She didn’t know whether to be relieved her father was fully cognizant and seemed to be aware of who she was today or not. In some ways, every visit she had where he was living in the present and able to talk to her was a blessing. On the other hand, maybe it would be easier to convince him her injuries weren’t a big deal if he were having one of his off days.
In either case, she wasn’t about to tell him what had really happened.
“Katelyn, what happened? Who hurt you?” That struck Katelyn as an odd way to ask her about her injury. The bruising was mostly to the side of her face and forehead. It wasn’t the type of black eye you’d see from fists. It could very easily have come from a car accident or fall. Which made her cover story more believable, but her father’s question odd.
“Oh, it was nothing, Dad. I had an accident in my car. I didn’t see a deer at night and swerved to avoid it. I hit a pole and my head hit the side window. I’m fine, though, Dad. Really.” Katelyn bent and kissed her father’s cheek and put the flowers she’d brought in down on the windowsill.
Her father didn’t answer her, but turned to John instead. “John, you’d tell me if anything else was going on, wouldn’t you? First she falls down jogging and now this? There anything you need to tell me, son?”
It grated on Katelyn that her father would ask John as if she wasn’t even in the room. She wasn’t a child, but he never seemed to see that.
John covered for her, but she didn’t miss the look he threw her before answering her father. And, she knew why. They were both wondering why her father would ask that. Why wouldn’t he accept the story of an accident? The only reason not to accept it was if he knew there might be a reason for someone to want to hurt her.
“Nothing to worry about, Alan. She just tangled with a sign post, but we’ll get her car taken care of and she’ll be good as new in no time. The doctor said she’ll have a small scar from the stitches, but that’s it.”
Katelyn had to admit it. Maybe John’s theory that her father sent her away because she saw something when she was young wasn’t so crazy after all. Or at least, her father thought she saw something even though her memories didn’t match up with the crime scene. And, now it seemed someone else believed she saw something, too.
But how on earth do you defend yourself from a threat based only on the belief that you saw something if you can’t actually remember what you saw?
Everlasting: Chapter Ten
Katelyn and John stepped from the room while Alan’s nurse changed his sheets and got him cleaned up.
“Coffee?” John asked with a glance toward the elevators that would lead down to the cafeteria.
Katelyn shook her head but smiled at him. “If I drink another cup, I’ll burst. I feel like I’ve been living on coffee for days now.”
By unspoken agreement, they sat on one of the benches spaced out along the hospital corridor. They laughed when they both put their heads back against the wall with a loud sigh at the exact same moment. The strain of coming to the hospital each day was wearing on them.
“How are you managing this? I mean, it’s tough on me, but I’m not also running an entire county and taking care of the town’s police force.”
John turned his head toward her and grinned, those eyes connecting and holding hers as they always seemed to do. “I have really great guys working for me. They’re picking up the slack. Someday, I’ll have to pick up the slack for them when they have something going on in their family. It all evens out in the end.”
There was a time when Katelyn would have cringed to hear John talk about Alan as his family, but now it soothed her. She’d gotten over her anger, the resentment she’d been holding onto for so long. It felt good, actually. Really, really good to let that go and just lean on John a bit. He was right. It would all even out in the end.
The tinny ping of the elevator opening drew both their attention.
“Hi guys,” Katelyn said, stunned to see Shane, Ashley, and an older woman with ghost-white hair carrying a pot of somewhat dilapidated-looking flowers. The poor things were wilting and the petals had all dried up, but that didn’t seem to stop the smile on the woman’s face as they approached the group.
“Kit Kat, I’d like to introduce you to Ms. Haddie. Hadeline Gertrude Gillman, but everyone in town calls her Haddie,” said Shane and Katelyn threw a glare to Ashley over the spreading of the nickname, before quickly smiling at Haddie and shaking her hand.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Ms. Haddie. I’m Katelyn.”
