by Lori Leger
FULL CIRCLE LOVE
An Anthology of Cat & Zach Stories
Taken from the Seasons of Love Anthology Series
By
LORI LEGER
Copyright © 2014 Cajunflair Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-940305-30-1
Cajunflair Publishing Assigned
(Smashwords Edition License Notes)
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Part I: Loving Cat
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Part II: Still Loving Cat
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part III: Baby Blues Christmas
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Part IV: Full Circle Summer
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Series Poster
Other Work by Author
About the Author
DEDICATION
Once again, to my husband, Mike—thank you for keeping the house from falling down around my head as I strive to meet deadlines, fight with formatting, book covers, and other various publishing woes. You’re the best man I could wish for. Love you babe.
To my two oldest grandchildren/cover models for the paperback version of this book: My beautiful granddaughter, Cathryn “Cat” Vincent, and my handsome grandson, Austin “Zach” Fontenot. You two did an amazingly professional job for being step cousins who felt awkward about even holding hands. I had a vision of what I wanted Cat and Zach to look like, and you two fit the bill perfectly.
Chapter 1
Lake Erin – A small town in southwest Louisiana
He should have kissed her.
In hindsight, Zach Ferguson could see that now. He had probably blown the only shot he would ever have to kiss Cathryn McDaniel.
He double gripped the steering wheel, and cursed long and loud at his own stupidity until a voice from the back seat cut him off.
“You talkin’ to me?” Rob’s dark head popped up from where he’d been snoozing in the rear seat of Zach’s four door Dodge pick-up.
“I was cussing myself for the stupid shit that I am.”
Rob sat forward on the back seat and scratched at his scruffy beard. “What’d you do, drop Cat off at her place without asking her out again?”
Zach’s reluctance to answer must have let his best friend know he was on the right track.
Rob groaned and slapped the back of the driver’s seat headrest. “Come on, man! You’ve been in love with that girl since the sixth grade. When you gonna realize she’s the one for you?”
“She’s been gone for twelve years, asshole.” Zach ducked as Rob’s skinny, jean-clad leg, wearing a size twelve western boot swung over the front seat, narrowly missing his head. “What the hell, dude? Watch the leather seats, would you? I just cleaned my truck and no telling what kind of crap you got on those shit kickers.”
Rob snorted, twisting his wiry body until he’d relocated himself into the seat Cat had just vacated. “What are you, a chick now? They’re clean.”
“You’ve been boot scootin’ on a bar floor for four hours. Those things are anything but clean.”
“Quit your bitchin’ and stop avoiding the subject. Cat McDaniel is back in town. She waltzed into The Hub with her gal pals, just like the old days. Out of all the eligible—and much better looking guys, including me—she had to choose from, she asked your sorry ass to dance. Please tell me you at least kissed that beautiful lady good night.”
“She just broke off her engagement, Rob. I’m not about to set myself up for a rebound let-down.” He kept his eyes on the roadway in front of him, the right side of his face burning from the glare of his oldest friend in the world—other than Cat.
“They only dated for a year before they got engaged and she called it off after a month. That was two months ago, Zach.”
“And your point is?”
“Eighteen years you’ve been walking around with wood for that girl. Don’t you think it’s time you grow a pair and tell her how you feel?”
Zach pulled up to the red light and closed his eyes, remembering the feel of Cat in his arms. The silkiness of her floral scented hair between his fingers, the way her cheeks flushed, and her soft skin warmed to his touch.
They had jitterbugged and two-stepped until they were both damp with sweat, but somehow he’d managed to avoid the slow dances. Inevitably, they’d been taken by surprise. He recalled her soft intake of breath as he pulled her close for their one and only belly-rubber. Their bodies close—too damn close for her not to notice how he felt about her. He groaned aloud, just thinking about his body’s reaction to the nearness of her. “Believe me, Rob—she knows.”
Why the hell hadn’t Zach kissed her?
Cathryn “Cat” McDaniel leaned against the closed door of her newly rented house, trying to tame her roiling emotions. She’d known him forever, but Zachary Ferguson had been a good friend to her—her best guy friend from Jr. High until the day they’d graduated Lake Erin High. Despite a mutually strong physical attraction, she and her ‘buddy’ had decided against messing with a good thing. After all, how many couples got together in high school and lasted forever? Not nearly enough to risk ending a friendship as special as theirs had been all these years.
This isn’t high school.
No kidding.
They’d gone their separate ways, always staying in touch with the occasional phone call, then emails, and recently, text messaging and social media. He’d known about her broken engagement from the get-go. Said he noticed the day she changed her relationship status from engaged to single. How was that possible? Her own sister hadn’t seen it until two days later and then called to chew her out. He’d private messaged her. You okay? Then, I’m here if you need to talk.
