Her skin grew clammy as she acknowledged deleting Dawson’s message without copying down his number. But her mother had no right to go over her head like that, complicating her life more than it already was. And the act of rebellion felt good at the time, but now she was nauseous.
Mia pouted the day Tyson’s house was sided in yellow instead of pink, but the color looked phenomenal on the old colonial. Even Gorrum—who was ‘showing up’ more and more—agreed yellow was the best choice. The house looked completely different. It was breathtaking.
Much of its historic charm had been restored while also incorporating state of the art amenities. The day Tyson’s crew carried in an enormous Jacuzzi tub Kat had longingly stared. It was a jetted tub built for two. Tyson’s company would no doubt enjoy such luxuries.
Spring was in full bloom and he’d begun to work on the yard. The old, rundown fence in the back was replaced with a white picket fence. His driveway was full of shrubs and flowers waiting to be planted and he was doing most of the remaining labor. It was obvious he took great pride in his house and it seemed to mean something to him that he be the one to make it a home.
Sometimes floodlights glowed from the backyard late into the night. In the mornings, when she dropped off Mia at Mrs. Bradshaw’s, she would sometimes see him jogging through the neighborhood in a pair of loose gym shorts and her body would tighten, reminding her of all the reasons they needed to keep their distance.
Days passed with dull repetitiveness. She worried that Mia’s invisible friend was a sort of coping mechanism for something missing in their life and tried not to beat herself up too much about what that something could be.
At least one thing stayed constant—her mother was still a tyrant and insistent on pushing things with Dawson. With all the bleak, unrelenting emptiness dulling Kat’s moods, she thought it wise not to mention his deleted message to her mother. But, as it turned out, she would have been better off telling the truth. A week after Dawson called, her mother surprised her by doing the same.
“Hello,” she answered as pleasantly as she could manage after recognizing her mother’s number on the caller ID.
“Oh, your phone does work. Interesting. I assumed you were having trouble paying your bills after I spoke to Dawson Price tonight at a benefit. Imagine my surprise, Katherine, when he informed me that he called you to ask you to dinner almost a week ago and you never returned his call.”
Shit. “Mom, I—”
“Don’t you dare waste another one of your excuses, or lies, on me. I was humiliated. I stood there, singing your praises, telling Dawson how upset you were that he never called, when to my shock he informed me it was the other way around.”
“Why did you tell him I was upset he didn’t call?” she snapped.
“Because any normal girl would be! Any normal girl would jump at the opportunity to have someone like Dawson Price show interest in her. Any girl, in your situation, would be grateful to have a man like that willing to tolerate and overlook her past.”
“Stop calling it my past! I hate when you say that. My mistakes gave you Mia, so stop holding it over my head.”
“Yes, the one silver lining was Mia, but a scandal is still a scandal, Katherine. You have no idea what it was like to be judged by our friends, knowing that they were whispering about you and looking at us with pity. It was humiliating! We were ostracized and you never seemed to be one bit repentant. Mia wants for nothing, because of our generosity.”
“You have no right—”
“Now, here’s what’s going to happen, Katherine. I covered up my faux pas by explaining to Dawson that you lost his number. He was forgiving enough to give me his card to pass onto you. Tomorrow, you will call him and apologize for not getting back to him in a timely manner. And if he’s kind enough to ask you out again, you will go. Do not cross me on this. I’ve been patient, but my patience is ending. I’m not sure your father could forgive yet another disappointment. Do we have an understanding?”
Frustration choked her. A thousand nasty, hurtful words rested on her tongue. She wanted to scream them into the phone. She wanted to hang up and never speak to her again. But she couldn’t.
Other than her parents, Mia had no family. They had Jade, but Jade had her own family. Mia needed family. She needed something larger than Kat. So despite all of the things she wanted to say, all she said was, “Give me his number.”
The last of the dishes were washed and Kat was drying them with a cloth when there was a soft knock at the door. Heart stuttering, she quickly wiped off her hands and pressed her palms to her stomach. A strange wistfulness came when Mia yelled.
“Tyson! Can I open the door, Momma?”
“Go ahead.” Sublime anticipation prickled her skin as she slowed her breathing and turned.
A yipping bark sounded and Mia squealed. The counter pressed into Kat’s hip as she jumped back to make way for the scampering, four legged, ball of fur that came barreling into her house. Its leash swung like a wild kite tail as the dog jumped, pressing two soft brown paws into Mia’s chest. Her daughter giggled with enchanted affection as the puppy licked her chin.
“A dog!”
Tyson sauntered in wearing the grin of a proud father. “What do you think, Mia? He definitely likes to run.”
Mia fell to the floor in a fit of laughter as the beagle squirmed with uncontained excitement and nudged her neck with its black nose. “He loves me,” she giggled with conviction.
“Look’s that way.” Tyson crossed his arms and eased his hip against the counter next to Kat. Never taking his gaze from the display of newfound friendship rolling out before them, he said, “How are you?”
The revelation that he’d not come to visit her, settled like a cement boulder in her chest. “I’m good.”
