by Nancy Adams
Katie gave her a sickly grin. “Well, guess who managed to pick this precise moment to call me last night.”
Kylie looked at her strangely for a moment, shaking her head. “No idea, who?”
“Darren,” Katie Lou said. “I ran into his cousin David at church the other day, and he was telling me how Darren was miserable and talking about how he shouldn't have left me, and I kind of liked hearing it; I sort of gloated about it a bit. Well, last night, Darren calls me and says he still loves me, and he regrets breaking up with me, and wants to know if I’ll give him another chance.”
Kylie's eyes were as big as saucers. “And you told him he's an idiot and to get lost, right?”
“Well, not exactly,” Katie said. “I—I told him I'd think about it. I didn't make any promises, I just told him to call me back tomorrow, and that I would think about it until then.”
“Katie, you can't possibly be seriously thinking about this. The man almost killed you, don't you remember that?”
“That was an accident, and the kind of thing that can happen to anyone. Yeah, it sucked, I admit that, but that doesn't mean it's something that was actually his doing.”
“Then what about the fact that he kicked you to the curb because he was afraid you would hurt his chances in an election? That ought to count for enough to make you tell him to drop dead.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, believe me, I know. The thing is, Kylie, we had two really good years together. Two years when he just made me feel wonderful, and I can't just forget those times. Yeah, I got mad when he dumped me, but that doesn't change the fact we had some good times.”
Kylie sat there and looked at her for a long moment, shaking her head the whole time. “Katie Lou, please, please don't do this. Talk to Rob, find out what really happened, please.”
Katie suddenly struck the table with her fist. “I know what happened, I saw it! When we walked in, he was sitting there with that woman, and I saw Anna walking away, and then suddenly he just leaned over and kissed her. It's like he was just waiting for Anna to be out of sight, so maybe she couldn't tell me about it or something.”
Kylie didn't say anything; she just sat there looking at her sister. Katie looked her in the eye for a moment, then turned away. She drank her coffee without saying anything further, and then got up and went to the counter to get a second cup. She looked over her shoulder, when she heard Kylie gasp again.
“What was that about?” she asked.
“Katie Lou,” Kylie said, pointing. “You just got up and walked across the kitchen without using the walker.”
Katie's eyes went wide, as she looked back toward the table. Sure enough, there was the walker, right where she’d left it. She stared at it from across the room.
14
Rob crawled out of bed and made his way through his morning routine, trying to bring himself back to life. He made his way to the kitchen and found Anna already there, with a pot of coffee hot and ready.
“So, did you get hold of her?” Anna asked.
“No,” Rob said, shaking his head. “I tried until she turned her phone off. I'm just gonna give her a little time, and see if I can get her to talk to me later today.”
“Probably a good idea,” Anna said. “Look, Bubba, I'm sorry I was such a bee-otch yesterday. I mean, when you get right down to it, what you do with your life is up to you. I just really think that you and Katie Lou are good for each other. That's why I got upset, I don't want to see you blow it.”
Rob laughed, but it was laced with sarcasm. “Trust me, I understand. I don't want to see me blow it, either, but I'm afraid I already did. You didn't see the look on her face, when she stormed out of the restaurant. It wasn't—she wasn't just angry, I don't think, I think she was hurt. Like maybe devastated.”
“Well, what do you expect? Look at what she's been through. I mean, it's bad enough her ex-fiancé almost killed her, but then he had the gall to dump her over being crippled. If anything will leave a bad taste in a girl's mouth, that'll do it, so she's probably already pretty sour on guys. Then, she sees the one guy she still thinks is worth a shit kissing an ex-girlfriend. Yeah, I'm thinking maybe she's pretty hurt. The only real question, now, is whether you can get past that and get her to forgive you.”
Rob was nodding. “Yes, I know,” he said. “And you want to know the worst part? I couldn't blame her if she refuses to.”
