Karin had to admire him for his recon of the territory before coming to invite her out. It seemed as though he had put quite a bit of thought into it before turning up on her doorstep even though she wished he’d called first. But, she was curious. What was he really doing here?
“I need to get ready for work,” she protested, still feeling sticky from her morning run. She hadn’t even had time to jump into the shower yet.
“I can meet you at the café.” Brad was insistent and it was clear he wouldn’t give up easily. “Please, Karin, I have something I really need to talk to you about.”
Ugh, she thought, struggling to control the urge to slam the door in his face. I never could say no to you.
“Fine, but it’ll take me a few minutes to get ready and I won’t be able to stay long. I know the place you’re talking about so I’ll see you there in a bit.” She shut the door before he could try to get anything else out of her. She would give him the courtesy of telling her what he wanted, eat her breakfast, and then she would leave for work. And after that, she’d try to put the whole thing out of her mind once and for all.
Just as I was beginning to move on, you go and turn right up again, she sighed as she headed into the bathroom to get the shower she so desperately wanted. Her mind turned while she was inside the shower, questioning what could be so urgent that Brad would show up here, now. He had mentioned wanting to get back together, but she must’ve heard him wrong.
13
Karin questioned what she was doing the whole drive to the café. She questioned herself even more as she stepped into the building and saw Brad rise from the window booth he had been sitting in.
Why am I doing this? she asked herself as she forced a tight smile and walked over to join him, throwing a wave at the server behind the counter she knew from church.
She definitely didn’t need this right now. Her life had changed in the last few weeks and she was beginning to feel as though she was moving on. Moving forward. How could she continue that if she took a step backwards?
“It’s so good to see you.” Brad repeated the words he’d said on her doorstep as he pulled her in for a quick embrace. Immediately, Karin noticed that it felt nothing like it had when Nick had first pulled her in for a hug. It was not unpleasant, but there was no spark of emotion like there had been with Nick. Honestly, she felt absolutely nothing.
Karin pulled away as quickly as she could without making things awkward and dropped down onto the seat opposite the one he had been sitting on. He slipped back onto his own side and waved to the server to come over. “Can I get two coffees please?”
“I’m fine with water thanks,” Karin found herself saying, even though, in truth, she could have used another coffee. Her earlier start, even though it had only been fifteen minutes, had already begun to wear on her energy levels. But she didn’t want Brad to believe he still knew her so well. She wanted him to understand that things had changed. That she had changed. Clearly she had done just that with the way he raised an eyebrow at her.
“Sure thing, Dr. Boling.” The pretty waitress smiled at her and hurried off to grab their drinks. Karin had told everyone so many times to call her by her first name, but people tended to treat others with respect. It was refreshing, but it still made her uncomfortable.
“You come in here often then,” Brad said, clearly picking up on the fact the woman had known Karin’s name. With his eyebrows still slightly raised in open confusion, he asked, “What’s with the water thing? You were a coffee addict a few years ago.”
“Things change. People change.” She decided to speak as little as possible and give him nothing. He didn’t deserve rudeness, but she was realizing she simply had no feelings for him. It hit her quickly and she wanted to make sure this meeting was brief so she could get on with her life.
“You don’t seem to have changed a bit.” Brad looked into her eyes with open admiration and Karin’s skin crawled with his attention. Since when had his gaze felt like that? “You’re just as beautiful as the last time I saw you.”
“Well, the last time you saw me you apparently thought I wasn’t good enough for you to stick around for, so what changed?” Karin said and then instantly regretted it. She knew that wasn’t quite how it had been. They had mutually agreed to the split even if it had left her heart broken at the time.
“That’s not how it was and you know it,” Brad said. He looked hurt by her words and she began to feel more than a little guilty.
“I’m sorry, Brad,” Karin sighed, shaking her head. “You’ve just thrown me for a loop. Seeing you on my doorstep was not exactly something I was prepared for. Maybe we could just get to the point here?”
“Oh, right, okay.” He sounded as though he had been expecting a little more amiable small talk before getting down to why he was really there. “Look, Karin, it’s like I said back at your place. I’ve been missing you, and thinking back on it, I don’t understand why we split in the first place. I’d like to give it another shot.”
“Um, I… Well, I don’t even know what to say. Are you serious?”
“Of course, I’m serious. I came all the way here to say those words. And as to what you could say, well, you could say that you missed me too and that you would love to give it a go.” Brad smiled confidently, but she detected an air of uncertainty.
Karin couldn’t help thinking about how she’d felt about Nick compared to looking at Brad and remembering what they’d had. Karin’s lips tingled, and she remembered how Nick had kissed her last week, how she had wished that he would continue kissing her like that. The last thing on her mind in that moment had been Brad, and he was the last thing on her mind now. All she could think about was Nick.