Through sidelong gazes she watched him observe Mia and the dog. Turbulent emotions swirled in her chest. There was no longing in his glances, nothing that said how much he missed her. The uplifting anticipation that accompanied his entrance faded into nothing more than cold and hollow reality. He was over her.
The dog pinned Mia and Tyson stepped in. “That’s enough, Trix.”
His firm hand gripped the leash and the dog immediately recognized the authority of its owner and settled. The dog’s tongue lolled to the side of its mouth like a piece of ham. Tyson reached into his pocket and pulled out a treat. The dog caught the treat with a succinct snap and happily wagged its tail.
“Good girl.”
Was it wrong that she was jealous of the way he complimented the dog?
“It’s a girl?” Mia asked.
“Yup. Her name’s Trixie. Do you like her?”
Mia nodded. “Isn’t he great, Momma?”
Pushing all worries aside, Kat smiled at her daughter’s excitement and laughed. “She, Mia. And yes, she sure is great.”
Her daughter turned to Tyson. “Since it’s a girl are you gonna paint her doghouse pink?”
Fingers curled over her lips, Kat held in a giggle, as Tyson seemed suspended in air for a moment.
“Uh, I was thinking it’d be nice to match the house. You like my yellow house, don’t you, Mia?”
Huffing with defeat, Mia sighed. “I da’pose yellow’s okay. But Trixie really would’ve liked pink.” The fact that dogs were colorblind was clearly not in her daughter’s expansive bank of knowledge.
“I got her a pink collar,” Tyson said and Mia nodded in approval. “Besides, if we make it yellow we can start building it this weekend—if that’s okay with your momma.”
Kat nodded, not seeing an issue with their schedule.
“Okay!” Mia and Trixie raced into the living room and the tickling game of chase continued. They watched for a few minutes in thoughtful silence.
“Am I nuts getting a puppy?” Tyson whispered beside her.
She turned. The same unsatisfied yearning resumed at the soft expression on his face. His lips barely curved, but the dimple was there. “You’re not nuts.”
Pressure built in her chest and her head lowered. It was the one thing she wanted to hear, but also dreaded he’d say. “Tyson—”
“Nothing more needs to be said. I just want you to know I think about you when you’re not around.”
Her gaze focused on a hangnail she was suddenly obsessed with. “I think about you too.”
“How long we gonna keep this up?”
Her head slowly shook. “It’s not a matter of keeping something up. Nothing’s changed.”
“Exactly. So how long do you plan on ignoring it?”
She sighed and dropped her hands. “Ignoring what?”
“The fact that I want you.”
In a breathless tenor, she whispered, “No.”
Warmth from his finger trailed down her arm. “That didn’t sound too convincing.” Undisguised amusement tinged his voice.
She filled her lungs and stepped away. When she met his gaze all traces of amusement were gone. “We have to stop doing this to ourselves, Tyson. A matter of time won’t change my circumstances.”
“Your circumstances have nothing to do with us.”
“They have everything to do with us. They’re the reason why there is no us and there never will be. I’m not interested.”
“Bullshit. I see the way you get all nervous around me, the way you peek out the corner of your eye watching me. Your voice goes all breathy and your freckles darken over the pink in your cheeks. That’s not the behavior of someone who isn’t interested, Kat.”
Her brows lowered, shuttering away any of the softness he’d just referred to. “And what about you, Tyson? What have you done that qualifies as the behavior of someone interested?”
Defensively, he pulled back and said, “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the woman you brought to your house the other day. Parading your booty calls in front of me certainly isn’t working in your favor.”
He scowled. “Booty calls? Kat, I don’t—Oh my God, are you talking about Gloria?”
“How should I know her name?”
“Tall, thin, black, dreads down to her oversized butt?” He didn’t sound too impressed.
“Yeah, that sounds about right.”
His soft lips pressed together, forcing his dimple deep as he tipped his head back and made a snick with his tongue against his teeth. “That’s Gloria.”
Like the name made a difference. She stared at him in vacant stupidity.
“She’s my sister, Kat.” He laughed. “Oh man, she is so not the kind of woman I am into.” He blew out a long breath then turned on her, the predatory set of his shoulders causing her to step back.
Her butt hit the lip of the counter as he crowded her front. She glanced over to where Mia played, making sure her daughter wasn’t watching.
His lips tickled her ear, sending chills skittering beneath the collar of her shirt. “Let me explain to you the kind of woman I want, kitten.” His lips pressed into her neck as his warm breath whispered over her skin. “She’s smart, cute, soft, brown wavy hair, cut to about here.” Calloused fingers glided along the wing of her collarbone and her breath hitched.
His mouth moved to her other ear and he went on. “She’s sweet, but feisty in a endearing way. Prickly, you know the type? When she gets upset her eyes shimmer like little moons reflecting in a puddle and when she gets angry her face turns the same color clouds blush before the sunset. But my favorite thing, is when she’s aroused, because she goes all soft in my arms and looks at me like I’m the only man who can give her what she needs.”
Her chest rose with shaky breaths as he stepped back and she recognized the familiar unshrinking determination in his eyes. Hands gripped to the counter, she held herself in place so she didn’t do something undignified like propel her body at him.
