My First - Jason & Katie (6 page)

Slamming the trunk, Katie turned and looked up at Jason with the brightest smile she could plaster on her face. Keep it light, Katie, she told herself. Don't leave any room for the intensity to creep back in!

“Wow,” Jason said casually, with only the barest hint of hurt at the edges of his voice, “the idea of being alone with me is that scary, huh?”

Katie maintained her faux-cheerful demeanor as she brightly chirped, “Yep Jas, you’re reeeeaaaal scary. I’m terrified to be alone with you. Good guess!”

With that, she spun on her heel and began to practically jog across the lawn.

Alone. HA! Right, like that was going to happen!

Katie’s heart raced and her stomach was full of butterflies – no, she mentally corrected herself, not butterflies...those lovely creatures flew around gracefully, sweeping their wings in wide, slow arcs. Whatever had invaded her belly was a lot more manic than innocent little butterflies. Maybe hummingbirds. Yeah, she thought, hummingbirds...their wings going a mile a minute and shredding her stomach lining. Sounded about right.

But, she amended, it's like they're not even just flying around in there. Maybe they were having some kind of Gladiator death battle, or an orgy, or...STOP IT, KATIE!

God!

She had to stop thinking about sex! At the mere thought of even a few moments alone with Jason, her mind had sunk into the gutter, and her body had exploded with uncontrollable tingling. Up and down her arms, zinging along her spine, but mostly…between her legs.

She sighed. Yep. Especially between her legs.

Her own body was betraying her!

She had not had a reaction to anyone like this since...well, damn. If she was honest with herself, it was since that night after Nick’s funeral. The night when Jason had found her semi-conscious in her bathtub and had laid her in her bed, and then stripped off his shirt to warm her up.

Oh, Lord. That night. At the mere thought of it, she wanted to bury her face in her hands. She was so ashamed! She couldn’t begin to imagine what he must think of her after how she had behaved that night.

I mean sure, he wasn't complaining then...but that was in the heat of the moment. Once they were interrupted and he had the opportunity to view events in the harsh light of day, he must have had horrible regrets.

Not that she had had any. She had tried so hard to feel regrets for that night. She had masochistically tried to FORCE herself to muster up even the slightest bit of self-recrimination for the way things had transpired. But she simply couldn’t.

She knew that he MUST think awful things about her, though. And deservedly so – he had every right to! Not only for her actions that night, but also for the way she had behaved in the weeks before Nick’s funeral. When he had been constantly trying to connect with her, trying to get her to talk to him, trying to get her in a place where they could lean on each other like they always had...and all she had been able to do was shut him out.

Shaking her head as if her brain was an Etch-a-Sketch and her painful memories were as easy to clear away as the thin grey lines on its screen, she ordered herself to put a stop to this line of thinking.

This was NOT the time to embark on a trip down memory lane. No need to dredge up the past. Moving forward. Onward and upward. Here and now, that’s all she had any control over.

Her priority this weekend was to be there for Sophiebell, focus on the wedding, and be the best damn maid of honor she could be.

As they were crossing the yard to the Hunters' house, Katie felt Jason’s arm wrap around her waist. This caused a shiver (or rather, a NEW shiver!) to run from her head right down to her toes, one so powerful that it almost caused her to break her stride. OK, come on, who was she kidding? It almost knocked her flat on her ass.

Good night nurse!

What, was he? Electrically charged or something?

She felt her body go tense at his touch and hoped that he would just get the drift and release.

Instead, he leaned in and whispered in her ear, the condescension coming through loud and clear even without his tone of voice to assist in conveying it, “Not a big blog reader, huh? You get ‘really emotional.’ Good save, Kit Kat.”

Immediately Katie’s body relaxed, irritation seemed to have that effect on her. She was a lawyer, she was at home making an argument, it was where she shined. As soon as annoyance began to flow through her and a retort began to form in her mind, her body reacted like an athlete about to run out onto the court. She was ready.

Who did he think he was? He hadn’t seen her in ten years, he had no idea what was going through her mind. She really HAD meant what she had said to Aunt Wendy!

She opened her mouth to give Jason a piece of her mind when she realized that they were standing at the front door of the Hunters’ home, and that realization derailed her rant.

She looked around at the porch, the door, the yard from this perspective. She felt like she was having an out-of-body experience.

It was surreal how familiar and yet how completely foreign this place felt to Katie.

The last time she had stood at this door was after the funeral. Nick’s mom, Grace, had given Katie Nick’s football jersey. She had handed it to Katie wordlessly, the weight of grief etched on her face. Katie had taken it in her hands reverently, like a talisman, tears streaming from her eyes. She had turned and walked down the porch steps without a word, the entire ceremony conducted in silence. The two women could feel how sacred it was, words were not necessary. In fact, they would have cheapened it.

She hadn't known it as she walked down those steps, but by the next day, she would be gone. It was the last time she would stand on that porch.

Until today.

This realization hit her all at once, like a ton of bricks. She tried to move her feet but she couldn’t.

“It’s okay, I’m here. We'll go in when you're ready,” Katie heard Jason's voice say behind her, and she felt his arms wrap her tighter. Her knees were so wobbly that it felt like he might be the only thing holding her upright.

Katie took a deep breath. Her palms became clammy, and her feet felt like someone had dipped them in cement...but she knew she had to do this. She just needed to push forward. Yep.
Forward momentum was the only thing she could count on to get her through this door. Through this WEEKEND, if it came down to that!

Plus, she REALLY needed to get out of Jason’s arms before she did something she would end up regretting.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she said with a decisiveness that she did not yet feel. Still, she pulled open the screen door and stepped inside.

“Katie, you’re here!”

“We’ve missed you so much!”

“Honey, you look so pretty.”