“Hello, Kit Kat. We’ve come to bring flowers for your father,” came Haddie’s response, drawing a burst of laughter from a very proud Ashley. Katelyn just shook her head as Haddie continued. “Flowers are quite good for the soul, you know.”
“You bet they are, ma’am. Let me hold those for you,” John said as he reached for the potted plant.
“It’s so nice of you all to come by. My dad will be happy to see you. The nurse is in with him now, but she’ll be out soon.”
“We don’t want to take up your visiting time with him, if you haven’t been in to see him yet,” Shane offered with a glance at the closed door to Alan’s room.
“Oh, no. He’ll be happy to see fresh faces. We’ve been here all morning,” Katelyn said, a bit puzzled at the look on Haddie’s face. As Katelyn spoke to Shane, Haddie stared at Katelyn making her squirm a little under the scrutiny. It didn’t take long to figure out why.
“It really is uncanny. The spitting image, you are. Absolute mirror image,” Haddie said, turning to Ashley as though she expected Ashley to agree with her, but Ashley simply shook her head and shrugged her shoulders at Shane.
Haddie turned back to Katelyn. “I bet you’re just as sweet as your mother was, too, aren’t you?”
“You knew my mother?” Katelyn asked, not able to hold the smile back. It hadn’t occurred to her that there would be people who knew her mother. Who remembered not just the tragic way she died, but who she was when she was alive.
“Sure did. Sweetest little thing and boy, could she bake,” Haddie said, but John broke in.
“Katelyn’s a little prickly. Don’t know that I’d call her sweet. And she hasn’t baked a damn thing for me yet,” John joked, earning an elbow to the ribs from Katelyn and a smack on the forearm from Haddie.
“Oh, my,” Haddie said, caressing the muscles in John’s arm. “My, my, my.”
“Haddie! Behave yourself or I’ll take you right back to the library,” Ashley said, but her smile cut the threat. “Haddie volunteers with me at the library most days. It’s a way to keep her out of trouble. And, Shane comes to get us for lunch sometimes since his law office is just across the street.”
Katelyn tipped her head and looked at Ashley sideways. “You’re Haddie’s way of keeping out of trouble. That’s rich.”
Ashley just grinned.
“Did you find a new paralegal yet, Shane?” John asked.
“No.” Shane shook his head. “Nothing yet. I’m getting desperate. The only people I’ve had apply were a guy who said he felt a cosmic connection with me and knew we’d work together like two peas in a pod—literally, he said those exact words during the interview—and a woman who lied about four of the five jobs on her resume. She really did work at JJ’s Drive Thru Burgers in high school, if that counts for anything, though.”
Shane glared as Ashley nearly busted a gut laughing at him. Katelyn fought back laughter but couldn’t keep the grin off her face. The group continued to chat with Haddie and Katelyn sitting on the bench together and Ashley and the men standing until the nurse came out a few minutes later.
“You guys go on in,” Katelyn said. “We’ll go grab a cup of coffee and come back in a few minutes.”
“Are you sure? We can wait if you want,” Shane offered, but John and Katelyn shooed them into the room before walking toward the elevator.
“Are Shane and Ashley dating?” Katelyn asked as the doors shut and the elevator started its descent.
“No,
why?” John’s answer sounded a little defensive, drawing another smile from Katelyn. She was doing a lot more of that these days. Smiling.
“I just wondered since she said he comes to take her to lunch sometimes.”
“Oh, yeah, that,” John said, sounding somewhat mollified. He shrugged. “They just hang out a lot. They both work in town and they went to high school together. I think they may have dated briefly in high school, but nothing major. As far as I know, they’re just friends now.”
Ashley, Shane, and Haddie were leaving her father’s room when Katelyn and John got back a few minutes later with their coffee in hand. Haddie seemed a bit sad and shaken by the visit, so they said their goodbyes as Ashley and Shane got her into the elevator. Katelyn understood. It wasn’t easy seeing her father reduced to this. It wasn’t easy at all.