Anna sat there and looked at him for a moment, then reached across the table and laid her hand on top of his. “Bubba, you're a good guy,” she said. “Katie Lou sees that, too, trust me. I don't think she's gonna give you up that easily.”
Rob didn't say anything more, and took out his phone and tried dialing Katie's number. Just as it had done the night before, it went directly to voice mail, but with an announcement that her voice mail was full and could not take any more messages.
Katie Lou and Kylie spent the entire morning with Katie walking around the house. While she had walked away from the walker by accident, she found that her legs seemed to be functioning normally, suddenly. She still had a hesitant gait, as if she didn't quite trust her legs not to give out on her, but after more than a half hour on her feet, she was still feeling strong.
“I mean, I'm a little tired,” she said, “but not like I was a couple weeks ago, walking on the bars.” She looked at her walker. “I guess using the walker has built up my legs, some, and maybe it's just that I've been afraid to try to walk without it. Am I making any sense?”
Kylie shrugged. “I don't know—we should call Rob and ask him,” she said, but the look she got from Katie Lou made her drop that line of thought.
“No, that's okay,” Katie Lou said. “I think I'll be finding a new physical therapist. I never should've gotten involved with him, I knew better than that.”
After two hours of practicing around the house, Katie decided she was ready to go out into the world. She got her purse and invited Kylie to come along as she went to the mall to get a new phone. Kylie stayed close to her as she walked out the back door and down the ramp, but she did fine. They got into Katie's car and backed out of the driveway, then headed downtown.
A half hour later, Katie was the proud owner of a brand-new smart phone. This one had more bells and whistles than the one she’d had before, and the technician was able to program her number into it quickly.
He laughed, right after she turned the phone on, when it started receiving message after message. “Wow,” he said. “Somebody really was trying to get hold of you.”
Katie Lou snatched the phone out of his hand, paid him for the phone and the services, and stomped out the door. She glanced down at the phone and saw that another seventeen text messages and eight missed calls had come after she had broken the phone the night before. All of them were from Rob.
“Hey, you got to give him points for being persistent, right?” Kylie asked.
Katie didn't answer, so Kylie just followed her back to the car. When they got into it, Katie looked at her sister.
“I really don’t feel like going home, just yet,” she said. “Is there anything you want to do while we're out?”
“Oh, let me see,” Kylie said. “Well, we could go look for office space, since you say you're not going to work with Rob after all.”
Katie gave her sister a halfhearted smile. “That's actually a very good idea,” she said. “One of the girls I went to high school with has her own real estate office, now. Let's go see if she knows of anything.”
Kylie grinned, and Katie put the car in gear. Five minutes later, she pulled up in front of her friend's real estate office, Ralston Realty. She and Kylie went inside, and Carla Wilson, the girl she'd gone to school with, let out a squeal when she saw Katie Lou walk in.
“Katie Lou! Oh, my goodness, it's so good to see you! Of course, I heard all about your accident, and everything that was going on, I just couldn't believe that happened to you. And that Darren, I just could not believe what he did. What kind of a man could do that to a girl?
So how are you?”
“I'm doing okay,” Katie said. “Listen, I'm going to be opening my own counseling practice pretty shortly, and I was wondering if you know of any offices available that might be suited to it?”
Carla burst into a huge smile. “Well, you’ve come to the right place! Come on, let's take a look and see what we got.” She led the way back into her private office.
She turned her super-sized computer monitor so that Katie and Kylie could see it along with her, and began calling up various office properties. There were only a couple in Ralston, but several were over in Maxwell, which was actually a considerably larger town. Katie saw several that appealed to her, including one that had previously been a lawyer's office.
“What's the deal on that one?” Katie Lou asked.
Carla opened another page on the website, and began reading. “Well, there is a reception area with a fairly small waiting room, then you've got three offices, what I would call a break room—there's a sink and a refrigerator in it now—and a total of three bathrooms: two public ones and a private one. Are you looking to buy or just rent?”
