Her last chance

by Danielle Lee

  Gail closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t think he’s delusional at all, Katherine. Don’t you think you are being a bit hard on him? When you find something you want, you go for it. He wants you. Isn’t that what you want?”

  Katherine laughed aloud as she looked up at her parents. “What I want? What I want? I’ve been telling you all this entire time! I want to write. I like my life. I like New York. I don’t want to live in Connecticut my whole life and…and never get out!” she yelled. As she finished her tirade, her sister walked into the room, and her face fell.

  “I…” Karen stammered, then shook her head and huffed. “I’m outta here. When you can get off your high horse, princess, give me a call!”

  “My what?” Katherine stood up.

  Bill and Gail exchanged glances.

  “You heard me! You think you’re so great because you moved to New York? Because you got away? Well news flash, Katherine: this place that you think is the depths of hell is great. Mom and Dad live here, I live here, and so does Warren—a man that I might remind you treats you so damn great—and what do you do? You throw it back in his face! You don’t deserve him. You know what, you should go back to New York, and maybe some hard luck will hit you! Then when it does, give me a call and tell me how bad Warren and Connecticut sounds. Let me know how bad it sounds at two a.m. when you hear gunshots, or when you get humiliated the next time an article comes out. Can’t wait to tell you I told you so!” Karen pulled her coat off the hook and stormed out the door.

  Gail and Bill exchanged glances as Katherine shook her head. “Is this what you both think, too?” she asked. Her voice was a higher pitch at the end and her eyes tried like hell to bat the tears away.

  “Well, Kitten,” Bill began, “the way your sister said it—”

  “Came out just right,” Gail finished. She looked at her husband and squeezed his hand as they stood. “We love you, Katherine, but we aren’t small-minded people. We’ve been to other places…” Gail shook her head. “The way you talk sometimes, you'd think we acted like small-town people—and maybe we do, but that doesn’t mean that we’re stupid, and neither is Karen. She just lacks tact.”

  Katherine huffed as she hugged her arms around her body. “I never said you were stupid,” Katherine mumbled.

  “You did, and we aren’t. I’m sorry that you're embarrassed to be back here. Tell me exactly what we did that makes you fight so much to stay away?”

  “There isn’t...You didn’t… I just…I want to do it for me. I want to do a lot of things, see the world…I’m still young. Why should I…”

  “No you’re not, Kat, and Warren knows what he wants. I think even Karen knows what she wants. She wants what all of us want—to be loved by someone that you love. She’s really pissed that you have it and are throwing it away.”

  “She doesn’t know anything!” Katherine said stubbornly.

  “Do you?” Bill asked.

  Katherine looked down and walked back to her bedroom and slammed the door.

  ***

  The next morning she walked into the kitchen with her bags packed and her phone held firmly in her hand.

  Gail stood up and walked over to her. “Katherine, baby, don’t go. Last night, Karen and I…”

  “Mom, save it. It’s okay. I didn’t get a whole hell of a lot of sleep last night with the whole ‘gang up on Kat’ thing going. I don’t appreciate it. I thought we could talk over the Warren problem. The date was, I don’t know…I just…Well, the taxi is outside. Tell Daddy I love him and give Karen a message for me. Tell her to make sure she locks her bedroom window to keep the riffraff out.”

  “Riffraff?” Karen squeaked from the hall.

  “Oh, hi, Karen, did you get the message?” Kat asked as she opened the door. “Good!” Kat turned with knob in her hand and slammed it.

  As Kat walked out into the driveway, a few different things happened at once. First, she saw Tommy Jones crawling, once again, from her sister’s bedroom window, and then she saw him smile and take a deep breath as he turned and placed his right hand to his heart, smiling.

  “What the hell are you doing sniffing around my sister?”

  He flinched. “Jesus H. Chri—”

  “Tommy!” Kat said.

  “Well, you scared me. What, are you taking up private investigating? I didn’t do anything, see anything, or hear anything. Now drop it. By the way, I heard what you said to your sister, and I don’t appreciate the comment about locking her window!”

  “Ha! Well, you should. She can be quite the—”

  “You better watch yourself, Kat,” Tommy interrupted.

  “What? Do you like her or something?” Kat’s eyes widened as she shook her head. “Oh, my God, Tommy Jones, you have a crush on my baby sister!” She started to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Kat threw up her arms. “Oh, just about everything.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t think it’s funny, and don’t you worry about it.”

  “Does she know?”

  “Does she know what?”

  “That you are absolutely head-over-heels puppy-lovin’ for her?” she said in the sweetest, gushiest voice she could muster.

  “Damn it, Katherine, you are so immature.”

  “That’s great coming from you, Tommy.” Kat laughed. “Where the hell is that taxi?”

  “You need a ride?”

  She rolled her eyes, thinking she had a decent chance that she wouldn’t die if he took her, but if she waited much longer the whole family would be outside. “Could you?”

  “Yeah, get in,” Tommy said as he opened the door to his hatchback, “and put your seatbelt on.”

  Katherine laughed.

  “What’s so funny about driving safely?” Tommy asked.

  “Nothing, Tommy,” she assured him. Nothing at all.

