Kat's Nine Lives

by Laina Villeneuve

  “Not really,” Wendy admitted. What was building with Kat was unlike anything she had experienced before. In the past, her libido had pulled her into fiery encounters that quickly burned out when there was nothing to talk about. With Kat, her desire to know more was pulling her closer. What was building was not a fast fire, but a blaze started with kindling on hot coals. “But I think I get Kat and what she needs.”

  “I can see that,” Cory said. He paused as if he didn’t want to say what he was thinking. “Does she get what you need?”

  Wendy started to say of course, but was that so?

  * * *

  Kat pulled chicken strips, eggrolls and sauces from one of the take-out bags and put them on a plate to carry upstairs to her mother. “Dinner,” she said, already turning toward the door.

  “I had to talk to Jack today.”

  “Weren’t you hiding up here when he dropped Travis off?”

  “I don’t have a car. He knows I’m here.”

  “He came up here?”

  “Like I said. I had to talk to Jack today.”

  Kat crossed her arms. “About what?”

  “He seemed surprised that you weren’t here, and he waited for a while.”

  “Up here?” Kat asked getting worried. “He knows I have bell rehearsal.”

  “You’re usually home a half hour ago.”

  “Oh. Is it that late? I had a phone call on the way out of the office,” she lied. It was a simple alteration from what had actually happened. In the parking lot, she’d found a note Wendy had tucked beneath her windshield wiper sometime during the day. She had enjoyed similar gestures ever since Wendy had sent the gorgeous bouquet and she delighted in hearing Wendy’s voice as much as she delighted in the gestures themselves. The thank-you call had felt like just a few minutes, but there seemed to be so much to say once she had Wendy on the line.

  “It is. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you put in full-time hours at the church. They should give you a full-time salary.”

  “I don’t want to be there nine to five. I like my schedule.” Her mother had complained about her hours before, and Kat knew that there was no changing either one of their minds. She changed the subject instead. “Did Jack tell you what he wanted?”

  “He was quite amiable today, full of questions about the wedding that was here. Sounds like he and Ember are pretty stressed out about their upcoming nuptials.”

  Kat wasn’t sure why Jack would have come up to talk to her mom about that, but the last thing she wanted was a rundown of their wedding plans from her mom. She turned to go.

  “He wanted to know about you and Wendy, too.”

  “What?” Kat had to sit down. “What did he want to know about us?”

  “Whether you’re seeing each other.”

  “Why would he think that?”

  “Maybe someone told him about the flowers?”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “That if she wasn’t so young, I’d throw myself at her.”

  “Please tell me you didn’t really say that.”

  “I said you went on a picnic and that you seem happy.”

  “Why’d you tell him that!”

  “Because you seem happy. Aren’t you happy?”

  “Yes, but he doesn’t have to know that.”

  “I don’t see what’s wrong with him knowing that.”

  Kat worried her palm with her thumb. She wasn’t even sure Wendy had talked to Erin. Why hadn’t she made sure Wendy had let Erin down before they’d gone out? “I can’t talk to you about this. I have to feed Travis.”

  “I’m sure he can feed himself.”

  “Well I haven’t eaten.” She didn’t wait for her mother to say anything else. As Millie had predicted, Travis had come up to the kitchen for his food and was probably eating in front of his tablet downstairs. Her father, too, was already well through his dinner, his plate balanced on his knees and his favorite show playing on his laptop.

  She carried her bag downstairs to Travis’s room. “Mind if I join you?”

  “No.”

  “How was your day?”

  “Good.”

  “Practice?”

  “Good.”

  “How about some broccoli with your burger?”

  “What? Gross.”

  “I didn’t know if you were really listening.” He nodded, so she continued. “How’s your dad?”

  Travis didn’t look away from the tablet. “Good. Fine. Why?”

  “Gramma said he was waiting for me.”

  “Oh…yeah.” Travis took another bite.

  Her burger was still passably warm, but the fries were cold and soggy. She leaned over and swiped some ketchup from Travis’s plate. “What does he want to talk to me about?”

  “I don’t know.” His eyes flitted from the screen. He knew something that he wasn’t saying.

  “‘Don’t know or can’t say?’” Kat asked, quoting Dave, another of her favorite movies.

  “Mom!” he complained. He hated it when she quoted movies.

  She waited, but he wasn’t talking. “You know something.”

  “I know you need to talk to Dad.”

  “That’s weak.”

  “No it’s not. It’s the truth.”

  “What do I need to talk to him about?”

  Still distracted by the show, he said, “The wed—” He snapped his mouth shut, but it was too late.

  “Is the marriage off?” Kat made sure to keep her face neutral.

  “You really need to talk to Dad.”

  “Oh.” Kat ate some more burger and pretended to watch Travis’s show. She made herself sit until she’d finished the burger. Then she ate more soggy fries. Travis glanced at her a few times, but she kept her eyes on the screen. “You want the rest of my fries?”

  “Sure.” He reached for them. “You calling Dad?”

  “I’ll call. I’ll call. Need anything else?”

  “No thanks. You want to call him now?”

