Catia (Starkis Family #6)

by Cheryl Douglas

  I didn’t blame him for being cautious. I would have been too in his position. “Kara told me they’d invited you to the party tonight.”

  My sister had decided she didn’t want a traditional baby shower with presents and silly games, so she was hosting a sophisticated catered affair for all of their friends and family where everyone could write little notes or record video messages for the baby. I thought it was a sweet idea, and it meant I could spend time with Chase in a social situation. With any luck, he wouldn’t be ignoring me this time.

  “They did.” He folded his hands behind his head as I tried not to stare at his bulging biceps in that tight-fitting white button-down shirt.

  “Then you’re going?”

  “Yeah, my parents offered to keep the girls overnight, so I booked a hotel room in the Hamptons.”

  “You did?” I had too—at the same hotel where we’d made love. I could have stayed with my sister or even my parents, but nostalgia had me book the very same room I’d shared with Chase.

  “Yeah, why so surprised? I figured you’d stay with them, and I—”

  “I’m not. I’m staying at a hotel too.”

  “Please don’t tell me it’s the one we stayed in.”

  “It is.”

  “Damn.” He picked up his phone, glancing at the time. “You think it’s too late for me to try booking somewhere else?”

  The fact that he didn’t even want to spend the night under the same roof with me hurt, but I was determined not to let it show. “Probably. Rooms in the Hamptons usually fill up pretty quickly, even at this time of year. But it’s ridiculous for you to try to find somewhere else to stay.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Why? You’re going to cancel and stay with your family?”

  “No.” I crossed my arms, daring him to challenge me. He thought he had the upper hand, but I refused to be bullied. “They already have a full house. Kara invited our cousins and their families, as well as some of her friends. Some booked rooms in town, but the rest are staying with them. It’s too far from the city for most people to drive back, and a few even flew in.”

  “Makes sense. So what are you suggesting? You think I can talk someone into swapping with me?”

  Tired of putting up with his juvenile behavior, I glared at him. “What’s wrong? You don’t trust yourself around me?”

  He chuckled. “No worries there, girl. I got you out of my system a long time ago.”

  That may have hurt if I’d believed for a second he was telling the truth. “Good, then you won’t mind giving me a lift to the Hamptons? Since we’re going to be staying the same hotel, it won’t even be an inconvenience.”

  “Hold up a minute,” he said, raising his hand. “Why can’t you drive yourself?”

  “I’ve been driving a rental since I got back to town. I bought a new car, which was supposed to be ready late today, but there was a glitch at the dealership. I won’t be able to pick it up until Monday. I returned the rental this morning—”

  “So rent another car.”

  “Why are you being such a jerk? We work together. We’re neighbors. We’re going to the same party, even staying at the same hotel, and you can’t give me a lift?”

  “Fine,” he said, clenching his jaw. “I have to go home and pack. I’ll pick you up at your house around six.”

  “Thank you,” I said, knowing this was the first of many hurdles he would make me jump before he learned to trust me, if that day ever came.

  ***

  Chase stood in the foyer of my house while I ran around making sure I’d remembered to turn everything off.

  “Nice place,” he muttered. “Needs some updating though, huh?”

  I laughed. “You can say that again. I don’t mind though. It’ll allow me to personalize it, you know, make it my own.”

  “Yeah, I did the same when I bought my place. It was in rough shape, but within a year, it looked like a brand new house.”

  “One of the advantages of being in the construction trade,” I said, winking. “Connections.”

  He reached for my suitcase, curling his hand over mine when I didn’t release the handle right away. “I can take that.”

  My breath hitched. I was closer to him than I’d been since that night. Memories came flooding back as I remembered the way he kissed, the way he smelled, the way his touch made me feel…

  “You okay?” he asked when I still hadn’t released the suitcase.

  “Oh, uh, yeah, sorry.” I let go, deciding to ask the question on the tip of my tongue, even at the risk of being shut down. “Do you ever think about it?”

  His eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “How good it was.” I didn’t have to elaborate. I could tell by the way his pupils dilated, almost obliterating the chocolate brown of his irises that he knew exactly what I was referring to.

  “Don’t,” he warned, his fist clenching around the handle until his knuckles turned white. “If we’re going to try to do this friend thing, we have to agree that subject is off-limits.”

  I’d agree to no such thing. Helping him remember was my best hope of convincing him to make new memories to erase the old.

  “You can’t handle it?” I asked, curling my hand around his bicep. I was pushing my luck, but I’d never been one to play it safe. Pushing the boundaries, breaking the rules, was what I did best.

  He inhaled slowly, his eyes drifting to my hand. “Don’t do that.”

  “What? Touch you?” I could tell by his ragged breathing the effect my innocent touch was having on him.

  “Test me.”

  “Is that what I’m doing?” I asked, licking my lips. I was teasing him, and we both knew it, but I’d gladly deliver if he decided to man up and take what he wanted.

  “You know you are.”

  “Maybe I’m just trying to force you to admit the obvious. We still have chemistry.”

  We’d had a crazy-hot, inexplicable connection ever since we laid eyes on each other more than two years ago. He walked onto our site and shook hands with my sister and brother before finally touching me, and in that moment, I knew he would change me. And he had. In ways I never could have imagined.

