What We've Become (My Kind Of Country Book 2) (6 page)

“And is that what you want to be? Friends?”

Was she trying to make him admit he was looking for more commitment than she could offer? He wasn’t going to take the bait. “I’ll take moments of your time any way I can get them, Katie.”

Her unwavering gaze met his, and he watched her jaw clench and release, mulling over something in silence.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.” She stood up and disappeared around the corner beyond the kitchen nook, leaving Chad alone with his confusion. He listened as a door opened and a series of low whispers were heard. He’d just realized there was no radio playing within the apartment, the way Katie had always done at the farm, when the thumping of running footsteps caught his attention and a seven-year-old boy came barreling around the corner, Katie grinning widely behind him.

“Chad!”

“Little Man Mason!” He hit his knees in front of the armchair, embracing the boy in a tight hug. “How’s it going?”

“Okay! Mom is going to take me to the zoo!” Mason exclaimed excitedly.

Laughter erupted from Chad’s throat. “You’re pretty lucky! I have heard it’s a pretty cool place to go.”

“Maybe you can come with us!” Mason offered, stealing a glance in Katie’s direction.

“Your Dad is going to go with us, if he can.” She waited until her son had turned back around to shrug apologetically at Chad.

“That’s a great offer, Mase. You can tell me all about it, though, okay?”

Katie interjected, to abate the awkwardness. “Hey, Mase. Remember what I told you in the bedroom?”

He looked to his mother, nodding. “That Chad had a surprise for me.” Mason grinned wildly, snapping his gaze back to Chad in anticipation. Chad, bewildered, turned his gaze to Katie for answers, only to see her holding up a flimsily wrapped package. Recognition registered immediately.

“You kept it?” he murmured softly.

Katie just nodded. “I did. But it’s yours to give him.”

Chad reached out to take the package from her, handing it over into Mason’s eager little hands. “That’s your birthday gift from me, buddy. It’s a little late, and it’s not wrapped very well, but at least it made it to you.” He watched in fascination as the little boy ripped into the racecar wrapping paper to reveal a harmonica wrapped in velvet and an instruction booklet.

“Cool!” Mason immediately pushed the instrument to his lips and blew, making a horrid, high-pitched sound emit from it. Laughter erupted, but he shrugged it off.

“You’ll get better at it, I promise.” Chad reached out to tousle his hair affectionately.

“Thanks, Chad! It’s awesome! Maybe I can play in your band someday.”

The comment caught him off guard, and he turned to Katie. She held up her hands. “He knows you’re Chad Ashton. He Googled you.”

“Never mind playing in the band. I might need you to teach me all that techy stuff you obviously already know.”

Mason spent the next half hour trying to play one of the tunes from the booklet, much to his dog Cash’s discomposure. He was never too far away from his side, but Chad and Katie were able to continue their conversation over Mason’s musical attempts.

“So, your plans are to stay here for Christmas? That’ll be nice for you two.”

Katie nodded. “Yeah. I’m headed back in two days to make some arrangements for the farmhouse to be checked on while I’m away. You never know what kind of weather or temperatures could hit.”

“The livestock is being tended to by someone else?”

Katie’s gaze faltered. “I sold all of them. It was getting too hard to give the animals the attention they needed while bouncing back and forth between here and there. I was paying the farmer down the road more to look after them than I was making back by having them. They’re all gone.”

His throat constricted. “But the farm itself, you didn’t—”

“Sell it? God, no. Jay might want me to, but that’s one battle he’s not going to win.”

Chad nodded, a shiver of pride blossoming inside him.
Good for you
, he cheered silently. He knew how much that place meant to her. “He wants you to sell it and just move here?”

“He wants me to really
try
.” She made quotations with her fingers. “These next few weeks will show where we’re truly at with each other.” Her voice lowered as she spoke, uncertain how much Mason could hear over his blazing harmonica melodies.

“I miss you, Katie.” Chad blurted the words he had been waiting to say since he’d shown up. He expected her to tell him to stop, to be mad or frustrated with him.

Instead, she nodded. “I miss you, too.”

A small triumphant smile tugged the corner of his mouth upward.

“But I mean it. Jay and I need to really put in an effort—”

“I’ve got it, Katie.” He raised his hands. “It’s okay.”

Mason whirled back around the corner of the sofa with Cash lagging exhaustedly behind him. “Did Mom tell you Dad wants to get married? To her, I mean?”

“Mason!” Katie turned seven shades of embarrassed, which confused the boy even more.

“What? Dad keeps talking—”

“No, she didn’t mention it, Mase.” Chad did his best to wave the subject off dismissively, seeing Katie’s evident discomfort.

“Go get washed up for lunch, okay? I seem to have lost track of time today.”

Mason was still staring at her with a befuddled expression as he turned the corner and disappeared down the hallway.

“I wasn’t keeping it from you on purpose, Chad.”

“It’s okay. It’s none of my business.” He stood up, feeling the air in the room growing thick with tension.

“Jay’s been bringing it up, and I am very much against it,” she continued to explain. “I want to have a big ole’ beautiful wedding ceremony and a cake and a party someday, but not right now.”

“And not with him.” He locked eyes with her.

“Don’t do that. Please.” Her gaze flitted to the floor as she stood, wiping nonexistent dust from her black pants. “And don’t follow me back to Canada, okay?”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “What makes you think I would?”

“You have done crazier things.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “I’ll be back.”

Chad glanced around the room, plucking a marker and paper from Mason’s drawing supplies on the coffee table. He scribbled vehemently and handed it to her. “I’m glad to hear it. When you do come back, feel free to call me or stop by.”

Katie took the paper from him, eying him warily. After a moment’s hesitation, she bent to scribble on one of the pieces of paper and handed it over to him.

