Until Next Time (The Shooting Stars Series) (13 page)

“Does your mom cook at all?” Katherine asked him.

“She used to,” he shrugged.

“You break my heart sometimes,” she informed him.

“That’s the last thing I want to do,” he assured her.

By eleven thirty the house smelled so good that Katherine was sure she could eat the turkey all by herself. When she heard a car in the driveway, she jumped up to answer the door.

“Grandma!” Katherine hugged her grandmother as soon as she had entered the house. Adam hung back and watched.

“I’ve missed you,” her grandmother kissed her cheek.

“I’ve missed you too,” Katherine smiled. “Grandma, do you remember Adam? Let me properly introduce you. Grandma: Adam Ellington. Adam: my grandmother Katherine Grace Ross, but everybody calls her Gracie,” Katherine made the introductions.

“It’s good to see you again, Adam,” Gracie extended her hand to him.

“It’s real nice to see you again, Mrs. Ross; I didn’t realize that Kaitlyn was named for anyone,” he shared.

“Kaitlyn? Well, that’s a pretty nickname. I guess if you’re going around assigning my granddaughter her own special nick name I better be getting to know you better. Come talk with me,” Gracie ordered.

“Grandpa dubbed her Gracie,” Katherine explained.

Adam smiled at her before following her grandmother into the living room. Her Aunt, Uncle, and cousin had entered by this time, the adults carrying dishes of food to the dining room while Angie and Katherine moved into the living room.

“Who is that?” Angie demanded when she spotted Adam.

“Adam,” Katherine replied.

“Boyfriend?” Angie was fanning herself.

“Yes,” Katherine smiled.

“Go, Kattie; he’s hot.”

By the time they were all seated at the table, Katherine had managed to introduce everyone to Adam. Katherine noted that he remained rather quiet as he took it all in as they chatted and laughed around him. When he was asked a direct question he answered politely but otherwise seemed content to observe. After eating, Katherine stood to help clear the table; Adam immediately did the same.

“Aren’t you going to go watch the game?” Katherine teased.

“In case you haven’t noticed I am not much for sports,” he informed her.

“You aren’t, are you?”

“Nope, I would rather help you ladies,” he assured her.

“Oh you are going to endear yourself to my family aren’t you? My grandmother informed me she expected to see you here for Christmas too,” she shared.

“Your grandmother is really nice. You’re a lot like her aren’t you?” he asked.

“I am,” she nodded.

“Thank you, Adam. You don’t have to help us; go watch the game,” Julia offered as they entered the kitchen.

“I am not into sports; I’d prefer to help in here,” he repeated his earlier opinion.

“You don’t like sports? Kattie, where did you find him?” her Aunt Clara teased.

“Mrs. White’s first period Advanced Math class; he was a little lost,” Katherine joked.

“Lost?” Angie frowned.

“It was my first day and I couldn’t make sense of my schedule,” Adam clarified.

“Mrs. White had me give him a tour,” Katherine added.

“So how long have you two been dating?” Clara asked as she scraped plates clean for the dishwasher.

“We dated in high school and then he left for Detroit and I didn’t see him again until the start of this school year when he transferred to UT.”

They continued to work, Katherine finally excusing herself and Adam when things were almost tidied up; she explained that she had to take him to his house.

His mother still wasn’t home. Katherine sighed and shook her head. Her mother had insisted on sending several leftovers with them and Katherine watched as Adam set them in the fridge; it contained a lot of beer but otherwise looked mostly empty.

“You should get back to your family,” Adam encouraged her.

“I gave Mom the number here and told her I might be a while,” she shared.

“Kaitlyn, you should visit with your family while you can,” he argued.

“I visited with them all afternoon,” she countered.

“Kaitlyn, go home and enjoy your evening,” he slid his arms around her and pulled her close. “I’m just going to be cleaning and working around here.”

“So I’ll help,” she insisted.

“You are the most mule headed, stubborn, beautiful woman I have ever met,” he informed her.

“Was that an insult or compliment?” she laughed.

“Both,” he smiled before kissing her.

“I want to stay, Adam,” she told him.

“Okay, but I can’t promise Mom will be great company when she arrives.”

“I don’t care,” she assured him.

She helped him clean and wash and dry laundry well into the evening with no sign or word from his mother. Once they had finally finished cleaning, Adam suggested they reheat the leftovers her mother had sent and managed to find a couple of sodas buried behind the beer.

“Thanks, Kaitlyn, I have to admit that it would have been rather depressing to sit here alone on Thanksgiving.”

“You’re welcome,” she assured him.

They tidied behind themselves and Adam grabbed his bag from by the door to take to his room. Katherine followed him; his room was the only one that had been neat. Katherine propped herself against the doorframe and watched him drop his bag on the bed.

“Adam?”

“What?” he turned back to her.

“I’m curious about something,” she told him.

“What’s that, Kaitlyn?”

“When was the last time you dated someone as long as we’ve been dating and not slept with them?”
              He shook his head and smiled at her question.

“A while,” he acknowledged.

“Why don’t you make an issue of it?” she queried.

“Kaitlyn,” he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, “I would make love to you in a heartbeat if, first of all you were willing, and second of all, I didn’t think you would hate me the next morning. Considering how much I love you it would be rather inconvenient to have you hating me,” he shared.

“I just wondered,” she admitted as she snuggled closer.

“What were you trying to accomplish this morning?” he demanded of her.