  “Sexual chemistry—”

  “It goes way beyond that, and you know it. We have emotional chemistry.”

  He frowned. “That’s not even a thing.”

  “Isn’t it?” I stepped closer, invading his personal space. Since he was a head taller than me and I had yet to slip into my heels, I had to tip my head back to look him in the eye. I rested my hand over his heart and felt tension sweep through his body. “I beg to differ. I feel alive when I’m with you, and I know you feel it too.”

  “You don’t know what the hell I feel, so don’t pretend you do.”

  “I know you’re scared.” The chances of him agreeing with me were as slim as a big, tough guy like Chase acknowledging he was afraid of spiders. “You have every right to be. You have two daughters to protect. You’ve been burned badly. I’m a terrible risk. I’ve never had a real relationship to speak of, so why, when I tell you that you’re the man for me, would you want to believe me, right?”

  He closed his eyes, dropping his head slightly. “Don’t say shit like that, Cat. I don’t wanna hear it.”

  “You don’t want me to tell you that I know in my heart that you’re the man for me? Why? It’s true.” I’d never expected to spill my guts with him so soon, but the way he kept throwing up walls made me realize I had to do something drastic before he figured out how to distance himself from me for good.

  He pursed his lips as he removed my hand from his chest and stepped back. “You expect me to believe that? You said yourself you don’t know a goddamn thing about relationships. I tried for months to convince you to give me a chance, and you kept reminding me of all the reasons it would never work between us. What the hell has changed? We’re still the same people. I still have the same commitments.”

  “But I’m not the same person. Meeting you changed me.�
� I didn’t expect him to believe me, but I needed him to know how I felt. “Going home forced me to think about things I’d never thought about before. I’ve grown up a lot over the past year, and I really like where I am in my life right now.”

  The muscle in his jaw twitched as he waited for me to continue.

  “I have a house I love. I’m close to my family without being too close,” I said, smiling. “I’m looking forward to welcoming my beautiful niece into the world. I have a job I love, and I finally feel”—I gestured around me—“at home. Why wouldn’t I want to share that with the right person?”

  “You say all the right things, but honestly, Cat, I don’t believe people can change that dramatically. At the core, personality traits don’t change. You’re still the same sexy, flirtatious, outgoing good-time girl you’ve always been.”

  “And how do you know that?” I asked, crossing my arms. I felt a modicum of satisfaction when the action drew his attention to my bust for half a second before his eyes traveled back to my face.

  “I’ve been watching you.”

  I was stunned but also flattered. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who’d been trying to catch glimpses. “When? The only time I’ve seen you is when you’re taking the girls to school in the morning.”

  “I’ve seen you talking, or should I say flirting, with the shithead next door.”

  I laughed at his characterization of John, my next-door neighbor. John was a little smarmy, I had to admit. He owned a Ferrari dealership, but something told me he’d started his career as a used car salesman, and a lot of those traits had stuck with him. I got the feeling he was always trying to sell himself. “You don’t like John?”

  “He’s an ass.”

  I grinned. “If you say so. You probably know him better than I do.”

  “And I stopped by a job site earlier this week to check in, see if you needed anything. You were cozying up to some inspector. That’s why you didn’t see me.”

  Being nice to inspectors was practically part of my job description. I didn’t see why he was making a big deal of it. “So?”

  “So I stood by for years while Karen flirted with other guys. I told myself it was harmless, that she would never cheat on me. Until she did.”

  “I’m not Karen.”

  “But you said yourself you’re a lot like her.”

  Damn. I wished more than anything I could take back those words. “That may have been true once. It’s not anymore.”

  “Like I said,” he said, turning toward the door, “I have a hard time believing someone can change that much.”

  ***

  “Still not getting anywhere with Chase?” Kara asked, glancing over her shoulder to make sure he wasn’t within earshot.

  “How’d you guess?” I asked, not even trying to mask the sarcasm.

  The man had been avoiding me like the plague all night. Our ride from the city had been punctuated by loud rock music and stilted small talk. Every time I tried to talk about us, he asked me to give it a rest.

  “There’s obviously tension,” Kara said, sipping her sparkling water. “You said he’s been steering clear of you this week, so how’d you talk him into driving you up here?”

  “It’s a long story. Suffice it to say he wasn’t happy about it.” I polished off my third glass of wine before depositing the glass on a passing waiter’s tray. “He was even more upset to learn we’d booked rooms in the same hotel for tonight.”

  “Shut up,” Kara whispered, curling her hand around my forearm. “You said you were staying in the same hotel—”

  “I am.” I looked at Chase, who was deep in conversation with Darius and Dustin—about business, no doubt. “Which begs the question, why would he want to stay there of all places? I know why I wanted to but...”

  “Could be the same reason he made a reservation there.”

  “I hope so.” I smiled at the cute waiter who’d been tending to me all evening before I raised my index finger to indicate I’d like another drink. Three glasses was usually my limit at family affairs, but after the week I’d had, I needed another. “I just feel like I keep hitting a brick wall with him, and I don’t know how the hell to breach it, ya know?”