And just like that, as though thinking about him had conjured him up out of thin air, she felt her eyes drawn to the window. Her heart thundered in her chest as her gaze met Nick’s through the glass. For a moment, she was sure that she saw a look of hurt on his face. His eyes darted from her to Brad and back again, and then he turned and began to walk down the sidewalk. Karin’s heart dropped into her stomach as she saw him tug quickly on Buzz’s leash. He was clearly in a hurry to get out of there.
A large part of her wanted to jump up and run after him to try to push away any insecurities he might have about seeing her with another man. She knew what it must have looked like. She knew it looked like she was on some kind of breakfast date. He had no idea she had an ex-fiancé that, as it happened, could turn up at any moment and ask for her to take him back, even if that was the last thing she wanted.
But she couldn’t just take off after him like a crazy person. First she had to take care of this Brad situation once and for all. She had to put Brad straight. If Nick was the man she thought he was, he’d understand. If he was the level-headed, kind-hearted man she’d been getting to know, he would forgive the misunderstanding and they could get back on the right track. Her heart hammered in her chest and she felt fear rise in her chest at the thought of him assuming the worst and already writing her off.
Taking a deep breath, she turned her attention back to Brad, who seemed to have picked up on her discomfort and followed her gaze to the window. “Are you in trouble with the cops or something?”
He scowled at the window like he wasn’t impressed. Karin bit her tongue to stop herself from snapping at him. She had always hated how judgmental he was and his comment solidified her decision, even though she didn’t need any more reasons to reject him.
“No, Brad, when have I ever been in trouble with the police?” she asked softly, waiting to see what he could say to that.
“Like you said, people change,” he shrugged.
“Well, I didn’t change so much that I would become a criminal within two years of leaving you. That’s unfair.” At Karin’s words, Brad flinched, but she continued, attempting to ease her tone slightly. “Look Brad, I’m flattered that you want to try again. We had a good thing back in the day, but the truth is I’ve moved on. I’m just not wil
ling to take a step backwards.”
“I am not asking you to take a step backwards,” Brad protested. “I want us to start again. Fresh. Maybe a date or two here and there. Start out like before, when things were good, and we’ll see where it could go.”
Even before he finished the sentence, Karin found herself shaking her head at him. She looked down at the glass of water that was placed in front of her by the server.
“Can I get you anything else?” the waitress asked cheerily. Her smile dimmed when Brad give her a bad-tempered look that told her to leave. She looked at Karin, who smiled at her reassuringly. It wasn’t the waitress’s fault that the two of them were having an intense conversation.
“She didn’t deserve that,” Karin told him sharply as the server quickly scurried away to serve another table. “She was only doing her job. We are just too different. We don’t even live in the same place. A long distance relationship won’t work for either of us.”
“Different is good, isn’t it?” Brad protested. “Opposites attract and all that. And I could come here, at least eventually.”
“There are opposites and then there’s whatever we are.” Karin gestured between them. “This isn’t going to work. I’ve moved on and I think it’s only fair to tell you so you can move on too. I really do wish you well, Brad. Just not with me.”
With that, she stood up and started to leave. She felt no need to say anything else to him. Her plans were out on the table and Brad was up to date. She’d never expected to see him again, especially when she moved to Reno, and hopefully now really was the last time.
“Karin, wait!” Brad’s hand suddenly wrapped around her wrist and her entire body tensed. “Please, can’t we talk about this?”
“We just did.” Karin used her other hand to slip her wrist from his grip and shook her head. “We’re better off leaving the past behind us. Take care of yourself, Brad.”
14
Nick couldn’t get the image of Karin and her date out of his head. He’d been on edge since the moment his eyes locked with hers. A look had passed over her expression in such a way that it made him question what he’d thought they’d had. She’d looked almost guilty.
You don’t even know that’s what it was, he told himself as he hurried Buzz into the car. The last thing he wanted was to allow Karin the chance to leave the café to speak to him. He couldn’t handle that right now. He needed time to cool down and think about things.
It could have been her brother, he told himself as he climbed into the driver’s seat of his patrol car and slammed the door behind him. That was probably it. Her brother.
As he clipped in his seat belt, he realized she would’ve mentioned she was meeting her brother. He would have been coming from out of town, so she wouldn’t have left a detail like that unsaid. Nick had just talked to her on the phone not that long ago and she hadn’t said anything about a visit from her brother.
He remembered how the man had leaned forward on the table as though he was making a subtle effort to get a little closer to her without moving seats. It was a move men made when they wanted to get closer to a woman they were with. He didn’t like it that someone besides him wanted to get close to Karin. Someone that likely was not her brother.
“What do you think, Buzz?” He glanced over at his furry partner who sat smartly on the front passenger seat beside him. “Maybe it was her cousin, eh?”
Buzz’s head tilted onto its side as if to say, You really believe that?, and Nick’s stomach churned all over again. It was though the dog was trying to tell him something he already knew. The guy in the café hadn’t been related to Karin at all.
Maybe she didn’t know he was coming, Nick told himself as he pulled the car away from the curb and began to head down the road in the direction of the airport. There were a million different reasons she might have been having breakfast with someone he didn’t recognize. Why was he getting so jealous? Then he reminded himself he had no say in who she saw or didn’t see. They’d only been on a few dates and they had no agreement to only see each other.
