Not Quite Mine (Not Quite #2)(24)
Author: Catherine Bybee

“By the way, Katie, I talked to Jack. He and Jessie will be back next week.”

She stalled. Her heart did a full stop in her chest before she turned toward Dean. “I thought they were going back to Houston.”

“They are…well, Jessie and Danny anyway. Jack will be here for a few days before returning to Texas.”

She refrained from blowing out a breath. Jessie would want to visit Monica, but Jack would probably stay at the hotel. Which would work to her advantage. She would tell her brother that she was staying with a friend and avoid the constant running between both spaces.

“Are they having a good time?”

“He sounded relaxed.”

“Good.” Hopefully he’d be in his own marital bliss and not notice anything out of sorts with her.

“I’ll check in tomorrow. Bye, Dean, Steve…Jo.”

Dean smiled, Steve waved, and Jo grunted behind her computer monitor.

Outside the trailer, the dry heat wrapped around her. The path to the main site had several pieces of plywood covering the ground. A rare thunderstorm had come through the day before, wetting the dirt and making the site a mess. Katelyn was busy shoving papers under her arm and didn’t notice the warp in the wood below her feet. Her heel found the swollen board and caught. Her tight mini kept her from catching herself and before she knew it, she landed flat on her ass, mud all over her skirt, and her ankle screaming in protest.

She sat there for a moment, stunned that she was sitting on the ground. The papers she was attempting to hold were scattered at her feet. Luckily, no one saw her tumble.

With as much dignity as she could muster, she pushed herself up, ignored her throbbing ankle, and picked up her papers.

Dirt rode high on her thigh and ruined the hem of her silk skirt. Even the hard hat sat in a puddle of mud.

“OK, Grace,” she chastised herself.

After wiggling her shoe back on her foot, she attempted to stand. Attempted being the key word.

“Dammit.”

Pain shot up her leg and nearly had her on the ground a second time. She bit her lip and took another step.

Not so bad. Not good…but not bad.

She made it to her car but decided the trip was all she could take in four-inch heels. The convention hall would have to wait.

Dean’s voice and words followed her back to Monica’s apartment. “You’re defying gravity in those shoes…This is a construction site, not a dance floor.” He’d been harping at her daily to get out of her shoes and she had refused.

By the time she managed to pull into the parking spot at Monica’s, her ankle was twice the size it should have been and ibuprofen wasn’t going to cut it for the pain. She gave up on the shoes and carried them with one hand when she walked in the door.

Mrs. Hoyt clicked her tongue the moment she saw Katie limping. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. I’m OK.”

Mrs. Hoyt was the perfect plump grandmother who lived to take care of people. “You need ice.” She was already at the freezer by the time Katie set her purse on the counter. Once she managed to sit, a sigh of relief left her lips.

“Damn, shit…” she cursed under her breath. The last thing she needed was a stupid turned ankle to slow her pace, and God knew she hated being wrong.

It killed her that Dean had known this would happen…eventually.

Mrs. Hoyt returned with the ice and gently placed it on Katie’s swollen ankle.

“Thanks.”

“Hard hats and stilettos don’t mix,” her babysitter chided.

“Don’t remind me.”

Mrs. Hoyt raised an eyebrow, but left the rest of her lecture behind her lips.

“Your daughter is sleeping.”

Katie attempted a smile and glanced toward the hall. They had an hour before the doctor’s appointment.

“Do you want me to stay?”

“I’ll be OK.” She hopped deeper in the room. “Thanks.”

Alone with a sleeping baby in the apartment, Katelyn cursed her ankle again. After a hobble to the bathroom, she found some Motrin and chased it with a glass of milk. It was a good thing Dean hadn’t seen her fall. Chances were he would have insisted on a trip to the doctor. Maybe even picked her up and carried her against her will.

The memory of his arms around her, of how safe he once made her feel, squeezed something inside her chest and started to hurt. He’d always made her feel secure, wanted. With Dean she never had to put on airs.

“Makeup is for ugly women. Your skin is perfect,” he told her, holding her face in his hands and running his thumb over her lower lip.

“A lady never leaves home without her makeup, Dean Prescott. You have sisters, you know this.”

“We’re not going anywhere tonight.”

They didn’t leave that night. And wearing makeup when it was only the two of them became a thing of the past.

But that was well over a year ago, and best forgotten.

Chapter Ten

Dean stretched out his legs on his chaise lounge on his back patio. Mike sat across from him sipping a beer. “How’s the hotel?”

Dean hadn’t seen Mike since Jack’s wedding. When Mikey had called earlier in the day to suggest they get together, he jumped at the opportunity. Outside of work obligations, Dean hadn’t had a social life since his breakup with Maggie. At first, he avoided his friends. Not that they let him sulk for long. Jack and Mike had found him up in Big Bear and assisted him with getting good and drunk. He’d spent an entire weekend brooding and cursing anything in a skirt before returning to his life. And even then he did so slowly…if at all.

Jack and Mike saw him through the hard time, and went on to support him ever since. Although they didn’t talk about his ex, Dean knew his friends watched him. Whenever they got together, one of them would ask if he was seeing anyone. Checking to see if he was climbing back on the horse, so to speak. In truth, he hadn’t. Not because of an undying love for Maggie, but because of how done he was with the whole dating scene. Maggie was a perfect case of “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” He knew that now. After.

He supposed Maggie had picked up on his feelings and that was why she had broken off their engagement. Being dumped weeks before your wedding sucked. Being married to the wrong person would have sucked more.

“Coming along. No major setbacks.”

“Is Katelyn actually showing up to work?”

An instant picture of Katie’s blonde hair poking out from under his hard hat surfaced. “She is. I’ll be the first to admit how shocked I am at how seriously she has taken this job.”