Katie smiled. “I'm looking at just renting, at least for right now.”
Carla nodded. “Okay, well this place is available for rent, but the owner does want a year's lease. Is that a problem?”
“No, not at all,” Katie said. “It sounds ideal, where is it located?”
“This one is in Maxwell, and it's only about two blocks from the hospital over there. That’d be good, because it puts you inside the medical community, over there, you know what I mean?”
Katie nodded. “Yes, I do. That could be really good. Can we go take a look at it today?”
“Oh, yes,” Carla said. “I don't have anything else scheduled today, so this is perfect. Let me grab my purse, and we'll take off.”
Moments later, Katie and Kylie climbed into Carla's car with her, and they were on the way to Maxwell. Carla kept up the running monologue all the way, which had both girls rolling their eyes from time to time, but was also rather entertaining. The woman had a number of opinions, and wasn't bashful about sharing them, no matter how ridiculous they might be.
The office was beautiful. Katie walked through it confidently, feeling almost at home. She knew that it was very well suited to the type of work she would be doing there, and it was certainly a fantastic location. The rent figure wasn't terrible, and Katie suspected she could probably get it even cheaper by paying a year's rent in advance. When she mentioned that idea to Carla, she thought the woman was going to burst into tears. There was no doubt, Carla said, that she could save at least 25 to 30 percent that way.
By the time they locked it up again, it was time for lunch. Carla suggested they stop for a bite, and since both girls were hungry, they agreed. Carla pulled up to a place called the Downtown Diner.
“I've eaten here a few times,” she said, “and it's always delicious. Come on, this is my treat.”
They followed her inside, and settled into a booth. Katie Lou reached down to rub her left knee, which was beginning to feel a little sore, but it wasn't showing any sign of giving out on her, so she was grateful for that. A waitress came over and took their orders, and hurried back with their soft drinks.
Carla, being no fool, dug a contract out of her purse and began amending it. Katie agreed to the various terms, but when it got to the bottom line, she hesitated to sign. She fell back on the old excuse of having her attorney look it over, which Carla accepted graciously. Katie promised to give her an answer within the next couple of days, and Carla was happy.
Their food arrived a little while later, and they dug into the burgers they had ordered. Katie agreed that the food was wonderful, while Kylie just made moaning sounds that reminded Katie of a contented puppy dog. They were halfway through the meal when Katie looked up at the sound of the door opening, and saw Julie walk in.
She froze, with her burger halfway to her mouth for another bite. There was no way, she knew, that Julie could have known she'd be there. She hadn't even known it herself until Carla had pulled them in. She tried not to stare, but couldn't help it.
Julie felt eyes upon her, and turned her head to look, and the two women locked their gazes together. For just a moment, Katie thought Julie was going to come storming over toward her, but then the woman simply lowered her eyes, and went to take a seat in a booth toward the back of the restaurant.
Katie sat there for a moment, looking around to see if Rob might be following her in, but there was no sign of him. She stayed put for a few seconds more, then looked at Carla and excused herself. She rose, and walked directly to where Julie was sitting, sliding into the seat across from her.
“He told me about you, you know? About what happened between you two, back when he was a teenager. Just curious, but aren't you ashamed of yourself for that?”
Julie looked her in the eye for a moment, then leaned forward with her hands clasped together on the table. “There might be a lot of things in my life I'm ashamed of,” she said, “but let me tell you two things. First off, none of them are any of your business. And second, you need to grow up. You think you saw something last night, but if you would talk to Rob, you might find out he was just trying to help me feel better about the fact that he's in love with you. That little kiss you saw last night? That was a kiss goodbye, one little kiss for old time sake, a consolation prize for the loser—me.”
Katie's eyes went wide. “Are you telling me the truth?”
