Page 61 of The Catch

Olivia squeezed her once more, then let her go. “Te amamos, Kit Cat.”

“I love you guys too.”

Cat followed the sound of the football game, wandering into the parlor to find Josh seated in one of her father’s chairs with a drink balanced on his knee. Her father beamed proudly at her from the couch. Josh had clearly already won him over, but she hadn’t expected any less.

Josh stood when she crossed the threshold, holding an arm out to receive her, and she curled into his side.

“Hey,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just came to check the score.” She snuggled under his arm and hugged him back, feeling shaky from the conversation with Maria. When he kissed the top of her head, it struck her that her first instinct had been to come running to him for a safe place to hide.

Maybe she was already letting him take care of her without even realizing it.

Cat rubbed her hands together, waiting for the heat in her car to reach an acceptable temperature before she put it in drive. “I can’t find my gloves,” she said, turning in her seat to scan the back of her car.

Josh sat beside her, watching her with a curious look as she dug through the center console again. He held a stack of Pyrex filled with everything from turkey to pie, to the spicy-as-hell chipotle chorizo stuffing he’d politely suffered through and was now stuck with. Her mother had insisted on sending him with enough leftovers to eat until Christmas.

He reached a hand out around the food and rubbed her bouncing bare knee. “You seem upset about something.”

“Is this blouse too low cut?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Nevermind.”

Josh grabbed ahold of her hand and brought it to his mouth, blowing warm air on her fingers and massaging them. “What’s wrong, Cat?”

“I’m fine,” she said. She was, for the most part. Dinner had been pleasant, and once her cousins had started to fill the house, she had less opportunity to brood over the constant friction between her and Maria. Josh had been a dream, impressing everyone he met. Whenever she wasn’t standing beside him, she was getting winks and encouraging elbow nudges from her relatives.

“Josh is so handsome, Catia,”they gushed.

“A new boyfriend?”they asked with wide eyes and pearls clutched.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who noticed it had been a long time since she’d introduced anyone to them.

She shifted in her seat to tell him how impressed she was, but found him looking at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read. “What?”

“I just want to make sure that was okay for you. Me being there, meeting your whole family.”

Her heart sank. “Oh, baby,” she said. “It was more than okay.” In fact, Josh being there had been the best part of the day. She would unpack that later, now she just wanted to wipe that look off of his face. She reached out to touch his cheek. “It was just my sister. We have a tense relationship sometimes.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

She shook her head and put the car in gear. She’d had enough of Maria for the day. “It’s old stuff. Nothing to worry about. You being there today made me very happy.”

“It made me happy too.”

She agreed with a nod to herself. They were both perfectly happy. Maria couldn’t be more wrong.

Twenty-two

Cat read through her shoppinglist, wandering through the produce aisle while Josh leaned on the cart behind her. “Why are there so many different kinds of onions?” she despaired, scanning the rows for the third time.

Josh shrugged, his eyelids drooping. It was almost eight o’clock by the time he’d arrived at her condo, changed, and got back in her car to go to the grocery store. She knew he just wanted to be done with this errand and back on her couch, scrolling through the options on her Netflix subscription. “I’m sure it’ll taste good with any of them,” he said through a yawn.

She blew him a kiss and grabbed a few of the red ones, moving down her list. “Almost done.”

Twenty minutes and nine ingredients later, they were ready to check out. Emma and Adam were having everyone over to watch the UVA football game at their house the next day, and she’d promised to make something potluck. However, her motivation the past Monday afternoon when she’d decided on her contribution was much stronger than it was so late on Friday evening. Why didn’t she just volunteer to bring cookies?

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