“I was simply trying to wake you up for the day,” she chose her words more carefully, “I figured as out of it as you were, you couldn’t cause too much trouble.”

“You don’t know men very well do you,” he teased.

“Apparently not,” she laughed.           

“I love you, Kaitlyn.”

“I love you too,” she returned.

Adam kissed her and tugged her closer and Katherine slid her arms around his neck to return his kiss. It was several minutes later before he set her gently back from him and caressed her cheek.

“You should probably be getting home, your parents are going to think I am holding you hostage,” he told her.

“Come back home with me, Adam. Your mom still isn’t here and there isn’t even any proper food in the house,” she reasoned.

“Kaitlyn, I’m not a kid; I’ll be fine.”

“Thanks to me you’re without your car,” she reminded him.

The phone rang before he could answer and he hurried to grab it.

“Hello,” he answered. “She’s still here,” Adam handed Katherine the phone.

“Hi, Mom,” Katherine already knew who it was.

“I was starting to worry about you,” her mother confessed.

“Sorry, things were sort of in disarray over here and Adam and I have been trying to sort them out. His mom still isn’t home, we ate the leftovers, which were the only decent food in the house, and I am rather reluctant to leave him here,” she admitted.

“He’s welcome to come back here,” Julia offered.

“That’s what I’m trying to convince him to do,” she admitted.

“It’s getting late,” her mother reminded her.

“I know,” Katherine smiled.

“Okay. See you in a little bit.”

“Love you; bye,” Katherine disconnected the call.

“Your mom getting anxious?”

“A little. She says you are welcome to return to our house tonight. We can leave your mom the number and you can wait for her there, Adam; at least you won’t be alone then,” she pointed out.

“Kaitlyn, you are a sweetheart, baby, but I’ll be fine,” he assured her.

“Okay, I’ll just stay here,” she shrugged and settled into a chair.

“Your mom and dad would be over here inside of an hour,” he predicted.

“No, they would be very unhappy but they make a very concerted effort not to crowd me. I’m eighteen now and they try very hard to respect that.”

“I rather like the fact that they like me; I don’t want to change that,” he told her.

“So come home with me,” she smiled.

“You are a bully,” he informed her before leaning over to kiss her. “Let me get my stuff.”

Katherine stood and was waiting when he returned. Once back at her house they joined her parents in the living room.

“I see she convinced you to come back over here,” Julia smiled at him.

“She is rather good at getting her way,” Adam shared.

“It’s our fault; we spoiled her,” Julia admitted.

“She makes it easy to want to spoil her,” Adam confessed.

Katherine felt her cheeks heat but noted that her mom and dad both smiled.

“She was a cute kid; you see her picture on the mantel? She would get into trouble and then stare up at you with her big green eyes and freckles and it was hard to punish her,” Julia shook her head.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of you as a child,” Adam informed Kaitlyn.

“Thanks, Mom,” Katherine shot at her when Adam stood and moved to the mantel.

“You were cute; look at all those freckles,” Adam was smiling.

“There are entire albums full in the basement,” Julia shared.

“Really?” Adam turned to smile at Kaitlyn expectantly.

“Fine, come on,” Katherine sighed and stood.

A few minutes later she was showing him pictures of herself as a child and explaining who the others were or where they were taken.

“You have a neat family, Kaitlyn, a real family.”

“I’m fond of them,” she admitted.

“We’re headed to bed; don’t stay up too late,” Julia popped into the room.

“We won’t,” Katherine promised. “Night, Mom.”

Julia turned off all but the hall lights before moving into her bedroom where Walter was turning back their covers.

“That was a big sigh,” he noted as she began undressing. “You worried about them too?”

“I didn’t realize you were! You’ve been so quiet,” she accused.

“Just watching them.”

“I like Adam. It’s clear that he’s crazy over our daughter and apparently, oddly enough, he has been more respectful than Nathan was,” Julia shook her head.

“She’s talked to you about it?”

“She has,” Julia nodded.

“That’s a good thing,” Walter assured her.

“It is,” Julia agreed.

“What is it your worried about, Julia? That he’s going to start putting pressure on her to sleep with him?”

“I suppose that’s a possibility but I am more worried that his not pressuring her will speak more convincingly than any words he could say,” she shared.

“I don’t follow you,” Walter admitted as he climbed into bed. “He’s going to convince her by not convincing her?”

“Walter, it was your patience and kindness with me that convinced me to sleep with you!” she reminded him.

“Oh,” he smiled at her; then frowned looking panicked, “Oh!”

“He’s made his interest more than clear to her; I know that without her saying so. What she did say was that he wasn’t putting any pressure on her.”

“How do you know he’s made his interest clear?”

“I do not know, nor do I want to know what he said to her this morning but she came into the kitchen lit up like torch after she went to wake him up,” Julia shared.

“What was she doing waking him up?” Walter frowned.

“That was my brilliant idea; I figured with me just up the stairs there was no real harm in it,” she admitted.

“Do you want me to talk with her?” Walter offered.

“What can you say that you haven’t already said? She’s eighteen, Walter, and a sophomore at college; we can’t treat her like she’s still thirteen years old.”

“Why not?” he grinned.

“Because we would push her away, that’s why not,” Julia responded.

“I could threaten to break both his legs,” Walter offered.

“Didn’t my dad try something like that with you?”

“You’re not helping any,” he informed her.

“They’re so young,” she sighed.