* * *
"I want to check on Allison." Katherine said into the darkness a short while later.
"Who?" Jace asked jokingly. He dodged her playful slap and said, "I'll come with you."
They giggled like naughty children as they stumbled naked through the dark house. Jace managed to bump into and fall over everything he possibly could and blindly groped for Katherine for support. Invariably, he grabbed some intimate part of her anatomy, apologizing profusely as he did so.
"Oh, forgive me, milady. I'm so sorry. It's damned dark in here you know."
Katherine giggled. "You don't need a light. You know where everything is."
"You're absolutely right," he said with a lecherous growl and pinched the fleshy part of her bottom.
"Jace! In front of the baby?"
They both laughed at their foolishness, but became serious as they looked down into the crib. Allison was sleeping peacefully. Her even breathing kept cadence with the soft, hissing steam coming from the vaporizer.
"I don't think she even missed us," Jace whispered.
When they were back in the large bed lying on their sides with Katherine's back intimately pressed into Jace's chest, she had the first pangs of regret over what had happened.
Was she being naive and idealistic to think that sex should be an extension of love? She loved Jace, and sex was certainty a part of her love, but she knew that he didn't love her.
Yet, surely, he felt some emotion toward her. He seemed to enjoy being with her. Earlier, he had been as afraid for Allison as she was. Perhaps for him, that affectionate concern was the extent of his loving.
One thing was certain. She would- n't allow herself to suffer again the way she had the last few weeks. If this was all she could have of him, then this is all she would demand. It would have to be enough.
As if endorsing what she had resolved, Jace stirred in his sleep and moved his hand from her stomach to a breast, cupping it lightly before his fingers once again relaxed.
Katherine wordlessly mouthed something she would never admit in the light of day. "I love you, Jace."
* * *
Katherine sat at her typewriter staring off into space. She was supposed to be working on the copy for the first series of commercials, but delicious memories of last night fogged her brain and stimulated her body until coherent thinking was impossible.
Allison was feeling better. She had regained some of her appetite, and the prescription that Dr. Peterson had given her helped clear her head of congestion and made her drowsy. She was peacefully sleeping a healing sleep.
Katherine had set a goal for today and was determined to achieve it before putting aside her work to start dinner preparations. She typed a few more words before the telephone rang.
It was a surprise to hear Billy's gruff voice on the other end of the line.
"Hello, Billy," she said happily. "What can I do for you?"
"Well, Katherine, I hate like hell to have to make this call." Katherine's heart squeezed painfully in her chest. Something had happened to Jace. NO! An accident? Was he hurt?
"Jace?" she asked on a high pitch.
Billy must have gleaned her train of thought, for he hastily assured her, "Jace is all right. I mean he's not hurt or dead or anything."
Katherine's knees buckled and she sank down gratefully in the nearest chair. "You gave me quite a fright, Billy."
"I'm sorry, Katherine." Was that a stream of tobacco juice she heard whizzing past the receiver of the telephone? "You see, Jace asked me to call you, and I hate to have to tell you that he won't be home tonight."
"Is there trouble with the well?"
Another expectoration. "Not exactly," Billy hedged.
"Then what?" Katherine asked, becoming exasperated with this beating around the bush.
"He went to Longview to get that Newton bitch out of trouble." She heard Billy sigh in relief as he finally delivered the message.
"I see," Katherine murmured, not risking to say anything more, for fear of revealing the swelling in her throat.
"The hell you do," Billy countered. "But that's your and Jace's business. Anyway, that slut called up here an hour ago, blubbering and carrying on. Seems she got in some trouble in a cowboy honky-tonk that appeals to lonely, frustrated housewives. She begged Jace to come over there. He did," Billy sounded disgusted.
"Of course," Katherine sighed. "Th-thank you for calling, Billy. I would have been worried when he didn't come home."
"Well, I don't know when to tell you to look for him. That broad ... I mean ... she..." Billy's voice trailed off and Katherine saved him from further embarrassment.
"Yes, I understand, Billy."
She broke off the connection before he had time to reply. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head, denying that Jace could leave her for Lacey. After last night? Impossible! After this morning, when he was at the drugstore before it opened to pick up Allison's medicine? No!
How could he kiss her with such tenderness and passion only to rush to Lacey's arms a few hours later? Was that to be the pattern of their lives from now on? Was she to share his passion with Lacey, while Lacey had the added benefit of his love?
"I don't know if I can do that," Katherine said aloud, and only then realized that she had made a decision.
* * *