  “Fine. I’m sure I can be grown up about it.”

  “Really?”

  “Of course.”

  Kat climbed the stairs. At the landing, she heard his voice again. “Love you, Mom.”

  “Love you too, kiddo,” she called back.

  After puttering around the kitchen, she poured a glass of water, said goodnight to her father and climbed the stairs. She pulled up her phone and then closed it out again, still trying to figure out what he’d want to talk about. Enough! She scolded herself. Just dial.

  “Kat!” Jack sounded happy.

  “Sorry I was running late.”

  “I know how hard it is for you to get away during Easter season.”

  Kat laughed silently. He’d never understood that when they were together. “What’s up?”

  “Travis was telling us about the ceremony, and it sounded amazing.”

  She waited for him to continue, but silence stretched between them on the line. “Yes, it was lovely.”

  “And your mom and dad. They were okay with them using the house?”

  “Why? Because they’re gay? Jack…”

  “No! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I just wondered how your mom coped with all the guests there.”

  Kat could not imagine why he would care. “You know my mom. It was stressful, but it went okay.”

  “And the bridge Travis told us about. Is it still over the pool?”

  “What’s going on, Jack?”

  “Remember how the venue Ember picked had some pretty bad water damage?”

  “I remember you saying that everything was going to be fine.”

  “The repairs went according to schedule, but they didn’t pass inspection. They’ve had to cancel our booking.”

  “Please tell me you’re not asking what I think you’re asking.”

  “I know it’s unconventional…”

  “To ask your ex if you can use her house for your second wedding? You couldn’t have at least asked me to che
ck the church schedule?”

  “Ember doesn’t want a church wedding.”

  “Can’t you postpone?”

  “You have no idea how stressed out Ember is, first with the planning and now with this hiccough. I just want to get it over with.”

  “Do you hear yourself?”

  “I didn’t mean that.”

  “Jack…” As she searched for a reason to say no, he adopted his lawyer’s voice and pitched his best case, and in the end, it was easier to say yes than it was to argue with him.

  By the time she hung up, she needed chocolate. A lot of chocolate. So much she was tempted to call Wendy and say that she was having a chocolate emergency and required an entire pan of her brownies. Phone in hand, she heard how much like her mother she sounded. There had to be something downstairs.

  She said a silent prayer that she would find the kitchen empty. Some See’s candy would help bring her world back into balance. The box she found on the mantle in the dining room was mostly empty papers. A lone cherry as if Ava was still with them. She loved the chocolate-covered cherries the best, and Kat had never understood why she wouldn’t eat them first. Duh! Nobody else likes them, so I know they’ll still be there after I’ve had the ones everyone likes. Kat could still hear her laughter.

  In the china cupboard, she found a stash of Hershey’s Kisses. The orange and black foil gave away that they’d been there since Halloween, but she unwrapped one and popped it in her mouth anyway. Travis arrived at the top of the stairs just as she spat the stale chocolate in the trash. “I need chocolate. If you’re not here to help, then you’re not welcome.”

  “You talked to Dad?”

  Kat rolled her eyes and. “Uh, yep.”

  “Gramma was talking about making chocolate chip cookies. Would that help?”

  In the baking cupboard, there was, indeed, a fresh bag of chocolate chips. Kat pulled open the bag and sat down at the kitchen table. She poured a handful of chips into her palm and tossed them back.

  “Aren’t you going to make cookies?”

  “Since when do you think I bake? You must be smoking something down there. Come here and let me smell you.”

  He stepped forward with his hand extended, and she shook some chocolate chips into his palm. More restrained, he popped them into his mouth one at a time. “Are you mad at me?”

  “You? Why would I be mad at you?”

  “For telling them about the dudes who got married here.”

  “No. I’m not mad about that. You didn’t make your dad call and ask me if he could get married here.”

  “But they wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t said.” Travis extended his hand for more chocolate chips. “I wanted them to stop fighting about it.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know they fought.” Kat remembered how she had struggled not to fight with Jack in front of Travis.

  Travis shrugged.

  When they all dined out together, everything seemed perfect between Jack and Ember. She’d forgotten the public persona she’d worn for years, so well that their friends were shocked to learn that there was any strife at home. She’d continued to believe that their marriage ended because of her lack of interest in sex. Jack and Ember seemed so affectionate with each other that she felt sure they were happy.

  “He wanted to know what’s up with you and Wendy,” Travis said without looking at Kat.

  “What did you tell him?”

  “That he should talk to you.”

  “Good answer. You want some milk?”

  “If you put chocolate in it.”

  This brought a smile to her face, the juxtaposition of his boy self still present in the man he was maturing to be. She prepared the chocolate milk as she had so many times before and delivered it to the table. He sat across from her now, sporting a milk mustache after his first sip. “Do you want to know what’s up with me and Wendy?”

  “Only if you want to say.”

  “I like her. And her taking me to the pier was a real date. I’d like to keep dating her. Would that be weird for you?”

  Another shrug. He gulped the rest of his milk. “She seems cool, but it’s not like it matters if I like her or not.”

  “It matters to me.”

  “Everything she’s cooked has been super good.”

