Текст книги "Katherine in Gold"

Автор книги: J. B. Hartnett

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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

“Totally.” I grinned.

“Doesn’t bother me at all,” he said, taking another bite.

After that, he ate almost the entire small roast, and I didn’t mind the comfortable silence. I even forgot everything else from that night.

Because watching Holst enjoying the food I cooked was a much better use of my energy.

Katherine

Monday morning, six a.m., I arrived at Tori and Cam’s treehouse to bid them farewell, off on their honeymoon. I offered to watch the house and water the plants, seeing as how I’d be either downstairs getting the coffee shop sorted or upstairs at Beachy Bride with my friend, Dee, but they had Cam’s brother, Drew, all over that.

My job was to check in on Tori’s shop, Paper Petal. My boss, Greg—ex-boss now—had already trained my replacement to take over at Grizzly. I didn’t want any fuss; no going away party, nothing like that. It wasn’t my style, and, luckily, Greg knew that. But he still told me over the phone, “We’ll have sparkling sake in little pink bottles and all the delicious Japanese cuisine you can eat. You just tell me when, baby.”

Greg was awesome.

Paper Petal didn’t need me though. Tori’s shop was in the more-than-capable hands of Ruby, who was now a partner in the party planning side of things. It wasn’t that long ago, Ruby had a “situation” with an ex-boyfriend, the kind that meant she’d disappeared for three days. The police were involved, her dad ended up in the hospital, and the only person who knew the details was another friend by the name of Teensy.

Ruby never discussed what happened. For a while, she was zoned out, just going through the motions, it seemed. But one day, it was like she just woke up and decided not to live in fear of her ex-boyfriend’s ghost. Still, we watched over her, each in our own way. I showed up randomly and got my craft on. I absolutely loved making little wedding, birthday, and baby shower favors. It was repetitive, perfect for getting out of my head. So, it wouldn’t be a hardship to spend some time at Paper Petal in Tori’s absence.

“Okay,” Tori said, trying to hide the fact she was about to jump out of her skin. “Here’s everything for the shop, just in case Ruby needs something and you can’t reach me and—”

“Dude,” I said. “I haven’t even had coffee yet. Take it down a notch with the cray-cray.”

“We’re leaving in three minutes, Fairy.” Cam took out his keys, shot me a grin coupled with a wink, and lifted the second and final hiking pack over his shoulder and headed to the truck.

When he was out of the room, Tori quickly gave me a look that said she needed to talk…and not with her husband as an audience.

I knew this, so I said, “Hit me.”

“I checked that ovulation site. I’m off the pill, and we’ve been trying for two months now, and it still hasn’t happened.”

This wasn’t exactly news to me, but I was pretty sure Cam thought they were going to officially start trying on the honeymoon.

I decided to let that go since she had crazy-eyes. My job as her best friend was to dampen down the crazy. Luckily, I was the one who found that ovulation site and retained most of the important information.

“Two months isn’t very long. You have to get the pill out of your system first.”

Her eyes got big, just like they did before she’d start to cry, and confessed, “What if I can’t give Cam a family?”

“Honey.” I pulled her into a hug before I pep-talked her. “You have a man that would build a replica of Yosemite in the backyard if you asked. I never imagined love at first sight and all that fairy tale crap could happen, but it did for you, and your biggest worry right now should be avoiding snake bites and bear attacks and ticks on ball-sacks while your man fucks you on every available picturesque vista he can find. Keep your eyes open, Tori. It’s happening. Right now.”

“I love you, Kath.”

“Dude, get your ass out to the truck so you and your future baby-daddy can get started on that.” I pushed away first, turned her around, and smacked her ass…hard.

“That’s gonna leave a mark.” She chuckled, rubbing her hand on her butt and fighting tears.

I winked at her. “Just so your man knows he has competition.” Then, I told her softly, “Go, Tor.”

She didn’t turn around again as she went out of the kitchen. Her steps sounded up the big staircase in the middle of the house and out the backdoor to Cam.

***

Seeing as how Holst and I were heading toward an amicable working relationship, I decided to get an early start on cleaning up the empty shop. I spied his Beemer parked on Pacific Coast Highway and decided to surprise him with my metaphorical white flag in the guise of bagels and coffee. It seemed like the nice thing to do.

I somehow managed to balance the cup holder and bag while I got the key in the lock and turned. The place was almost completely dark inside, but it was obvious that Holst had been busy.

I set the tray of coffees and bag o’ bagels on the new counter, slid my purse off my shoulder to join the other items, and started to look around. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been in there before, but now, it was transformed.

