by Lucy Score
She’d texted him, booty called him if she was being honest, which Cat always tried to be with herself. Of course, booty calls weren’t supposed to spend the night wrapped up in each other like lovers. It was just how they ended up after… It was how she hoped they’d end up tonight. She loved waking up and feeling his heart beat. Trying to wriggle away only to have his grip tighten on her. Even in his sleep he wanted to keep her close. It made her feel… treasured.
They were sneaking around like teenagers. And Cat loved it. Just yesterday, she’d ducked into her trailer for a snack and a nap and found Noah on his lunch break waiting for her. Naked. They were both late getting back to work, and Cat couldn’t seem to wipe the smug smile off her face for the rest of the day.
Two days before that, a chance run-in at the grocery store led to some heavy petting in the parking lot. They’d had to duck down beneath the windows of Cat’s truck, giggling, when Velma Murdock wandered by consulting her shopping list. Every night that Noah spent in her trailer, he arrived under the cover of darkness and crept out before dawn. And when Sara was with Mellody, Cat sprawled, sated and smiling, across Noah’s big bed.
No one was any the wiser, at least not that they’d let on. And in a town of Merry’s size, if there was news, everyone knew it by lunchtime. They were careful to remain professional around others. But alone? There were no rules, no barriers, no strings.
They’d seemed to settle into a limbo of relying entirely on the present, never discussing the future.
It was just the way Cat liked it. She’d be leaving soon enough and didn’t want anything complicating that. She couldn’t imagine moving on to the next project while her heart was still with the last. It wasn’t how she worked, how she lived. Newer was better, more exciting. There was always another adventure around the next corner. She just needed to keep turning corners to find them.
As her days in Merry ticked down, she had to admit there was a pull here. The town, the people, Noah. Cat couldn’t remember feeling more at home anywhere else besides her grandmother’s kitchen.
A dog barked from a second-floor apartment over the drycleaners, and Cat pulled the wool cap lower. She was a spy, a ninja of the night. Meeting her secret lover for a midnight tryst. The image made her smile.
She was two blocks from Noah’s house. Noah’s warm, childless house. With his comfortable couch, his big screen TV, his rumpled bed, his warm, capable hands…
She was daydreaming. That’s why she didn’t see it coming, the arm that snaked out from the alleyway, hooking around her waist and pulling her into the dark.
She didn’t need to see his face. Her body recognized Noah’s, even under all the layers.
“Are you mugging me?” she asked, slyly pressing her cold face to his neck.
“I’m walking you home.” The words came out in a silvery cloud, and she could feel the heat of his breath against her face.
What was it about the man that made her feel… happy? A warm Sunday kind of happiness. Soft glowing embers and meaningful smiles. He was her warm, safe place. Temporarily, of course.
“I know where you live,” Cat teased.
“We’re secret lovers,” Noah insisted. “You need my help sneaking over the fence in the backyard so no one sees us.”
“Why don’t we just go in the front door?” Cat asked.
“I saw Mrs. Appleby’s blinds twitching since nine tonight. I think she’s watching, waiting.”
Cat laughed, and they started down the alley. “Well, we can’t get caught. I never got caught. It would ruin my perfect streak.”
“You snuck out when you were a kid?”
Cat slipped her arm through Noah’s in the privacy of the dark night. “I was very stealthy.”
“Did you meet boyfriends after curfew?” Noah asked.
“On occasion.” Rules of good conduct held no allure for Cat, not now and not when she was a teenager.
“I want to be impressed, but all I can imagine is the fresh hell I’ll be living with Sara in a few years.”
Cat rested her head on his shoulder as they walked. “She’s a good kid and comes from two great parents. I think you’ll all survive.”
“I appreciate your vote of confidence.”
“Do you wish you’d grown up differently?” Cat asked.
Noah scanned the night quietly. She could hear his wheels turning, weighing his answer.
