Kate's Forever (Thistle Do Flowers Book 1)

by Christina Butrum

  A thought to call the front desk to ask who was at her door crossed her mind, but she ignored it as she made her way to the door. They made peep holes for a reason, and this was that reason.

  Sneaking up to the door on her tiptoes, careful not to stumble or trip over anything on her way there, she looked out the small glass filled hole and couldn’t tell who it was at her door because they had their back to her.

  Whoever it was, was talking on the phone and holding something. She couldn’t see much because the hole only offered a certain view. She turned to walk back to bed. If they were on the phone, it wasn’t important that they were at her door. They probably had the wrong room number at this time of night.

  “Kate,” a low voice whispered behind the door. It didn’t take her more than a second to realize he had shown up. He had figured out where she was staying and had taken it upon himself to come to her. “Open the door so we can talk, Kate.”

  She had never experienced her heart pounding as hard as it was right now. She contemplated her next move as she tiptoed back to the door to confirm that it was actually him and not some figment of her imagination. Pinching herself before looking out, she realized she wasn’t dreaming, this was actually happening.

  His hair had more gray than she remembered, and his mouth and chin were covered by an aging goatee, but she could recognize those eyes anywhere. “Kate, let’s talk.”

  Slowly backing away from the door, she exhaled the breath she had been holding as she reached for the phone on the stand near the bed. Dialing zero would connect her to the front desk, but not fast enough. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, causing her fight or flight instinct to scream for her to run—except there was no other place she could go.

  “You’ve reached the front desk, how can I help you?” a woman’s voice answered on the other end.

  “I need security, please,” Kate whispered, her voice as shaken as the hand holding the phone. “Room 109.”

  * * *

  Climbing out of the musty backseat of the cab, he handed the driver a fifty. Throwing the strap of his bag over his shoulder, he walked through the entrance of the hotel.

  He hadn’t been able to relax on the way here. His thoughts had kept nagging him to realize how silly this was for him to show up at the hotel without invitation. Hell, he wasn’t even positive that Kate really wanted him there. It was a fifty-fifty chance that he would be either welcomed or looked at like he was insane—which he wouldn’t argue with the latter.

  It hadn’t gone unnoticed that there were two security guards arguing with a man who was insisting that he needed to see some woman in room 109. Jordan had no choice but to overhear the man plead his case with them as he made his way to the desk.

  “Good morning, sir,” the woman behind the desk greeted him while keeping a close eye on the guy with the guards. “How can I help you?”

  “I’m here to see Kate Dixon,” he said. “Can you tell me what room number she’s staying in?”

  The look on the woman’s face should have told him something was up, but he dismissed it due to the scuffle that was happening behind them with the determined man to see some woman in room 109.

  The woman picked up the phone, still keeping a watchful eye on the now crazed man who was now refusing to leave as the guards grabbed hold of him and showed him out of the hotel.

  Jordan was losing his patience. He had gone all night wanting to get here to be with her and now this woman was wasting time. “Can you just tell me what room she’s in? I’m her boyfriend.”

  Saying the word made it seem surreal. Is that what he was to her? Man, this whole situation was full of uncertainty. He didn’t care if that was the right word to use or not, he just wanted to see her.

  “Sir, she’s in room 109, but you should probably let me call her first, because...”

  No sooner than the room number was said, he put the pieces to this whole situation together.

  * * *

  She hadn’t expected anyone else to be banging on her door. The situation had been taken care of once the security guards had asked her ex-husband to leave with them. He had put up quite the fight, insisting that he needed to see her and talk to her. That he needed to make sure she was okay after recently losing her mother. She had heard the guard’s gruff voice tell him he was not wanted there and they had received the call from Miss Dixon herself informing them of such.

  She had ignored the near empty bottle of wine on the desk as she made her way back to bed. She had been determined to catch a few more hours of sleep, but now there was a constant, determined banging at her door as the phone on the nightstand rang.

  Instead of going to the door, she answered the phone. “Miss Dixon, there’s another man on his way to your room. He insisted that he had to see you.”

  Wanting to explain to this lady that she had to have been mistaken, because there couldn’t be another man there for her. She didn’t know any others from around here, and even if she did, she didn’t know any who would show up at five a.m.

  “I think he said his name was Joe or something similar with a J,” the woman said, determined to make Kate realize that she was right and this guy was definitely there for her. “He said he was your boyfriend. Do you need me to call security again?”

  “Hold that thought,” Kate said, laying the phone to rest on the stand next to the lamp.

  This time she didn’t tiptoe to the door. She had a pretty good idea who it was that was banging on her door. The man she should have known would find a way here. A man who was more determined than ever to prove to her how much he truly did care about her. A man who just confirmed he was... her boyfriend?

  * * *

  His heart damned near beat out of his chest as he waited for her to answer the damned door. He had never banged so hard on a door before in his life. He had never had more of a reason to, until now.

  He had come here to make sure she was okay while dealing with the loss of her mother, but now he needed to make sure that man who had been shown out by the guards hadn’t hurt the girl he had fallen in love with.