Nick tried to force all thoughts of Karin out of his head as he drew closer and closer to the airport. He needed to focus on his work. He had to keep his head in the game. If he didn’t, it could mean the difference between life and death in his job.
Pull yourself together man, he told himself as he pushed his thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose. He was sure he could feel the beginnings of a stress headache coming on. How was that even possible? His job was to handle stress every day, and a much worse stress than seeing his girlfriend with another guy.
That’s when he froze, shocked with himself. He couldn’t believe he had just done that. With a shake of his head he tried to push it all away, out of his mind. They weren’t official. They’d never even had that conversation. And yet, Nick had thought of that conversation a lot lately, going over all the different scenarios and how he hoped it would go, preparing himself for how awful it would be if Karin turned him down and how amazing it would be if she said yes.
I guess I might have to set myself up for that failure now, he thought to himself. She’s clearly keeping her options open. He would have to ask her about it tomorrow. He’d planned to call her that night but he knew he’d need at least one more night to sleep on it before he made the call now.
He needed to think things through completely. Decide how he’d ask her about it. Decide if he wanted to continue to see here, or not.
Then he laughed out loud. Buzz looked over at him, his tongue hanging out of his big mouth. Or not. Come on, man. You know the answer to that. You’re not going to decide you don’t want to see her again. Are you?
That was when he decided he truly didn’t want to tie himself in knots if she wasn’t really into him. He was disappointed in her mainly because he’d thought she was the kind of woman who wouldn’t play games. Christians didn’t play this kind of game.
“Maybe I was wrong, Buzz. Maybe they do. I guess I do need to think this through, don’t i?”
15
Karin was more than a little disappointed when she didn’t hear from Nick that day. She passed through work like a robot, half knowing she wouldn’t hear from him. Why would she? The look on his face had been enough to tell her that he was hurt, seeing her out with another guy. And she had to admit she would have felt the same way if she’d seen him with another woman. Just the thought of it made her scowl.
By the time she reached lunchtime the next day, she felt sick to her stomach with worry. Part of her wondered whether something had happened to him at work, but she knew that if it had, Jack would surely have called her or at least sent her some kind of message to let her know.
She had little time to dwell on the fact that Nick was likely angry with her as emergency after emergency came through the doors of the clinic. Bright Lights was the busiest she had seen it in weeks and she found that her hands were constantly full, leaving her no time to give him a quick call. She knew that, even if she did, she wouldn’t have a clue what to say.
She wanted to call and tell him that he had gotten the wrong idea yesterday, that she was putting things to bed with her ex and nothing more. It didn’t make sense to try to do that over the phone, though. He deserved a face to face conversation after what had happened. She didn’t even know if he would bother to pick up if she did call. The thought of that made her heart ache even more.
Every time she went to the break room to check her phone and was about to dial his number, she would get another shout from the back to tell her that her help was needed.
She was just about to finish her shift, hoping that she might be able to call Nick, when one of the techs appeared in the doorway of the breakout room. “Dr. Boling, I know you’re about to head out, but Dr. Jones thinks you might be needed. Would you be able to come and give us a hand?”
“Of course,” Karin said without having to think about it. She followed the tech out into the corridor and down the hall to the examination r
oom where Dr. Jones did most of his consults.
“A border collie got his paws on a box of chocolates meant for the wife,” the tech said. Karin knew all too well how badly chocolate poisoning could go. She hoped it was not too late to help and took a deep breath, preparing for another emergency rescue.
By the time Karin got home that evening, it was almost nine. Her feet burned and had terrible blisters while the rest of her body ached like she’d rarely experienced before. The moment she collapsed onto her couch, she groaned as she was jumped on by Babs. Being left longer than usual had obviously left the dog with some serious anxiety as she began to whine and lick her face until Karin had to try to settle the dog down beside her.
“Alright, girl,” she murmured gently as she rolled onto her side and pulled Babs into her stomach. “I’m home now. I always come back. Remember?”
She rubbed behind Babs’ ears absentmindedly as she felt her head begin to spin with exhaustion. Every time Babs would lick her face, she would bat her away a little as she felt her eyes flickering. Blackness slowly overwhelmed her and she fell into an exhausted dreamless sleep.
Before she knew it, her eyes opened to see that the summer sun had completely disappeared outside. The moonlight streamed in through the window where she hadn’t yet closed the curtains. When she reached into her pocket for her phone to check the time, she stared at the numbers that showed it was almost midnight.
“Oh, gosh.” Wrinkling her nose, she realized she’d completely missed her chance to give Nick a call. She hadn’t heard from him for what seemed like weeks even though it had really only been a couple of days. She’d meant to call him the moment she stepped through her front door, but the exhaustion from the long day had overwhelmed her.
All About Trust: K-9 Unit (Hero Hearts: Contemporary) Page 5