“You’re a natural,” I say, running my hand over the top of Lily’s head.
“Just like her daddy,” Cat remarks and my hand freezes on Lily’s mass of blonde hair.
I stare at her but she hasn’t clued into what she said yet.
“How did you know my daddy makes boats?” Lily asks.
Cat looks down at her for a split second before she gasps and covers her mouth. But it’s too late.
“Um ... I think you mentioned it,” her eyes never meet mine as she concentrates on Lily alone.
“I never told you,” Lily says, the honest girl she always is.
“Are you sure? I don’t know how I would’ve known then.” She still can’t meet my gaze.
“Lily, can you go grab your lunch bag?” I ask, keeping the Popsicle stick boat in my hands.
“Okay.” She skips off toward the cabin, oblivious of the tension that’s now like a blanket over our little group.
She runs off, but I see her get distracted by another kid outside the cabin doors. For once I’m happy she’s lollygagging. There’s nowhere else I want to be right now. Well, unless having Cat underneath me is an option, or being under her works, too.
“So.” My fingers run along the small pieces of wood while my eyes focus on Cat.
“Lily must’ve told me, or maybe you mentioned it.” She’s antsy and it makes me wish I had a rope and a headboard. Maybe tying her up and teasing her until she admits she remembers me would fulfill both of our needs right now.
“Cat,” I say softly and lean my shoulder against a tree beside us.
A long stream of breath pours out of her mouth and she chews on the inside of her cheek for a second, her eyes squeezing shut for a moment.
I press my lips together to keep the smile from forming.
“Fine. I remember you.”
A weight I hadn’t known I was carrying lifts from my shoulders and I somehow feel lighter. “You do?”
“Yes,” she says with annoyance and throws her hands up in the air. “And we are not to talk about it, okay?”
“What aren’t we talking about?” I try to appear casual even though the cockiness I’m feeling that I am not forgettable to her, has me bursting at the seams.
She juts her hip out, places her hand on said hip and stares at me deadpan. “Stop acting like that. Smugness isn’t attractive on you.”
Yeah, she’d love it if I backed her up into a tree right now. If all the kids weren’t everywhere, I just might. I chuckle and try to stifle the amusement I feel with this situation.
“Oh, and look your friend is here just in time to make my mortification complete.”
I glance behind me, finding Toby doing back flips off a bench near the play area, Dane’s eyes trained on Cat.
I nod to him and he nods back. Lily runs out of the cabin with her backpack swinging on either side of her and Dane catches sight of her.
“Lily!” he screams and she looks over at him.
Toby stops trying to put himself into a wheelchair and waves at her.
“Can I go play with Toby and Uncle Dane?” Lily asks. This couldn’t have gone better if I’d planned it.
“Sure.” I signal to Dane that Lily’s coming.
“Bye, Miss Cat.” Lily waves and runs up to the top of the path.
“Since we’re done pretending we don’t know about each other, how about coffee?” I ask.
She shakes her head and turns toward the cabin.
I glance around and realize the only people left are the other counselors, most of whom are heading to the cabin to clean up.
I gently cup her elbow. “Wait.”
She whips around and when I glimpse the shame in her eyes I fear that she’s about to cry.
“I’m not her,” she says.
I want to ask what she’s talking about, but she seems upset so I decide to go with something non-committal that won’t push her over the edge. “Okay.”
She glances behind her and signals for us to go to the side of the building. When we reach it, she tucks us behind a tree so we can’t be seen.
“I’m not that girl. I’ve grown up.”
Her meaning becomes clear. “You’ve definitely grown up.” My gaze skips over her body and I realize that was a dick move. “I mean—”
“I know what you mean. I was a late bloomer, okay? But that doesn’t change the fact, this” —she waves that delicate finger between us that I’d like to suck into my mouth— “can’t happen.”
“I suggested coffee. Figured we could catch up.” I cross my arms over my chest, tucking my hands under my arms to keep from reaching out for her and pissing her off more.
“What are you going to catch up on, how my tits and pussy look now compared to when I was eighteen?”
God, her fiery temper is such a turn on. I raise my eyebrows and she bites her lip, but I know it’s because she wants to smile.
“Listen, everyone does stupid shit when they’re younger. If it helps, I’m just as embarrassed at how I treated you back then. I’d like to take you to coffee to apologize and start over.”
This is a genuine invitation. Am I attracted to Cat? Does a bear like honey? Yes, I want to nail her every which way I can imagine and then try some shit that hasn’t even been invented yet. But I need to make amends for how I treated her and I want her to be comfortable around me.
“Start over? As friends?” she asks, and the defensive stance her body is in, relaxes.
“Yeah. Let that stuff from the past just be a distant memory.”
“Fine.” I think I’m more surprised than she is that she agreed to this.
I pull my phone out. “What’s your number?”
“You don’t need my number,” she says. I should’ve known she wouldn’t give this up easily. I stare at her until she rolls her eyes, but rambles out her number. Her phone dings in her back pocket after I text her.
“That’s me. So, we’ll plan a time for coffee.”
“Coffee.” She says the word like it’s a finality of sorts.
“Maybe a Danish, too.”
I smile and she shakes her head, but there’s a playful side to it this time.
“Coffee.”
“Cat!” one of the other counselors calls out from the cabin.
“I should get going.” She begins to step away.
I want to cage her in, taste those sweet lips. Have my hand venture up her shirt.
We’ll get there. I’m going to make sure of it. But she needs time first.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” I promise.
Her cheeks flush the cutest pink color before she turns around completely and disappears around the corner of the building.
Now I just have to figure out how to get from a coffee date to my bedroom.
Twelve
Caterina
I stretch in bed and open my eyes for the first time since I woke up from a blissfully erotic dream where Marcus was the star. God, the things that man did to me. Does my subconscious really want him that bad? I haven’t had a dream like that in like…ever.
Brushing off the last vestiges of sleep I leave the confines of my bed in search of something to eat. If I’m lucky, Ava baked last night and if it’s cupcakes for breakfast, who am I to argue?