  ***

  On the way over to the airport, Tommy took it slow—very slow. When she’d dated him in high school she’d thought he drove at a crawl just to put the moves on her, to make the night last longer. Here he was just extremely cautious.

  “I know what you should be when you grow up, Tommy.”

  Tommy laughed. “What’s that?”

  “A driver’s ed instructor!” She laughed. “I have never seen anyone drive so slow in my entire life!”

  “Yeah, well,” Tommy said, checking his watch. He looked behind him in his mirror and checked his watch twice more before he made the airport turn.

  “What are you doing? Are you expecting…? Tommy, tell me you didn’t."

  “What?”

  “You didn’t call Warren, did you?”

  “Do you want me to tell you I didn’t or tell you what I did?” He winced.

  She hit him on the shoulder with her purse. “Damn it! Why can’t everyone just butt out! If I wanted to talk to him I would’ve called! This isn’t anyone’s business but my own!”

  “Well, yours and Warren’s.”

  “Tommy!”

  “Well, sorry, I just. Don’t worry—I called him before I saw you out in the drive. I don’t think he’s coming.”

  Katherine looked behind her shoulder and grimaced. She didn’t think he was, either. And, in that weird way, it made her sad. She felt hurt, like he didn’t care for her, and she knew she didn’t have the right to feel that way since she was, in fact, the one who was doing the leaving.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “Kat,” Tommy said. “Are you okay?”

  Kat started to cry. She pulled her hands up to her face and held herself up for a while. Tears streamed down as Tommy put his arm around her shoulders and found a parking space in the terminal.

  “You wanna talk about it?”

  “I don’t. Think. I. Can!” she yelped, her crying making it difficult to talk.

  “Well, I don’t think what you’re doing is necessarily a bad thing.”

  She turned her head quickly to face him. It was the first time someone, anyone at all, had agre
ed with her. She had to hear this. Her mascara was running down her face and her lipstick was all rubbed off onto her palms. She sniffed and tried to wipe her eyes without making the mascara worse. “Well?”

  “Well, you haven’t known each other for that long and you are just being cautious. Look what happens when you don’t know a person. Take that Kelsey guy, for instance.”

  Katherine began heaving now, and her yelps got louder. “Oh, God…I knew him for eight years!”

  “Well now, you didn’t really know him, did you? Wasn’t that your first date?” Tommy asked quickly.

  Katherine pulled her head up again. “Yes, but…”

  “But what? You didn’t really know him. Maybe you need to put some distance between the both of you so you can figure out what you need, and then maybe he will figure out what he needs.”

  “You think so?” she squeaked out.

  “Yeah, I mean, take me, for example. I loved you all my life, and I dated you and realized that when I slept with your sister she was much better than you. If I wouldn’t have met her one night when she was drunk, I would still be hung up on the wrong sister, you see?”

  “YOU WHAT?”

  “Just kidding…” Tommy grinned.

  “Tommy!” Kat laughed. “I could hit you sometimes!”

  “Hey, take it from me. I got some great advice from someone once. I don’t know if this is a perfect quote, but I’ll try: ‘When you know, they know, you know?’” he quoted, nodding thoughtfully.

  She smiled. For some reason, that nonsense sounded logical. “Yeah, I think maybe you and your friend are on to something. I will give it a try. Thank you, Tommy. I can’t believe I’m saying this to you, but I feel much better about this.”

  Tommy smiled. “You’re welcome.”

  “By the way, who said that to you?”

  “It came straight from the turtle’s mouth in Nemo…Dude Crush, something or other.”

  Katherine rolled her eyes and laughed. “Leave it to you to take advice from a kids’ movie.” She got out of the car and walked into the airport.

  “You’re welcome!” Tommy yelled.

  Katherine waved.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Warren looked at his bedside clock; it was seven o’clock that night. He hadn’t bothered to get out of bed since his date the night before—not since the call that he’d received from Tommy that morning. He couldn’t believe she had just left without saying anything. What was the point? She’d made up her mind—and his, for that matter. He didn’t know what he had done wrong to piss her off the night before.

  He didn’t think going back to his place to sleep with her would solve anything. Who knows, maybe it would’ve? Women were different these days. He thought he’d provided her with a romantic date—dinner, dancing, dress, jewelry, and shoes. What the hell else could he have done? Maybe he should have sung to her.

  When Tommy had called that morning, it was like the final missile blowing up his life. First his wife, and now Kat. He thought he had loved Sarah more than anything. He never thought in a million years that there would be another woman in his life, but then Katherine came along. Whoever said “the greatest thing was to love and be loved in return” really had something. Never did he think he would be head over heels for someone and they just wouldn’t really give a rat's ass.

  He shook his head off his pillow and went to sit up just as the phone rang. Warren sighed as he looked down at the caller ID. It was his sister Sydney.

  “Hey, sis,” Warren sighed.

  “Hey yourself, big brother. How’s it going?”

  “Well, it’s been better. You?”

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  “Not really.”

  Then the doorbell rang.

  “Hey, Syd, hold on a second. Someone’s at the door.” He placed the phone down on the dresser and took his pants off of the floor, pulling them over his boxers, and then grabbed a shirt out of his dresser. He picked back up the phone. “Syd, mind if I call you back later?”