* * *
“I have the rest of the day off. How about letting me take you to lunch?” John took Katelyn’s hand in his as they walked out of the hospital and the touch sensitized her entire body instantly. “We can have the sisters wrap some food up and take it out to the lake. Perfect day for a picnic.”
John smiled that melt-your-heart grin of his, but Katelyn pulled back, stopping him. “Why are you doing this, John?”
He looked at her, confusion evident on his face.
Does he really not know? “This.” Katelyn waved her arm between the two of them, flustered that she’d spoken up. She should have kept quiet and ignored…whatever it was he was doing.
John tilted his head. “This, what?” he asked, mimicking her arm wave.
“You know what. This, whatever it is you’re doing, treating me like…like....” Red burned up the sides of Katelyn’s face and she knew she had to look like a damn apple. A very unattractive blotchy apple. She couldn’t bring herself to say he was treating her like he liked her.
What if he was only trying to be nice, and now I’m making a fool out of myself by letting him know I’m taking it the wrong way? The incident with Devan had really screwed with her head. Katelyn didn’t think she could mistake the signs John was sending her for concerned friendliness any longer, but she was also much too leery of relying on her instincts after Devan. She’d never felt so much self-doubt. She hated it.
John stepped into her and looped one arm around her waist, pulling her into him, brushing her body with the hard front of his chest, the press of his thighs against her, the...oh my.
“Treating you like I like you?” he asked. His words came as a rough whisper that stole the little breath she had left.
Nope. Not imagining that, Katelyn thought, with the tiny piece of her brain that hadn’t dissolved yet.
“Yes,” Katelyn whispered. “That.”
John’s other hand ran down the back of her arm, sending a shiver through her. How could she have thought she was imagining this? “I’m treating you like I like you because I do. I know I shouldn’t. You’re Alan’s daughter, a potential witness in a case . . . I should be looking for distance, but I can’t. I like you, Katelyn. A lot.”
The corners of his mouth turned up and his voice was husky and low. It walked right up her spine when he spoke, sending that shiver from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers and toes.
The blare of a car horn broke the moment just as Katelyn was sure John was going to kiss her. Oh, how she wanted that kiss. She didn’t know what had happened to the John she loved to hate, to all those feelings of resentment she’d been building up and saving just to lash out at him. They were gone. They’d just fizzled out and were lying unwanted in a closet in her mind or some such empty space. They were right next to her feelings of mistrust over men after finding out the snake was married, but if there was one thing John wasn’t, it was dishonest. That much she knew. And, right here, right now, she wanted nothing but this man.
Katelyn glared at the car, but John just chuckled and waved back at the old guy waving at him as he drove by.
John turned to Katelyn and trapped her fingers between his, lacing their hands together and tugging her toward his car. “Come on. Let me take you on a picnic.”
She followed along, but still wished she knew how that kiss would have turned out. “There are going to be rumors all over town tomorrow that we were practically having sex in the parking lot of the hospital, aren't there?”
“You’re catching on to this town, huh?” John laughed and Katelyn just shook her head.
And two hours later, she was just as frustrated and let down as she had been in the parking lot.
Are you kidding me? They were in a secluded, romantic spot by the water without another soul around. They talked about everything and nothing. They laughed and teased each other. They ate way too much food. Everything from chicken salad to peach cobbler, packed by the sisters. John held her hand, let his fingers brush her arm or the back of her neck as they talked, and even traced circles on her stomach as they lay on a blanket stretched out next to each other. But, he hadn’t kissed her yet. And Katelyn was just about ready to burst.
“Tell me more about your sculptures, Katelyn. Why do you work with metal? Why not stone or, I don’t know…wood?”
At the moment, Katelyn’s brain was primarily a mixture of mush and sweet, puffy clouds. At least that’s what it felt like every time John traced another one of his circles. The heat pooling low in her hips and stomach didn’t leave a whole lot of room for coherent thought and conversation at this point.
“Um, what?” she asked, somewhat dazed as she stared at his hand tracing its pattern.
