Until Next Time (The Shooting Stars Series) (43 page)

Katherine fell quiet and when they arrived at the apartments, Adam looked over to find her asleep. He went around and opened the door.

“Come on, Kaitlyn,” he helped her from the seat.

She yawned, shook her head, and stumbled.

“Sorry,” she said as she bumped into him.

“You’re fine,” he escorted her to her door and steadied her. “Kaitlyn, if I didn’t know better I would swear you had been drinking.”

“I’m just that tired,” she noted as he unlocked her door.

He helped her inside and watched her flip her bedroom light on.

“You buried my bed,” she noted.

“I’ll help you unbury it,” he offered and grabbed an arm full of clothes.

“Why did you toss all my new stuff out of my closet?” she asked as she grabbed an arm full and looked around for something to do with it.

“Because most of it isn’t you at all,” he piled clothes onto her dresser. Katherine followed his lead; it could all be gone through tomorrow. Adam was right; most of it wasn’t her.

“There you go; your bed is clear. Good night, Kaitlyn.”

“Good night,” she followed him to the door, and locked it behind him. That done, she fed her cat, hurried through her night time routine and climbed into her bed; she was asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.

***

Katherine very pointedly chose a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, applied little make-up, and left her hair to curl. She was through pandering to Derrick; was through with Derrick. She’d been forced to wait a long, agonizing week to talk with him after business had once again taken him from town. Katherine fingered the ring she had in her pocket and blew out a deep steadying breath. She was angry and that wasn’t how she wanted to address the situation. She heard his knock on her door and moved to answer it.

“Hello, Derrick,” she greeted him calmly, she was going to remain calm; she wasn’t going to express her anger at being manipulated for months.

“Katherine, what are you wearing? We can’t go to dinner with you dressed like that,” Derrick frowned at her.

Katherine felt her anger kindle all over again. “I don’t want my hair straight, I don’t want it strawberry blonde, I don’t want my make-up hiding my freckles and I don’t want my clothes just so. I don’t want to feel like I am always checking myself to make sure I measure up!” she couldn’t keep the heat from her voice.

“Katherine what is this? No one has told you that you don’t measure up and my and my mom’s interest in your wardrobe and hair was a professional one,” Derrick frowned at her. He felt off balance and he didn’t like it. What had gotten into Katherine?

“I am not a freaking fashion plate; I am not an arm decoration and sure as hell am not your damn secretary to sit at home while you jet off all over the globe. Why was I willing to be treated like that?” Katherine was pacing now and struggling to bring her anger in check.

“Katherine clearly you have pre-wedding jitters, let’s discuss this and you will feel better.”

“Because you’re older and wiser and know better than me?” she turned on him; he stepped back and frowned.

“Those things do apply,” he noted.

“Maturity and wisdom have little to do with age, Derrick. I forgot that for a moment.”

“Katherine, why are you angry at me?” Derrick demanded.

“I don’t know if I am angrier at you or at myself. I let you change me, Derrick when I liked who I was.”

“What’s going on, Katherine?” Derrick frowned at her. Where had all of this come from? She had always been slow to change and at times resistant but she always came around. “Where is all of this coming from?”

“I can’t marry you, Derrick. When we met I was so impressed with your perfect manners and your polish but I can’t live up to the standard you set and I’ve been miserable trying to do so,” she informed him.

“Katherine, sweetheart, it was never my intention to make you feel inferior, I’m sorry you felt that way. Talk to me, sweetie, we’ll work this out,” he took her arm and tried leading her to the couch. He was starting to panic now. He had never been dumped in his life and he didn’t intend to break that record now. He and Katherine were going to work this out.

“I don’t want to work it out,” she pulled her arm free. “I want my freedom; I want to be free to be myself and not feel that I’m letting anyone down by doing so.”

“This is about the other night, isn’t it? I’m sorry, Katherine, I had no right to touch you and kiss you that way. I don’t blame you for being upset. I was wrong.” He should have known better than to press her; he had let jealousy rule his actions. He had come to realize that during his trip.

“Derrick, it’s not that I felt guilty or that I felt as if we shouldn’t; it’s that I didn’t want to. You’re a nice looking man, Derrick and I had assumed that when we married the passion would be there. The other night it simply wasn’t there. When I started asking myself why that was I realized I didn’t even know myself any more, Derrick. I was looking at a stranger in the mirror and asking myself how I had gotten there.”

“Katherine, listen to me, you have pre-wedding jitters, sweetheart, and I am willing to bet a guilty conscious is at the root of the other night. Naturally after one misstep that ended in heartache you don’t want to repeat that mistake,” Derrick cajoled her.

Katherine threw back her head and laughed. The man still didn’t get it. “I don’t have a single regret about the night I spent with Adam.”

Derrick felt his anger rise. “So this is all about Adam?”

“No! I was correcting a misconception you seem to have. It wasn’t a case of guilty conscious that kept me from sleeping with you, Derrick. It was a lack of desire. I am not trying to hurt you; I really am not. I just need you to understand that it wasn’t going to work. Derrick, you weren’t looking for a spouse in me; you were looking for a business partner!”

“Yes, Katherine, I thought we would be great together as business partners but I also thought we would make great life partners!”

Why? I want a house
full
of kids, I want the sleepless nights and runny noses and chubby little arms around my neck and to hear myself called Mommy. You seem to want an heir but are otherwise disinterested. I love slow Sunday afternoon drives and old houses. You prefer to get where you’re going as fast as you can and are into new and modern….Derrick we are like oil and water!”

“You could have told me all of this a little sooner,” Derrick snapped. He felt like he was being chastised for the way he felt and he resented it.

