Just Sex (3 page)

“I’m not short, I’m vertically challenged,” Kat said and sat.

Chapter Three

Kat took a seat at her kitchen table, and gazed out the window at the stunning array of colors. The beautiful flowers, new shrubs and decorative trees reminded her of a Monet.

Patricia slid into the chair across from her. “Your yard has never looked better.”

“It’s how I always imagined it, but Gary had more minimalistic tastes.”

“Too bad he didn’t have a more minimalistic taste in women.”

The old familiar ache in her chest reared its ugly head. She had known for a long time that Gary didn’t love her, but all the women he had been with hurt her pride.

“Look at how high your shrubs are.” Patty’s voice broke into her thoughts. “You can sunbathe nude in your backyard now.”

Kat flicked the sun prism Sam bought her last summer. The pretty colors the heart created did a dance on the wall. “Yeah, right. With my luck, someone will show up.”

Patricia shrugged. “How did J.J. know what you wanted in the backyard?”

“I told him what I had in mind and he ran with it.” Kat examined the kitchen. The beige walls and tile floor begged for color and warmth. “It’s time to start on the inside.”

“Maybe decorating the house the way you want it will help with healing you on the inside.”

Patty always had a way of reading her, she knew Kat better than anyone else. “Maybe,” she agreed.

By improving her home, she hoped to regain her self-esteem and life. Kat had spent too many years letting Gary have all the control. She hated herself for giving him so much power.

“Have you decided on a paint color for this kitchen?” Patricia asked.

Kat blinked and smiled at her friend. “Yeah, you know that yellow we saw in that paint magazine.”

“Goldie Locks?”

She nodded. “I had to special order it. I’m going to pick it up later this week, along with the paint for all the other rooms.”

“That color was my favorite.” Patricia’s gaze followed the prism flecks on the wall. When do you want Ron and me here to help?”

“I hoped we could do it next weekend. Do you think Ron has any crews available?”

Patricia smiled and grabbed her hand. “For you, he’d pull his people off a job.”

If there was such a thing as an ideal man, it was Ron. He was perfect for Patricia. “I should have grabbed your husband when I had the chance.”

“I ‘m so grateful you didn’t.”

“Watch out, I’m single again.” She tossed Patricia a cheeky grin. “Do you think we could be like those women you hear about, who all are married to the same man?”

Patricia tossed back her honey-brown ponytail. “Yeah, as long as I’m the only one having sex with him.”

Kat pulled her hand back and grinned. “Forget it. I’m not getting married again unless there’s sex. Your husband has been fulfilling all my other husbandly needs for years.”

A smile crossed Patricia’s lovely face. “Husbandly needs?”

“You know, all the stuff a husband is supposed to do, like fix the toilet when Sam went through his flush whatever he could find down the toilet phase.” Kat looked around the kitchen. “And paint my house. That’s stuff a husband should do.

“Ron says that he got a two-for-one deal with us.” Patricia glanced around the room again. “So how come we can’t paint this weekend?”

Her gaze followed Patricia’s. “I have work to catch up on for the mill and I’m getting estimates for new floors this weekend.”

“Okay. Ron and I will help you get this house to where you always wanted it to be.” Patricia leaned back in her chair. “I don’t know why you didn’t do it before.”

“You know with Gary it was easier to keep the peace than to take a stand.” She stood and made her way to the fridge. “What’s done is done. All I can do is move forward.”

Patricia came up next to Kat and tugged her into a warm hug. “I know.”

“I don’t know what I would have done without you guys over the years.” Kat leaned away. “I arranged to move my grandmother’s antiques out of storage.” She swiped at the tears filling her eyes.

Patricia grabbed her shoulders and shook. “No more crying for that bastard. Gary did you a favor when he died.”

“You’re horrible.” Kat couldn’t stop her lips from twitching into a small smile.

“I know,” Patricia snickered. “What’s Sam doing this weekend?”