But she couldn’t talk to him. She couldn’t tell him the real reason she’d called off the wedding. Who would understand? Her mother and sister sure as hell didn’t, and neither did her girlfriends.
Marissa, her best friend since kindergarten, had grilled her earlier that week. “What the hell, Cat? Chris is a great catch. You said you trust him completely, he treats you like a goddess, he’s a hard worker and earns a good living. The guy’s an architect for chris-sakes! He’s easy on the eyes, and crazy in love with you, anyone can see that. Why can’t you marry him?”
She’d explained the only way she could. “Those are all the reasons I can’t marry him, Marissa. Chris deserves someone who can love
him back the same way. I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve never tried so hard to love someone in my life. It’s just not there.”
Chris was the latest of a handful of semi-serious relationships she’d had in the last twelve years. He’d been the only one she even considered marrying, even though she’d ended up calling it off. After all these years, she’d begun to wonder if she was destined to be alone.
Then, in the middle of her nothing-but-fun, have-a-blast, girl’s night out, she’d bumped smack dab into the cold, hard truth. Well, that wasn’t quite true. The truth had been hard—solid as a rock, but nowhere near cold. As a matter of fact, it had been hot. Hotter than anything she’d seen in forever.
On her way to the bar, she had run into Zach. Check that. She had nearly broken her nose on those rock hard pecs of his. It had been nearly five years since she’d last seen Zach Ferguson. Tonight’s first sight of him had left her shell-shocked at his transformation. He’d always been good-looking—and not the kind that faded into adulthood. One look at his dad and grandfather proved that Ferguson men aged extremely well. The combination of coal black hair and blue eyes, usually sparkling with some kind of mischief, had always been a sure-fire turn-on for women. But her Zach, even though he’d always been toned, had always been on the long and lean end of the spectrum. At some point, the boy had turned into a man, adding bulk to an already perfectly acceptable package.
She could still feel the catch of her breath the moment she’d finally forced her gaze from the remarkable torso—looked up and found those gorgeous blue eyes pinned on her.
“Like what you see, Cat-tastrophe? That’s what you get for staying away from home too damn long.” He’d picked her up in a bear hug, swung her around in work-hardened, muscular arms, and set her down.
Still dizzy with the thrill of seeing him again, she’d stepped back to give him a good once over. That was it—the very moment when stark realization slapped her in the face. All these years, she’d been comparing every man in her life to Zach. Chris Baily had been the only one to remotely narrow that gap. Even then, it hadn’t narrowed it nearly enough to follow through with the wedding.
Cat shook herself from her rambling, heated thoughts. She locked the front door and bypassed the packing boxes littering the room, headed for her own bathroom. She’d spent four hours at that bar, reacquainting herself with old friends and meeting new ones. The time spent in Zach’s exclusive company stood out. Especially the final ten minutes. She’d danced with him all night—always to the fast ones—Old rock and roll, Swamp Pop, Country, Cajun, or Zydeco—whatever the DJ threw out there. She’d been careful to avoid the slow dances with him. But they’d got caught at the opposite end of the dancehall for the start of a slow ballad. Rather than fight their way around and through the crowd to the group table, he’d whisked her into another dance.
That slow dance between friends had changed to a tentative shyness, before morphing into something seriously heated. In her own defense, the two of them had just finished singing a nearly flawless two-part harmony while dancing to You and Tequila. By the time the DJ swung into Hunter Hayes singing Rainy Season, it was too late to do anything but cling helplessly to the one man besides her father that she’d ever truly loved.
If only she could blame her reaction to him on too much alcohol. No such luck. She’d downed bottled water most of the night, knowing she had to finish unpacking the next day.
Cat turned on the shower and stood in front of the bathroom mirror. She closed her eyes, felt his arms around her again, one hand on her lower back to hold her close. He’d curled her right hand close to him as she pressed her head to his chest, felt the pounding of his heart, or had that been her own rhythmic thumping she’d heard?
All she knew was that she hadn’t wanted that last song, Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey, to end…like…ever. When it did, Zach cleared his throat, pushed her gently away from him, and thanked her for the dances before escorting her back to the table. He’d been the same gentleman around her that he’d always been. After those two belly rubbers, she couldn’t help but feel the loss—of the full length of his body pressed against her, his broad shoulders under her hands.
Walking back to their table, she’d been shocked at the single thought running through her mind. She’d wanted him to kiss her after that last dance.
