Until Next Time (The Shooting Stars Series) (46 page)

“Thank you, Kaitlyn; you’ve already been there for me through this whole thing. I feel like I keep taking and taking from you.”

“I volunteered to be here for you and I’m volunteering again. Besides, you’ve been here for me through this whole Derrick mess. If not for you I may have found myself married to him before I realized I was vanishing from the planet.”

“That would have been a loss for everyone who knows you and loves you, Kaitlyn.”

“You’re sweet, Adam.”

“Not really,” he argued.

“Better?” Katherine asked him as she leaned over to peer at him.

Adam smiled, “Better.”

“Good. Have a seat,” she scooted into the corner of her couch.

Adam pulled his shirt back over his head and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from her.

“That thing’s getting pretty worn out, you want another shirt?” Adam teased.

Katherine felt her cheeks heat. “I told you it became habit. When you first left I wore it because, yeah it made me feel closer to you; then it became habit, besides, it’s comfy.”

“Okay,” he smiled.

“You’re so aggravating,” she accused.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you aren’t,” she countered with a smile of her own.

“I should go and let you get some sleep,” he stood.

“Will you be okay?” she asked in concern.

“Don’t know,” he admitted.

“Don’t misconstrue my offer but you’re welcome to stay,” she invited.

“Thank you. Cleo and I can share the couch.”

“Not if you want any sleep,” Katherine laughed. “When she first arrived I left my door open for her but that didn’t last long. She would stand on my chest or shoulder, knead while purring loud enough to wake the dead and yowl every few seconds if I ignored her. She’s defective but I love the crazy little thing,” Katherine shared.

“I didn’t mean to buy you a defective kitten,” he grinned.

“All cats are defective; just in different ways. I can put her in the utility room but she might wake the whole building.”

“She does have quite the meow doesn’t she?”

“It’s because she’s a Siamese.”

“So either I can get no sleep or nobody in the building can get sleep?”

“Or we can all get some sleep. I told you not to misconstrue my offer because I was inviting you to share my bed if you think you can behave,” she informed him.

She watched his brow quirk.

“Okay, I think I can do that,” he told her.

“Okay,” she nodded.

She felt odd leading him to her room and lying down beside him. She had slept in his arms once before and spent one night making love to him repeatedly; she shouldn’t be so nervous about sleeping beside him but she was. She flipped off the lamp and lay on her back to stare at the ceiling.

“Can I hold you?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she agreed. She rolled onto her side and Adam slipped an arm around her. Katherine closed her eyes and drank in the smell and feel of him. She had loved this man desperately, she mused, might still.

The ringing of the phone the next morning was an unwelcome intrusion into Katherine’s pleasant dreams. Her eyes opened and she realized being held wasn’t a dream. She smiled as she reached for the phone.

“Hello,” she answered.

“Are you still in bed?” Derrick demanded.

“Yes, I was still asleep. What do you want?”

“Katherine, we’ve both had some time to think. I feel we should talk again now that we’re both calm,” Derrick informed her.

Katherine settled back against her pillow and sighed as her eyes closed. She found Adam watching her when she opened her eyes again. He reached over to play with a strand of her hair and rubbed it between his fingers. The same hair, Derrick had wanted lighter and straighter.

“There’s nothing to discuss, Derrick,” she returned. “It’s over. Now we both need to move on.”

“You’re going to walk away just like that?” Derrick demanded.

“It wasn’t just like that,” Katherine argued. “I had a whole week to reconsider it after I made the decision.”

“I feel I should get a chance to make my case.”

“It’s over,” Katherine insisted.

“Let’s start over again; let’s just go to dinner.”

“No, Derrick, we cannot go to dinner. We can’t start again. No.”

“Does he need me to spell it?” Adam asked her.

Katherine glared at him. She was ready to slug him until she guiltily recalled her own behavior on the phone with Mia the night before.

“Is Adam there?”

“Goodbye, Derrick.”

“Is Adam there?”

“That is no longer any of your concern. Goodbye.” Katherine disconnected the call and turned to Adam. “I may not love the man but I’m not trying to be cruel either. You know what he thinks,” she snapped.

“I’m sorry, Kaitlyn. You want me to call and explain?”

“Explain what? The fact is whether we had sex or not I invited you into my bed. There’s very little to explain there.”

“Your reasons were noble,” he reminded her.

“Only man could make a statement like that,” she laughed.

“How can I make it up to you?”

“Go sightseeing with me,” she requested.

“I can do that,” he was quick to agree.

“Get out of my bed and go get dressed,” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” he quickly agreed.

Katherine watched him leave; she was shaking her head. She was crazy to have invited him to stay. No one would believe they had simply slept cuddled up together, not given their past. She tossed aside her blankets and hurried to shower and dress. She was drinking a glass of water when a knock sounded on her door.

“Hi,” she let Adam in. “Let me grab my camera and pull my shoes on.”

“You left this last night,” Adam laid the bag from the bookstore on the table.

“Thanks,” she smiled.

A few minutes later they were walking out into a beautiful autumn day.

They stopped to eat breakfast and ran by the store for picnic supplies before Katherine started directing Adam where to go. She first took him to Rattle and Snap, one of her favorite antebellum homes, for the tour. Adam smiled at her as they followed the guide through the house listening to the stories of the family who had lived there during the Civil War. She next directed him to Milky Way Farms to see the outside of the structure and to tell him the story behind the home.

