by Anthology
He shrugged noncommittally. “I didn’t say that either.”
“Seriously, Jason. Is there going to be a stripper there or not?” He could be so frustrating sometimes.
“Why do you care?” He leaned closer, making direct panty-melting eye contact and smiling that sexy, enigmatic smile. His masculine scent was filling the bathroom. Suddenly, the space felt very small, almost claustrophobic. Katie’s breath quickened and she wondered if just the sight of Jason Sloan in slacks and a button-up up was enough to bring on a panic attack.
Stealthily she ducked under Jason’s arm, brushing lightly against his body as she passed him on her way out of the bathroom. It was just the briefest and tiniest of contacts, but it was just enough that her body was now humming with an electric current that felt dangerously close to arousal.
Jason turned towards her as she passed him, leaned back casually against the door frame, and crossed his arms, causing his sleeves to hug his well-defined biceps. She touched her mouth to make sure that she wasn’t drooling. She should not be this turned on by him basically just standing in front of her.
“Well?” he asked, a little smile playing on the corners of his mouth.
“Well, what?” she heard herself snap back at him. She really didn’t understand why his smug smile drove her crazy but…it did.
“Why do you care if there is or is not going to be a stripper at the bachelor party?”
“I don’t care. I’m just asking for Sophie. I am the maid of honor, remember? It’s my job to make sure that Sophie has a good time tonight, and worrying about her soon-to-be husband being gyrated on is not going to be conducive to her enjoyment of her bachelorette party.”
“Well, I am the best man, remember? And maybe a stripper would be conducive to Bobby’s enjoyment of his bachelor party.”
“Jason, quit playing games and just tell me: yes or no, is there going to be a stripper there?”
“Yes or no, is there going to be a stripper there,” Jason repeated. When she glared at him, his face looked as innocent as a choir boy as he stated mock sincerely, “What? You told me to tell you ‘yes or no is there going to be a stripper there.’ I'm just trying to be helpful and follow orders.”
Katie shook her head in frustration and bent over to get her heels out of her suitcase. She unzipped the case and flipped open the lid, and as she did that, she saw that Jason’s shirt, the one she’d had since his Tarzan impression in sixth grade, was sitting on the top. Damn. She hadn’t even thought twice about packing it. She never imagined for a second that he would have an opportunity to see it.
She should have known better.
---~---
Jason knew he should simply answer Katie and put her mind at ease. He remembered what it had felt like when Alex was putting him through the paces. But he just couldn’t help himself—he loved seeing Katie Lawson get annoyed. It was one of the cutest things in the world. The way she narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, the way her skin would get a little flushed and she would shake her head, trying to clear it of frustration.
Man, he had really missed her.
As she bent over to get something from her suitcase, he took the opportunity to enjoy the view. And what a view it was. Damn. Her sweet ass was molded perfectly by the skin-tight jeans she was wearing. He felt himself growing harder by the second and his brain began to fog over with lust, with need. He had a vague notion that he should try to clear his head, but that thought was getting further away by the second.
Katie suddenly slammed her suitcase down and turned and looked…guilty. Hmmm. That was interesting. Jason felt his lips curl up in a smile as he took a slow step forward.
“What’s in the suitcase, Kit Kat?”
“Nothing.” Katie’s response came just a little too quickly. He saw her cheeks turn red and he knew she was hiding something.
“Tell me.” He challenged playfully.
“Just clothes, Jas. Seriously.” She looked him straight in the eyes, her face completely relaxed, her voice as smooth as silk.
He knew that, at least in her youth, Katie always pinched her lips together right before she told a lie, like her body was rejecting it. But she was older now, and top that off with the fact she was a lawyer. Yep, she could probably lie with the big boys now.
Either way, there was definitely something in that suitcase that she absolutely did not want Jason to see. Which, in Jason’s mind, meant only one thing—he needed to see what was in that suitcase.