“If I could go back and have two parents that came to my baseball games and cheered. A dad who took me fishing. Food on the table every night. Heat in the winter. Clothes when they were needed. If I could have all that and still end up right here, right now, I would wish it.”
Cat rubbed his arm with her hand. “But since you can’t?”
He looked down at her. His eyes sparkling in the light of the lone streetlamp. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Except maybe in my bed with you.”
“I hate that you had to grow up that way, Noah.” The pain of knowing that he’d suffered, that he’d been scared and unprotected, welled up in her unexpectedly. “You deserved better.”
He stopped, pulled her around to face him. “I wouldn’t change anything, Cat. Not since it brought me right here.”
Using the thumb of his glove, he brushed snowflakes off her eyelashes.
“Do me a favor, Noah?” Cat breathed.
“Anything.”
“Kiss me right here, right now.” She wanted to remember this. The feeling that it was just the two of them in the whole world under a sky of stars and snowflakes.
Understanding what she was asking, he lowered his lips to her gently, softly. They melted, melded like metal. Warm and sweet. Noah’s lips moved over hers until she opened to him. Cat fisted her mittened hands on to the lapels of his jacket for life as he brazenly, tenderly left a mark on her heart.
There was something about this man, this night, this town that had worked its way under her skin to swim through her veins.
Tenderly, he tasted her as if he had all the time in the world to sample and tease.
She breathed him in, his air, his scent, his flavor. Inhaling Noah.
It was a mistake. She shouldn’t have asked for this. Should have kept it light. But the kiss was the light, a new kind of illumination that warmed her and guided her.
CHAPTER FORTY
“My dad wants to invite you to dinner tonight,” Sara announced, sliding into the diner booth across from Cat.
Cat’s wrap fell from her hands onto the plate. She’d scored an honest-to-goodness lunch break that had landed the first official “Cat Wrap” in her freezing cold hands and had been busy warming herself up remembering each and every orgasmic detail with Noah the night before. At least, she had been before she was interrupted by the man’s daughter.
“Uh. Huh?” Cat wiped her mouth with a napkin and prayed she didn’t look like she’d been fantasizing about Sara’s dad naked.
“Dinner. Our house tonight,” Sara repeated.
“Is there a special occasion?” Cat asked, feeling like she was missing an essential piece of information. April Hai peered around the end of the counter at them holding a to-go bag.
Sara shrugged. “I aced my Earth Sciences test?”
“Congratulations?”
“Thanks. Bring some wine for you and my dad.”
“Oh, uh. Sure. Okay,” Cat said, baffled. They were supposed to be keeping this… romance a secret. Sara wasn’t supposed to know that her father was doing the horizontal mambo with Cat. “What time should I be there?”
“Eight,” Sara said, decisively. “We’re having salmon.”
“Okay. I’ll see you at eight,” Cat said.
Sara grinned. “Awesome! See ya tonight, Cat!” She turned and scampered off grabbing April’s arm and dragging her friend off to giggle somewhere about twelve-year-old things.
Cat shook her head and picked up her truly excellent chicken wrap. Kids.
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She meant to text Noah to confirm but got sucked into watching playback, and by the time she slipped away, she barely had enough time to shower and change. For the first time in her life, Cat wasn’t sure what to wear. What did the woman secretly sleeping with a twelve-year-old’s father wear to a family dinner?
She finally settled on jeans and an emerald green sweater with a V-neck. She pulled on a pair of suede booties and braided her still damp hair over her shoulder. Stylish, but not too sexy, she decided, studying herself in the mirror. Now she just had to remember not to grab Noah’s crotch or straddle him at the dinner table, and everything would be fine.
Since the night was cold as hell, and she was already running close to late, Cat drove the six blocks to Noah’s. She grabbed the wine Henry had selected and hurried up the porch steps. After a brief moment of debate of knocking or ringing the bell, she stabbed the bell with her gloved finger.
She heard yelling and footsteps, and then Noah was opening the door.
“Hi,” she said, breathlessly. He looked tousled and tasty. His hair was ruffled. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and was barefoot. She was definitely overdressed.
