The Husband Hunt - Kat's Season (The Bachelor Series)

by Kiki Abbott

  Not able to wait until he reached her, she ran to him with a big smile on her face. “I missed you!” He stood still and laughed as she closed the distance between them.

  “Me too.” They kissed long and tenderly, probably too long for the moment, but Kat was hesitant to let go of him now that she had him in her arms. His strength under the T- shirt was intoxicating, and he smelled like clean laundry. “That’s a nice welcome,” he joked.

  “Hey, you’re the one who’s supposed to welcome me to Atlanta.” They kissed again.

  “You taste good,” he whispered.

  Ben was so sweet and normal and lovely, she wanted to cry. But wouldn’t.

  “I’m happy to see you. I can’t wait for you to meet my family.” They grinned at each other. “But first I want you to come by my office to meet my partners, and then we’ll go have lunch at my place.”

  At Ben’s office building, they strolled hand in hand in through the door of the offices of Workman, Sully and Kiekle, with Ben joking that their names sounded like a comedy troupe. His last name was Workman and he got to go first because,” they went unalphabetically,” he explained with a straight face. Ben’s partners were all smiles, fun, young guys with mini basketball hoops in their offices and nerf gun darts all over the floor. Framed posters of sports figures covered the walls. “We represent athletes.” Ben pointed to a football player’s poster hung above a conference table. “He’s kinda famous.”

  Kat looked apologetically at Ben. “I’m sorry I don’t know these guys.”

  “S’okay” He didn’t seem to mind. He shrugged at his partners and they laughed.

  “At least we know you’re not interested in Ben to get at LeVon here.” The partner named Kiekle pointed to a print of a tall black man shooting a basket.

  “He’s my client,” Ben explained, and Kat nodded.

  Ben’s apartment was spotless and sparsely decorated.” It’s not very homey but it’s close to work and serves the purpose.”

  Kat couldn’t help but decorate the place in her mind as she walked through the loft apartment. “It’s nice. Lots of potential,” she said smiling. When Ben grabbed her for a kiss, she imagined them living here, him going off to work every day, her going to the studio to paint, or to teach art somewhere. They’d go for runs in the evening or before work. Ben kissed like a dream come true and Kat cautioned herself to not get carried away. Her feelings for Pierce lingered. Too closely. And look how that turned out.

  When they ate lunch on Ben’s deck and Kat teased him about his pretty window boxes, Ben countered “my sister does these for me. You’ll meet Jade tonight.” He grinned and popped a piece of chicken in his mouth. Sitting in the Atlanta sunshine eating a simple lunch with Ben was right where Kat wanted to be that day. He was good company, fun, but serious when he needed to be.

  “You told me once that you wanted children?”

  “I want at least two years with my wife before we enter that part of our lives. Parenting is really hard, from what I see, and I want some time to build the relationship’s foundation before diapers and late nights and making kid meals that end up mostly on the floor.”

  Kat laughed. “It sounds like you’re around young families a lot.”

  “Both partners have kids.” He looked sheepishly at her. “I hang out a lot with them. The single scene is not a good one for me anymore.”

  “Why?”

  “Too fake.” He shrugged. “I never met anyone that had my values or dreams at a club. I kind of gave up on dating last year and everyone was worried.” He laughed. “My sister and mother convinced me to do this show.” He stopped and looked at her like he was just discovering something. “I wasn’t sure what would happen. I only knew that the odds of falling for someone was not good, and that the odds of her reciprocating with twenty-five others vying for her attention, was even worse.”

  “And now what do you think?” She stopped eating in case his answer made her lose her appetite.”

  “I’m glad I did this. But I also realize you’re dating three other guys and that fact tells me to be cautious.” He raised one eyebrow and grinned sadly.

  She nodded. If anyone could understand that, it was her. The time to really fall in love was after the final rose, when it was only two people. Not now.

  “I like you,” he added. “I think you know that, but I’m holding back until I know where this is going.”

  “But could you see a life with me when this is all over?”