“Open the suitcase, Kit Kat,” he said in an authoritative tone.
“What? No,” she retorted, crossing her arms and looking annoyed. She jutted out her hip and said sassily, “You’re not the boss of me, Jas.”
“Now who’s acting like a five-year-old?” he sassed back. “You win many arguments in court that way? I can just hear it now. 'But, your honor, that's not fair. Tell opposing counsel he's not the boss of me!' Very professional, Kit Kat.”
A flush crept up Katie’s porcelain cheeks. Tinting her smooth, pale skin pink from either rising ire at his words or embarrassment over what was in the suitcase. Jason smiled wider. Time to find out.
He juked around her and was just in the middle of pulling the top open when Katie jumped in front of him and sat down firmly on top of the suitcase lid. She was grinning broadly, and Jason could see in her smile that she was proud of herself because she thought she had outsmarted him. He burst out laughing, which took a bit of the shine off of her smile.
“You think plopping your skinny little ass on top of there is going to deter me?” Jason laughed and then made a tsk-tsking sound and shook his head slowly back and forth. “Kit Kat, I’m hurt. Honestly. It’s almost as if you don’t know me at all.”
Her eyes grew wide as he lunged forward to pick her up and toss her on the bed. She must have recognized the maneuver from when they were kids because a burst of competitive laughter immediately sprang forth from her mouth and her eyes came alive with a warrior's fire.
As soon as he lifted her, she interlocked her arms in his, the same way she used to when they would swim at The Plunge during the summer and he would try to toss her up in the air. Because of the way their arms were intertwined, he wasn't able to release his hold on her, and momentum sent him tumbling onto the bed with her.
When they came to rest, Katie was on her back, her golden mane of hair spread out across the pillows behind her head like a shining, silky cloud. Her eyes were wide, her skin was flushed, and she looked as beautiful as he had ever seen her look. More beautiful than any woman he had ever seen in his life.
Her clear blue eyes opened wide in astonishment, but whether that was in response to something she saw in his face or something that was going on inside her own mind and heart, he had no idea. Maybe it was combination of both.
He was immediately lost in those giant blue azure pools, as he always was any time he looked into them. His awareness of everything else in the world faded away—of the fact that Bobby was next door, of the fact that they were in her childhood bedroom, of the fact that he was growing harder by the instant. He was not aware of anything but Katie's big blue eyes.
Hesitantly, Katie reached up and trailed her fingertips lightly over his face. Jason swallowed a moan. Damn, the sensation was almost too much to bear.
Her exquisite eyes filled with tears that shone like diamonds as she whispered, “Jason...” There was so much emotion infused in that one tiny, desperate whisper that he had to close his eyes against the sudden rush of his own intense feelings. Eyes closed, he pressed his forehead to hers, breathing hard.
“God, I've missed you so much,” he whispered back to her, his intensity matching that of her own voice just a moment before.
He opened his eyes and looked into hers again. He saw in them that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Their lips were mere millimeters from touching. He slowly moved his head towards hers…
At that exact moment, the loud strains of, “I like big butts and I cannot lie. You other
brothers can’t deny...” filled the room, startling them both.
Katie jumped involuntarily, which caused her forehead to bang into his with a loud knocking sound. Jason reared back, moving his head away from the pain, and his hand flew up to where he had been hit.
This movement caused him to lose his precarious balance on the edge of the bed, and in one quick motion, he fell to her wooden floor, landing flat on his butt with a hard thud.
Sir Mix-A-Lot's party anthem continued to fill the room. Damn Alex and his constant prank ringtone changing. Loud pumping music filled the air but Jason could pick out one sound over the canned rap song.
He looked up and saw Kit Kat's beautiful face looking down at him. His mouth went dry. With her golden hair backlit by her bedside lamp, she really did seem to have an angelic glow about her. It looked like a soft, bright halo surrounded her glowing face.
Then he realized what the sound was that he could hear over the blaring ringtone.