“And that’s my cell number.”

“You have a real cell phone now? I never thought I would see the day.”

Katie laughed, and the sound made him smile. “Only because there isn’t a landline phone here,” she advised.

Chad tucked the paper into the back pocket of his jeans, knowing he would have to remember to save it in his phone’s directory later that night.

“So, friends?” He held out his hand toward her.

Katie chuckled softly, slipping her hand into his and shaking it gently. “Friends.”

KATIE

She was far from surprised when Jay came home earlier than usual from work, a few brightly colored file folders and CD cases tucked under his arm.

“What was he doing here, Katie?” he demanded to know once he had deposited his armful of stuff onto the kitchen counter.

She’d known Jay would be disgruntled about Chad’s appearance—and frankly she expected an argument to arise from it—but the blame and annoyance in his voice still put her on edge. “You heard him. He found my barrette and returned it.”

“It sounds like a flimsy excuse to me.” Jay tossed his cell and wallet into his pile of belongings on the counter, the abrupt clatter causing her to turn around and face him.

“You bought me that barrette, and seemed more than a little frustrated with me when I realized it had fallen out. You should be thanking him instead of insinuating that—what exactly are you insinuating?” She pulled the oven mitts from her hands, pushing the buttons on the timer a bit more aggressively than she needed to.

“You didn’t seem unhappy to see him, Katie.”

She suppressed an eye roll. “I wasn’t unhappy to see him! Why the hell would I be? I was a bit surprised, I will admit that, but he did me a favor by returning something I had lost. No more, no less. You can stop grasping at straws in your jealous stupor any time.”

“You can sit there and say—”

A loud honk from the harmonica cut through their argument as Mason appeared around the corner, the instrument held closely to his lips. “What’s wrong?”

His question resulted in a brief silence and short glances at one at another.

“Sorry, Mase. It was just a silly argument.” Katie flashed him a halfhearted smile but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Supper is almost ready, buddy.”

Jay bent down to give his son a quick hug. “Hey, pal. Where did you get that nifty little thing?”

Mason held out the gold colored harmonica proudly. “Chad gave it to me for my birthday! It’s late, but it’s still cool.”

Jay snapped his head around to glare at Katie. “Is that so?”

She purposely turned away from him, checking the minutes left on the timer, then opening the oven door to inspect the chicken within it. “It’s been here a while, Jay. I was eventually going to just give it to Mason myself, but—”

“But Chad showed up here and the present just happened to be here, too. Expecting him, were you?”

Katie slammed the baking pan down on top of the oven and turned it off. “No! Would you stop that? Mason loves the harmonica, can we just leave it at that?” She peered over to see Mason, wide eyed and uncertain, watching the two of them bicker back and forth. “It’s okay. Dinner is ready, though, so can we take a break from the harmonica melodies for a bit and go wash up?”

He obediently nodded, his gaze flickering down to the instrument in his hand as though it were the reason for all the fighting. He disappeared silently around the corner again, his dejected features tugging at Katie’s heart strings.

“You need to calm down, Jay.” Her words came out as a venomous hiss, trying hard to keep her voice low. “Mason doesn’t need to see us fighting all the time, especially when it’s for no reason.”

“And you think Chad Kirkwood is ‘no reason’ for me to be angry? Giving my son gifts and just
stopping by
for visit?” Jay made air quotations with his fingers. The look of disgust on his face angered Katie even more.

“We’re friends, Jay. Nothing more. And Mason was glad to see him, too. Just let it go for now, all right?” She shook her head. This conversation was going nowhere fast and Mason did not need to be here for it.

“I missed him, Daddy.” Mason’s small voice rang through the air, his admission catching them both off guard. His hands were red from scrubbing them, and the harmonica was still clutched tightly between his fingers.

A loud sigh escaped Jay’s throat. “Mason, you do not need to—”

His father’s tone of voice must have made him assume he had said or done something wrong. His eyes were wide with fear. “So did Mom!”

“Mason!” Jay bellowed. “I don’t want to hear it!”

“But she said she did!” he cried, looking over frantically to Katie for support.

The color drained from Katie’s face. “It’s okay, Mase—”

“No, it’s not! Mason, put that damn harmonica away like your mother told you!” Jay pointed accusingly at the toy in his son’s hand, his face turning red with bubbling anger.

“She said not to play it! I won’t—”

Jay lunged forward, snatching the harmonica from the little boy’s hand, and threw it angrily back toward the hallway, the metal casing thumping hard against the drywall. Mason began to wail immediately, a flood of tears and cries for Katie erupting from him as he ran to her.

“Christ, Jay!” She stared at him incredulously, Mason wrapped up tightly in her arms. “What’s gotten into you?” She stroked her son’s hair gently, whispering hushed shushing noises in between blinking back tears of her own.

“Go check on your harmonica, okay, Mr. Mase? Take it into your room and I’ll bring dinner in there so we can watch Ninja Turtles and camp out on the bed, okay?” She pulled away from him to peer at his tear stained face through his bangs. A meek nod was all she got in response, and he ran down the hallway into the refuge of his room, without once looking back at Jay.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Katie turned to him, her face distorted in disbelief and anger. “Whatever it is, don’t you dare take it out on him!” She pointed toward Mason’s bedroom door.

“Katie, I am not trying to make things work just so that Chad goddamn Kirkwood—”

“If this is you
trying
,” she motioned furiously between them, “then you’re not very good at it. What did you think was going to happen? Purposely throwing Chad back into my life like that? This is all on you, Jay, not him!”

“
Our
life! I was proving a damn point! You’re with me, not him! And I wanted him to damn well know it!”