Damn him. He knows perfectly well what he’s doing to me.
John smiled that wicked grin he had when he was up to something. “I’m glad you came home, Katelyn,” he said, his hand now still on her stomach spreading heat through her whole body, making her tingle with anticipation.
“I’m beginning to be pretty happy about that, too,” she said with a smile as her eyes dropped to his mouth again. She had a really hard time not focusing on his mouth. He had really full lips that somehow looked like they’d be both firm and soft at the same time. They made her want to lean up and lick them. Just the tiniest little bit. Nothing more than a little flick with her tongue to see what he’d do.
Her breath caught as she let her fantasy take over, but a split second before she acted on her thoughts, John laughed. Deep and low and so knowing. As if he knew what he’d been doing to her all this time. How he was teasing her.
John leaned in close, almost touching his mouth with hers, but leaving the smallest of margins. He was teasing her. Well, she could tease, too. She moved just a hair closer to him, rolled in and put her hands on his chest.
Rock hard. But, warm and oh, so much better than rock. Katelyn couldn’t breathe as she slid her hands over the thin fabric of his T-shirt, pulled taut over hard lines and sculpted muscles. She wondered briefly if she’d pass out from holding her breath before they had a chance to kiss.
She let herself look up. That might have been a mistake. When she met his eyes, she was utterly lost in the intensity of what she saw reflected there. There was heat and lust and need.
John stilled for a minute, then wrapped his arms around her, trapping her against him. He crushed her to him so deliciously, she never wanted to break the connection. And then his mouth was on hers, and it wasn’t slow or gentle or questioning. It was all-encompassing. John kissed the way he did everything in life. All out. All or nothing. And Katelyn wanted to give him nothing less.
She slid her arms up his chest and looped them around his neck, pulling him ever closer as his tongue swept hers. Every part of her body was responding to his demands, and Katelyn forgot about any ideas of taking a break from men.
But two seconds later, Katelyn heard a deafening crack cut the air and John moved faster than lightning, pinning her beneath him on the ground. The John she’d been kissing was gone and Sheriff John Davies, unyielding and all business, was in his place. Confusion swamped Katelyn. Was that really a...a gunshot? She had no idea when hu
nting season was or whether hunters would be allowed so close to an area that had walkers and hikers and boaters on the weekends. It didn’t seem like there should be anyone shooting so close to them.
“Stay behind me,” John said, as he moved into a crouch and pushed her down behind him. They moved quickly to his cruiser and he reached in his pocket. Katelyn heard the telltale beeps and clicks of the key fob being pushed and doors unlocking. John pulled open the passenger door of the car and grabbed a long rifle out of its rack between the two front seats.
“Don’t move,” he ordered as he pressed her against the side of the car. She had no idea what he was doing. Knowing him, he was going to run off into the woods and chase down the shooter, then give them a ticket for hunting without a license or hunting in an undesignated area or something official like that. Another shot rang out, and Katelyn ducked her head. This time, she had actually seen the bullet hit the dirt a few yards behind and to the side of the car. That seemed a little too close to home. What the heck was this person hunting? As Katelyn saw John raise the scope of a very long rifle to his eye and scan the woods, it dawned on her.
Us. They’re hunting us.
* * *
Nothing. John hadn’t seen the muzzle blast of the first shot because he’d been too busy doing what he did best—screwing around with a witness to a crime instead of protecting her the way he should be. In that instant, he’d flashed back to New York all over again. To the sight of Lexi Ambrose’s dead body as it was dumped beaten and lifeless outside the police precinct with his name written in her own blood across her chest.
When the second shot had come, he’d been scanning the woods. He’d seen the muzzle blast. But as he looked through the scope of his rifle a mere second later, the shooter was nowhere in sight. Damn it. Whoever it was knew how to blend into these woods and how to move quickly. Chances were they also knew which way to go to get out of the area before he could track them or get any of his men here from town.
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