“You suck them then,” I say with a nod. “She isn’t the boss of you.”
“Are you the boss of me?”
“Nope.”
“Just Daddy then?”
I nod. “Because he loves you.”
“You love me too,” she smiles and sticks her fingers back in her mouth and mumbles, “Beach.”
“Yeah,” I nod. “Yeah.”
***
After we eat little peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into shapes, fruits, and crackers, we splash in the water. She asks if we can go to my house and I tell her yes.
It’s two o’clock when we walk in the house and three sets of eyes are on me, then on her.
I look at my phone for the hundredth time and still no call or message.
I introduce Natalia to everyone and she smiles but looks to the stairs.
“You want the pencils?” I ask.
“And a new cat book,” she nods.
“Go get ‘em,” I nod and she is off.
I quickly give them a heads up and Stephanie seems uncomfortable.
“You okay?” I ask her.
“We need to talk,” she whispers.
“Okay. Later?”
“No now,” she says insistently.
“Kat?” I look up and Natalia is peeking down the stairs between the banister spindles.
“Yeah?” I say feeling a bit frazzled.
“Can you come up here?” she asks.
“My God she is just too perfect,” Josie says and tears immediately fall. She touches her face. “Oh crap. I am so sorry.”
Then there is a knock on the door and I look at Macey for… I don’t know what.
“Kat?” Natalia says again.
“Can you give me just a second,” I say as I go to answer the door because none of my three friends are moving a damn inch.
“Hey Kat.” It’s Zack who up until this second I forgot that I was pissed at. He notices. “I brought food.”
“You’re lucky.” I open the door and he walks in, his eyes scan the room then fall on Josie. A look of concern crosses his face and then I see a look. A much different look that I am used to seeing him sport.
“Watch it,” I growl at him in a whisper.
“I’m a man not a boy,” he hisses back in the same hushed tone.
“You sure about that Rider one?” I say to him.
He rolls his eyes. “I got pizza for the ladies.”
He walks past me like I don’t exist.
“Hey Zack,” Stephanie smiles at him.
“Hey back. You hungry?” He winks at her.
“Um Kat?” I hear Natalia from the stairs.
“You guys got this?” I look around the room. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
***
Natalia walks me toward the office, slash studio, slash one of the rooms one of my new housemates will be living in.
As soon as we’re in the room she climbs under the bed and pulls out a sketchpad.
“I made a coloring book for you.” She plops down on the floor and pats the spot beside her.
“That’s sweet,” I say and sit.
She climbs up on my lap and I allow it. It actually feels good. She leans back against me and it feels even better. She’s relaxed.
“Rough day huh?” I say pulling her hair to the side and looking around her at the book.
“Yeah.”
“You wanna talk about it?” I ask her and she shakes her head no.
“This is a big cat and a little cat,” she says opening the sketchpad.
“I can see that,” I say shocked because she’s freaking three and it’s not a stick figure. “It’s great.”
“This is a big cat bed, and a little cat sleeping in it,” she says and looks out of the corner of her eye at me. I nod.
“This is a big cat giving the cold little cat a towel,” she says and flips the page. “This is where they goed to the beach.”
Page by page she flips and tells me the next thing the big cat and the little cat did together.
Only a few are things I don’t remember doing with her.
“I’m gonna draw the big cat taking the little cat out of a scary room now.”
I fight with everything I have not to appear shaken up, but how do you do that? How do you as a human being not want to go to that fucking little prison after hours and torch the place.
How did I not call and turn them in immediately? Could I do that? Should I do that? I needed to find out what her ass of a father wanted done. But could I tell him when he is sick? Is he even awake yet? Was he fucking okay?!
“Kat?” she grunts. “You squishing me.”
“Oh shit sorry,” I say letting up on the bear hug I am giving her.
“Little lady, I have pizza for you,” I hear Zack yelling up to Natalia.
“He’s talking to you Nat. You hungry?”
She shakes her head no.
“Can we bring these downstairs and you can keep drawing?”
She nods yes.
“Okay.”
