Not Quite Mine (Not Quite #2)(29)
Author: Catherine Bybee

The door slammed, announcing the arrival of lunch.

“I know how fond you are of salad,” Dean said as he walked into the room with two huge bags. From the smell traveling to her nose, there was more than lettuce for lunch.

“Yeah.”

He set the bags on the edge of the conference table, swooped up several plans, and tucked them to the side. “I got you a salad.”

The rich aroma of barbeque teased her stomach and the thought of salad left her hungry. “Ah, thanks.”

“You don’t want salad?”

“Salad’s fine. Great.” Boring.

Dean removed a clear plastic container of garlic dinner rolls. Next came a slab of ribs smothered in sauce.

Katie licked her lips.

“I, on the other hand, am hungry. Mike suggested a takeout barbeque place down the street. The place was lined up out the door.” Out popped an order of baked beans…followed by mashed potatoes.

Out of a second bag, Dean slowly removed a small plastic container with her salad. There wasn’t a smell from her container at all.

“It smells amazing, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Here ya go.” He set the salad in front of her and smiled.

“Thanks.”

The full force of the food hit her senses when he opened the last container and started loading up a paper plate. There was enough food for three people. Katie glanced at her salad and tried to think of it as appetizing.

All she saw was an appetizer and a paltry one at that.

Her stomach rumbled.

Dean tore off one of the ribs and sank his teeth into the meat. “Oh, wow. This is amazing.”

Katie opened her salad and stuck a fork into the lettuce.

“Oh, my God. This is better than Mac’s. You know that one off the frontage road on the way to your daddy’s ranch. So. Good.” Dean smacked his lips together and hummed as he chewed.

He ripped off another rib and Katie couldn’t stand it anymore. She shot her hand out and stopped him from devouring it.

He sent her a cocky grin and lifted the rib toward her. “Did you want a bite?”

Instead of answering, she leaned forward and bit into the food. Her taste buds sang and her stomach did a happy dance. The smoky sauce hit the back of her tongue and she closed her eyes with the pleasure of it.

“Can I have my hand back?”

She licked her lips as Dean watched. “Not unless you dish me up a plate.”

Dean stroked away sauce from her lower lip. Her skin prickled with his touch. Why did he have to be so damn handsome?

“No problem, darlin’.” Darlin’ rolled off his tongue with such a smooth tone she felt him sliding back into her system. It wasn’t often Dean used his Texan charm, but when he did, a woman was helpless not to fall under his spell.

Get a grip, Katie.

She forced her gaze away from his and divided the salad.

“Remember the time we went to Mac’s after the Halloween party at the high school?”

“I remember you chasing after Sally Richfield who was dressed like a  p**n ographic cat.”

Dean chuckled. “Remember the librarian? What was her name?”

“Mrs. Leon.”

“That’s right. She made Sally wear a lab coat all night. It was only after we all left and went into Mac’s that anyone saw her costume.”

Katie rolled her eyes back as the garlic from the bread saturated her tongue. “And you were right there sniffing up her skirt.”

“Leotard.”

“You would remember.”

Dean talked around his food. “I had to chase her to get my mind off of you.”

Katie stopped chewing. “You never took notice of me in high school. I was two years younger.”

“I didn’t want to notice you in high school. You were Jack’s sister and he’d have busted my balls if I made a move toward you.”

“No, he wouldn’t—OK, yeah, he would have. You never let on.”

“You had so many boys tripping over themselves, you wouldn’t have noticed if I looked twice.”

Katie washed down a forkful of beans with her diet soda. “Since we’re playing the honesty game, I guess I should let you know you’re wrong. Remember the outfit I wore on my sixteenth birthday?”

A slow Southern smile spread over his lips and he wiggled his eyebrows. “Red plaid mini, black boots, and that skintight tank top with the spaghetti straps. Oh, yeah. I remember.”

Katie sucked in her bottom lip and made a mental note to see if she could find that skirt when she went home. “You’d just started dating that girl from the Catholic school and I wanted to compete.” And when Dean hadn’t made a move, Katie decided to keep wearing short skirts and provocative clothing to make him.

He never did…well, not until much later.

“I don’t even remember what the girl’s name was.”

“Nina.”

“Nina,” he sighed as he said her name.

She tossed a napkin in his general direction. “You, Dean Prescott, were a player back then. Hell, you all were.”

“You did a fair amount of playin’.”

“More show than go.”

“Gaylord yelled at Jack constantly to find you and drag your skinny ass back home.”

She was wild back then. It didn’t help that the media followed her around to the point where she couldn’t burp without someone writing a story about it. A fabricated bullshit story. After her mother had walked away from them…all of them…Katie searched out attention.

Katie didn’t need two-hundred-dollar sessions on a psychiatric couch to understand why she acted out. Her mother had left her when she needed her the most. “Daddy was clueless about raising a teenage daughter.”

“You had your aunt.”

“Not the same.”

Dean’s fingertips brushed over the back of her hand. “Do you think of her…your mom?”

It was surreal how Dean knew her thoughts. “Sometimes.” More since Savannah had entered her life. How her mother could birth her children, raise them for so many years, then walk away, Katie couldn’t fathom.

“You were a great kid and a beautiful woman. She’s the one who’s missing out.”

Thinking about her mother hadn’t made her want to cry since she was a teen, but Dean’s calm, understanding words knotted the back of her throat and made her miss a woman who gave her up. Would Savannah think like this one day? Would she wonder why or even blame herself?