CHAPTER Ten
Dean stretched out his legs on his chaise lounge on his back patio. Mike sat across from him sipping a beer. “How’s the hotel?”
Dean hadn’t seen Mike since Jack’s wedding. When Mikey had called earlier in the day to suggest they get together, he jumped at the opportunity. Outside of work obligations, Dean hadn’t had a social life since his breakup with Maggie. At first, he avoided his friends. Not that they let him sulk for long. Jack and Mike had found him up in Big Bear and assisted him with getting good and drunk. He’d spent an entire weekend brooding and cursing anything in a skirt before returning to his life. And even then he did so slowly…if at all.
Jack and Mike saw him through the hard time, and went on to support him ever since. Although they didn’t talk about his ex, Dean knew his friends watched him. Whenever they got together, one of them would ask if he was seeing anyone. Checking to see if he was climbing back on the horse, so to speak. In truth, he hadn’t. Not because of an undying love for Maggie, but because of how done he was with the whole dating scene. Maggie was a perfect case of “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” He knew that now. After.
He supposed Maggie had picked up on his feelings and that was why she had broken off their engagement. Being dumped weeks before your wedding sucked. Being married to the wrong person would have sucked more.
“Coming along. No major setbacks.”
“Is Katelyn actually showing up to work?”
An instant picture of Katie’s blonde hair poking out from under his hard hat surfaced. “She is. I’ll be the first to admit how shocked I am at how seriously she has taken this job.”
“I didn’t think she’d last a week. Of course her real work won’t come until the hotel is nearly finished…right?”
Dean twisted the top off his beer and shook his head. “She’s taken great pride in pointing out design issues in the construction phase. Niches that need electrical and framing. Separate meeting areas outside of conference halls for kids and adults. She even snuck behind my back to talk with my plumber about one of those fancy fountains that shoot water out of the ground for kids to play in.”
“What does all that have to do with sofas and wall color?”
“Nothing. I’m gonna grill Jack when he gets back.”
“You think he knew how involved she wanted to be?” Mike brushed a fly off his arm as he spoke.
“I think Jack was too busy doing all that sappy married crap before he left to pay Katie much attention. Katie is all kinds of resourceful. Probably snuck in a limited amount of details and had him saying yes without realizing what he was doing.” Dean could picture the conversation easily. Chances were Katie cornered Jack with Jessie across the room. C’mon, Jack. You know I’m a born decorator. No need to hire someone to do the job.
That’s all that would have needed to be said to land the position. And it wasn’t as if she was getting paid. How could Jack say no?
“She’s busting your budget I’ll bet.”
“That’s just it, she’s not.”
“What?” Mike sounded as surprised as Dean felt.
“I gave her a budget, a low one thinking she’d balk at it, and so far she’s staying within it. I even heard her haggling with a vendor over paint prices.”
“No shit?”
“No shit!” Dean took a pull off his beer.
“So Jack was right. Katie isn’t acting herself.”
Dean shrugged. “Not completely. The work thing is new. I keep expecting her to burn out. I’ve called the hotel a few times but it doesn’t seem she spends a lot of time there.” And that was classic Katie behavior.
“Is there a guy?”
Dean thought of that Ben guy and ignored the twist in his gut. “Probably.”
“That’s good.” Mike relaxed with that information.
“Why is that good?” Dean didn’t think so. Ben was too old for Katie.
“Think about it, Dean. If Katie cut away from her normal life of partying, traveling, and appearing in the tabloids every other week so she could work full-time and stay at the hotel at night watching movies, then we’d all know something wasn’t right. So she started to work, find meaning in her life. I get that. Even actors work on occasion. No one gives up everything in their life without a reason. It’s like when you gave up camping and riding your bike.”
Mike had him up until he started talking about camping. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Don’t get defensive. You know what I’m talking about.”
“No. I don’t.”
“When you were with Maggie, you cut out the things that make you tick. I couldn’t get you to go camping all last year. And it wasn’t until after Maggie skipped out that you found your bike again. Maggie was your reason for strange behavior.”
“Sometimes we do things for the people in our lives.”
Mikey sat forward and met Dean’s eyes. “If falling in love and getting married means I have to give up everything I like doin’, then count me out.”