  “You have to be patient,” Kara said, rubbing my shoulder sympathetically. “You can’t build trust overnight. And you and Chase have some ugly history that makes it even harder for him to cut you slack.”

  “So did you and Dustin, but he didn’t seem determined to hold it against you forever.”

  “Yeah, but Dustin hadn’t been cheated on. He’d never been married and divorced, and he didn’t have kids to consider.”

  “I guess you’re right.” I inhaled deeply. “I guess I’ll just have to take it slow with him and celebrate even the baby steps.”

  “I know it’s not easy for you,” Kara said, her full lips tipping up in a smile. “Especially since you’re so used to going all out when you set your sights on something, but a guy like Chase is definitely worth waiting for.”

  “I know.”

  A handsome man in a dark suit approached and slipped his arm around Kara’s waist. “This must be the beautiful sister I’ve been hearing so much about.”

  “Catia,” Kara said, smiling at our companion, “I’d like you to meet Ern. He owns one of my very favorite furniture stores.”

  “One of?” he asked, raising a dark eyebrow. “I’m crushed.”

  “Ern,” I said, accepting his outstretched hand. “That’s a name I don’t hear every day.”

  He rolled his eyes. “What can I say? My mother was obsessed with Hemingway, and I have to pay the price.”

  I laughed, accepting the glass the waiter produced with a nod. “That’s better than going to school with the nickname ‘Kitty Cat’ and listening to adolescent boys meowing every time you walk down the hall.”

  He grinned. “Having been one, I feel I should apologize on behalf of adolescent boys everywhere.”

  I touched my wine glass to his, inclining my head. “Thank you, and I accept.”

  “If you’ll excuse me,” Kara said, touching Ern’s arm, “I have to check on something in the kitchen.”

  “Sure,” he said, smiling at me. “So your sister tells me you’re involved in the family business.”

  “I was up until last week. I got a job here, in the city, as a project manager for a commercial construction company.”

  “Commercial construction?” He glanced at Chase, who was eyeing us while pretending not to. “I met Chase earlier. He’s in commercial construction too, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Yes, I’m working with his company, in fact.”

  “Ah, then you’re friends?”

  “You could say that.” At his questioning look, I felt compelled to explain, “His company built my father’s restaurant in the city. My brother, sister, and I all worked very closely with him on the project.” Until I decided to turn tail and run.

  “It’s always nice when you can work with friends and family, providing you don’t wind up killing each other.” He chuckled.

  “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience?” I asked before sipping my wine.

  “My brother and I work together. We have three furniture stores. Most of the time we work well together, but when we butt heads, it gets ugly.”

  I thought of some of the blowouts I’d had with my father and siblings over the years. “I can definitely relate.”

  “So what made you decide to move here?” Ern asked.

  “I guess I was just ready for something new.” I returned his warm smile, thinking he was the kind of man I would have dated back home. Now I wasn’t even remotely interested, which proved how wrong Chase was. People could change.

  Chapter Four

  Chase

  “The fact that you’re shooting daggers at the back of Ern’s head tells me you’re still into my sister-in-law,” Dustin said, sounding amused.

  “You’d be wrong.” I tipped back my beer, wishing I didn’t have a two
-beer limit, but I was driving. “I couldn’t care less who she talks to.” After a beat of silence, I betrayed myself by asking, “He married or what?” Ern hadn’t introduced me to his wife, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one.

  “Divorced.”

  “Great,” I muttered. If body language was any indication, he was definitely interested in my new project manager. Question was, did she feel the same way?

  “If you don’t want her dating other men, I’m sure you could do something about it,” Dustin suggested as he brought the glass to his lips to hide his smile.

  Only because we’d been friends a long time did I let that one slide. “How can you even suggest that?” I turned my back on them so I wouldn’t be tempted to watch anymore. “You know I’ve got enough going on with the kids and work, not to mention Cat’s too—”

  “Fickle?” Dustin grinned when I raised an eyebrow. “Hey, I’ve known her a long time. When it comes to work, she’s all in, but when it comes to men, she’s usually outta there before the bed gets cold.”

  “Not what I wanna hear, man.” Especially since that was exactly the way it had gone down between us. I didn’t want to believe I was one of many. I wanted to believe I had been special to her, as she was to me, even if I could never dare a repeat performance… no matter how tempted I might be.

  “Hey, I know it isn’t easy to think about the woman you care about with someone else, but if you don’t do something to lock things down with Cat, how’re you gonna feel when she does hook up with someone else? She’s working for you, living across the street from you. That means you’re going to have to watch some dude leaving her house in the morning. Have you thought about that?”

  I couldn’t think about it without feeling sick. A year may have passed since I’d been with Catia, but time had done little to lessen my desire for her. I still felt it like a swift kick every time I caught a glimpse of her. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

  I snagged a water off a passing waiter’s tray and set my empty beer on it. I would have given anything for another drink, but since that wasn’t an option, I needed something else to do with my hands. I wasn’t usually nervous in social situations, but knowing that Catia was standing a few feet away, chatting up some other guy, had me on edge.