RICCO
I wake up feeling like hell. My head is foggy, my side is fucking killing me, my mouth is cotton and I’m so fucked up I can barely open my eyelids.
When I do get them open I see her sitting next to me in a chair.
“Water,” I grunt.
“Say please asshole,” she hisses like the snot she is.
“Now,” I grunt again.
“I should kick you in the side instead of getting water for you,” she says with a lot less sass and a lot more concern in her voice.
“Don’t be a bitch,” I say as she holds the straw just out of reach from my mouth.
“You keep a schedule of my fucking period at work for you and the boys to gauge my mood?” she snarls.
“Only reason they’re still working.” I cringe as I hit the button on the most uncomfortable bed in the history of beds. “For us.”
“Since that’s the truth I’ll give you a sip.” She holds the straw still and I take a drink. “Slow down tiger or the nurse with the hair growing out of her mole will come back in to check to see if the catheter is in place,” she pauses, “for the fourth time in two hours.”
I lean back and scowl. “You telling her how hard it made you come?”
“No, I told her it was a fucking worthless hunk of meat and you lasted two minutes,” she says as she pours more water from the mustard yellow plastic pitcher into the Styrofoam cup.
“That’s a fucking lie and we both know it.” I lean up to get another drink of water and she pulls back the cup. “Fuck Kat, come on.”
“Speaking of lies, you wanna tell me about Rider one?” she asks.
Shit, I’m gonna kill that little fucker. “Zack?”
“Try again,” she says stepping back.
“Kat come on damn it,” I groan.
“The truth.”
I shake my head no. “It’s best you not ask questions that I don’t feel like fucking answering. Drink Kat, now.”
“The truth. Isn’t that what Rider one always promised?”
I roll my eyes and grab the remote attached to my bed. “I’m calling the nurse. Maybe the hot one with the sweet demeanor and the big ass will be in this time.”
“Well go ahead, she’s not your type anyway,” she shrugs.
“You sure about that Kat?”
“Yeah, I am,” she nods once. “You like crazy bitches.”
“You can say that again,” I agree. “Drink.”
She lets me drink and I set down the remote. When I have drained the glass I lean back and close my eyes.
“Truth Ricco.”
“You know the damn truth,” I say as I hold pressure on my side.
“Yeah, well you’re gonna have to explain to me why the hell you told Zack that you were Rider one, sexually harassing me through an app that you gave him access to so he could read weeks of our conversation.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” I groan.
“The hell you are.” I hear her pouring more water into the cup. “Now drink this so you can piss enough for them to pull that tube out of your dick and get the hell out of here.”
“You just don’t want them to see what you crave.” I raise my eyebrow and she says nothing. “Deny it.”
She gives me the finger, then a drink.
She sits down next to me and looks up. “Natalia is staying with me, do you have a problem with that?”
I shake my head no and her face softens. I reach out and push her hair away from her face.
“She good?”
“She’s good.” She nods. “She has four women, looking after her.”
“Steph good?” I ask.
“Yes and Josie will be too. My date,” she pauses, “walked into the bathroom and he was banging a bridesmaid.”
I shake my head and watch her eyes. “How you doing?”
She shrugs. “Better than you.”
“You sure about that?”
Looking in her eyes I know she is anything but okay. She’s chatty. She looks scared as fuck. If she only knew she wasn’t alone. That the thought of her terrifies the fuck out of me.
She nods. “I have a crush on your kid.”
I laugh and it hurts like a bitch. “Damn it.”
“She’s so perfect.”
“None of us are perfect, but she damn near is. After last week I wasn’t so sure. She gave me hell.”
“Yeah I’m thinking she won’t now.”
“Explain Kat,” I demand.
She tells me about her getting in trouble at school and the shit she said to the kids. She tells me that she may have overstepped but she did explain to Natalia that some people were just ignorant.
Apparently while drawing in Kat’s bed tonight before the sleep part of the sleepover Natalia filled them in on the things the little punks were saying to my sweet girl about me having ink, and her not having a mom. Apparently Natalia told them she didn’t need a mom when she had a cat. Kids being kids didn’t get that shit, just like Nat didn’t when she first met Kat.