“Hey.” Noah’s face went through a range of emotion. Excitement, pleasure, lust, and then confusion. “What are you doing here?” he asked quietly, stepping out onto the porch with her.
“I’m here for dinner,” Cat reminded him. “Did I get the time wrong?”
“Dinner?” he repeated, blinking.
“Oh, good! You’re here,” Sara called from the foyer. “Geez, Dad, let her in before she freezes.”
Wordlessly, Noah stepped aside, and Sara pulled Cat inside.
“I hope you’re a good cook because we’re just getting started,” Sara said, practically dragging Cat’s coat off her shoulders.
“Uh, your dad didn’t seem to know that I was coming to dinner,” Cat pointed out.
Sara wrenched the bottle of wine away from Cat and handed it over to Noah. “Here, Dad. Go open this.”
“You want to explain why you’re inviting dinner guests over without telling me first?” Noah asked.
Sara rolled her eyes and ignored their questions. “Cat, take your shoes off. Dad, open the wine. Then we’ll chat.”
They both watched as Sara bopped back to the kitchen where a cheery pop song was playing.
“What’s happening?” Cat whispered.
“I think we’re being played,” Noah whispered back. “You look incredible by the way. I’ve missed you.”
Cat reached out to hold onto his arm while she pulled off her boots. “I might have missed you, too.”
“What are you wearing under that sweater?” Noah asked, peering down the neckline of her shirt.
“I don’t think you’re going to find out tonight,” Cat said, nodding toward the kitchen.
“Dad! Wine!” Sara yelled from the depths of the house.
“We’d better get back there,” he said, giving her subtle cleavage another look of longing.
“I feel like we’re walking into a trap.”
“Oh, we most certainly are. Welcome to parenting.”
Sara had three salmon filets on a baking sheet. She was dressing them with salt and pepper. There were two empty wine glasses and a corkscrew on the counter.
“Cat, do you want to do something with these tomatoes and asparagus?” Sara asked, jutting her chin toward the pile of produce next to the cutting board. “I printed out a recipe you can follow.”
Cat padded over to the veggies. “Recipe schmecipe,” she scoffed. “My nonni would slap me upside the head if she saw me using one. Just point me in the direction of your balsamic vinegar.”
Sara pointed, and Noah poured, and an 80s rock tune came on.
“Come on, Dad! It’s your jam,” Sara announced.
Noah shook his head, cheeks going a bit pink. “Nope. Not happening.”
“He does an air guitar solo that any other time I can’t get him to stop. Now suddenly he’s embarrassed,” Sara explained, shaking her head.
“Oh, I need to see this air guitar solo,” Cat insisted.
“No way.”
“It’s AC/DC. I’ll drum,” she offered.
It took a full glass of wine and a replay before Noah reluctantly performed. Cat laughed with Sara until her face hurt. While the salmon and veggies baked, Sara took Cat up to her bedroom to ask her advice on décor.
It was a typical pink bedroom littered with clothing and magazines and stuffed animals. The perfect cross-section of childhood and the teen years.
“Dad said I can repaint and stuff, but I’m not sure what I’m going for,” Sara mused, picking up a ragged stuffed dog and tucking it into a bin on the wall. “I like some of these ideas,” she said, pulling up Pinterest on her tablet.
“So, I see color, fun, but more grown up,” Cat said, studying the space and the pins. Two large windows overlooked the street. “That wall over there in a teal or a turquoise. And you need a new bed. You’ve got room in here for a queen. One of the ones with the upholstered headboards.”
“Um, that sounds awesome,” Sara decided, flopping onto her pink comforter.
“And you need better clothing organization,” Cat said, toeing a pile of crumpled t-shirts and leggings in front of the dresser.
Sara giggled. “That’s what my parents say, too.”
“If you’re into fashion, you have to treat your clothing well,” Cat pointed out.
