She stops, and I’m surprised she had the fortitude to do so. I thought she might blurt out that we saw the original trust agreement and pour-over will signed not long after the wedding, but she didn’t. She holds that close to the vest, and I think that’s smart. No sense in him knowing exactly how fired up she is or that she has a copy of what is probably the one and only estate document in existence. It’s best to let him think she’s just a girl poking around… not someone to be reckoned with.
Kevin’s silent. For a moment, I think he’s disconnected. Cat and I look at each other, and I give a slight shrug to my shoulders. Finally, he asks in a voice filled with icy disdain, “What is it exactly that you want?”
Cat takes a deep breath. “I want a copy of the signed document that governs Samuel’s estate, so I know what my rights are. And until such time as we can resolve this, I want you to turn my credit cards back on so I have something to live off until that occurs.”
My eyebrows shoot up because I didn’t see that coming. Cat glances at me with a questioning look, and I nod at her in agreement of what she just asked for. My hand comes out, and I hit the “mute” button on the phone so he can’t hear us. “Ask for the house. Tell him you want back in and him out.”
She shakes her head immediately in denial and whispers, even though he can’t hear us. “I don’t want to go there.”
Yeah… that’s a big fucking smile taking up residence on my face right now. I lean forward, kiss her quickly, and then unmute the call.
“Tell me where you are,” Kevin asks. “I’ll bring it to you.”
Yeah, he isn’t getting within twenty feet of Cat again. I lean toward the phone slightly and say, “You can send it with a courier to 263 W. Karns Ave, but you’re not welcome here.”
“And who is this, if I may ask?” he says in an amused voice. “Cat find herself a man or something?”
“I’m your worst nightmare if you fuck her over,” I growl into the phone, my eyes flicking up to see Cat watching me with wide eyes.
Kevin makes a scoffing sound and laughs. “Brave man… hiding behind a phone and won’t give his name.”
“It’s Rand Bishop, you asshole. I just gave you my home address, and I work at Westward Ink. You feel free to come see me whenever you want to, and I’ll show you exactly the lengths I’m willing to go to make sure you won’t fuck Cat over anymore.”
A moment of silence while Kevin digests my words, and I’m sure they’ve pissed him off royally. But he surprises me when he says, “I’ll send a copy of the signed document over tomorrow.”
“Bring it to Westward Ink,” I command because it just hit me… neither Cat nor I will be here during the day, and besides… I don’t want him anywhere near her.
“Understood,” he says crisply. The phone then beeps twice to indicate he’s hung up on the other end.
“Was that okay?” Cat asks me hesitantly, dropping the phone back in her purse.
“You were perfect,” I say, sliding my hand from her lower back to her ass and giving it a small smack. I don’t do more than that, although I’d love nothing more to drag her back to the bedroom and muss up that perfect makeup and hair. At the least, I want to kiss her, but not sure it’s appropriate given the nature of the conversation that was just had.
So I keep it cool and give her a wink. “Well, I better get to work before Pish fires me.”
Cat snorts. I spent the many, many hours on the road to and from Vegas telling her all kinds of gory details about Pish. Hell, she probably knows more about my friends and family than anyone as much as we’d talked during that road trip, but she definitely knows what I know about Pish.
That he’s a pushover.
I pat my front pocket for my keys, feel the small bulge, and turn toward the door.
“Hey,” she says softly.
Turning back to her, I tilt my head to wait for whatever it is she wants to say.
Please be something good. Please be something that lets me know that I’m not imagining some of these feelings or worse yet, that they’re one-sided.
“I meant what I said a minute ago,” she says, her eyes lasered onto mine so I know she’s talking straight.
“What’s that?” I ask, since a lot was said in the last minute or so.
“That I don’t want to go back to the Jackson house,” she says bluntly. “I really don’t want anything he has, but in particular, I don’t want to go back there.”
“Bad memories and all,” I hazard a guess, remembering just how good that felt to hear her say she didn’t want to go back the first time.
It’s even better the second.
“No,” she says simply and picks up her purse. “Just better memories here. Much, much better, and I don’t want to give that up.”
“Then don’t,” I tell her leaning forward, grazing my lips on her cheek. “You have a place here as long as you want it.”
I hope she reads between the lines. I’m not just talking a bed to sleep in, but I’m certainly not ready to tell her that yet. While Cat’s opened up to me in amazing ways, I can still tell that deep down, she’s going to be leery of anything that resembles a commitment and I’m not about to scare her off.
Chapter 18
Cat