“I tried!” she yelled. “You rebuked me for it and assured you me that your way was superior. What I can’t figure out is why it took me so long to get tired of it.”

“No, this is about Adam, Katherine. From the moment he arrived you couldn’t seem to get enough of being with him; to the place you were willing to paint me as the bad guy for being concerned that my fiancée was running off to be with another man. Even better you couldn’t see fit to tell me your past with the man.”

“Why were you so ready to sleep with me the other night, Derrick? Did you really want me that bad or were you just threatened that Adam had been with me and you hadn’t?” she demanded.

“Yeah I was threatened by it because you insist on seeing him constantly.”

“We would have never worked, Derrick; look at us,” she shook her head.

“We never fought before Adam came into the picture,” he insisted.

“You know why, Derrick? Because in an effort to be good enough for you I stuffed my own preferences away and let you have your way. Having someone ask
my
preferences again reminded me that I used to have those and at one time was good at making them known.”

Derrick stared at her in disbelief. Was this the woman he had been engaged to? She stood with her hair in a riot of curls where she had kept pulling them back and releasing them as they argued, her green eyes were lit with fire and her mouth was set in a firm line that said she wouldn’t be moved. He didn’t know the woman standing before him; she was a stranger.

“Here,” she reached into her pocket and extended his ring to him.

Derrick took it and stared down at it in disbelief. Katherine was dumping him. He tucked it into his pocket and nodded.

“I guess this is goodbye then,” he told her.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you, Derrick.”

“Right.” Derrick moved to the door and left without another word.

Katherine sighed and sank onto her couch; she was glad to have that over with. It was a relief to be free of her fiancé so she didn’t understand the tears that sprang to her eyes. She grabbed her keys and locked her door as she left. She rode the elevator up, knocked on Adam’s door, and waited.

“Hi,” his smile was filled with understanding.

“Hi,” she entered and sank onto the couch.

“How did it go?”

“It was a heated argument but he finally took his ring and left. The thing is I am relieved so why am I crying?” she demanded.

“Because Derrick might not have been the one but you gave up a dream tonight.”

“Right, a dream of a miserable future,” she said darkly.

Adam smiled at her.

“No, that was a realization. You dreamt of a happy future with a loving husband and kids. I was starting to worry that you weren’t going to see through him, Kaitlyn,” Adam admitted.

“Honestly, Adam, had you not come along when you did I’m not sure I would have. I began to contrast my time with Derrick to my time with you and I realized I wasn’t myself with him. You’ve always let me be myself and I thank you for that.”

“I like you just the way you are, Kaitlyn.”

“Thank you, Adam. I feel a bit like I’ve just come through a rough storm and got battered in the process,” she shared.

“In a way you did. It will take you a while to adjust.”

“Adam, I don’t have a plan.”

“Scary isn’t it?” he asked with an understanding smile. “I am both looking forward to and dreading my confrontation with Damien next month,” he admitted. “At least once I know what to expect I can try making plans.”

“You’ve been in limbo a while; I imagine you will be glad to get some closure. I’m certainly going to miss you when you go to California.”

“I’ll call every day,” he promised.

“Good,” she smiled. A moment later she was shaking her head and frowning. “I don’t even know where to begin now.”

“Start with tonight and take it one day at a time,” he encouraged.

“Right,” she nodded. A moment later she laughed. “Beyond breaking my engagement I made no plans for tonight.”

“Let’s go see your parents and I can see my mom while we’re there,” he suggested.

“That is a wonderful idea!” she smiled.

“I thought so,” he smiled back. “Pack enough for through Sunday morning and we’ll go from there.”

“Okay,” she agreed and stood. “Thank you,” she hugged Adam.

“You’re welcome,” he assured her as he hugged her back.

Katherine hurried to pack some clothes and Cleo’s things as well. Why hadn’t she thought to go see her parents? It was perfect. She hadn’t seen them in a while and it would be easier to explain her broken engagement in person. Not that she expected her mother would care much; she had never liked Derrick.

Knowing Adam would be along any moment, Katherine sat her bags by the cracked door and went to tidy her curls. She returned to find Adam standing by the door, his hands in his jean pockets. He was an attractive man, she admitted to herself yet again.

“You ready?” he asked her.

“I am,” she nodded.

Adam grabbed her luggage and she grabbed Cleo and her things. A few minutes they were underway.

“Thanks again; I am looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad. I tried calling and got the machine but I know they had no plans to be out of town so they should be home later tonight,” she assured him.

“No problem. I called Mom and she was out as well but I left her a message that I would be in town.”

They chatted easily on the trip to Jackson; the distance seemed to pass quickly. They pulled into the driveway of her parent’s home just behind her parents.

“Hi,” Julia stepped from the car and surveyed them in surprise. “I know that is Adam and that looks like my daughter but the last few times I saw her she looked like a stranger so I’m a little unsure,” Julia teased.

“Aren’t you the comedian?” Katherine rolled her eyes and then hugged her mother.

“Your curls,” her mother reached to touch them tenderly, “it’s so good to see your curls again. So what are you doing here?”

“I came to see my parents!” Katherine laughed.

“How are you, Adam?” Julia hugged him.

“I’m doing well,” he assured her.

“Hi, Daddy,” Katherine hugged her father.

“Hello, Princess, I’m assuming that you’re staying the night rather than showing up at nearly nine-thirty for a quick visit.”

“I am,” she nodded.

“So let me help you get your things.”

“Is your mom expecting you, Adam?” Julia asked him.

“I got her machine,” he admitted.