  He paused too long. “I’m not sure.” He pulled his chair closer to her and took her hand. “We need more time to get to know each other. You have to agree Kat, don’t you? We are still fresh in this speed dating thing.”

  She did agree but she also didn’t want to end up choosing the wrong person when this was all over and having it all be for nothing. That was a thought that terrified her.

  The town where Ben’s parents lived was quaint, a bedroom community with pretty houses, not far from Atlanta. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting but when Ben pulled up in front of an old Victorian home with a beautifully landscaped front yard, complete with blooming cherry blossom trees, Kat was surprised. “It’s so pretty. Is this where you grew up?”

  “It is.” He pulled down the long driveway and parked behind the house in front of an old building that looked very much like an old timey version of a garage. Like long ago it might have housed old model T Fords.

  Ben’s parents were warm and welcoming but his beloved sister seemed either shy or skeptical of her brother’s new girlfriend. She didn’t extend her hand when introduced, only nodded her head and said ‘nice to meet you.” That worried Kat a bit.

  They walked through the richly decorated house, to the back deck where drinks were set up for happy hour on a large patio table. Kat was surprised that the back yard housed a gorgeous pool area and a sport court. She almost made a joke about such amenities in the Victorian age then remembered that she didn’t know these people well enough to joke.

  When they poured the wine, Ben grabbed her hand and smiled reassuringly. After their conversation at his apartment about not committing until the end, if then, Kat felt a little shaky about Ben, but the evening passed with a wonderful warm visit with his family. Jade eventually opened up enough to ask Kat about her art and smiled when it was established that Kat loved to paint and that was really all she wanted to do in her career anymore. No more teaching. Ben’s mom was a teacher, and they talked about the school system, then about the advantages of living in Atlanta. Seeing her potential boyfriend, with his family- a Chinese older sister, a Caucasian mother and Black father, made Kat think she knew very little about intercultural families, and adoption. Ben had told her earlier in the day that when his parents adopted Jade, they were convinced they couldn’t conceive, but soon after they brought their daughter home from China, his mom got pregnant with him.

  Ben walked her to the waiting SUV at the end of the evening, as the cameras caught their last few moments alone until the next rose ceremony. Kat clutched Ben’s sleeve and drew him to her. “Ben. We need to talk.” She’d had a little too much wine.

  He seemed amused. “Okay. Spill.” He examined her face as they stood together in the front yard, pink blossoms floating down around them. His fingers played with her blonde hair.

  “You like me. I know you do. You like me a lot.”

  “I do.”

  “Then why can’t you give me more of a sign if you want to be the one who ends up with me?’ The wine had given her confidence.

  “Because you have three other boyfriends Kat. Isn’t that a good enough reason for me to hold back something?”

  She looked down at the buttons on his shirt, examining how they fit so well into the buttonhole. “It is.” She nodded and reminded herself not to ask too much of this man and blow it. He was a good guy. She had to be patient if she wanted to take him to the next step.

  Kat’s visit to Florida was troubling. Blake was a sweetheart but there was no big spar
k between them, even when they kissed in the boat after waterskiing. She thought if she saw him ski, and was on his home turf where he’d seem so confident, that would be the catalyst needed to see him as a sexually exciting man. But he wasn’t. Not to her anyways. And when they pulled up to his parents’ lovely ranch-style house and she met his family, she knew that Blake wouldn’t make it past this point in the show. She felt terrible and wanted to let him go right then and there, but the producers said “No go. Finish the hometown visit and eliminate him at the rose ceremony.”

  At first she was upset they were going to make him fly all the way back to California but they told her that he had to anyways, seeing it was top secret who got eliminated. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, and the word couldn’t get out that she’d eliminated Blake early to save his feelings.

  At the rose ceremony, back in L.A., Kat stood at the front of the room with three men and told them that Pierce had left the show. Simple as that. Colton looked the most troubled, like he couldn’t figure it out, but Ben’s eyes had a barely perceptible expression, like he knew the truth had finally come out.