“I didn’t give up everything.”
Mike snorted.
“I didn’t.” Dean winced, knowing he sounded like a five-year-old. “OK, maybe I did. I was messed up back then.”
“That’s my point, buddy. If Katie wasn’t acting at all normal, we’d know she was messed up. That something had gone down that none of us knew about. And as much as we might hate it sometimes, we all like to keep tabs on each other. Be there for each other.”
Mike was right.
They changed the subject to a local baseball team and grilled a couple of steaks. Katie was never far from Dean’s mind. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something…something big.
Dean wasn’t sure why Katelyn insisted on showing up to the job site before him, but for the fourth time in a week he pulled alongside her rental car and shook his head.
The top of the convertible was down and he glanced in the backseat. A bright pink pacifier stuck out like a bald man in a hair salon. He reached in and picked it up. Maybe the pacifier was hidden under the seat, and the person who rented it before Katie had lost it.
Still, the presence of the infant toy sparked a moment of recognition much like déjá vu, and didn’t let go.
He cupped the plastic binky into his palm and made his way inside.
Jo greeted him and gave him his messages. The light in the conference room was on, and he could hear Katelyn talking on the phone. After the conversation with Mike the day before, and his own nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right, Dean had decided to poke a little more into Katie’s mind.
“Mornin’, Katelyn,” he called from across the room when he heard her say good-bye on the phone.
“Hey, Dean.”
Without bothering to enter the conference room, he asked, “Would you mind coming in here for a few minutes?” Dean walked into his office and waited for Katie to follow.
The space in the trailer was tight; barely enough space for the three rooms.
He sat behind his desk and looked over his messages.
“What do you need?”
Dean looked up, somewhat startled. The sound of high heels, which usually accompanied Katie wherever she went, wasn’t there. When he glanced over her frame, a pair of designer jeans hugged her slim hips and sneakers adorned her feet.
He didn’t know she owned a pair of sneakers.
“Come in, sit down.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Am I in trouble, boss?”
When it came to Katie, Dean never felt like the boss. “Should you be?”
She stepped forward and closed the door.
The snarky smile on his face fell. “You’re limping.” And attempting not to show it by walking slowly and with calculated ease.
When she sat in the chair across from him, she huffed out a breath. “Stubbed my toe,” she told him.
He was out of his chair and at her side in an instant. “Liar. You’re wearing running shoes.” And from what he could tell, only a little bit of that black stuff women wear on their eyes and lip gloss. Mike’s words hung in the air. If Katie wasn’t acting at all normal, we’d know she was messed up.
He knelt down and placed a hand on the foot she was favoring.
“I’m OK.” She pulled away.
He dropped his hand to her side and met her gaze. Just a glimpse of her always knocked the wind out of his lungs. Her porcelain skin and pink lips were more tempting than any he’d ever seen. He remembered those lips on his, the feel…the taste.
“Let me look.” He lowered his voice. “Please.”
Katie rolled her eyes and lifted her leg. “It’s not a big deal. Just a sprain.”
Her ankle was swollen and wrapped in a bandage, her shoe loosely tied. “When did this happen?”
“Yesterday.”
“Here?”
“I’m fine, Dean, really.”
“Dammit, Katie. Those shoes—”
“I’ve heard the lecture already. Monica thinks I sprained it. No big deal.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Monica?”
Katie hesitated. “She is a nurse.”
“But not a doctor. Did you see a doctor? Have an X-ray?”
“I don’t need a doctor. It’s already feeling better. I’m sure you didn’t make me walk in here if you knew I had hurt myself. What did you need?”
Dean forced himself to stand. “No more high heels, Katie. I mean it.”
“Whatever.”
“I mean it.”
She glared at him now. “I don’t hear you telling anyone else around here what they can and can’t wear.”
“No one else tries to walk on heels the size of a number two pencil.”
She sat forward, but didn’t stand.
Feeling better, my ass.
“Fine, no more stilettos. Now what did you want?”
He fished out the pacifier from his pocket and handed it to her. “I saw this in your car.”
She took to her feet and her face swept of all color. “My car?”
“Yeah, the little red convertible outside? Someone you know have kids?” Like maybe Ben? He thought but didn’t ask.
“Ah, no…er.”