“It was built by Mr. Mars,” she told him.

“Of Mars candy?”

“Yep, he built it during the height of the depression; employed about eight hundred people. He wanted a sure investment and figured land was that. He employed over a hundred people full time here. There were twelve stables here altogether.”

“Wow,” Adam shook his head as he looked up at the home. “What kind of house is this?”

“Tudor Revival.”

“That explains why it puts me in mind of some of the homes I saw in England.”

“You know Milton Hershey did something similar during the depression. He kept building on his town and company, employing people when work was hard to find.”

“They were just sweet guys, weren’t they?” Adam’s eyes were twinkling. Katherine groaned and rolled her eyes.

“Come on, we have more to see,” she insisted.

She directed him to a few more historic properties in the beautiful rolling hills of middle Tennessee and then to the Natchez Trace Parkway and the picnic tables at the Gordon House Ferry Sight.

“This was home to Nashville’s first post master,” Katherine shared.

“How do you know all this stuff?” Adam asked her as he perched on top of the table.

“My daddy used to tell Mom to pack a picnic and we would drive and explore and just go all over the place; it was always so much fun and when we came to a place we could tour we did. I learned to love my state during those trips.”

“I guess so,” he smiled at her as she climbed onto the table beside him and started unpacking their picnic.

Adam watched the wind play with her curls and considered doing the same. She still had no idea just often he had played with her hair in high school. She would be sitting and listening to Mrs. White while he played with her silky curls where they lay on his desk. He had already pressed his luck enough for one day, he decided. She should have been furious with him after the stunt he had pulled earlier.

“Do you know what I thought the first time I saw you?” he asked her.

“What’s that?” she handed him a sandwich.

“That you were too cute; you had to be trouble,” he admitted with a grin.

“Me trouble?” her brows were raised, “This from the guy who stole kisses when we were supposed to be practicing stage kissing?”

“I didn’t know you had never been properly kissed,” he shrugged. “But that’s kind of what I mean, see?”

“No, I don’t see,” she laughed.

“I kept telling myself that you were out of my league and not to go getting mixed up with you but I couldn’t seem to help being drawn to you.”

“I’m flattered,” she rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious, Kaitlyn. You messed me up from the moment you smiled at me.”

“So I was bad for you, huh?”

“No, I was all kinds of bad for you but you were very good for me,” he argued.

“How were you bad for me?” she demanded.

“I was your first kiss, the first one you slept with…I corrupted you.”

“You corrupted me?” she asked on a laugh. “Yes, you see how many men I’ve slept with since you. You started a horrible pattern of bad, destructive behavior.”

“You know what I mean,” he told her. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Adam, have I ever complained?”

“No.”

“Then shut up about it already.”

“You’re bossy,” he accused. “I should have known in college when you ordered me to sleep with you how bossy you are.”

Katherine reached over and slapped his arm.

“Ow!” he held his arm.

“I did not order you to sleep with me!” she countered.

“All but,” he returned.

“You put up a real big fight.”

“I know, I should have argued more, you probably think I’m easy now.”

Katherine blew out an exasperated sigh and tried and failed not to laugh at him.

That night they spent much of the evening watching TV at his place before she went home to bed. When she found one of his t-shirts in the bag with the book, she laughed and pulled it on in place of the old worn out one. Katherine lifted the material and inhaled deeply of his scent. She had a problem; she was still very much in love with Adam and suspected she had been this entire time. The real issue, however, was she did not know exactly how he felt. He flirted, he had always flirted, she knew he was fond of her and that she mattered; she didn’t know how much she mattered.

Twenty-Two

Katherine stared at the paper in front of her in disbelief. She had run by the store for a few groceries and now stood in line. Apparently Adam’s whereabouts were now known to some. The cover of the magazine had a large photo of her and Adam seated on top of a picnic table, feet on the bench at the Gordon House Ferry Site. They were smiling at each other and clearly had been oblivious as neither of them had seen any photographers. She grabbed the paper and added it to her purchases. She didn’t miss the way the clerk glanced between her and the paper as she rang up Katherine’s purchases.

Once her groceries were put away, Katherine took the elevator to Adam’s floor and knocked on his door.

“Hey, Kaitlyn,” he was smiling and looked happy.

“Hey,” she handed him the paper and watched him survey it.

“Well, I guess people know where I am now, huh? I’ll have to be more careful. Are you upset?”

“Shocked,” Katherine laughed. “I never thought I’d see myself in gossip papers. They’ve been talking to someone too because apparently I dumped my fiancé for you. Flattered?”

“Very,” he grinned. “Guess what? I am going to do it; I’m opening my own studio. I put down some money on a place today.”

“Adam! That’s wonderful. Where are you opening it?”

“Nashville.”

“I am so happy for you and glad you are staying in the area. It’d be awfully hard to have a fling with you if you move off and that’s what people expect now,” she laughed and hugged him before she seated herself.

“I am not interested in a fling with you, Kaitlyn,” he didn’t seem amused. “You aren’t the kind of woman a man has a fling with.”

“Now you’ve hurt my feelings and to think I dumped my fiancé for you,” she playfully pouted before turning serious. “All joking aside, Adam, I am so happy for you. I am sure you will be great at it.”

“I hope so; time will tell.”