  Instead of handing out roses to Ben and Colton, Kat took Blake aside and privately told him that she enjoyed their time together but her relationships with the other two men had progressed quickly and were farther along than theirs. He seemed genuinely disappointed and asked when she knew this. “I thought about this all day and wondered if we’d catch up in the next two weeks enough to reassure me that we might end up together eventually, but I wasn’t sure. I don’t feel like I know you well enough to make that call. And I feel like I know the other two better.”

  Back in the main room of the mansion, with only two men left, they made a quick toast to the end, and Kat announced that they’d be flying out to San Francisco the next day to meet her family and spend some time in the Napa Valley, where she grew up.

  After a day with Colton, wine tasting, picnicking on the grounds of a picturesque winery that bought Kat’s father’s grapes, Kat was smitten with Colton. He was a true southern gentleman with a sexy air about him. Of course her parents were properly impressed with his manners. The orchid plant he brought Kat’s mother and the fact that he was a gentleman farmer won him over.

  And when Colton and Kat left her parents’ house, to head off sightseeing in the city, Kat’s mom pulled her aside and whispered “He’s a keeper, Sweetie. Very nice man.” Kat smiled at her mother, but took the comment in stride. Of course he was nice. That wasn’t the issue. It was how she’d fit into his and Bug’s life and if she’d ever feel like the little girl’s mother. Colton was a hand holder and they held hands and talked all the way in to the city, touching on safe subjects like his work, her art, their respective families.

  But, later, when they dined at a restaurant, Kat saw the fantasy suite invitation card from Crane on the table and panicked. Was she ready to ask this man to spend the night with her? She wasn’t sure if he’d expect to sleep with her in the fantasy suite and if she did, was that fair to Ben?

  Colton opened the card, as instructed, and the decision was taken from her when he gently told her that because he’s a dad he “can’t accept the invitation. It wouldn’t be right.”

  She pretended she understood, and asked him if he’d like to just spend more time talking privately with her in the fantasy suite. He hesitated and said that it still would always be out there. “What did they do in the fantasy suite all night? Talk?” He chuckled at his interpretation of what other people would think. “So although I would like to spend more time with you, I’m going to have to say that I can’t.” He kissed her long and sweetly and added that they had years of nights together.

  This was a perfect chance to ask him his idea of what he saw for their life together. So she did. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this man yet. They’d had such a perfect day together.

  “I see you moving in, maybe with my parents, or getting an apartment in town, then a quick engagement and getting married and moving you into the house.”

  To Kat it sounded lonely, not her idea of a courtship, living with his parents, or in an apartment forty minutes away from Colton. But if they were only engaged a few months it might be doable. In her own place though – not with his parents, God forbid. “And kids?”

  “I want more. Do you?”

  She nodded. “But maybe not for a year or two.” She’d liked the idea of solidifying the relationship. An idea she’d gotten from Ben.

  He looked disappointed. “Why?”

  To have some fun together first,” she said, then remembered Bug. They’d already be parents as soon as she moved in. No alone time was in their future. Not anytime soon. Then she added “to give Bug time to get used to me.”

  Although he smiled, Colton countered with “I want to start working on having a baby right away so Bug won’t be much older than her siblings. It might take us awhile and a lot of tries.”

  He said this so suggestively, Kat wondered why he was willing to flirt like this on camera but not walk up to a private suite with her.

  Parting felt like he’d made a wrong decision, to let her spend the night alone, wondering why he didn’t at least want to talk with her more. He’d had the chance to spend some private time with her, off camera for the first time, but had chosen to think that his image might be tarnished if he even stepped in the fantasy suite. “Are you sure?” she asked him one last time.

  “I’m sure I don’t want to tarnish our names on national TV. Yes.”

  Heading off to bed alone in the fantasy suite, Kat had a bad feeling about some of the things that Colton said on the date that day and wondered if they were little hints at what kind of husband he’d be.