The walls were varnished, faux log paneling all around. The wood was all dark, but the most incredible addition to this space, and something I wondered how he was going to pull off, was a huge fireplace that stood against the wall directly across from the serving counter. It was great, all of it, even in its incomplete state. I knew when it was all finished, I would absolutely love it.

I was so excited, actually wanting to find Holst and throw my arms around him in celebration, but I curtailed that wild hair and just called out his name as I opened the door to the storeroom at the back and...

“Fuck! Katherine!”

My mouth hung open…agape…a deer caught in headlights as I stared at the dripping wet, naked body of Holst. He was trying to cover up his sheer masculine beauty with a towel the size of a hankie while I tried to manifest magical powers that would make that micro-towel disappear.

Then he stopped trying to cover himself up and just stood there, and that’s when I knew for absolute certain…

I was in deep shit.

He set the towel down on top of a duffle bag and grabbed a pair of charcoal grey sweatpants. One tan toe appeared at the bottom of one pant leg, followed by the next as he languidly pulled them up his sculpted thighs, over his semi flaccid—though  what looked to be—generous cock. This was surrounded by a decent amount of hair that led up his magnificent abs with a small amount on his chest. Broad. That was the word that entered my head after the words thank you and God. But it was the last one I’d said aloud as I stared at his chest and mumbled.

“Broad.”

“Katherine?” he asked, rousing me from my cock induced catatonic state.

My voice was barely a whisper when I confessed, “I’ve seen your cock now, and I mean, I assumed it was gonna be a good show, but you have the goods…” I waved my hands in a circle, “all the goods, and that’s just not fair, and what’s worse is how in the fuck am I supposed to work with that kind of information? Day after day, knowing you possess that body and that…that…beast between your legs…my God!”

After my somewhat hysterical soliloquy, Holst pulled a tee over his head and asked, “Did you bring coffee?”

“Ye…” I began, but the word got lost in my now dry mouth.  I tried again and replied with a firm, “Yes.”

“Let’s drink coffee,” he suggested.

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Let’s do that.”

He took one leather arm chair; I took the other as he opened the bag of bagels and handed one to me. “I believe we have a few choices here.”

“And those are…”

“Well, you’ve seen me naked… I lock the door and you strip. We’ll call it even.”

Without even entertaining that idea, I unwrapped my bagel and didn’t make eye contact as I asked, “Second choice?”

“Second…” He took a sip of the latte I’d brought him. “We fuck.”

Cream cheese and bread lodged in my throat, and before I could recover, he continued to speak.

“It’s been a while for me. You’re a beautiful woman, and I have no doubt that, underneath those clothes, you hide incredible charms, Katherine. The likes of which I’m sure I have never seen before and will likely never see again.”

The way he presented the…options, I had to admit, I briefly considered that last one. Then, by some miracle, I found my voice and my reason.

“I don’t think those options are going to work for me.”

He let out a heavy sigh. Something he often did with me. “That leaves option number three which is…we are both adults, who, I believe, find the other person sexually attractive…thus leading me to my least favorite of options…that despite those realities, we move on and remain professional.”

Yeah, I had to confess…the third option was kind of a bummer, but it was also the smartest. Mostly because, one minute, I wanted to punch him in the dick, and the next, I wanted to drop to my knees and suck it.

I could’ve kissed him though when he went the gentlemanly route and changed the subject. “So, your friends are off to the John Muir Trail for a month?”

Cam and his brother, Drew, were hired to do the renovations on Bear Claw, so Holst was probably up to date on the lives of all my friends.

“Yeah.” I didn’t and couldn’t say much else. My body was trying to decide how best to cope with the image of a naked Holst in my head. To distract me I asked, “Why did your parents name you Holst?”

He swallowed, drank down some coffee, and replied, “I was born on September the twenty-first. My mom couldn’t decide on a name, and apparently, there was an article in the newspaper the day I was born about the composer, Gustav Holst.”

“Your dad didn’t have anything to say about it? My dad oversees everything my mom does down to her diet and wardrobe,” I shared.

He seemed far away in his thoughts, but turned his attention back to me with what I thought was a loaded answer. “My understanding of the blessed event is that my father had very little input about my name.”

I had no desire to dig into that aspect of his life. The more I knew, the more I’d want to know. And lucky me, I was saved by the ping of a text.

I reached into my purse and read it, and when I did, one word came through my lips: a long, slow, desperate, aching plea of, “Fuck.”

“Now?” Holst asked and followed it with a devious grin.

I ignored his comment. “Listen, I have to take care of something. Tell me what I can do to help out. Give me a list, whatever, and I’ll do what needs to be done.”

