a small town and most of its residents wouldn’t hesitate to take a ride from one another, but Katelyn knew all too well what could happen even in this small town haven. Her mother had lost her life in a very violent way in this town and Katelyn wasn’t about to forget that.

Before she realized what was happening, the truck sped up and was heading directly at her. Katelyn shifted slightly to the side, but the truck seemed to shift with her. She’d like to say she reacted swiftly and calmly and moved out of the way, but that wouldn’t be true. In fact, she wasn’t calm or rational or anything of the sort. She was confused. Her brain couldn’t process the truck coming at her, so it simply didn’t. Rather than fathom that it might hit her, she kept telling herself the truck wasn’t going to hit her. It was a prank. The driver would swerve at the last minute.

But it didn’t. Katelyn dove out of the way as the truck roared by, bearing down on her. Pain shot through her left knee and burned up the side of her arm from wrist to shoulder. She lay face down in a shallow ditch by the side of the road listening in shock to the sound of the truck’s engine as it grew farther away. She knew before she even moved that the walk—or rather limp—home would be long, sore, and filled with pain.

Yup
. She couldn’t see the road rash up the left side of her body, but she could tell it was there. She could feel blood trickling down her arm and her knee felt like a basketball. Katelyn reached into her pocket for her phone before she realized she didn’t have anyone to call. She wasn’t close enough to anyone in Evers to have their phone numbers. Well, she had John’s number, but if she called him, he’d make a big deal out of this. That wasn’t at all what she needed right now. Not to mention, she was a little embarrassed by the whole thing. She should have just moved further off the road to begin with. She should have seen what was about to happen and reacted faster. No. She wanted to forget whatever idiot had just chased her off the road and get into a hot bath.

Limping home at a pace that could be outdone by the slowest snail on the planet won out over calling John. Twenty minutes later, she let herself into the house and slipped into a bath, wincing as the hot water surrounded her. She didn’t make it into bed for another few hours. Instead, she became intimately cozy with the tweezers in her father’s first-aid kit as she pulled bits of rock and sand out of her arm and leg and iced her knee.

When she finally did crawl into bed, she had to lie on her right side and prop pillows around herself to keep from rolling during the night. Her whole left side felt like it had been shaved down with a cheese grater. But there was one good thing about the whole ridiculous episode: it definitely helped keep her mind off John Davies and the almost-kissing-episode.

Everlasting: Chapter Six