The tightness in Kat’s chest started to loosen. “He’s going to a friend’s house Saturday morning and having a sleepover here Saturday night.” Kat opened the refrigerator door. “Do you want something to drink?”

“Do you have lemonade?”

“No, but I can make some.”

“So, tell me.” Patricia reached around her and grabbed a few lemons. “Why did you call me at the crack of dawn this morning?”

It was time to come clean about her sex-filled dreams. Kat opened a kitchen cabinet. “I think I’m going to have to get a new landscape company.”

“Why?”

“Because every night J.J. and I are stars in my fantasy porn movie. How can I have a professional relationship with someone I want to jump? The other day I all but humped J.J. in my driveway.”

“I said it before and I’ll say it again.” Patricia sighed. “Go for it. Screw his brains out.”

“I can’t.” Frustration filled her. “He’s too young. I can’t put myself out there like that.”

“Ten years is not that big of a deal.”

“It is when you’re me.” She took down the lemon juicer. “I can’t give someone his age, or my own age, for that matter, a future.”

Patricia’s elbow nudged her ribs. “We’re not talking about a future, we’re talking about breaking the celibacy phase of your life. Besides, you can’t fire him, we just had a whole conversation about what a great job he is doing.”

“I know. But—”

“Just have a fling.” Patricia sliced into a lemon. The smell of citrus filled the air.

Kat teared up again. Twelve years of being with Gary weighed on her. “Look at me! Who would want me?”

“You’re beautiful.” Patricia handed her the sliced lemon and cut into another.

She shoved the lemon into the juicer. “I’m too old for him.”

“You’re not too old for him. Why can’t you try to be happy?”

“I’m trying!” She pushed more fruit into the machine.

“Try harder.” Patricia had to yell over the whirr of the juicer. “I have a feeling he has a thing for you.”

Kat rolled her eyes and tamped down the hope welling up inside her heart. “No, he doesn’t.”

“I have eyes. I see how he looks at you, and every time I talk to him about my yard, he seems to ask about you.”

“What, with pity?” Kat murmured.

Patricia elbowed her again. “No, you ninny, with lust.” She stirred the lemonade. “He doesn’t do anyone else’s yard. He has crews for that, you know.”

“I know. Maybe he doesn’t have enough help.” She grabbed glasses out of the overhead cabinet and started for the back door. “Let’s go outside.”

The two women strolled out the glass French doors and sat at the antique wrought iron table.

“That’s bullshit and you know it.” Patricia set down the tray. “That man has got it bad for you.” She pulled out a chair and sat.

A truck door slammed and a swarm of butterflies attacked Kat’s stomach. “That sounds like a work truck.”

“Is J.J. scheduled today?” Patricia asked.

Mortification rushed through her. “Yes, I totally forgot it’s Tuesday.” She took the chair across from Patty. “I can’t believe it has been a week.”

Patricia winked. “This is going to be fun. Act natural.”

“Yeah, easy for you to say. You don’t have sex dreams about him.”

Patricia glanced over her shoulder. “Shh. He’s coming!”

She told herself to relax and searched her brain for a change of subject. Kat said the only thing that came to her mind. “I got a call from my mother. She wants Sam and me to come up to Maine for Thanksgiving and she wants Sam to stay for the month while he’s out of school.”

“How do you feel about that?”

Kat sat back and tried to relax. “I don’t know. Sam and I haven’t spent more than a day apart since Gary died.”

A throat cleared behind Kat. “Sorry to interrupt. I’ll start in the front today.”

“Hi, J.J., join us,” Patricia said.

“No, I couldn’t.”

Heat flooded her insides and her pussy clenched. She lifted her glass, took a sip and hoped the refreshing liquid would ease the effect J.J. had on her libido. She forced herself to turn and gazed over her shoulder.

Kat prayed she looked cool, calm and collected. “Come sit, have some lemonade. I’ll get you a glass.” She stood on unsteady legs and rushed past J.J. into the house. Kat tried to do some deep breathing exercises, but they didn’t help the hard pounding going on in her chest.