She was laughing her ass off.
She looked so beautiful. Happy. Relaxed. Free.
In that moment, something happened that he never would have thought was possible. He fell even more in love with Katie Lawson.
Chapter Thirteen
Hearing the doorbell ring mere minutes after Jason had left when he’d gotten Bobby’s call that the groom was ready to go, Katie ran down the stairs of her childhood home and opened the door to see Sophie standing on her porch like she had seen a thousand times before. Katie was struck, once again, with the differences in beautiful Sophie's appearance.
She was no longer a bouncing four-year-old, a tomboy eight-year-old, or a pre-teen with a mouth full of braces. Sophie stood before her in stiletto heels, skinny jeans, and a sparkling black top, and she was a beautiful young woman.
“Ready to party?” Sophie asked mischievously, and Katie grabbed her and hugged her. “Are you okay?” Sophie asked next, concern lacing her voice as she rubbed her hands up and down over Katie's back.
Katie, for her part, was too choked up to speak for a moment. In all the drama that had been consuming her thoughts, she really hadn’t let it soak in that Miss Sophiebell was getting married.
“I’m fine,” Katie assured her with conviction as soon as her voice returned to her. She gave Sophie one more hard squeeze before grabbing her purse and heading out the door. “I just really missed you, chickadee. I'm so happy to be a part of your big day.”
As Katie climbed in the party bus filled with rowdy women eager to begin their night out at The Grill on the Riverwalk, Katie noticed something disconcerting. The guy on the motorcycle, the one Jason had pointed out earlier in the day, after they left Mona’s, was sitting on his bike two car lengths behind the bus.
Hmm, that’s odd, Katie thought to herself. She felt a little tingle at the back of her spine but put both the thought of Motorcycle Man and the twinge of fear firmly and deliberately out of her mind. This was Harper's Crossing. It was a small town, not like San Francisco, where seeing the same person twice in one day could almost never be random.
As the bus pulled away from the curb and headed towards downtown, she made a decision to keep thoughts of this weird little coincidence out of her mind for the rest of the evening and just concentrate on having a good time.
This resolution became ten times harder to follow when the motorcycle pulled away from the curb immediately after the bus did and began to follow them.
--- ~ ---
It felt so strange to Katie to actually be walking up the wooden steps to the bar portion of The Grill. She had never been upstairs before, although it had always held a place of reverence and mystery in her mind. But the last time Katie was in Harper's Crossing, she wasn’t legal yet. Nick and Jason had snuck up there several times when they were all teenagers, but Katie had sat her butt in her seat at their table downstairs in the restaurant portion of the establishment and staunchly refused to go with them. It was against the rules and Katie never broke the rules.
She had always been curious about it, though, and was excited to finally get the chance to see it with her own eyes. As she handed her driver's license and ten-dollar bill to the guy working the door, she realized that, although she was twenty-eight years old and a practicing lawyer, she had never actually felt quite as “grown up” as she did at that moment.
When she stepped inside, her skin tingling with anticipation at what wonders the space might contain, she couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed with what she saw. It wasn't the “den of iniquity” she had always imagined it might be, and it also wasn't the cosmopolitan oasis she had also, at times, dreamed it was. In fact, it didn't match up to any of the visions Katie had imagined.
In reality, it looked pretty much the same as the restaurant downstairs. It had the same wall coverings, the same tables, the same chairs, the same art on the wall. The only difference was a large dance floor in the center of the room and a glossy wooden bar that ran across the entire left hand wall.
Katie smiled to herself as she surveyed the space. It was exactly as it should be. She wouldn't have it any other way.
Seeing Sophie get carded was also a strange experience. Sure, logically she knew that Sophie had turned twenty-one the previous summer, but to actually see her in a bar was strange.
Who was she kidding? To actually see her drive a car was strange, let alone gain admittance into a bar.