She opened her eyes, stared at her still-flushed reflection in the mirror. If she was being honest with herself, she’d wanted him to kiss her after driving her home tonight too. He’d walked her to her door, but had left her with a ‘friendly’ hug and a peck on the cheek. She could tell he fought the urge, knew part of it had been due to Rob Mayes being passed out in the back seat of his truck. If not for that, there’s no telling what would have happened. She probably would have pulled his sexy ass into the house, then had her way with him, packing boxes be damned.
She fanned her face. No. He’d done the right thing. He’d had the will-power, the good common sense to leave her at the door. Considering her broken engagement, her relocation, her two careers—the last thing she needed in her life was a complicated relationship with an old friend. She needed her pal, not an ex-friend she wouldn’t know how to act around. That meant keeping the hunky, handsome, totally available best friend from high school far from her bed, and out of her mind. Easy in theory, but as a writer and a photographer, she’d be hard pressed to keep her over-active imagination from undressing him in her mind—and much, much more.
Chapter 2
Cat stopped in the doorway to pay homage to the onslaught of aromas pouring forth from her mom’s kitchen. Baked hen, green bean casserole, and rice dressing, along with a hint of something sweet, lingering in the air.
“God, it smells delish in here. What’s the occasion?”
Ellen McDaniel spun around to reveal her still youthful face despite her fifty-two years of age. The woman was petite, pleasantly plump, and quick on her feet. Her dirty blonde hair hardly held a trace of gray, and the short, spiky cut was becoming on a face flushed from cooking the noon meal in the heated kitchen. Her hazel eyes sparkled with laughter.
“You are. I wanted to show my girl how ecstatic I am to have you back home.”
“Aw, thanks Mom.” Cathryn, towering a full head above the woman, wrapped her arms around her. “For a minute I thought someone had moved up Easter and forgot to tell me.”
Ellen chuckled as she gave her oldest daughter one last squeeze. “No, Easter is next weekend, and I’ll be baking a turkey. Today we’re having one of the hens Paw Paw Mike gave us.”
“That’s a hen?” Cat asked, gaping at the oversized bird in the same baking pan her mom always used, another familiar reminder that she was back home. “It looks more like a young turkey.”
“I guess he waited a little too long to butcher this time around. He and Mom just got back from Colorado.” She hugged her daughter again. “God, it’s good to have you back home where you belong.”
“You really think I belong here?”
“Heck, yeah; Dallas has had you long enough. I hated only getting to see you two or three times a year.”
“Even if it means breaking off an engagement to a guy you adored?”
Ellen turned to her daughter. “Honey, it’s a moot point unless you adored him. I approved of Christian because of the way he treated you. Yes, it seemed as though he’d have made a wonderful son-in-law, but if you can’t see yourself spending the rest of your life with him, you did the right thing. I just wish you’d made the decision before you agreed to marry him.”
Cat picked up a whisk to stir the gravy. “I didn’t want to hurt him, Mom. I thought my feelings would get stronger. If I’d known he’d never…” She whisked the gravy slowly, keeping the rest of the comment to herself.
Ellen stopped basting the hen long enough to send her daughter a secretive smile, accompanied by a single lift of her brow. “Never measure up to Zachary Ferguson?” She laughed as Cat’s mouth dropped open. “What? Your old mom’s not as clueless as y
ou thought she was all these years?”
Cat’s mouth closed with an audible snap. It was one thing for her to know the facts. It was totally unacceptable for everyone else in town to be suspecting the same thing. “What makes you think something like that?” She frowned as her mother waved off her question with a chuckle.
“Oh, please. That ‘friendship pact’ the two of you made your freshman year? You don’t honestly think he wanted to go along with that, do you?”
Cat returned to whisking the gravy. “He said he did and I had no reason not to believe him.”
Ellen grabbed Cat’s chin to make her face her. “Sweet child of mine, you were in denial then, and I’m guessing you still are. That boy was crazy about you.”
“I suspect he had a little crush on me, but we were such good friends we didn’t want to risk losing that.” Cat turned her attention back to the gravy, knowing her mother still watched. “He was too important to me then, and he still is.” She breathed a sigh of relief when her mom changed the subject suddenly.
“So, how’s your book coming along? Did you finally come up with a suitable ending?”
“Yep, and I think it’s the best one yet. I’ll send you the full manuscript as soon as I’ve wrapped it up. You know I love getting feedback from you.”
Ellen placed the lid over the hen and bent to get the rolls out of the oven. “And the photography, how’s it coming along?”
Cat’s heart flipped in excitement. If there was one thing in the world that she enjoyed more than her writing, it was photography. “I submitted my portfolio for the nature shots to my editor and she loved them. She can’t wait to see the bayou shots I plan on getting her soon.”