“Just for a minute,” she heard J.J. say.

She grabbed a glass and rushed back outside to see J.J. fold his large frame into the chair next to hers. Kat’s panties almost spontaneously combusted. He made the delicate wrought iron chair look as if it was some kind of new sex toy. She wanted to climb on and give it a try.

She must have been drooling because Patricia shook her head and gave her
the
look. “We were just talking about Kat’s parents.”

Kat set down the glass and Patricia poured J.J. some lemonade.

He settled into the chair. “Thanks.” J.J.’s gaze fixed on her. “I hope they’re well.”

Oh my God
. If he kept looking at her, she would never sleep again. Kat cleared her throat. “They’re fine.”

“Since you’ll be spending more time in Maine, I bet your mother wants you to get back with Mike Corbin,” Patricia said.

Kat shot Patricia her most deadly look and kicked her under the table. Kat wished she hadn’t told Patricia about her mother’s plan to get her and her high school boyfriend together.

Patricia jumped. “Ouch!”

“Who’s Mike Corbin?” J.J. asked.

An impish expression lit Patricia’s face. “Just the man of Kat’s seventeen-year-old dreams.” She wiggled her tiny butt in the chair and made herself comfortable. Patty leaned forward on her elbows. “Mike was the only eighteen-year-old in the small town Kat and I grew up in to own a Harley. Kat was head over heels in
love
with him.”

Kat tried to kick her again, but missed. “I was not! I was in love with his bike.”

A mischievous look entered Patricia’s liquid brown eyes. “I could see why. That bike could vibrate the shingles off a house.”

Embarrassment and anger swamped her. She made a mental note to kill her best friend later. “Patricia,” Kat said in the friendly tone that told Patty she would pay dearly.

“Don’t worry. J.J.’s a big boy. I’m sure he knows what I’m talking about.” Patricia glanced at her watch. “Look at the time. I need to meet Ron. Bye, you two.” She pushed herself out of the chair and skittered off, whistling.

“Bye,” she and J.J. said in unison.

He shifted in his seat and leaned closer to her. “Tell me more about Mike.”

The ball of hot lava boiling in Kat’s belly had to have been caused by the seductive smile he sent her way. She ran her finger through the condensation on her glass. “Not much to tell.”

He grabbed his lemonade and took a tentative sip. “If he shook your shingles, then there’s something to tell.”

Laughter bubbled up from her throat. She touched J.J.’s arm. His heat almost singed her palm.

His intent gaze roamed over her. “You have a great laugh.”

She pulled her hand back. “Thanks.”

J.J. folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. “Tell me about this Mike guy.”

Was that jealousy Kat heard in his voice? She cleared the frog from her throat. “Mike was one of those mysterious guys. He wore all black and rode a black Harley with orange flames. My mother hated him.” Kat forced her hand to move. “I think that’s why I was infatuated with him.” She studied her lemonade. “It didn’t hurt that his bike made me feel things I’d never felt before. Which I think is why I let him take my virginity on the beach by my house.” Kat realized what she just said.
Crap. Could you be more pathetic?
She picked up her glass and took a sip of her drink. “I can’t believe I told you all that.”

He tilted forward and propped his elbows on the glass-top table. “What happened?”

She closed her eyes and forced out the words that had crushed her seventeen-year-old heart. “He got a girl pregnant at his senior prom.”

“I’m sorry.” He grabbed Kat’s hand. “Why didn’t he take you?”

She shrugged and let J.J.’s heat seep into her. His touch made her want to tell him all her secrets. “It was hard, we summered in Maine and came back to Florida for the winter. We tried to have a long-distance relationship, but of course it didn’t work.” Kat tried to pull her hand from his.

J.J. grinned and moved his hand to interlock his fingers with hers. “I like hearing about you.”

Moist heat pooled between her thighs. “You need to stop saying nice things to me. I might get the wrong idea.”