There were about fifteen girls present that were all part of Sophie's party. Katie knew about half of them already and was looking forward to getting to know the rest during the course of their night of debauchery. Amber was in attendance as well as the Sloan girls Haley, Krista, Jessie, and Becca. The rest of the attendees were girls that Katie remembered being Sophie’s childhood friends.
As she stepped through the “VIP” area (which, in reality, consisted of a red rope sectioning off three tables. But, hey, this was Harper's Crossing) she spotted a girl sitting at the far table and did a double take.
“Chelle?!” Katie exclaimed and realized that, because of her surprise and excitement, it had come out a little louder than she had meant it to. But then again, with the music pounding from the speakers, even her enthusiastic exclamation was barely audible.
As the woman turned, Katie saw that it was, indeed, her Chelle. She screamed and ran over to her, pulling her into a tight embrace.
Rachelle Thomas (AKA Chelle) had been Katie’s best friend since second grade. Rachelle had started at Harper’s Crossing Elementary mid-year and so, of course, she was branded the “new kid,” with all of the social stigma that entailed among vicious seven-year olds. Chelle had been really quiet for the first few months that she attended Harper's Crossing Elementary. Katie had thought about approaching her, but the girl had seemed so contentedly self-contained that Katie wasn't even sure what she would talk about with her.
Then it had happened. Chelle had gotten the dreaded chicken pox and had to miss several weeks of school. When she came back, she had worn not one but two badges of shame—now she was not only the “new kid,” she was also the “chicken pox kid.” The other members of their second grade class had descended on her at every playground opportunity, taunts at the ready, like a pack of blue-jeaned, pigtailed wolves circling an injured deer.
That pissed Katie off. Even at seven years old, she had a strict moral code. She didn't believe in being mean to people. Not only that, the teacher had said that they needed to welcome Rachelle back and show her some support. The teacher had said it! That made it a rule!
Katie mulled over what to do about the situation. She knew that explaining to the other kids that what they were doing was wrong was a losing proposition. She also instinctively recognized that sticking up for Rachelle while the mob frenzy of mocking was in full effect would not have the desired outcome but would rather just make her a target as well.
Then she came up with the perfect idea. She wouldn't try to confront the bullies directly. She would just act in opposition to them. She would be as nice to R
achelle as they were being mean, and hopefully they would see the difference and be ashamed of themselves. Well, that was probably too much to hope for, Katie had decided, but at least Rachelle would have somebody being nice to her.
The very same night that she had that idea, she spent all evening making an elaborate card for Rachelle. On one side of the inside flap, it read “YOU ARE” in big, bold letters. On the other side of the interior, Katie listed all of the good qualities she had noticed about Rachelle in the time she had been going to school there.
The next day, as all of the class was filing in and taking off their coats, putting their backpacks away, and making their way to their seats, Katie walked up to Rachelle and wordlessly handed her the card. She wasn't trying to be mysterious. She was just nervous about what Rachelle's reaction would be. She sat down in her seat and stared steadfastly forward, waiting for the teacher to begin, and then lost herself in her work until morning recess.
As the class was filing out, Rachelle hung back to wait for Katie. She looked just as nervous as Katie felt, which made Katie relax a little bit.
“Did you mean that stuff?” Rachelle asked shyly.
Katie nodded with conviction.
“Do you wanna play on the monkey bars?” Rachelle asked as a follow-up.
Katie nodded again, and they scampered out to the playground together, where they spent that recess and every recess thereafter. They became fast friends from that moment on.
The mean kids stopped making fun of Chelle, preferring targets who were isolated and defenseless.
In middle school, they bought necklaces that had the words “Best Friends” written across a heart that was split into two pieces. Katie took the section of the heart that said “Be Fri” and Chelle chose “st ends.”
But when Aunt Wendy saw the necklaces, she said that a lot of people have ‘best friends’ but very few had ‘diamond friends.’ She explained that ‘diamond friends’ were better than plain old ‘best friends’ because diamonds were not only rare, they were forever.