  He wondered if the desk lady had called Kate to give her heads up of yet another possible crazy man coming to her door, and it had made Kate ignore his knocks all together.

  Just as he was about to bang his impatient fist on the hard oak door for the fifth time, he heard the chain shift across the metal slide and the lock disengage. The door creaked open and Kate’s smiling face peeked out at him. He pushed the door open and gathered her into his arms as he dropped his bag, rushing her inside and slamming the door behind them with his foot.

  He had never been so relieved in his life. He set her down on the bed and sat down on the one across from her. He took a hold of her hands. “Tell me that you’re okay.”

  Tears fell one by one down her cheeks as she tried to speak with quivering lips and a trembling voice. Giving up, she nodded and released the flood of emotions she had to have been holding back for some time now.

  “Come here,” he said, reaching over to pull her to him. He stood and wrapped his arms around her. “Did he hurt you?”

  The last thing he wanted to hear was that that bastard had hurt her, but he needed to know. He had no idea who that guy was, but he could only imagine the worst.

  With a gentle shake of her head against his chest, he gently lifted her chin up to look at him. Tears filled her eyes, a look he never wanted to see on her ever again—one that he would do whatever it took to avoid seeing ever again.

  The way she clung to him told him that he had made the right choice of showing up here in Tuscan—regardless if this situation would have happened or not, she could only be strong for so long before she needed an extra set of arms to help her through it all.

  “Ma’am, are you okay?”

  Looking at the phone, he watched Kate reach for it and tell the woman at the desk that everything was okay now.

  She looked at him with that smile of hers and said, “My boyfriend’s here with me.” An
d hung the phone in its cradle.

  That was all of the confirmation he needed to wrap his arms around her before settling his lips firmly against hers. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered against his chest. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m sorry for leaving you behind.”

  He couldn’t explain how it felt to hear her say those words, but to know that he was more than wanted here made him feel confident in where they were headed. Not wanting to ruin their moment, but needing to know who that guy was who had caused chaos here, he asked, “Who was that guy?”

  The look on her face crossed between unease and irritation. As if she had almost forgotten that the incident had happened—whatever it was, he wanted to know all about it and he wasn’t going anywhere until he knew.

  * * *

  Taking the time to explain her past to him had never taken priority until now. She owed him an explanation. If they were going to advance in their relationship, she needed to be upfront and honest with him.

  “That was my ex-husband,” she said, watching his reaction as he put the pieces together.

  “What was he doing here?”

  She had no choice but to shrug. She really had no idea what he had been thinking, to show up at her hotel room. “I have no idea. He called me and said a few things I don’t care to talk about right now, but when I refused to meet up with him, he got angry. I didn’t think he’d actually come here.”

  She didn’t want Jordan to think she had left him behind in order to meet up with her ex. Watching his reaction, she could tell he was thinking about something as his brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed. “Has he tried contacting you before now?”

  “Nope, that’s why I told him he should just go on with his life and let me be,” she explained. “But he obviously had other plans.”

  “Has he ever hurt you? Is there a possibility that he’ll come back here?”

  With an honest shrug, Kate decided it best not to assume anything. People change, and at one time she had never thought her ex-husband would act like he did tonight.

  “We should probably get out of here.”

  “I can’t leave Arizona yet,” she said. “I haven’t gotten things settled with the funeral home, and it’s still a messy situation between them and the assisted living home.”

  The silence was a sign that he was coming up with a plan. “When’s the funeral? We can always fly back in a few days.”

  “There isn’t going to be a funeral,” she said, feeling a slight tremble of her lips. She refused to cry. She had cried so much in the last twenty-four hours, she should have been well out of tears by now. “The last time I visited with her, she mentioned wanting to be cremated. She didn’t want to leave me with another expense I couldn’t afford.”

  It sounded foolish that she hadn’t taken care of it since she had arrived. She had no reason to explain why she hadn’t. This whole situation was emotionally and physically exhausting, and all she wanted to do was crawl into a ball and ignore everything. Instead, she was forced to deal with it, along with the weight of everything else on top of it.

  “I called the funeral home today and told them about my mother’s wishes, but they said the nurses where my mom lived had told him my mother had changed her wishes a couple of weeks ago,” Kate explained. “I’m not sure what to do.”

  “You’ve always done what you felt is right,” Jordan said. “This situation is nothing different. You need to go with what your heart is telling you. I know you feel a lot of regret for not being here, but I also know that you...”

  “I want to wait here until I can bring her back with me,” Kate said. She had already thought it through the whole day and night. She had thought about it through her drunken stupor, which only caused her to cry and drink more. “I can’t go back to Iowa without bringing her with me.”

  She leaned in as he pulled her close. His lips pressed against the top of her head before he said, “Okay, then, I won’t go back to Iowa without bringing you both with me.”

  “Thanks for watching the place while I was gone,” Jordan said into his phone as they arrived at the Davenport Municipal Airport. He had a lot of people to thank for helping out with the business—mostly Paul and Howard. He couldn’t thank them enough. “I’m going to see Kate home and make sure she’s okay before I come to the shop.”

