Accidentally Catty (42 page)

Her cell phone vibrated, and just like she had for the past week, she scooped it up, hoping against hope it was Shaw.

But it wasn’t—it was OOPS, tweeting her.

And then a surge of new hope washed over her.Yes. She was bawling her eyes out again. But did she have to? How hard could Shaw be to find and stalk? Maybe this wasn’t as hopeless as she’d once thought.

So enough sitting around and whining. Suck it up, buttercup, as Nina would say. Katie tweeted Nina back.

Katie giggled through her tears. Nina. That had to be Nina.

Wanda was definitely the better bet for sage relationship advice.

Katie grabbed her cell phone and pressed Nina’s name. “Nina? Thank God.”

Nina snorted in her ear. “Can’t say I hear that often. So, s’up, Doc? How’s it goin’? Any batshit-crazy stepmothers you need taken out?”

“I did something stupid. I told Shaw we should think about this relationship thing before we made any rash decisions,” she said with a groan. Which was practical and adultlike, if not lonely and a black void.

“You sent all that hot back to England? We wondered where he’d gone. What the fuck is wrong with you, dipshit?”

Katie ran a hand over her swollen belly and winced. “I just remembered today what I said to him that night before I passed out. I told him he shouldn’t make any rash decisions. I know what I meant to add to that conversation, but I couldn’t seem to spit the words out. It all happened so fast, Nina. One day I was a veterinarian with a tainted past, the next I was queen of the cougars with a paw. Then I was doing things with a man I thought was half my age—”

“Yeah,” Nina interrupted. “But they were good things, right?”

“Is that really the point?”

Nina paused for a moment, and then she said, “What is the point, Katie? I know it happened fast. I know shit got hot and heavy before you had the chance to wrap all of your fucking logic around it, but sometimes, there is no logic to falling in love or how fast it happens. Do you think you’d be so miserable if you didn’t love him?”

Katie scoffed into the phone. “I never said one word about miserable. I’m a little sad, but nothing more.” She gripped the box of tissues and hurled them into her kitchen sink, as if Nina would see them and catch her in a total lie.

“Oh, the fuck you say. You forget, I can read minds, and the whole time we were in Backwater Creek, you were worried Three Name had a wife or kids and he’d have to leave you and go back to his life. Don’t bullshit me. As soon as the shit that went down was over, you got some hinky thoughts. Shoulda kept your mouth shut until the shock passed.”

“I think I was just overwhelmed and afraid.”

“That it’d all wear off once he got over the trauma of what went down. Because you were his life preserver when he had no one else. You figured once all of the unknowns about him passed, the way he felt about you would pass, too. Because we all know in dire situations, people do dire things. Like wonk until the entire town of Deliverance called to tell you to shut the fuck up because they couldn’t hear their own banjos twanging.”

“Ye—yes.”

“Look, Doc. I get it. Totally. This all happened fast, but who says finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with doesn’t happen fast? Who the fuck says you have to know if they like brussels sprouts or broccoli before you decide to be together? Is there some kinda law or some shit that says you have to know every deet about the Lion King? Why can’t you find out in a month just as easily as you can find out in a hundred years?You two worked. It was cool. From the sounds of the bedroom he was in, it was crazy cool.”

“But that was sex—”

“Yeah, yeah—like that shit isn’t important? Dude, you can go watch another TV if he likes stupid shit like the DIY channel and you wanna watch Animal Planet, but you can’t make him turn you on if he doesn’t. Sex is important. Especially if he’s the only dude you’re gonna have it with for a very long, long time.”

Nina had a way of simplifying things with such crude honesty everything made sense. “But what if the sex is the only thing we have?”

“Then have a lot of it.”

Katie barked a laugh into the cell phone.

“Here’s the short of it, Doc, and it’s gonna be short because you’re getting on my nerves with the whine. Shaw loves you. You definitely love him. You’re having a baby. Watch
Oprah
if you trip up on some relationship troubles you can’t solve. She’s got all the answers, right? It isn’t like you have to mate for life with him like I did with Greg. Not that I regret that decision. Best damn thing I ever did. But just because you say you’re willing to give it a shot, doesn’t mean you have to wear white. Not that you’re supposed to. Not if you listen to Marty. Because, you know, you’re a tarnished woman. Whatever. Point is you can whine about it, or you can give this thing a shot. Either you’re in or you’re out. Love is love—even if it’s only for a little while, that beats never. And here’s something else to think about. We helped take care of him, too, you know. We were life preservers, too. But he didn’t fall in love with me or Wanda or even Ingrid, did he? End lecture. Hurry with a response. I’m getting bored.”

Katie grinned into the phone. “So I guess that means I’m going to England. Somewhere in England . . . I know he told me the name of the town, I just can’t remember it right now.”

“Tallyho and all that bullshit. I’ll find him. Don’t you worry. You want me to hook you up with reservations? I tweet with this guy who works for Expedia. Oh, and I don’t like you goin’ alone with the baby bump. I’ll go with. Just so I know you’re okay and the trio from hell doesn’t give me agita with how insensitive I am, letting you go off to England alone and preggers.”

Katie’s heart clenched. All of her friends back in the city had abandoned her when those charges had been brought against her. Yet these women, women who knew nothing about her a month ago, had become the ones she sought for advice. They were the women who’d set their lives aside to help her enter the paranormal world with greater ease. They were the women who had saved her from Nissa Lithgow without ever thinking about their own safety. They were her friends now. Whether Nina liked it or not.

“Nina?”

“What?”

“You’re an awesome person. I’d hug you until you turn blue in the face if I could right now.”

“Fuck you.”

But Katie heard the grin in her tone. “I’ll do that. In the meantime, while you make reservations, I’ll pack. Call me when we’re good to go.”

