Page 5 of Operation Annulment (Silent Phoenix MC)

four

Kate

I ’m insane.

Yep. I should probably have myself committed.

Within a half-hour of meeting me, the man admitted he was married and divorced, and I’m now letting him walk me to my car. Granted, he wasn’t exactly volunteering that information, but as loud as he was talking, it was a little hard to miss.

“So, are you seeing anyone?” Nate asks, his eyes hopeful.

“No, but—” I pull my lower lip between my teeth, debating how to address the elephant in the parking lot. “Your situation seems complicated.”

He huffs out an unamused chuckle and shakes his head. “It’s really not, and I’ve got the divorce decree to prove it. What you saw back there was closure. My ex-wife and I are completely done, though.”

I look to Dakota for help, but she and Zane appear to be locked in a rather heated discussion.

“Let me take you to dinner,” Nate adds, pulling me back to the conversation. We can start over—pretend that this morning was a fluke.”

I glance back at Dakota. “I don’t know. My sister?—”

“Is old enough to fend for herself for a night,” he finishes with a smirk that should be illegal.

As much as I want to blow him off— because, hello? Waiting for the universe to send the man I requested —I can’t fight the grin tugging at my lips.

“You’ve got this all figured out, don’t you?”

“Just need your number, babe. Then, I’ll be golden.”

I rattle it off before I can talk myself out of it.

“Got it,” he says, entering it into his phone before checking the time. “Crap, I’m late, but I’ll call you later tonight?”

“Sure. Have a day—a good day, that is. I hope you have a good day at work, I mean.”

Smooth, Mary Katherine. Real smooth.

So much for playing it cool, as if giving a man my number is something I do often. I focus on a patch of concrete, kicking a stray pebble with the toe of my running shoe.

“Have a day,” he echoes with another grin before slinging his gym bag over his shoulder. “Alright then. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Yep. Talk later. On the phone, that is. Not in person, obviously. Not that I don’t want to see you again—I do.

Why am I still talking?” A flush spreads up my throat and into my cheeks.

Instead of fumbling my way through yet another awkward attempt at conversation, I turn and bolt across the parking lot toward my sister, with the sound of his laughter ringing in my ears.

I reward my three box jumps with French toast and bacon. It was one of the strangest workouts I’ve ever done, not counting when I signed up for a Bikram yoga class. Once the room heated up to the point I could smell the alcohol that the guy in front of me drank the night before, I was out.

My phone buzzes against my thigh, and I discreetly look down to see a text from an unknown number.

Katy girl, it’s Nate. You’ve run away from me twice now. I’d take offense, but I’m starting to think you might be as socially awkward as your sister is clumsy—yeah, I was there for the ‘treadmill incident.’ When can I see you again?

My heart beats just a little faster, and my palms grow clammy. While Dakota rambles on about something our cousin said, I tap out a quick reply.

Kate: Maybe I’m just not into you…

He immediately starts typing a reply, but I ignore it and focus on Dakota. She’s going on about unicorns, and I try to feign interest, but as my phone vibrates again, I can’t help myself.

Nate: Your eyes told quite a different story at the gym. I think you’re into me, and it scares you.

I swallow past the lump that’s formed in my throat. I want to tell him that he’s quite the egomaniac, but he hit the nail on the head. I just don’t know how to process what I’m feeling.

I channel my inner therapist. This is nothing more than a sure sign of sexual repression. I’ve been in a dry spell, so it makes sense that I would be attracted to a man who is the complete opposite of what I find ideal. Lust is clouding my judgment at the moment.

What if I didn’t fight it?

Maybe I should take him up on his dinner offer, have a one-night stand, and then return to my regularly scheduled programming. Then, I’ll be ready for whomever the universe wants to send my way. I just need to get rid of these repressed feelings.

It’s entirely out of character, but I’m twenty-six years old. I need to do something out of character or risk spending my life alone. If I were in a Jane Austen novel, I would have been written off as an old spinster by now.

With that in mind, I reply to his text.

Kate: Maybe you’re right…or maybe you’re just a narcissist. I’m free tomorrow night if you want to find out which.

“What the heck is going on with you?” Dakota asks, narrowing her eyes at me over her forkful of biscuits of gravy.

My grip falters on my phone, and I narrowly avoid dropping it on the black and white tiled floor of the café. I’ve been conversing with her for several minutes, but I’ve been so caught up in Nate’s texts that I couldn’t tell you what we’ve been discussing.

I try to play it cool. “What do you mean? I’m eating breakfast.”

She doesn’t buy it and launches into a spiel about how our grandmother would react to someone like Nate. It’s sobering, to say the least, but she’s not wrong.

Nan would take one look at Nate’s tattoos before writing him off entirely.

No tattoos.

No leather jackets.

No motorcycles.

No facial hair.

No nicknames.

Those have been the rules for as long as I can remember. I have always found them more than a little strange, yet I followed them regardless.

“Let’s talk about why you—the queen of self-control—were blushing and stammering like you’d never seen a man before. ”

I rearrange the salt and pepper shakers as I mull her words over. “It’s stupid, but it was just nice to flirt with someone, you know? Even if said someone is the very definition of emotionally unavailable.” The lie slips easily off my tongue, but Dakota isn’t biting.

“So, you didn’t give him your number?” she asks, blue eyes narrowing in suspicion.

I turn to face the window, trying to hide the warmth in my cheeks. “It wasn’t like that. I was just saying something to get him to leave.”

She huffs out a laugh. “Puh-lease. You’re going to respond to him when he texts, aren’t you?”

I slyly hold my phone up and take a bite of bacon. “I already have.”

“Of course you did,” she says with a sigh. “Because only you can fix him, right? You’ll tame his wild heart and get him to settle down. Then, y’all will get married and have lots of babies—babies who insist on stick-on tattoos to look like Daddy.”

She laughs, but I can see Nate coming home from a long day at work and building Lego houses on the floor in the living room with the kids. I can picture him stroking my swollen belly as we lay in bed at night and squeezing my hips as I ride him, his deep voice calling out my name as he comes…

I shiver and contemplate telling him I want to meet tonight… or in the next hour if he has the time.

Screw what I said earlier, universe. I want that.

“Kate—no. Snap out of it. You’re the smart one here. I was kidding! There is no way it would play out like that. Dude is still very much hung up on his ex, and that is not what you need in your life right now. It’d be like Benjamin 2.0, except with another woman and not a man.”

“Enough, I get it,” I say, swallowing hard as she takes a proverbial pin to my balloon. “It would never work, so let’s drop it and finish eating. I’ve got my first patient in an hour, and I still need to shower.”

I wait until I’m back at my apartment before reading Nate’s text.

Nate: You’ve got yourself a deal. I should probably mention this upfront, but I’m never wrong.

Crap… I’m in big trouble.