“Maybe the person who rented it before you had kids.”
Katie kept looking at the pacifier in thought. “Yeah…maybe.”
If Katie wasn’t acting at all normal…Mike’s voice called inside Dean’s head. Katie wasn’t acting normal. She stared at the binky as if it had legs and was crawling up her arm.
“Is this why you called me in here?”
Dean leaned against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “I wanted to ask you about this fountain idea you blew past Steve yesterday.”
“Oh, is that all? OK,” she said sitting back down.
“Katelyn, are you all right?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. The ankle bites a little, but it isn’t that bad.”
“No, not the ankle. I mean…is there anything going on you want to talk about?”
“Like what?” She sent him a puzzled look.
“I don’t know…you tell me. Is something wrong?”
She looked away, her eye twitching. “What could be wrong? I like what I’m doing here, the guys seem to like me. It’s hot out, but not like Texas. Everything’s great.”
“Great.” She did not lie well.
“About the fountain…” Katelyn changed the subject and went on to tell him her ideas. Which he had to admit, he liked. She didn’t ask for a bigger budget, but Dean knew it would triple the cost of what they had previously planned.
“I need to check this with Jack, see if he likes it.”
Katie smiled. “Tell him to ask Danny’s opinion.”
“That wouldn’t be playing fair. He can’t say no to that kid.”
The grin that played on Katie’s face met her eyes and stayed there. How long had it been since he’d seen her that lit up? “Kids have that effect on people.” She hesitated and then said, “You should know that. You have a nephew. How is Robert anyway?”
“Getting big,” he told her.
“Isn’t Syrie pregnant again?”
“Yep. Has a couple more months to go.”
Katie was still smiling. Maybe she’d come to terms with the fact that she couldn’t have kids of her own. The last time they’d talked about kids, it was right after the doctor had given her the bad news. It was the only time Dean had seen Katie cry.
“Boy, is she gonna have her hands full.”
“Our mom plans on staying with them for a couple of weeks after the baby is born. Help her get used to dealing with two.”
“Oh, good. She’ll need that.”
Dean’s heart cracked. Obviously the memory of their child, the one that didn’t make it past the first trimester, no longer haunted Katie. He still felt the loss like it was yesterday.
Katie stood. “Give them my best when you talk to them.”
“I will.”
She started for the door and grabbed the back of the chair for support. Dean shot to her side and slid an arm around her waist. “I thought it wasn’t that bad.”
“Hurts more when I first get up,” she said, excusing away his concern.
She leaned into him and let him walk her out. Dean hated the fact that she was hurting, but warmed with her being in his arms.
Only a class A a*shole would enjoy this, he told himself.
“You should go back to the hotel, rest your ankle.”
Although he took the brunt of her weight, she still sucked in a breath as she tried to walk. “I’m OK.”
She stepped again and moaned.
“The hell!” He lifted her in his arms and told her to hold on.
He carried her through the door and barked at Jo. “Get the door. Katie’s going home for the day.”
Jo jumped up and cleared the path.
“I can walk, Dean.”
She rested a hand on his chest but didn’t push away.
“Take tomorrow off,” he told her as he walked down the steps of the trailer and over to her car. “If it’s only a sprain, it should feel better after the weekend.”
Her forehead rested beside her hand on his chest and Dean’s heart kicked hard. God he missed this. Missed her.
“You win,” she told him. “It hurts like a bitch.”
He chuckled. “Need me to drive you home?”
“No. I drive with my right foot, not my left.”
He gently placed her inside her car. His hand rested on her thigh as he spoke. “Have someone help you up to your room.” He didn’t like the sound of that. “You know what, I’ll go with you.”
“No! I’m fine. I think Monica’s home. I’ll give her a call; find out if there’s a doctor I can see.”
The thought of him tucking her into bed dissipated. “Good idea.”
“Here’s your purse, Katelyn,” Jo said from behind Dean.
When he stood, he felt the loss of Katie’s heat. She tucked her purse beside her and buckled her seat belt.
“I’ll call you,” he told her.
“You don’t have to do that.”
No, he didn’t. But he wanted to.
“Use my cell,” she said. “In case I’m at the doctor’s.”
The dust from the road kicked up behind her car as she drove away.
I should have gone with her.