Page 75 of Welcome to Forever
Chapter 18
The three women sat at the kitchen table the next morning and stared at each other over their coffee mugs, none of them saying a word. Kat’s phone lay at the center of the table, where she’d placed it after playing the voice message on speakerphone.
“What are you going to do?” Val finally asked, her hair sticking up around her face from sleep.
That was the big question. While Kat had been out at the Marine Corps ball last night, falling in love with another soldier, her late fiancé’s mother had called and left her a voicemail, asking her to call her back. Saying they needed to talk.
Kat shook her head, holding her coffee mug close to her lips. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I haven’t seen Rita since the funeral.” Which was shitty in and of itself. She should’ve been there for the woman who was set to be her future mother-in-law. Seeing Rita had seemed too hard, though. She’d needed to stay strong, the way John would’ve wanted her to be. Except now, looking back, avoiding Rita had been weak.
Julie reached for one of the cheese Danishes that Val had made earlier in the morning and took a bite, her eyes rolling back in her head as she did. Licking her lips, she agreed. “You have to call her back. That’s the only thing to do.”
Kat nodded numbly. The right thing was always the harder thing. It’d be so much easier to pretend like she’d never gotten the message. She was moving on, getting stronger, falling in love—the last thing she needed was to get dragged back into the past. “You’re right.” She looked between her friend and her sister. “Rita sounded good, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” Julie agreed, licking her fingers now, too. “Cheerful even. She probably just wants to make sure you’re okay.”
“You think?” Kat asked, hearing the hopeful lift in her tone of voice. “After two years?”
“Or she wants to make sure you’re still pining over her son. Make sure you’re not sporting the after-sex glow.” Val’s brows waggled. “Which you are, by the way.”
Kat’s heart dropped. “The after-sex glow?”
Val snickered. “You’ve been sporting the look for the past couple weeks. Did you think no one noticed?”
Julie nodded again, reaching for another Danish. How did her sister get blessed with such a good metabolism, and Kat didn’t?
“It’s true,” Julie said, between chews. “I’m kind of jealous, actually. I have to do an hour of yoga for my skin to look that way.”
Kat didn’t protest this time. The jig was up. She had been sporting the after-sex glow, and a completely different kind of glow that she hadn’t even recognized. She was happy. Not just surviving and proving to everyone around her that she was strong. No. She was doing well in her job as principal of Seaside, no matter what a handful of people might argue. Her sister was home and getting along with her best friend. And she was dating a man who could possibly turn into something more.
“Why are you smiling?” Val asked, waving a hand in front of her to get her attention. “Did you decide what you’re going to do about the voicemail?”
Kat blinked and looked at the phone again. “Julie’s right. The only thing to do is call Rita back and find out what she wants. It’s probably nothing.”
Val picked up the phone and handed it over. “No time like the present. And we’ve got your back. Do it right now. It’ll be just like ripping off a Band-Aid—quick and easy.”
At this, Julie nodded again. Kat frowned at the two of them. From sworn enemies to practically clones, minus the fact that one was endlessly perky and the other eternally sarcastic.
Kat sucked in a deep breath and smiled at the support system sitting around her kitchen table. She could do this. She could totally do this.
Her insides twisted as she looked at the phone. “I can’t,” she said, standing and moving away from the kitchen table. “Not right now.” She forced a smile and looked at her sister and friend again. “But I will. Later. Right now, I promised Micah that I’d meet him and Ben for pizza after Ben is discharged from the hospital. I need a shower and clothes, and…” Courage, like the scarecrow.
“You’re stalling,” Val said, matter-of-factly.
Hell, yeah, I’m stalling.But it’d been two years. What was another few hours? She’d call tonight, Kat promised herself. She wouldn’t sleep until she’d returned that call. With a nod, she excused herself to go get ready to meet Micah and Ben. They were her future. Her past could wait.
—
Ben waved at his occupational therapist, a young woman with long blond hair and milky white skin. He hadn’t minded this woman stretching his left arm, whereas he usually put up a fight with Micah.
Micah pushed his wheelchair down the hall toward the elevator, ready to say goodbye and good riddance to the hospital for now. It’d been a long twelve hours.
“Where’s Principal Chandler?” Ben asked, craning his neck to glance at Micah behind him. “Shouldn’t she be with you?”
Micah grinned as he pressed the down arrow for the elevator. Just hearing her name these days was enough to make him smile. And it felt good—damn good. The doors to the elevator opened and he pushed Ben inside. “Why would she be with me?” he asked.
“Because you guys fell in love last night, right?”
Micah’s heart clenched. “It takes a lot more than one date to make two people fall in love, son.”
