Page 24 of Catching Our Moment

Kelcie

I think I must be broken. There was a screw loose in my head. Here I was, pulling up to my house in an expensive luxury car with a good-looking, single man, and…nothing. I felt nothing.

Mitch Williams was a developer, a marathon runner, divorced, no children.

He was kind, complimentary, handsome, engaging, and intelligent, and he asked about Aaron and my job.

He was gorgeous with sea-glass green eyes and dark-brown hair, and I was single for the first time in thirteen years.

I hadn’t had sex in…I didn’t even want to count how long…

and I didn’t want to. He was very easy on the eyes, yet there was no chemistry. Not even a spark.

All I kept thinking about was Shaw sitting at home, his sour mood, and what he was dealing with after Riley’s actions. I texted Grace a few times to check on him when Mitch stepped away.

She said he was fine, and he’d told her it was her and Wyatt’s constant “checking in” that was upsetting him. I got the nerve to text him before we reached the restaurant, but it went unanswered.

My poor Shaw. He had such a big heart. I knew, when she left him alone in that hospital room, it was going to end this way.

“Hey, you okay?” Mitch asked as we pulled off the highway.

I shook my head and turned to him. “Oh, yes. Sorry, I was just…”

Mitch knew I was friends with the infamous Dawson Shawfield. Shaw had been nowhere to be seen when Mitch had come to pick me up, and Mitch hadn’t brought him up.

“I’m not sure if you follow social media or anything, but Shaw is going through some stuff right now.”

He nodded once. “Yeah, it was even on the local news this evening.”

I winced. “The thing is, I saw it coming. It was like a train wreck, but there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it.

Did you know she left his hospital room and flew straight to Hollywood?

Who does that?” My indignation for him ran wild, along with my mouth, after months of being shoved down.

“I mean, you don’t abandon the man you love for a reality TV show, especially when he’s literally in a hospital bed.

I guess she figured someone else would step in and take care of him. ”

“That person being you.”

“Me and his other friends.”

“But he’s living with you.”

“He’s living next door to me.”

He nodded again thoughtfully. He was quiet for a minute, keeping his eyes on the road. He patted my knee gently and said, “Well, he’s better off, considering the way things worked out. I mean, if she’d stayed, he wouldn’t have moved next door to you.”

I nodded, playing with the hem of my dress that was inching up my leg.

Having Mitch’s hand on my knee felt good. Having a man touch me because he found me desirable certainly helped my ego make a reappearance. He’d chosen me. He’d asked me out because he saw something in me he liked. It had been a while since I felt special.

I crossed and uncrossed my legs as he pulled up in front of my house.

Damn, what was I supposed to say? I should’ve planned for this.

Grace had told me to give it a try, that there were lots of things I could do besides “go all the way.” I internally rolled my eyes.

It wasn’t as if I were a na?ve virgin on a first date.

“It’s like getting back on the horse. You just need to learn how to walk before you gallop,” Grace had informed me.

I’d never ridden a horse, so I couldn’t really relate to the analogy.

Aliya had added, “No. It’s like riding a bike. It’s just muscle memory, and it will come back to you.

My cheeks flamed scarlet every time Mitch used the word “ride” in a sentence this evening while talking about the triathlon he’d participated in this past summer. Riding a bike, riding a horse, riding him—nope, I couldn’t picture it.

Now Shaw… He’d be a bucking bronco, and that would be the ride of my life.

Was it hot in here? I fanned myself.

“Kelcie?” Mitch said, laying a hand on my knee to get my attention.

I jumped, my leg jumping up to hit the underside of his dashboard. “Oh! Yes. Um.” I laughed to cover for being so damn awkward. “Thanks for the ride!”

I did not just say that. Kill me now. Another flash of heat ran up my neck and to the top of my head.

He held up his hands as if to calm me. “Kelcie, honey. It’s fine. I realize it must be hard getting back in the saddle after your divorce.” He smiled warmly at me. “I’m not going to jump you.”

I covered my eyes with both my hands. No more riding metaphors—please.

“It’s okay.” He gently took my hands in his. “There are no expectations. Truthfully, I had none coming here. I just wanted to spend some time with you.”

“I’m so embarrassed. It’s just…I haven’t been out…” I let my head fall against the headrest, “on a date in…God, I don’t know how long. But I didn’t think I’d be this awkward.”

He chuckled and stroked the tops of my hands with his thumbs.