“Okay, okay. I’ll clean up. But look. I found this rug that I love, but it’s got all these reds and oranges,” Sara said, pulling out her cell phone and calling up the picture.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Cat nodded. “That would look great with a dark teal wall. You could leave everything else white, walls, bedding. Maybe do something funky with the bedside lamps.”
“That sounds awesome,” Sara said. “I hope Dad will be okay with it. Sometimes I don’t think he wants me to grow up.”
Cat gave the girl a smile. “Sometimes parents have trouble with that,” she admitted.
“But you wouldn’t,” Sara said it as if she was sure of it. “You see growing up as an adventure, not something to be protected from.”
“Uhhh…” Cat wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
“I think you’re good for my dad,” Sara continued.
They heard the beeping of the timer followed by Noah’s call for kitchen aid.
“Good, I’m starving,” Sara said, bounding past Cat and heading for the stairs. “Hey, Dad! Cat gave me some ideas for my room!”
“Can we still afford to send you to college?”
Cat wandered down to the kitchen where Sara was plating up the food.
“What happened? Any hints about what’s going on?” Noah whispered without moving his lips.
Cat shook her head. “Huh-uh. Not yet,” she whispered back.
“Come on, guys. Dinner’s ready,” Sara announced.
They sat cozily around the dining table. There was a small fake Christmas tree in the corner casting a soft glow. Candles in pine and cookie scents flickered on the mantel over yet another fireplace. Sara had switched the playlist to an instrumental Christmas station and dimmed the lights.
It was cozy, romantic. And Cat was starting to get an inkling of exactly what Sara was up to.
Cat had just speared her salmon filet when Sara leaned back in her chair.
“So, I’m sure you’re wondering why we’re here tonight,” she began as if she’d been addressing boards of directors since she was a toddler.
“I think that’s a safe assumption,” Noah said, sampling a bite of the asparagus.
“I know what you guys are doing,” Sara announced.
Noah choked on his asparagus and reached blindly for his water glass. Sara waited until his coughing fit eased.
“What exactly do you think we’re doing?” Noah asked, clearing his throat looking wild-eyed at Cat across the table.
“I know you’re dating. I know you think you’re hiding it, but honestly Dad, you’re terrible at hiding things. And I don’t see the point in you pretending you’re not really into Cat. She’s pretty awesome.”
“Thank you?” Cat said, picking up her wine glass, desperate for an alcoholic buoy.
“You’re welcome,” Sara nodded primly. “Mom’s getting remarried. It would be nice to see you move on, too, Dad.”
“Sara, Cat and I… we… a relationship isn’t really…” Noah gave up his stumbling and looked beseechingly at Cat.
“Your dad and I are in very different places in our lives, and while we’re enjoying spending time together, the potential for a future relationship just isn’t there,” Cat said.
Sara nodded as if the information wasn’t new to her. She looked down at her napkin. “I get that. But I think you’re both doing yourself a disservice by automatically discounting the idea of a relationship.”
Noah frowned at Sara. “Are you reading from notes?” he demanded.
Sara snatched the scrap of paper away out of his reach. “April helped. So, sue me.”
“April knows?” Noah asked.
“Dad, everyone knows. You two make goo-goo eyes at each other constantly. I’m surprised you thought you were being sneaky.”
“Everyone knows?” Cat repeated.
Sara shrugged. “Merry is small. People talk a lot. Especially when someone sees you getting out of a truck with steamed up windows. What I’m trying to say is don’t think you have to hide your ‘whatever you want to call it’ from me. I like you, Cat. And I think you two could make each other very happy if you give yourselves the opportunity to do so.”
Cat looked down at her lap. “That’s very sweet, Sara, but my life doesn’t exactly allow me to settle down in one place for longer than a week at a time. I have a place in Brooklyn that I see three months out of the year. I’ve got projects that require extensive travel, and I’ll probably end up moving wherever my school is built. You and your dad, your lives are here. It wouldn’t be fair of me to ask either one of you to pack up and follow me around.”
