Page 38 of Take My Heart
Katelyn is Kate. Shit. I wasn’t thinking.
‘Yeah, she’s here. I’ll give her the phone.’
Kate jumps up from the couch, a panicked look on her face. ‘Who is it?’ she whispers.
‘A man,’ I whisper back as I give her the phone.
‘Hello?’ Kate chews on her lip, her eyes darting around. ‘Yeah, Dad, I’m fine.’ She sits on the arm of the couch, which makes the shirt ride up and show more of her legs.
I walk away, back to the kitchen, to give her privacy but also so I stop staring at a girl who’s off limits.
‘I’m not coming home.’ She gets up and starts pacing thefloor. ‘No, I’m not getting back with him. I wasn’t in love with him. I can’t marry a guy I don’t love.’ She stops pacing and squeezes her eyes shut as she takes a breath and listens to whatever her dad is saying. ‘I don’t know. A week? Maybe two? I have three weeks off from work and I don’t want to spend them at home.’ She shakes her head. ‘I’m not moving back with you and Mom. I mean, maybe for a week or two until I find a place, but that’s it. I’ll call Abi and see if her building has any apartments open.’ Kate listens. ‘Yes, I’ll call them, but not now. My phone’s dead and the charger is in Cam’s car, which is buried in a foot of snow.’ She starts pacing again. ‘I wasn’t thinking about that when it happened. I saw Brody’s truck and all I could think about was flagging him down. I was freezing and just wanted to get warm. I wasn’t worried about what I’d left in the car.’ She nods. ‘Yeah, I will. Bye, Dad.’
Kate walks over to me in the kitchen and hands me my phone. ‘Thanks for letting me borrow it. I told my parents they should only call if it’s an emergency, but they aren’t great at following directions.’ Kate laughs, but it’s an uncomfortable laugh that I’m guessing is hiding how she really feels.
‘I don’t mind if they call.’ I slip my phone in my pocket.
Kate’s nervously chewing on her lip as she stares at the floor. Her parents must really stress her out, or maybe talking to them brought back the stress she felt from earlier today.
‘You okay?’ I ask.
She looks up and forces out a smile. ‘Yeah. I’m fine.’
‘Liar.’
Her smile drops. ‘Okay, I’m not, but there’s nothing I can do about it. The next few weeks and months are going to betough. And stressful. I just need to accept that and get through it.’
‘You want to talk about it?’
She shakes her head.
I could push her to talk, but I really need to stay out of it. I’ve got enough drama of my own. I don’t need to be adding to it. The problem is, I’m starting to care about this girl, a total stranger I met a few hours ago. Maybe it’s her situation. I hate seeing people feel bad for doing what they want, and it sounds like that’s what’s happening to Kate. She didn’t want to marry the guy and instead of her friends and family supporting her, they’re telling her she made a mistake, making her feel like she did something wrong and can’t trust her own judgment.
Sometimes I feel that way too. My family supports me, but they don’t always support my decisions or trust me to make them. They say they’re just looking out for me, but I wish they’d let me figure stuff out on my own instead of assuming I’ll screw everything up without their help. Unfortunately, my current situation is proving them right. I need to fix it, and I will. I just haven’t figured out how.
Going back to the living room, I sit on the couch and watch whatever Kate had on. It’s some kind of girly movie with tiny dogs and lots of pink.
‘Okay, here’s the thing,’ Kate says, plopping down next to me. ‘I love my parents, but I think they secretly want me to be miserable.’
I guess she changed her mind about talking.
‘It’s not that they intentionally want that,’ she says. ‘They just want what’s best for them instead of me.’ She sighs. ‘Which makes me miserable.’
I grab the TV remote and turn the volume down. ‘How is marrying that guy best for your parents?’
‘Cam’s parents know a lot of important people and they’re very wealthy, like the type of wealth where they can afford private planes and multiple houses. My parents want into that world and me marrying Cam was the way to do it.’
‘They’d really make you marry a guy just so they can be friends with his parents?’
‘They’re already friends with them, but if I married Cam, we’d all be family. And family gets more perks than friends.’
‘What kind of perks are we talking about?’
‘Invites to exclusive clubs and social events. Letting my parents use their private plane. Inviting my parents to parties with people who could bring in more business to my parents’ law firm.’
‘Are your parents disappointed you don’t work there? At their law firm?’
Kate sighs. ‘Yes. They wanted me to go into law, not business. They ended up being okay with it because, according to them, it was better than getting a degree in design, which was what I really wanted.’