He winked. “You see a woman like that around, Kat, you let me know.” He turned and whistled. “Trixie, come on, girl.”
It was too much. Her panties were wet, because he’d told her a secret. She had no control over her body when it came to this man and he simply strolled out of her house with all the calm in the world.
The following day, Tyson built a foundation under the tree Mia declared the perfect location for the doghouse. In the process of framing out the structure, he invited Mia over to help him hammer in nails and announced that they would be painting the following Saturday or Sunday.
That night, after dinner and a long conversation about Trixie and her new pink dog bowl, Kat gave Mia a bath, read her a story before tucking her into bed. As she was about to curl up on the couch with a book, the phone rang.
She didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Katherine? It’s Dawson.”
She’d dreaded this call. Since the disastrous conversation with her mother, she’d called Dawson and left a message. She was an idiot for assuming he might not call back. Vivian was probably riding him as hard as she was riding Kat, but in a much more flattering way.
“Hi, Dawson.”
Their conversation was short and formal to the point of tedious. Dawson spoke with polished ease that gave away nothing about the real him. However, his unfailing politeness made him difficult to dislike.
Within a matter of three minutes, their date had been scheduled, and the phone call had ended. If only the actual date could be over with that quickly.
Chapter Eight
Kat pulled her hair into a chignon at the nape of her neck. Dawson was going to be there to pick her up in twenty minutes. Jade had picked up Mia from Mrs. Bradshaw’s that afternoon for a special sleepover at her house. Mia was over the moon at the idea of sleeping at Jade’s and barely spoke of anything else for the past two days.
Dawson was taking her to an Italian restaurant in the city that he promised made the best homemade wine in the world.
Kat wore a simple black dress cut to just above her knees and strappy sling back heels. Slender, silver chain earrings barely brushed her shoulders. When she answered the door, Dawson grinned, as he looked her over from head to her toe.
“Wow, Katherine. You look great.”
Don’t fidget.
“Thank you.” Blind dates were so awkward. “You look nice too. Would you like to come in for a minute?”
He looked at his very expensive watch. “Well, our reservations are in thirty minutes, so we should get going if we don’t want to be late, but how about when we get back?”
“Okay, let me grab my purse.” She dashed to the counter to retrieve her purse and turned on the porch lights.
Dawson took her arm and walked her around to the passenger side of his BMW. He opened the door and helped her inside. As he walked around to the driver’s side she looked to her right and saw Tyson, standing in his front yard.
She sucked in a breath and held it, as her mind comprehended what he must be assuming. He was completely motionless as he stood there watching her. Although he couldn’t see her through the darkened window, his stare burned right through the glass.
A lump formed in the pit of her stomach, as the engine rolled into a soft purr only a high-end sports car could mimic.
“Everything okay?”
Kat turned and presented her best fake smile. “Everything’s fine.”
The leather scented air chilled as the vent blew over her skin, but the air temperature had nothing to do with the cold feeling in her chest. Dawson backed out of the driveway. As they drove past Tyson’s home she stared at the gearshift.
Tyson did a double take. His eyes had to be deceiving him. There was no way Kat, in a sexy, little black dress, just climbed into a BMW with some guy. By the way the man held the car door and the way she was done up, it appeared as if she were going on a date. But that couldn’t be right. Kat didn’t have room in her life to date.
Or perhaps she didn’t have room in her life for him.
He slammed his shovel into the ground and vigorously dug a hole for one of the shrubs. Was it his age? His race? Or him in general? Thirty minutes and two planted boxwoods later, Tyson still wasn’t sure what the problem was. Well, other than the fact that jealousy coated his stomach like acid.
The sun had set and he was planning on working well into the night when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He was in no mood for social calls. He plucked off his gloves, stabbed his shovel into the ground, and reached into his jeans, opening the phone without looking at the display.
“Adams,” he barked.
“Baby? You okay?”
“Hey, Ma.” He took a calming breath leaning his foot on the spade of the shovel. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just finishing up some yard work. What’s up?”
“I was calling because your father bought a new grill and we’re plannin’ on having you kids over for a picnic on Mother’s Day, but the darn thing has to be put together. And, well, you know your father…”
“I can come over this week to do it. Don’t let Dad touch it until then.”
“Thanks, baby. I knew I could count on you. So how’s the house?”
“It’s getting there.” He tossed the shovel into the bed of his work truck and hefted his body up to sit on the tailgate.
“You sound overwhelmed. You sure you’re okay?”
Did he really want to whine to his mother about his life? “I don’t know, Ma. Do you ever feel like no matter how hard you try you’re still always coming up short?”
“Aw, Baby, owning a house is hard work. You’ll get there. I know you will. It takes time, like any other project.”
Ty laughed at his mother’s unending faith in him. “You have such faith. But actually I was talking about a girl.”
“A girl? Well, my stars, Ty, who is she?”
“She lives around here. Her name’s Katherine—goes by Kat. She’s got a daughter and she’s an amazing mother. And I can’t get her out of my head.”
First Comes Love (New Castle Book 1) Page 12
