Page 58 of Keep On Loving You

“So does that mean you’re going to tell us the rest?” Charli, who’d handed baby Poppy off to Symon, leaned her elbows on the table and stared at her sister. “Finally?”

Kat took a deep breath and looked at him.

Andy gave her a smile of encouragement. He didn’t fully understand her hesitation to tell them about the list, but he did know that Kat’s relationship with Michael Carlson had been special, and he could appreciate that once she shared the list with them all, it would no longer be completely hers and hers alone.

“I’ll clear the table.” Andy gave Kat’s shoulder a quick squeeze as he stood. “Give you all a few minutes.”

“I was being silly, wasn’t I?”

Kat was draped across Andy’s naked chest while his fingers traced patterns on her bare back after having just given her an incredible orgasm.

After the physical exertion of the hike, followed by aneven more emotionally exhausting conversation with her family, Kat had been sure she would fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

And she probably would have, if it wasn’t for the way Andy had kissed her goodnight. Something about the way his lips felt on hers, never mind his hands on her skin, had woken her up. And she was not complaining.

“When? A few minutes ago? I wouldnotcall that reaction silly.”

“No. Not that.” She pushed up so she could look in his eyes and see the sparkle of mischief there, letting her know he was teasing. “There was definitely nothing silly about that.” She bit her lower lip, and he groaned before pulling her back down to him.

She let him stroke her hair and twist his fingers through the strands before she spoke again. “I meant about the list. Was I being silly keeping it to myself?”

“Do you feel like it was silly?”

She hesitated, but only for a moment. “No.”

“Then that’s the only answer you need.”

Kat shifted so their mouths were only inches apart.

“You have to trust your instincts, Kitty Kat. This is your journey. And you get to do it however you want. If you want to tackle everything on your list right away and get it all done, you can. But if you want to take your time and give yourself the whole six months, that’s okay, too. And the same goes for who you tell about it. It’s up to you. No one has any right to tell you how to deal with it. Not even your brothers and Charli.”

She nodded slowly. Andy was right. Still, she’d seen how happy they were to finally know what was on thebucket list.And even happier to know that the dangerous items had already been crossed off. It felt good to know that she’d relieved some of their worry. At least a little bit.

In fact, their response to learning that she only had a fewminororeasythings to cross off had been almost dismissive.

But Kat hadn’t been completely truthful with them. Although she’d told them about the karaoke, the cooking lessons, the art lessons and the second language, she’d kept the last thing to herself and hadn’t mentioned the overnight backpacking trip.

“Thank you for saying that.” She kissed his cheek. “It’s kind of funny really, because on one hand, I waited for so long for it to be my turn, that I feel like I should just hurry and be done with it.”

“And on the other hand?”

She let her lips curl up into a sly smile. “On the other hand, I really want it to last.”

Andy let his hands slid down to rest on her hips, his fingers splayed over her naked ass.

“That makes two of us, Kitty Kat.”

Andy lifted his head and kissed her softly before rolling them both over until he was wrapped around her. He held her close against him and whispered in her ear. “Rest now. It was a big day.”

Kat let her eyes drift closed. Warmed by Andy’s body holding her tight, she knew it wouldn’t be long before shegave in to the sleep that threatened. But before she did, she tried to freeze the moment in her mind and her heart.

He’d told her to trust herself, but that was the whole problem. She wasn’t sure she could. Because her mind was screaming at her to push Andy away before she got hurt, and her heart knew it was already too late.

Kat didn’t want her six months to end, because as long as her list wasn’t complete, she could pretend that what she and Andy were doing together was real.

Chapter Twenty

It had been justover three weeks since Kat had crossed anything off her list. If her siblings had noticed, they hadn’t said anything. A fact that Kat was grateful for. They were giving her all the space they needed to do things in her own time, even though there was no doubt that at least half of them probably couldn’t understand what was taking her so long.

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