Apparently she pulled my kid out of school and told the head chick she wouldn’t be coming back.
Did Kat overstep a little? No, she did a fucking long jump and cleared about fifty yards.
Why am I not pissed? Because I am in love with a woman whose feelings about everything are so intense that she has to shut them completely down in order to fucking survive.
She has to turn a blind eye to people because it hurts too much to let them all in and still function.
She laid her head on the bed next to me and her shoulders shook as she cried and told me about what happened with her and that fucking blazer wearing asshole. She whispered it all like she couldn’t bear to say it out loud and if not for the heavy dose of pain meds I probably would have done one of two things. I would have gone and found him and killed him with my bare hands or I would have cried like a bitch. One thing Kat didn’t need was a weak ass bitch next to her.
What she needed was me. A fucking man who could let her cry, let her bitch, let her act like a fucking loon and let her feel safe in doing so.
She needed a man who loved her enough to put up with her shit because he knew she would get through it someday and that one day all her crazy feelings will surface and then all will be well.
I know the next few months will be hard on both of us, but we would survive.
I also know that I will be thanking my lucky stars that my reward is between her legs.
When I wake up, she’s gone.
Four days later and I hadn’t seen her but did receive updates via text and through Momma Joe, the guys, and Stephanie.
My kiddo was a great little nurse and happy as shit to be in our house. She asked about her Kat daily and the two of them talked on the phone at least once a day.
I knew she was working through her shit. I also knew she was riding the guys harder than normal and that if I didn’t make it back to the shop soon, they’d either have left or killed her.
Three more days later I am cleared to function. Natalia and I roll up to Kat’s place without an invite. Nat is having a sleepover with Little Bell and although Kat doesn’t know it, I’m having a sleep over with her.
She walks out of the front door and onto her porch as I’m unbuckling Nat.
Natalia squeals and climbs out of my arms and runs to her. Well she runs into her and they both end up in a pile on the porch. Can’t help but laugh, and I have to hold my side to stop from hurting so fucking bad.
When they right themselves and finally stand Kat opens the door and swats Natalia on the ass. “Go say hi to the girls, they miss you too.”
Nat does and Kat shuts the door behind her.
She turns around as I walk up the stairs on the porch. Her hands go onto her hips and she snaps at me. “Why are you driving and why are you here?”
“Doctor said I could drive and I decided I could come here. You gonna let me in?”
I take a step forward and her eyes widen as she steps back. Her tongue sweeps across her lips and I place my hand on the door behind her head. I lean in and kiss her. It starts out soft and she is unmoved. Then I kiss her harder and she melts.
Fuck yes.
Her fingers are on my hips and she is kissing me with the same amount of urgency I am kissing her. Tongue against tongue, teeth biting, lips sucking, bodies pressed tightly together, and I am fucking Stonehenge.
I hear a loud whistle and a clap. I pull back regretfully and turn around.
Jase and Carly are walking up the sidewalk both smiling.
“It’s about fucking time,” Jase laughs as he reaches for the handle of the door. I look at Carly and she is smiling from ear to ear at me, then Kat.
As soon as they’re inside she smacks my chest. “Was that a show for them?”
I grab her hand and place it on my jeans. “It was the real deal and it had nothing to do with them.”
“Get a room,” Zack says as he and Marcus walk up the steps.
“Where the hell did you two come from?” Kat says yanking her hand back.
“If you had asked us that before we last left the shop with you I would’ve said the depths of hell,” Zack gives her shit right back.
“Easy, she’s fragile,” I say to him.
KAT
I walk inside feeling like a teenager who’s just been busted until Natalia comes and jumps in my arms and hugs me tight and announces, “My daddy loves you,” to the entire world. “I told him you were my cat, he told me you were ours, so can we keep you?”
“Okay Nat,” Ricco says a little caught off guard, “what did we talk about after the school incident?”
“This isn’t public, this is family.”
“She’s got that right,” Jase laughs.