“We need a logo. I thought perhaps you and your friend Ruby could come up with some options, and then we’ll find a decently priced supplier for cups. Those’ll be the only things with a logo. That’ll save us money. I think we can aim for opening the first of September. Until then, I know you want to make yourself useful, and I don’t mean that in a demeaning way. But I’m also sure you don’t have an electrician’s license.” He paused for a moment then asked, “You don’t, do you?”

“No,” I replied and got up from the big, leather chair. I looked around the room, trying to think what else I could do to help. “I’ll hit the Muir’s antique shop in San Juan and see if they have any décor. And something we can use as a menu. Big chalkboard thing?”

“Whatever you think will go with the theme,” he said.

I was almost at the door, the paper bag from my bagel crumpled into my purse slung over my shoulder, coffee in hand, when Holst called after me.

“It will not be a hardship to see your beautiful face each day, Katherine.” He was grinning there in his sweats, bare feet, and easy smile.

Therefore, I had no choice but to deflect the compliment. “Fuck off.” But I smiled as I said it, which only made him grin bigger as I walked out the door.

Katherine

I wish I could’ve called Tori, but my drama could wait until she came home. Until then, I marched my ass up the stairs and went straight to Dee’s place next to Beachy Bride. Out of the five bungalows, only two were businesses. The other three were your basic beach cottage: blue weatherboards, small porch with white railings, and awesome stable-style front doors. Dee told me they were actually called Dutch doors, but it reminded me of a stable, so I went with that.

She saw me approach and called from her kitchen window, “It’s open.”

When I sat down at the little round table, I laid it on her. “I’m having drama-overload.”

Dee turned around with a pot of tea and made her way to the table. She’d spent a few years in England, and the tea habit, along with her unwillingness to commit to Frodo, seemed to be souvenirs…as well as her boring breakfast. She ate the same thing every day: wheat toast with Danish butter and orange marmalade, imported English tea with milk and two sugars. She argued it had way more caffeine and flavor than coffee. Sometimes she cooked what she called a “hot breakfast” on Sunday morning, but I suspected that was something she only did for Frodo if he spent the night.

Whatever.

I tried to talk to her about him, about the guy who fucked her over in London, but she gave nothing. I knew when Tori tried that route with me, even though she was gentle about it, any push made me retreat, and I didn’t want to do that to Dee. She was a new friend; we’d known each other just over a year, but you know when you meet someone who’s a keeper. I didn’t want to fuck that up.

“So.” She poured tea into a delicate, pale pink tea cup with matching saucer. “Tell me about your drama.”

“I’m sorry to dump on you, Dee. I just need some feedback.”

“I’m happy to listen. You know that,” she scoffed, but she did it good-naturedly. Poor Dee. I hated that I felt sorry for her since, I think, a lot of times, people create their own drama. But she just didn’t seem to be able to bounce back, and I hated that for her. She was a cool chick, absolutely beautiful, and I could tell that Frodo, if he wasn’t already, wanted to fall in love with her.

“Well…” I almost forgot about the message on my phone. I decided to ignore it and powered on. “Goya…well, we’ll just call him Mark from now on since he is past-tense and that right there releases me from having to worry about his sensitive, little feelings.”

“You broke up with him?” She asked, trying to hide her relief.

“We had words. I bagged his…art. He bagged me. Sayonara, sailor.” I waved.

“Are you okay?” Dee was one of those girls who didn’t need a stitch of make-up. And just then, as she looked at me with sympathetic, pale blue eyes and fair skin, I was a little jealous.

Whore.

“I won’t bore you with the details—”

“You can though…bore me with the details,” she offered.

“Nah. Not even worth repeating it was so…stupid. He’s tried to apologize, but whatever. I’m done.” Two texts already asking for my forgiveness. Nope, no, and no way.

“I’m bracing myself for the next chapter of drama because that seemed a little ‘drama-lite’,” she said.

“Yeah.” I chuckled for a brief, peaceful moment and took a sip of my coffee. I looked around the place, which Nico apparently used to live in, and when all was calm, I slammed her with, “Oh, I almost forgot. I saw Holst naked this morning.”

“Pardon?” The word seemed to be stuck in her throat, kinda like my bagel earlier.

“He’d come in from a surf or something. I saw the wetsuit on the floor. And Dee…Dee, dude, you have no idea.”

I closed my eyes at the memory and decided it was just best to keep them open.

“I require a full description,” she demanded, never taking her eyes off of me as she refilled her tea cup.

“Thick brown hair, damp…brown skin…everywhere…gotta find out his ethnicity...lean, but strong, definitely fit…no tattoos on the front of his body, but I know he has them on his legs; I just haven’t had a decent look yet. Hair on his chest, but not, you know, gross shag carpet or anything.”