“Oh, my, gosh, it’s really you, Katie!”

“Can you believe this one’s getting married?”

“Katie, you’re so beautiful”

“You’re all grown up!”

“I don’t believe my eyes!”

Katie's head swam as all the voices and people came flooding at her all at once. The room was a sea of faces, but several stuck out from the crowd.

Katie saw Nick’s parents, Grace and Mike. She also spotted Alex, one of the other Sloan Boys, as well as their cousins, The Quad Squad. Jessie, Haley, Becca and Krista had all been born within a five-year span. Katie always thought Jason’s Aunt Sandy was a saint!

Grace immediately pulled Katie into a warm embrace. Katie tried to return it, but so much was going on. She barely heard Grace's warm voice
say, “It’s so good to see you sweetie, we’ve missed you so much.”

Katie couldn’t catch her breath. She felt the room starting to spin and there was a growing sense of dread in her gut.

Wouldn't having a panic attack in front of all of these people she hadn't seen in ten years just be the PERFECT reintroduction?

It was starting to begin in earnest when she heard a gruff voice break through the melee.

“Now, now. Let’s give the girl some breathing room. She’s had a long flight, and besides – you all know she is only here to see me anyways.”

“Grandpa J,” Katie whispered as she finally exhaled, and relief flooded her body like a soothing balm. The crowds parted, and she saw him sitting in the same brown recliner she remembered always seeing him in.

Emotion flooded her and, before she knew what she was doing, she ran up to him threw her arms around him and tears started falling down her face. Talk about forward momentum! She didn't care how silly she looked. This was Grandpa J.

Colonel James Hunter, or “Grandpa J” as everybody called him, was really the only grandfather Katie had ever known. Her grandfather on her mother’s side was gone even before she was born, and her father’s parents had passed when Katie was a toddler. She wasn’t sure if she had ever met them or not...but if she had, she didn't remember it.

When Grandpa J came to live with the Hunters the first Christmas after they had moved to Harper's Crossing, Katie had naturally gravitated toward him. It wasn't just the idea of having a grandfather, any grandfather at all, that had drawn her to him – Grandpa J was special.

And for his part, Grandpa J had no problem adopting Katie as his own honorary grandchild. He always said that he was enough Grandpa to go around.

Katie loved listening to him talk for hours about his time in the military – the fun he and his friends would have going out on the town, all dressed in uniform and looking as dapper as could be, and the shenanigans that would ensue.

He talked about hitchhiking from Florida to New York and all the interesting people he met along his two-week journey. But Katie’s favorite story to listen to was the one about the very first time he saw his future wife, Marie Elise Gallo.

Katie never got to meet Grandma Marie, who had passed away before Grandpa J came to live in Harper's Crossing, but from what she heard, Grandma Marie knew how to keep Grandpa J on his toes. She had always felt a special connection to Grandma Marie, even though she had never met her.

Katie's middle name was Marie, and growing up she used to fantasize that she was named after Grandma Marie. She couldn't imagine a higher honor. It wasn't until much later that she realized that the coincidence was actually fate giving her a much more special nod – the assurance that her connection with this family had been pre-ordained.

There were so many times Katie could remember during her adolescence when she would spend hours on end looking through Grandpa J and Grandma Marie’s wedding album. She would imagine that it was her in the simple white satin and lace gown, smiling beatifically up at Nick in his dapper dress uniform. Well...she thought it was Nick. She realized now that the groom's face had always been a blur in those fantasies. But...of course it was Nick. Wasn't it?

As Grandpa J held her now, Katie was overwhelmed with the realization of just how much she had missed him.

As if reading her mind, he spoke softly to into her ear, saying “I missed you, Katie. I missed my girl.”

“I missed you too Grandpa J,” Katie said, holding on to him as if for dear life.

Their reunion was broken up by the brisk and businesslike voice of Aunt Wendy as she began the meeting. Katie could tell that she was relishing the role of Woman In Charge.

“Okay now that I have everyone here,” Aunt Wendy said as she began handing out brochure-style schedules, “we can get right down to business. Here are your itinerary packets for the weekend. They are color coded, so make sure you take note of your assigned color on the front of the packet. The activities you are expected to be at are noted in the same color.”

“Wow, you really out did yourself young lady,” Grandpa J said. Katie smiled warmly. His tone was lightly teasing, but Katie could hear real admiration there, as well.

The rest of the crowd got lost in reading the packets and softly conversing with each other about them, so Katie gratefully took the opportunity to melt into the background and study the itinerary unobserved. She felt like it was, possibly, the first completely unobserved moment she had experienced since pulling up in front of her childhood home!

She immediately noted, to her relief, that she really wouldn’t have a minute to herself all weekend. Which...THANK GOD. That was really for the best. She didn’t need a whole lot of time to sit and marinate in her thoughts, emotions, and memories. That was a recipe (to continue to torture the gastronomic metaphor, she thought wryly to herself) for disaster.

Aunt Wendy continued, “So first up, we have the bride and bridesmaids' final fittings. Men, you have an hour before you are expected over at Richards Formal Wear. Don’t be late! Colonel, you are in charge of getting the young men there at 11 A.M. sharp.”

“Yes ma’am, they will be there. Don’t worry your pretty little head,” Grandpa J said with a wink.

Aunt Wendy actually blushed. Grandpa J had an amazing ability to compliment a lady and make her feel like the most special woman in the world, and he did it even with the simplest
of words. It was an aura about him, an energy that he would send across the room. Katie smiled to herself and thought, he's got “game,” as the kids would say.

“Okay, everyone, you have your schedules. Now, everyone behave, and let's make this the best wedding anyone has ever seen!” Aunt Wendy said, her voice carrying equal parts enthusiasm and warning.