“It’s okay.” He bent his head slightly, the corner of his mouth ticking up in what I could imagine did indescribable things to other women.

“Honestly, I thought the odds were stacked against me in getting you to say yes.” He raised his brows and nodded at the house where the porch light suddenly came on.

What was Shaw doing?

Mitch squeezed my hands and brought them to his lips for a gallant kiss. Then, he was out of the car and walking around to open my door, holding out a hand to help me out.

“Someone is keeping a close eye on me.”

“Aaron is still at Grace’s.”

“I didn’t mean Aaron.”

When I didn’t respond, he said, “Oh, Kelcie.” He leaned down, his cologne heady and his whiskers teasing my skin as he gave me a chaste kiss on the cheek that was close enough to my lips and lingered too much to be considered friendly.

As he pulled back, he whispered, “I don’t know Shaw very well, but given that he’s sitting up waiting for you to get home, I don’t think he’s as upset about Riley as you think. ”

His wink and sinful smile made my hormones question my instincts—and my sanity. He pushed his hand through his hair as he strode in front of the headlights, an excellent spotlight to his well-tailored pants showcasing a backside that wasn’t anything to turn away.

I was too dazed by Mitch and the fact that I was sending him home to comprehend his words. But once he was in his car, the fog lifted, and I walked at a brisk pace up the sidewalk to the house. I caught just enough movement to notice Shaw’s door close.

The curtain in the bay window moved. He needed to work on his stealth skills. But more importantly, we needed to have words about him spying on me.

I stomped up the steps to our shared porch and opened my screen door, but then thought better of it.

We were going to have words about the spying right now. I knocked on his door. No answer. I knocked again, but nothing. “Hey, 007. I saw you.” I turned the knob on his door. Locked. “You aren’t as sly as you think you are, so you might as well open up and explain yourself.” I began banging.

He opened the door so fast I fell inside and into him.

He stepped back, bracing me with his body and one arm, then juggled me into a secure standing position, maintaining his own balance.

He even managed not to spill the cocktail glass he had in his other hand with the talented coordination that had made him a very rich man.

I was reminded of the reason he was having the cocktail. He was probably lonely and nursing a broken heart. The thought deflated some of my indignation, and I covered the rest by taking the cocktail from him and sipping it.

An old-fashioned. I grimaced. Yuck.

He walked to his fridge, pulled out a berry vodka seltzer—my favorite—opened it, and handed it to me as he walked back into his front room. “How was the date?”

I took a sip, not really wanting it but needing something to do with my hands. “It was good.” I followed him to the sectional and made myself comfortable a few feet away from him. “How was your evening?”

He picked up the remote lying next to him, motioned to the large screen he had on the wall, and tossed the remote on the table. “Not nearly as exciting, I’m sure,” he said in a monotone voice. He took another sip of his drink, and I couldn’t help wondering how many he’d had.

I toed off my shoes and curled up further. “You okay?”

He let out a forced, almost cutting laugh. “Okay?” He tilted his head then finished his drink and walked into the dining room. “No. I’m not okay.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He froze for a minute. “About what?”

“About Riley. It was a crappy way for her to end things.”

I heard ice clinking in the glass. “It’s just how she is. I knew who she was when I got involved with her. It wasn’t as if I was in love with her or anything.”

“You weren’t?”

He came sauntering back into the room, his face contorted in indignation. “No.” Without looking at me, he went to stand by the mantel. But he wasn’t acting like the Shaw I knew, all stiff lines and impersonal.

“Shaw—”

“You know what I was thinking about this evening?” he asked, slowly pacing around the room.

He didn’t give me a chance to guess. “I was thinking about prom.” He had been prom king, of course, and his date had happened to be prom queen.

“Prom?”

“Yeah. And about that guy you went with. Brent or something?”

“Brett Miller. He was on the soccer team and in my English class.”

He waved off the details. “Yes. Before he got the nerve, I thought about asking you.”

“You did? Why?”

He ignored my question. “I wanted to ask you.”

“But you were going with Chloe.” I stepped near him.

“I wanted to ask you.” He pointed at me, glass in hand. “But then that Brett guy jumped in before I got my head out of my ass.” He took a sip of his drink. “So, when Chloe asked me, I said yes.” He shot me a side-eye glare and shrugged.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“I tried to grab you for a dance, but?—”

“Chloe was climbing you the entire night,” I said.

“Yeah, well, Brett almost lost his hands when I saw them on your ass.”