  The next day, she was to meet Ben in Chinatown in San Francisco at the arches, but when she rounded the corner, she saw him talking to an old Chinese couple who were smiling and nodding. Kat just watched him from afar, until they bowed their heads and moved on. Then he looked around and saw her. He raised his eyebrows at her and walked over. “I’ve been thinking about you, and us and this.” Ben kissed her again and her knees went weak. He was such a good kisser and his arms felt strong across her back--reassuring. With doubts surfacing about Colton and the life she’d have with him, Kat’s main mission today was not only having Ben meet her parents, but try to pin down if he was crazy about her, like Colton had said he was. Ben hadn’t said the words, but he seemed to be thinking about them as a couple, more so than Colton.

  Strolling through Chinatown was an adventure. He bought her an old-style sunhat so the sun “wouldn’t ruin her pretty skin” and even though it looked strange on the foggy day, she wore it for him. Ben was so much fun to be with that Kat’s cheeks were sore from laughing after two hours of exploring the colorful streets and shops. On a rickshaw ride they sat close, Ben’s fingers playing with hers. Before she could censor them, words spilled from her mouth. “I really, really like you, Ben.” She’d been told to not express her feelings, even though she was talking to him about what their life as a couple would be like in Atlanta.

  “He smiled suggestively into her eyes, and nodded. “That’s good news, Kitty Kat, because it’s mutual.”

  “But?” She sensed there was a ‘but’ coming.

  “But nothing. I really like you too. If there is a ‘but’ implied it’s the obvious. But, you still are considering spending your life with another man and I’m not willing to go further, as long as that is the case.”

  He sounded like a lawyer and Kat assured herself that if she were dating Ben in a normal situation, they’d be madly in love by now, spending every minute together. But, what if she picked him and he didn’t feel the same way, or the estimated feelings never kicked in? She’d be devastated. At least with Colton she knew exactly where she stood. He wanted marriage and kids as soon as possible. He’d practically given her the ring.

  They met her parents for dinner at a restaurant at the top of the San Francisco skyline, at a table overlooking the skyscrapers’ lights of the
city. After introductions, they sat down and her father ordered wine. Kat fidgeted in her uncomfortable, too-tight dress but Ben looked as at home as if they were dining with his parents. Ben chuckled when Kat’s dad, Jim conferred with him on the wine choice. “I am not anywhere near the expert you are on wine, so I trust this is a good bottle.” They all smiled, the due respect had been given to Kat’s father. All was well.

  The conversation flowed nicely. They talked about Atlanta, Ben’s client, the basketball player, who her father admired, and what Ben liked about Kat. “Her good heart,” was his first answer as he told them about visiting the rescue sanctuary on Maui. Kat’s parents had obviously been thinking about their daughter being engaged, since they met Colton, and when the waiter cleared their plates, Jim’s expression changed to serious. “Do you see marriage at the end of all this?”

  All eyes were on Ben. “I see marriage in my future,” he said a little too seriously for Kat’s liking. “… and I see marriage in Kat’s future,” he smiled at her, “but whether she chooses me remains to be seen.”

  Jim persisted. “But if she chooses you, will you propose to her?”

  Ben looked at Kat’s father. “Do you really want me to answer that question with a yes or a no, when Kat and I are still figuring out ourselves if that’s what we want? And if I was to propose to your daughter, do you feel ready to give me her hand in marriage after only knowing me for two hours? I trust that if I proposed to Kat and she said yes, you’d agree with her choice. She’s a smart woman.” He finally smiled. “And I would hope that you’d come to like me as a son in law. That’s important to me. If we end up at the end of this show, together, then yes, we’ll be headed toward marriage, hopefully. But right now Kat and I are still getting to know each other. Mind you,” he nodded to Kat, “we’ve skipped some initial steps of dating and gone right to the serious relationship and that’s unusual.” Kat smiled at him warmly, and her parents chuckled. “But I do want you both to know that my intensions are honorable. I didn’t come on the show to promote anything or take a vacation. My mother and sister convinced me to do this because I’d watched The Husband Hunt on the night that Liam chose that other woman over Kat. My Mom follows the show and I watched it with her the final night. I remarked that Liam wasn’t good enough for a sweetheart like her.” He looked over at Kat who was incredulous to hear this tidbit of information.