Ready To Love Again (24 page)

She nodded. “I know. I think she was just upset, and I was an easy target.”

“I can tell she said something else. What was it?”

“Um . . . she’s―” Katie paused and looked him in the eyes. She didn’t want him to get upset, but she knew she couldn’t prevent it. “She told me she didn’t want me to be her mom.”

Anger flashed in his eyes, but in a heartbeat, it was gone. He leaned into Katie and rested his forehead on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Katie shook her head and pulled his face up to hers. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about. She’s having a hard time with the thought of her daddy spending time with someone besides her mom. It’s okay. It’s to be expected.”

Chase pulled her against him, and his warm breath at her ear sent goose bumps down her arm.

“I know. I’ll talk to her.”

Determined not to let him distract her, she continued. “Losing a parent is hard on a child. Even though Victor didn’t die, the separation from his father made it hard for Shawn to adjust. He didn’t lash out like Liz, but my extremely confident child cried himself to sleep every night and acted out constantly to get attention. Now that I look back on it, Victor was probably focused on his relationship with his girlfriend, because he wasn’t around much. Shawn was in trouble at school on a daily basis, and the therapist thought it was because he was trying to get his father to communicate with him.”

“Mm-hmm, I’ll straighten things out with Liz tomorrow.” Chase’s lips ran over her ear, pulling it between his lips and sucking.

“Chase, please don’t be angry with her. I already laid into her because I was frantic with worry over the boys. If anything, I should apologize to her.”

“No apologies. It wasn’t your fault. We’ll take care of it later,” he said against her ear, accomplishing his goal of distracting her.

She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer while his lips made lazy patterns across her neck and along her jaw until he reached her chin. Katie tugged his hair until their lips met. She had wanted this all day. The soft kisses and stolen moments were not enough to quench the thirst that had built for him throughout the day.

Chase’s hand came up and rested on her cheek, while his thumb pushed down on her chin, silently asking her to open to him. She responded, and his tongue slipped between her parted lips. Any thoughts she had about kid drama flew away with her restraint when he pushed her up against the counter. Katie’s heart rate increased, and her hands traveled down his back and into the pockets of his jeans.

“What’s for din—” Tony’s voice wafted through the kitchen, and Chase broke the kiss and lowered his head to Katie’s shoulder with a groan. She giggled at his reaction and turned to the boys, who were looking a little stunned yet happy.

“Tortellini with white sauce, salad, and bread sticks.”

Shawn expressed his approval as he let Buddy in, and they darted back out of the kitchen. Chase trailed kisses back up her neck once they were gone.

“Stay with me tonight,” he whispered. There was no mistaking his intent. Katie wanted to, but she didn’t want to make things worse with Liz, so she shook her head with regret.

“I shouldn’t. You need to talk to Liz first.”

Chase nodded against her neck. “You’re right,” he said, but that didn’t stop him from laying openmouthed kisses across her neck.
 

Katie laughed, then pushed him away. “If you keep that up, I might change my mind.” Grabbing the spoon off the counter, she turned back to the stove. His arms wrapped around her waist, and he rested his chin on her shoulder.

“Soon,” he whispered, kissing her cheek before going back to chopping the vegetables.

They didn’t have any more incidents with Liz for the rest of the evening. She came down for dinner and even participated in conversation with the boys about the upcoming May Festival at their school.
 

It was early when Chase and his kids drove them home. He walked her to the door and took her in his arms after Shawn and Buddy disappeared into the house.

“Saturday, you’re mine,” he said.

“Please tell me what we’re doing next weekend.” His mouth pressed under her ear, and she pushed him away so she could think. “Gina told me to pack a bag, so I’m assuming our date is overnight?” Katie was a bit apprehensive about spending the night with him, but her underlying desire pushed those feelings from her mind.
 

Chase smiled down at her and nodded. “It’s a surprise,” he said. Katie growled low in her chest, and he chuckled before giving her a chaste kiss. “Trust me—you don’t want to ruin this surprise.”

Chase gave her a lopsided smile before he released her and jogged back to his car.

~*~

“Elizabeth?” Chase asked, knocking on her bedroom door. Once they’d arrived home from dropping off Shawn and Katie, she had bolted for her room. He heard a shuffle behind the door and waited a moment before he pushed it open. Liz was already in bed, her pink flowered quilt pulled up to her chin, eyes closed. Chase let out a long sigh when he sat down on the edge of her bed and she feigned sleep.

“Sweetheart, I know what happened today. You have to understand that Katie doesn’t want to replace your mother.” He brushed her hair away from her forehead. “She only wants to be your friend.” Liz sniffled but didn’t open her eyes. “Your mother would always give someone a chance when she first met them. She would never prejudge and would always look at who that person was on the inside.” Liz’s forehead wrinkled, and she squeezed her eyes shut while she fought back tears.

Chase slipped his hands under her arms and pulled her into his lap. Her small fingers wound around his neck as he held her close, and she cried. Her quiet sobs tore at his heart with every tremor of her small body. He didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t stay mad at her for not wanting Katie around. Liz was loyal, and it was going to be almost impossible to get her to understand that she wasn’t betraying her mother by letting Katie into her life.

At eleven years old, she was too young to have to deal with the issues she faced. Chase held her close, the scent of her mother’s shampoo assaulting his senses, reminding him of his own struggle to move on. Her sobs soon turned to hiccups, and then her even breathing let him know she had fallen asleep.

Chase kissed her forehead and tucked her back into bed. Her cheeks were stained with tears, and his heart broke a little more at the pain she was going through. Lashing out was her only defense.

He walked into the kitchen without turning on the lights to grab a cold beer out of the refrigerator. Chase jumped when the light flicked on. Gina stood in the doorway with a smug smile. He let out his breath and turned back toward the refrigerator.