“A man,” she sighed.

“God. Damn. Yes.” I laughed, and Dee laughed with me.

“Keep going.” She grinned.

“Right…the roadmap to rigid and pure male glory? In one word, perfection.” I lifted my hands to the heavens like I was at a tent revival, and declared, “Can I hear an amen?”

When I heard nothing from my friend, I looked and saw she was blushing.

“Dee?” I asked, a tease in my voice, because I could tell she had a secret, and that secret had to do with cock. “Tell me.”

She shook her head and stared into her cup, her face now flaming.

Then I tried a different approach. “I never pry, because I know you don’t want me to. But when it comes to cock, I gotta know.”

She covered her face, but couldn’t hide her grin that reached the back of her head, it was so wide, and confessed on a whisper, “Huge.”

“Baby’s arm, pepper mill, can of air freshener? I mean, how big are we talking here?”

She licked her lips, pulled them between her teeth a few times, and finally said, “I think the first time I could finally take all of him, we’d been trying for over a week. He had to…prepare me.”

I sat back in my chair, a little stunned at this revelation. “Dee…you’ve been holding out on us.”

“I know,” she admitted. “It’s…I’m not ready to make it more than it is, and you being the…” she trailed off.

“Me being the what?” I returned, not really sure what she meant by that.

“Well, you’re more of a free spirit than I am. You’d tell me to go for it, jump in with my eyes closed.”

“And your legs wide open.” I laughed.

She decided she was done being the focus. “So, Holst is…endowed?”

“Yes, ma’am. I mean, not John Holmes huge because, you know, too much of a good thing for me, but he got a semi while I was staring at him. I couldn’t help it.”

I listened to Dee giggle for a minute and drank the remainder of my now-cold coffee. That was when I delivered my last bit of drama.

“I also got a text from my mom. Apparently, my parents are coming to town for an engagement party.” I sprinkled tidbits about my parents now and then. My dad was a controlling asshole who wanted a son, got a daughter, and never let me forget it. And my mom was his servant who seemed to forget she even had a daughter.

“When?” she asked, sobering at this news, because she knew, from the little I’d shared about them, I wanted to be as far away from my parents as possible.

“Just after Christmas, I think. Apparently there’s this huge cocktail party the night before, and then New Year’s Day they leave on this engagement cruise with the families to Catalina. That was all I got from the text my mom sent. But the thing freaking me out?”

“The café,” she guessed and guessed right. I shared my dad’s views on my dream.

“Yeah. Although, according to Holst, it’s gonna be a coffee shop. He’s pretty firm on that. We are never to call it a café.” I rolled my eyes, but it was all for show. “Anyway, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to hide the fact I went halvsies on a business subsidized by them.”

“Then don’t,” she said firmly.

“I don’t think you get it, Dee. My dad…he can be…”

“You’re a grown woman. You’ve worked hard for someone else. Now you’re going to work hard for yourself. According to Frodo, Holst knows what he’s doing. He’s capable of opening a business on his own, but he chose to have a partner, and further, he chose you.”

“Right, but the economy—”

She didn’t let me keep talking. “The fact I’m still selling expensive bridal gowns proves that if people are willing to spend on the low end, three grand on a wedding dress, they’re willing to buy coffee and a pastry for five bucks.”

She was right about that.

“It shouldn’t matter,” I confessed quietly, my eyes focused on her pretty, pink tea cup, “but I really want to prove to my dad, I did the one thing he said I couldn’t. And succeeded.”

She waited for a few seconds, I suppose to see if I was going to burst into tears or something. When I didn’t, she gave me her own brand of Dee wisdom. “You’re an odd woman, Kath.”

“Yeah.” I chuckled, thinking she was making some kind of joke, perhaps setting me up for a pep talk.

She wasn’t.

“I never would have thought you required a man’s approval. Not only that, but a man who has essentially treated you poorly most of your life. Just because your father is some kind of real estate legend doesn’t give him any power in your life unless you let him.”

Since I couldn’t disagree with any of that, I decided to let her have that moment.

“You’re absolutely right. And by the way, that concludes my drama,” I smiled.

“Will you be at Paper Petal later?” she asked.

I planned on it, just to check in with Ruby and see if she needed my help with anything.

“Yeah. I’ll bring coffee and some kind of treats this afternoon. I feel like baking.”

“You use your oven in the summer?” she asked.

“I use my oven year round. You think all the food and baked goods I bring just magically appears without the use of an oven?” I laughed. “But really, heat doesn’t bother me, so if my place gets hot, I just roll with it. But dude, I detest winter.”