  “No, that’s okay. I just wanted to let you know that I really liked Katherine. I thought she was funny, spirited…spunky.”

  “Yeah,” Warren said, closing his eyes. “That she is.”

  “Well, bye.”

  “Bye, sis.”

  He hung up the receiver as the doorbell chimed again. “Hold on a sec,” he said, then opened the door to none other than Tommy Jones. “Tommy?” Warren said, and then leaned out to see if anyone was with him.

  “Yeah,” Tommy replied, and then looked to his left then right. “What?”

  “Nothing, this is a surprise.”

  “Really? Well, I just took Katherine to the airport.”

  “So you said.”

  “You do understand that she is gone, right?”

  “What the hell, is this an intervention? Of course I understand. It’s what she wanted.”

  “Can I come in?” Tommy asked.

  “Yeah, sorry. Want something to drink?”

  “A beer would be fine. Have I ever told you about my good friend Dude?”

  “No.” Warren shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Well,” Tommy began, “it happened about a month ago. She was drunk.”

  “Who was?”

  “It really doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is I don’t love her anymore.”

  “The drunk?”

  “No, the sister.”

  “Whose sister?”

  “Karen’s.”

  “You slept with Kat?” Warren yelled.

  Tommy inhaled deeply and took a swig of beer. “Keep up, Doc. The other sister.”

  “You slept with Karen?”

  “Technicalities. Anyway—”

  “Either you slept with her or you didn’t?”

  “Are you going to listen to the story or not?”

  “All right, I’m listening.”

  “Well, you could listen a whole lot better with some wings and a pizza.”

  “Fine, we’ll order in—let’s go downstairs. Continue.”

  “All right, don’t forget to ask for the blue cheese. They always bring ranch. I hate—”

  “Tommy!”

  “Fine, it’s just that the ranch gives me the—”

  “I will order the damn blue cheese! Now, if you please?”

  “Okay, well, I was totally in love with this girl.”

  “Karen?”

  “No, Katherine.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t sleep with Kat?”

  “Give me a break here, Doc. And you are the one that went to medical school?”

  “Fine,” Warren huffed.

  “I dated Kat, but I never slept with her. Anyway, I was in love with her for all these years. She has the greatest…” Tommy gestured at his chest and curved his palms, before saying, “…rack, you know?”

  Without thinking, Warren smiled and nodded, then slapped Tommy. “Jesus, man, get on with the story.”

  “Okay, anyway, she was everything to me. I’m like her parents’ favorite.”

  Somehow, Warren didn’t believe that one, but he didn’t feel an interruption would work.

  “Anyway, so it would’ve been perfect—like one big happy family. Then this glorious night, I was at this great kegger at Ronnie Pilsted’s place, and she was there, my angel in blue. She had a Killian’s in her hand, and that dumbass with the goggles—you know, her latest—was sitting on the fence beside her, talking and making her laugh. Well, the next thing I know, I’m up in the main house and I have to piss something awful, and she walks in on me in the bathroom and sees me doing my thing! Here the idiot said something stupid, so she ran into the bathroom to cry. It was like kismet! A meet cute…I had to piss, and she needed the bathroom! So, basically we fucked, and now I’m in love…”

  Warren took his fingers from his hair and stared at the back of his hand. “How the hell does that have anything to do with me and my situation?”

  Tommy just looked around in a s
miling daze and then back to Warren. “I don’t know, but it worked for Kat, so I thought that I would chance it and get some free wings and beer out of you.”

  “Tommy, get the hell out of here, and leave Karen alone or I’m calling big Bill.”

  “You wouldn’t!” he said as Warren ushered him out.

  “I would.” He shut the door. “What an idiot!” Warren laughed. “What a fucking idiot.” He shook his head and turned the lock on the door. Why did he think he could get great advice from Tommy Jones? To think he said Katherine had benefited from it? How in the hell did that make her happy—or help her, even? Maybe she thought she would be better once she got to New York and tried someone else out? That was all he could really take from that stupid story. He didn’t really care at this point. She’d made her choice, and now she was going to have to live with it.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  First things first, Katherine thought as she walked into the small law office next to High Fashion. She smiled at the receptionist as she told them who she was and waited in the small sitting area. When the secretary told her she could go back, Katherine stood up, flattened her skirt down in the front, and walked toward the back part of the law office. She met her lawyer halfway down the hall, hands extended in one big shake.

  “Congratulations, Katherine! We did it. High Fashion took the settlement, and might I say, well done. The recording that you got for us did the job. It was neck-and-neck there for a while, but that, baby, is how we do things!”

  “Oh, thank God!”

  ***

  Two months had passed in a blur since she’d walked away from him. Warren worked in the clinic 24/7, it seemed, and he didn’t leave any free time to spend with Bill or any of the others in the Daniels clan. The months were filled without fishing or talking, and definitely no High Fashion magazine.

  Bill could understand why. He knew how Warren felt about his Katherine. She was a special girl, but sometimes she needed a push in the right direction. And that’s exactly what he was going to do—just a little push. There was absolutely no harm in that.