“How was your evening with Katie?”

Chase couldn’t help the grin that appeared on his lips while he told her about dinner. However, it quickly faded when he got to the part about her squabble with Liz.

“Don’t worry about Liz. She’ll come around,” Gina said.

“Did Liz say something to you at the fair?”

“Yeah, she said Katie yelled at her, but after some prodding, I got the full story out of her. I let her know that if she had talked to me like that, I would have smacked her.”

Chase grinned, knowing Gina’s bark was worse than her bite. She would never raise a hand to them, but if her threat got the point across, then he was fine with her method.

“She’s got a lot of pride,” Gina continued. “It’ll be a while before she’ll admit she was wrong, but she knows she shouldn’t have said the things she said.”

Chase was tired of having this discussion. He just hoped Gina was right.

“Are you going to be home Monday?” Chase asked when he remembered the delivery that would arrive sometime in the afternoon.

“In the morning. Why?”

“I’m having a new mattress delivered.”

“Why are you buying a new bed? Isn’t your current one pretty new?” Gina asked with a confused look on her face.

“Lumpy.”

“How long have you had it?”

He should have known she wouldn’t let it drop. “Um . . . five or six years.”

“Don’t they have a ten-year warranty?” Her grin grew larger. Chase shrugged and guzzled the rest of his beer down in one gulp, excusing himself to his room before she could draw any more conclusions.

Nosey, obnoxious brat.

Chapter 13

Chase and Katie settled into a comfortable routine as the weeks wore on. He worked back-to-back shifts so he could take off the weekend of their date, which didn’t leave them much time to spend together. Every evening, Katie came to his house and made dinner. Most nights, Chase had to eat and run, but she stayed to watch his children when Gina was out late each night with Daniel. Katie had become a more permanent fixture in their lives, and even Liz accepted having her around more often.

Chase didn’t ask Katie to stay the night again. He knew their time would come soon enough, which made him both nervous and excited. Their upcoming date was the source of most of his anxiety. He’d forgotten how much effort went into planning a romantic evening. With Gina’s help, he had arranged for dinner and made sure that all the small details were taken care of during his spare hours.

Katie had planned to come over early so they could ride to the game together on the day of their big date. That morning, Chase was woken by warm fingers tracing along his chin. His lips curled up at the thought of Katie in his room—on his bed, her body pressed against his side when she leaned down and touched her soft lips to his. His hands went to her hair, holding her closer as he opened his mouth to her with a small moan of approval. He shifted her until she lay along the length of him, her legs on either side of his. She pulled away, and he opened his eyes to see her beautiful face smiling down at him.

“I think this is my new favorite way to wake up in the morning,” Chase whispered.

“Afternoon.”

His eyes darted to the clock beside the bed, and he groaned, realizing he needed to get up if he wanted to make it to the game on time.

“Late night?”

“Yeah, I was in surgery until almost two this morning.” He yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “I don’t want to get up.”

Chase pulled Katie back down and buried his face into her shoulder like a petulant child. She giggled and kissed his neck, leaving a wet trail from his ear to his collarbone. He knew if he didn’t end what she’d begun, they would never make it to the game.

Pushing her shoulders with a gentle nudge until she straddled his hips, he said, “As much as I want to continue this, I need to get dressed so we can go. It doesn’t look good if the coach is late.”

“I’ll get the kids ready while you get up.” She leaned down and pecked his lips once more before she hopped off the bed.

Once Katie was out of the room, Chase pushed off the covers and stared down at the result of his desire. There was no denying he wanted her. He just worried he was going to ruin everything by taking the next step. His doubts had been a constant nagging presence while he’d planned the details of their evening. Would she be ready to become lovers? Was he? Those thoughts entered his mind again as he dressed, but he pushed his uncertainties away and tried to concentrate on what felt right.

When Katie was in his arms, he forgot everything else. Chase wanted to make love to her, to share the connection that could only be accomplished when one person gave him- or herself over to someone else. His fears only seemed to surface when he was alone with his memories. On those occasions, his feelings could become overwhelming, and he would question everything he felt for Katie. Despite his guilt, he was determined not to allow his fears to ruin their weekend.

The baseball game was long and grueling. By the last inning, the Giants were ahead by one run. Tony and Shawn pitched their innings, and both had done a fantastic job at minimizing the runs. Chase put Cody on the mound for the final inning, and he struggled with landing the ball in the strike zone. Some field work by the outfielders resulted in two outs, and all they needed was one more to end the game with a victory.

Mitch berated his son every time he threw a less-than-perfect pitch, causing the boy to make even more mistakes. Chase clenched his fists and resisted the urge to lay into the baboon who dared to call himself a father. He’d love nothing more than to explain to Mitch that children didn’t perform better with that kind of 
encouragement.
 Chase’s only hope was to pull Cody out of his anxiety by talking him down from his nervousness. He called a timeout and jogged out to the mound. Tony started to run out to the huddle, but Chase waved him back, wanting a moment alone with Cody.

He squatted down in front of the boy and asked him if he was all right. Tears welled up in Cody’s eyes, and he swiped them away with his sleeve, leaving a streak of dirt across his nose. He nodded but wouldn’t look Chase in the eye when Mitch started a whole new line of insulting comments.

“Stop being a cry baby and pitch the damn ball!” Mitch yelled.

Chase shook his head. “Don’t listen to him. I want you to focus on me. Drown out every voice. The only one that matters right now is mine. Tony will give you a signal for which pitch to throw. If you don’t like it, tell him, and he’ll switch it up.” Chase put his hand on Cody’s shoulder. “You can do this, kid. Don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.”