“After living in London, I’m not a big fan either. I swear, even in the summer, it was like everything around me from the ancient buildings to the trees…even my winter boots seemed to retain that bitter cold.” She gave me a warm smile and reached her hand over mine. “You flew over it pretty quick, but whatever…‘Mark’…said to you, I know it must’ve hurt, Kath. I’m sorry he was a jerk.”

“Good riddance.” I stood up. “The man was like a soap opera.” I made my way to the door and dug my sunglasses out of my purse. “I want you to know, I didn’t just come to you because Tor isn’t here. You’re in my heart, honey.”

The edges of her mouth moved into a sweet smile. “See ya later, K.”

“See ya, Dee-ya.”

***

From the minute I left Dee’s, I practically ran straight home, images of Holst burned on my brain. First stop, kitchen, where I grabbed a stick of fancy butter from the fridge and tossed it on the counter to soften. Then my hand was in my pants. I’d already broken into a cold sweat on my way to the bedroom. My hand was only a temporary fix until I flung open the drawer next to my bed, whipped my jeans and panties down to my knees and touched the buzzing tip of my vibrator between my legs. What felt like an instant orgasm barely took the edge off, but it would have to do…for now.

If I didn’t find a new fuck buddy…and soon…I was looking at a daily battery-filled-frenzy of substandard orgasmic relief. I spent big money on toys. Devon alone was a hundred and fifty dollar dildo. I was the first to argue that, if your wonderful man didn’t know what he was doing, a good toy could augment your relationship. But Mark had known what he was doing, and my new reality, sans Mark, meant my battery buddy was working overtime. And with the movie in my head on a constant loop the past few hours…a single drop of water falling down the middle of Holst’s chest, down into the tuft of hair above that bronzed cock…holy shit.

I was certain, no toy could touch that.

But later, as I stood in the kitchen placing just-cooled cookies into boxes, I had a kind of epiphany. Maybe this was all part of the big turning point in my life. Six months ago, I probably would’ve gone to the bar and started my vetting process all over again. I definitely would’ve drank to excess. But at some point, I would’ve looked in the mirror and tried to convince myself the needling, ugly emotion I was experiencing wasn’t shame. The fact I was aware of all this proved I was learning from my mistakes. I’d been living in fear for some time—of failure, of heartache—hopeful that one day, the man who took my heart would bring it back.

But it was time to let him, and the fear of taking a risk again, go.

This wasn’t something I wanted to do. But Mark’s words had hit their target as intended. They didn’t fall on resilient ears of the presumed, self-confident Kath I let people see; they sank their teeth into the very bones of me. I was scared of being alone. It didn’t matter now. I was only thirty-three. However, Mark was right about one thing, and I’d already figured that one out all on my own…

I was getting older.

“No more bars,” I told myself.

The days of going to the bars and picking up guys had an expiration date. Don’t get me wrong, age wasn’t going to stop me from having a good time. But the amount of available men in my age group was going to be smaller. If they were looking for a wife, they’d choose a younger woman…if they could get her. And if they were looking to get laid…they’d choose a younger woman for that, too. It didn’t matter how good I looked, and if my mom was anything to go by, I was going to be lucky in the genetics department.

With all of those thoughts swirling around in my head, I left my cookies and got dressed. “Understated,” I told myself. I finished my hair, pulled back into a simple, long ponytail. I threw on capri jeans and my old Keds, a plain tee in olive green. Minimal make-up, a little bronzer, and my plain, gold hoops to finish my look off. With my new armor on, I took the three boxes of chocolate chip cookies and looked out my front door.

There, on the porch, was a huge wind chime, given to Tori by Cam. For some reason, she hadn’t taken it with her. When I asked if she wanted me to bring it to the new house, she replied, “You told me to take it all in…when I wasn’t sure…when I was about to go out and find another distraction. And every time I looked at that wind chime, I was reminded about all of Cam’s small gestures. I think you should keep it here…to remind you to look for the small gestures.” Tori knew me, she loved me, and she wanted me to have what she had.

So far, I’d made two firm decisions. One, I would dress comfortably, for me. Not to get laid, not to impress anyone but myself. Two, I would embrace the fact I was following my dream and ignore everything else surrounding it.

The hot guy business partner, inconsequential.

My parents coming to town to rain on my parade? Who the fuck cared?

And last, but not least, I would come to terms with the fact, my great love was not coming back. He was not going to come and rescue me from a life of spinsterhood…

I was.

And if a man came into my life, so be it.

But before any of that happened, I was going to work.