  “So as long as she keeps feeding you, she’s in?”

  “And if she makes you happy.”

  His words warmed Kat’s heart. “She does.”

  He got up to rinse his glass and put it in the dishwasher. He stood there long enough that Kat finished her plain milk and joined him by the sink.

  “Do you think you’ll get married again?”

  Kat exhaled in surprise and crossed her arms over her chest. She leaned against the counter. “That’s really hard for me to say. I haven’t really thought about it.”

  “Did you marry Dad because of me?” He kept his eyes on the floor.

  “He told you that?”

  “No. But if you’re dating Wendy now…I just wondered why you married Dad.”

  Kat thought about how afraid she had been to feel anything for Miranda and how safe it felt to get married and have a family. “You were only part of why.”

  “If you hadn’t gotten pregnant, do you think you’d have married a girl?” He looked at her now, and it struck Kat how grown up he was.

  “I don’t think I would have been brave enough. Things were a lot different eighteen years ago. Bottom line, I wouldn’t change any of it.”

  “Okay.”

  “One hug, one kiss?” she asked.

  He complied.

  “Love you,” Kat said.

  “Love you too, Mom.”

  Listening to him trot down the stairs, she appreciated how lucky she was to have a kid who would talk to her. She knew that Wendy considered her childhood to be messed up and hoped that her adult self wouldn’t scar her own kid.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Wendy cleaned when she was angry, and she was really angry. Her phone hit the counter with a clatter, and she pulled a spray bottle out from under the sink and squirted the front of the stove. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Kat’s ex-husband had called her to ask her to cater his wedding. At first, she had thought it was an elaborate April Fool’s joke. That he was entirely serious made her all the more pissed.

  She wanted to know why Kat would have passed on her private number, but she needed to calm down before she spoke with her. Maybe she hadn’t done it willingly. Jack sounded like the kind of person who usually got what he wanted. Maybe it was his idea to have Wendy cater, not Kat’s. That made her feel better. But if Kat knew it was a bad idea, why wouldn’t she have given Jack her business number? Maybe she had but Jack had called back to badger for Wendy’s personal number when he got the message that played before the restaurant opened. Why were they talking on the phone anyway?

  They had sat at the same table when Travis played at the bar, but Wendy had thought that was for Travis’s benefit. She got that Travis forever tied Kat to Jack, but his getting married again had nothing to do with their son. His call made Wendy worry about how involved they still seemed to be. Divorce was supposed to mean Kat was free. Maybe she should be on board to help Jack get married. That was sure to put more distance between them, wasn’t it?

  Talking to herself wasn’t making her any less agitated.

  Wishing she didn’t feel so nervous she called Kat.

  “Hey!” she chirped. “I’m so bummed that it’s not going to work out for Jack’s wedding.”

  Wendy was so taken aback that she couldn’t immediately reply.

  Kat continued without prompting. “I was just thinking about calling you. I was remembering how Cory said we made such a good team, me with the setting and you with the food. If you’re all booked up, what would you think of doing only the food prep, and I could manage the setup here? If we did something like Jeremy and Evan’s rehearsal dinner, I could pull it off, don’t you think?”

  Wen
dy found her voice. “Why would you do all that for Jack?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s your ex, and he’s marrying someone else. At your house. You don’t think that’s weird?”

  “But everything is still set up, and it’s perfect.”

  “What did your parents say about it?” Wendy asked, trying to ascertain whether she was the one being unreasonable.

  “My mom said as long as I can keep people downstairs, it’s fine with her.”

  Wendy squirted the front of her fridge with cleaner and scrubbed.

  “What about your dad and Travis?”

  “They’re fine. But you don’t seem fine. What’s wrong?”

  The number of times Kat had said “we” was a starting point, but Wendy bit her tongue. For a second. “Why do you keep saying ‘we’? Isn’t it his wedding that he’s planning with someone else? I’m having a tough time with the energy you’re investing in this.”

  Kat took a moment to reply, and Wendy wondered if she was moving somewhere more private. “I don’t understand why you’re upset. You helped before.”

  If Kat couldn’t sense Wendy’s discomfort, how was she supposed to explain it? And if she had to explain it, was there any point? “Why didn’t you call me?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “To ask about catering. You called for Jeremy and Evan.”

  “I offered to call, but Jack said he didn’t want you to feel like you had to say yes.”

  “And he got what he wanted,” Wendy mumbled feeling like what she wanted didn’t matter to Kat at all.

  “But you can’t do it, and it doesn’t sound like my idea will work, either. I was just trying to help.”

  “Why isn’t his wife-to-be helping?”

  “She’s…not feeling well,” Kat stammered. “She’s got really bad morning sickness.”

  What a train wreck, Wendy thought, glad that she already had a legitimate booking. “I hope they have a lovely day,” she managed.

  “Wendy?” Kat said, keeping her on the line.

  Wendy found her throat had tightened up. “Yeah?”

  “You never said why you called. We got sidetracked with the wedding.”

  “Jack’s wedding? The food?”

  “Right. Um. Did you want to try to get together before you go into work on Saturday?”