  With or without Paul’s okay, he would have stuck around. The shop was the last thing on his list of priorities. Right now, he wanted to make sure Kate was taken care. He was more than willing to do whatever he could to comfort her and keep her calm.

  And even though they hadn’t heard from her ex since the night he was escorted out of the hotel, he still wasn’t comfortable with leaving her alone, after what she had told him. For an ex to keep track of someone’s every move and actually admit to knowing so much detail, Jordan knew the man was out of his mind. And even if the guy hadn’t attempted to contact Kate prior to her arrival in Arizona, it didn’t rule out that he was a madman, or that he wouldn’t hurt her if given the chance.

  “I’m fine,” she said, as she carefully placed her mother’s urn on the mantel. “I’ve been through enough hell the last couple of weeks. I’m ready to go on with my life and forget everything.”

  “I know, Kate, but the last thing I want is for something to happen to you,” Jordan said, wrapping his arms around her, and placing his lips against her forehead. It hadn’t taken him long to realize she loved forehead kisses. “I want to make sure you’re safe before I head back to work. I want you to lock your door and if anything is out of place or seems weird, I want you to call the sheriff’s department.”

  “You’re overreacting,” she said. “There’s no way he’s going to come to Iowa. And besides, even if he did...”

  “He’d be crazy enough to do just about anything,” Jordan said, reiterating that the man was insane and the whole situation shouldn’t be taken lightly. “I’ve already spoken with the sheriff and he agreed with me.”

  The look she gave him sent his heart racing into overdrive. She was so innocent and naïve that he hated to think he needed to protect her, but it wasn’t so much that she needed to be protected, as it was that he wanted to protect her. He would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

  “Go check on your shop. I’ll be fine,” she said, standing on her tip toes in order to give him a quick peck on the cheek before she playfully shoved him toward the door.

  He couldn’t argue with her any longer. She was as stubborn as they came and there was no way he could convince her otherwise. He kissed her forehead before pulling the door open. Turning the lock, he told her he’d see her after a while, before he shut the door and headed for his shop.

  * * *

  More than thankful that Jordan had been in Arizona over the last few days, she had to think of a way to thank him. She knew that he wouldn’t want anything, but it wasn’t up to him.

  Sitting at home was the last thing she wanted to do. Having time off and sitting around would only allow depressing thoughts to conquer her mind and cause her to dwell on her mother’s death—something she knew her mother would not want for her to do. Her mother’s last wish had been for Kate to continue on with her life, making the most of it, and never to dwell or lose sleep over things out of her control. Her mother had told her that dwelling would only cause far more pain by stealing away her happiness.

  Kate swiped the fallen tears from her cheeks as she walked over to the mantel where she had placed her mother’s urn. “This is so hard, but I’m going to keep my promise, Mama.”

  Startled by the knock at the door, she quickly wiped the stray tears away and fanned her face. The emotional rollercoaster was far from over, she knew, but she would try her best to keep them under control—especially with company knocking at her door.

  “Coming,” she called out, as she made her way down the hallway leading to the entryway. She had hesitated to open the door prior to looking out, but realized it was small town Iowa and ther
e was no need to be uptight about someone knocking on her door.

  Opening the door, she was greeted by the one person she needed to talk to more than anyone. “Kate, I’m so sorry. I just heard the news...”

  Telling herself that she would hold her emotions in check was proving to be easier said than done as emotion choked her. Jessica wrapped her long arms around her and pulled her in close. “I’m so sorry, Kate. I should have known something was up when I heard that Jordan had left for Arizona to be with you. I honestly never even thought to call you to make sure that everything was okay. I feel awful.”

  Small town Iowa, where everyone knew everything, and if they didn’t, they eventually would. At least here, people actually cared and were sincere about their sympathies, unlike Tuscan, where the world never stopped or missed a beat. No one besides her and the nurses knew of her mother’s passing.

  The last thing she wanted was for Jessica to feel bad. It hadn’t been a big deal and it never would become one, only because Kate hadn’t been in the mood for answering the phone or talking in general—she had several missed calls to prove it, with the majority of the calls belonging to Jordan.

  “Don’t need to feel bad,” Kate said, her words failing to provide as much assurance as Jessica needed. Jessica’s frown was an indication that she wasn’t taking Kate’s words to heart. “I’m serious. I refused to answer my phone for most of the time I was there.”

  Holding her cell phone up, she scrolled through the call log. She handed her phone to Jessica and said, “Take a look at all of the missed calls. And that’s not even all of them because I had my phone turned off until later on that night of arrival.”

  Jessica handed her phone back. “Okay, but I still feel like a horrible friend. I still should’ve called,” she said. When Kate furrowed her brows, Jessica said, “Even if you hadn’t answered, I could’ve left a voicemail.”

  Changing the subject, Kate told her about running into her ex-husband at the airport and how the creep wouldn’t take a hint. “So, here I am, talking on a phone that wasn’t even on and he still wouldn’t go away.”