Julie sneered at her, and shook her head. “Girl, you need to learn how to read your men. That boy is so head over heels in love with you that he can't even see me, not anymore. I threw myself at him in so many ways, but he didn't even notice most of them. And when he did? That's when he told me how crazy he is about you. He made it quite clear that I didn't have a chance, and the only reason I'm telling you this is because his happiness matters to me. Believe me, I'd really rather just have you stomp off in your little hissy fit, so that he'd be alone and I might have a chance, but if you're what makes him happy, then I'd rather see him happy with you.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and looked at Katie Lou. “Now, if you don't mind, I'd really like to be alone right now.”
Katie sat there and stared at her for a long moment, then got up and walked away. She made her way back to where Carla and Kylie were sitting, and took her seat again. She shook her head when Kylie tried to ask with her eyes what had happened, and Kylie managed to contain her curiosity, but just barely.
Carla hadn’t seemed to notice that anything was going on, and apparently just thought Katie had gone over to say hello to an old friend. Katie Lou decided it was best to let her keep on thinking that, so she went back to eating. Strangely, her appetite seemed to have returned.
They got back to Ralston an hour later, and Katie and Kylie got back into Katie's car. That was as far as Kylie could go, and as soon as the doors were shut she turned to her sister. “Okay, so tell me what happened!”
Katie smiled at her. “Well, according to Julie, what I saw was nothing but a kiss goodbye. She called it the consolation prize, for the loser, which was herself.”
Kylie burst into a grin. “See? See, I told you there was an explanation. When are you going to learn to listen to me, I'm always right, you know that!”
Katie laughed. “Okay, I'm not gonna go with always right, but I confess that you seem to have gotten closer than me on this one.”
“Yeah, but that's just because you were too close to the situation. If it had been the other way around, you would have seen it when I didn't.” She smiled. “Well? Are you gonna call him?”
Katie took a deep breath, and pulled out her brand-new phone. She dialed Rob's number, and waited as it rang, but it went to voice mail after six rings. She waited for it to tell her to leave a message, then said, “Rob, this is Katie Lou. Listen, I just ran into Julie, and she told me what was really happening, last night, that you were really just giving her a goodbye kiss—an
d I want you to know I'm sorry that I took it the wrong way. Call me, please, so we can talk?”
As soon as Katie had left the Diner, Julie had called Rob. “Hey, it's me,” she said when he answered. “Listen, I'm at the Downtown Diner, and I just ran into your Katie Lou here. We got a chance to talk for a minute, and I explained to her that she didn't see what she thought she saw last night. That you were basically just telling me goodbye. I also told her that every time I tried to get anywhere with you, you waved her at me like a flag.”
“How did she take it?” Rob asked. “I mean, did she seem like she believed you?”
“I'm pretty sure she did,” Julie said. “I think she'll be giving you a call.”
“Thank you, Julie,” Rob said. “I really do appreciate it.”
“Hey, it's like I told her. I really do care about you, Rob, and I want you to be happy. If she's what makes you happy, then I want you to go for it.”
Rob smiled into the phone. “You still at the Diner? Mind if I come down and join you for a cup of coffee?”
“Not a bit,” Julie said. “You don't have that sword-wielding, Valkyrie sister of yours with you, do you? I'm pretty sure she wants to cut my head off.”
Rob chuckled. “No, she's mellowed out. But no, she's not with me. I'll be there in ten minutes.”
It took him a little more than ten minutes to get to the Diner, but Rob walked in and found Julie in their old favorite booth. He grinned and shook his head, as he sat down across from her.
“If these seats could talk,” he said.
“You and I would be in a lot of trouble,” Julie finished. “Some of the things we did back here could have gotten us arrested.” They both smiled at the memories. “Rob, just because I was nice to your girlfriend and did my best to save your butt, don't forget what I said. If things don't work out, I'd love to have another chance.”
He nodded, still smiling. “Don't worry, I won't forget. Just—you'll probably find somebody else before I know what's happening for me. I take things slower than I used to.”