“You got it. Oh, and pack cards or something. I need to keep busy. I fucking hate to fly.”

“But you can fly, Nina.”

“Oh, yeah. I say we can the reservations and fly Nina Express.”

“Not for as long as I have breath left in me.”

“Whiner.”

“Yes.”

“Fine. I’ll see you in an hour or so, and don’t pack a lot of bullshit girly crap. We go get him, drag his ass back here, and we’re out.”

 

 

WITH
frozen fingers, Katie rapped on the door to her future while Nina gave the taxi driver hell. When the weathered door opened, Shaw let it flap in the cold breeze, crossing his arms over his chest. Gruffly sexy, rakishly hot. Her stomach clenched.

She took a deep gulp of freezing English air and rambled. “So I was wondering if you’re in the relationship market.”

“Really? Word travels fast. When Shaw Eaton speaks, the relationship market listens, eh?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe the buzz you’ve created. Everyone’s talking about you.”

“So the pickings are good? Am I in for a bevy of beauties knocking down my cottage door? I should probably shower.”

Not unless she was doing the knocking to the bevy . . . “Any second now, there’ll be a line as long as the one I just left at customs. I thought I’d beat the rush.”

“Very bold. I like bold. And what do you have to offer in the relationship market that makes you stand out from the pack?”

“Well, there’s this.” Katie pointed to her belly, rounding by the day. “And let’s not forget, I’m an incredibly gifted crossword puzzle solver.”

“Because every man needs a woman to find the five-letter word for insensitive. It’s a staple in the relationship market.”

“Crass.”

“What?”

“A five-letter word for insensitive is crass. Which I’ve been.”

“What’s a six-letter word for meanie butt?”

Katie winced, not just at the harsh wind from the lake, but her most recent behavior. “Shitty?”

“That works.”

“I’ve been that, too.”

“You were, which certainly takes from your appeal on the relationship market.”

“Ah, but, I’m awesomely skilled in the ways of bedside manner.”

“You do know how to work a Band-Aid.”

“Right! Not just that, I can tranq your ass in two flat.”

“An uncommon skill, no doubt.”

“I’m a good problem solver—logical—well, unless I’m with child and in shock. Then I become irrational and over-the-top stupid. But minus the hormonal shifts, breasts that feel like they’re preparing for homogenization, and the ever-present nag in my lower back, I’m pretty laid back.”

His blue eyes glittered. “Your feet are huge.”

“Thanks. The Abominable Snowman let me borrow his boots, but I have to return them next week. He has a rash of igloos to raid. Can’t do that without boots, you know.”

“Katie?”

“Shaw?”

“What made you get on a plane and come halfway around the world when you’re so far along in your pregnancy?”

“You.”

“Really? I’m open to expounding on that notion.”

“You don’t want to miss this, do you? I mean, c’mon. We’re having a baby. There’s all sorts of goodies to be had. Water breaking, dilating, screaming pain as Junior rips from my swollen, disfigured body. And afterbirth. I hear that’s a kick.”

“Katie?”

“Shaw?”

“You don’t really believe I’d have allowed you to do this without me, do you?”

Relief, though fleeting, began to settle her jarred frozen nerves. “Now you tell me?
Now?
After I sat on a plane with Britain’s answer to the Jonas Brothers wannabes, this according to them, of course, flew nine million miles and a hundred time zones with twenty layovers in places I can’t even pronounce only to be served a crappy postage-stamp-sized bag of pretzels and a Diet Pepsi? With Nina. Did I mention the vampire’s with me? I won’t even go into the drive out here to the wilds of whatever the name of this town is with a cab driver that beat me up verbally because I had the nerve to tell him how to drive.”

Shaw propped against the weathered door to his cottage, pointing to his suitcase. “I didn’t get the memo that you were coming to my neck of the woods. I might have sent you a message via smoke signal and tom-tom, had I known. Don’t you read your email? Or for that matter, the note I left you? I don’t have a landline and I lost my cell phone when I first came to see my grandfather. I didn’t have time to replace it with all that I’ve been trying to get done.”

A tear stung her eye. Her smile trembled. “I’ve been on a plane too long to read anything but Wanda’s romance novels. Which, I might add, are quite good. I don’t understand all those mean reviews about them on Amazon . . .” She scratched her head. “Anyway, no. I didn’t read my email, and I didn’t get any note. Did you send me gushy love notes about how life wasn’t worth living without me?”

He popped an eyebrow upward. “Um, nope. I just said I was coming back to Piney Creek, and you could suck it, if you didn’t like it.”

She gave him a flirty smile. “You and all that charm.”

“It’s an Eaton trait.”

Katie moved closer to him, as close as her belly would allow. “So here was my plan. If you were going to be difficult, I was going to beg. But please, if you make me beg, and I have to do it on my knees, you’ll have to help me up when the begging’s done. I’m like some beached whale. If I roll on my side in bed, I need a strong captain and some anchors to roll me back over.”

Shaw laughed. “You were going to beg?”

“I was going to do whatever I had to do to convince you that I’m the girl for you as your twilight years approach.”

He trailed a finger along her cheek, brushing the strands of her hair from her face. “Will you push my wheelchair? Rinse my dentures? Cook me soft-boiled eggs and toast?”

“As long as you’re down with putting my walker together. Teeny’s was work.”

“You were pretty dismissive—even in all that shock. I’m not sure I’m willing to suffer that kind of rejection again. That hurt.” He made a mock face filled with pain.

“I was afraid. I was afraid we had come together in a dire situation and once the direness of it had passed, you’d realize what bonded us was a tragedy. You know, like disaster victims.”

“Well, disaster isn’t far off the mark, but it wasn’t a disaster that’s had me missing you since I left.” He hauled her into his arms with a chuckle.