A Family of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #3)(38)
Author: Brenda Novak

He wasn’t sure, but he was eager enough to get out of the house that he wasn’t going to worry about it. His head still hurt, despite the painkillers, and he was afraid that if he stopped for a few seconds, he’d wind up thinking about last night, which he definitely didn’t want to do.

Pulling on some faded jeans, he shoved the money wadded up on his dresser into his pocket, yanked on a shirt and a pair of work boots, and immediately started downstairs. That was when he realized that something else was a little odd. He could hear Katie in her bedroom, crossing the floor, opening and closing drawers, then crossing back again.

What was she doing?

Changing directions, he knocked at her door.

She opened it, wearing some of her new maternity clothes. “Yes?”

His eyes cut to the bed behind her, where he could see the corner of an open suitcase. “What’s going on?”

“I’m moving out,” she said, her face a little flushed.

Booker felt as though she’d just knocked the wind out of him. That he’d expected something like this, that he’d invited it by going home with Ashleigh last night, didn’t make the reality any easier to accept. “Why?”

She let go of the door, and he pushed it wider as she hurried to gather her belongings.

When she didn’t answer, he said, “Katie?”

“I don’t want to get in your way anymore, that’s all.”

“You’re not in my way.”

She kept her head down while she packed.

“Does this have anything to do with Andy?”

“Andy?” She looked at him as though he was crazy. “No.”

“He’s back, you know. I saw him last night.”

That got her attention. Dropping the shoes she’d been trying to stuff into her suitcase, she sagged onto the bed. “You’re kidding, I hope.”

“No.”

“Do you know why he’s here?” Her voice was completely deadpan.

“My guess is he’s come to take you home. What do you think?”

She stared off through the window for a long moment. Then with a slight shake of her head, she got up and resumed packing, more slowly this time. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I don’t want anything to do with him.”

“Then what’s all this about?” Booker motioned to the clothes strewn across her bed. “Is it because I didn’t come home last night?”

“No,” she said, but he knew it was. Somehow he’d known even at the Honky Tonk that going home with Ashleigh would destroy whatever relationship was developing between him and Katie. Wasn’t that the real reason he’d finally done it? He’d pushed Katie out the door before she could walk out on her own.

“Where are you going?” he asked, the dull ache throbbing in his chest matching the pain in his head. “To your parents’ house?”

“Absolutely not.” She struggled to latch her suitcase. “I’ve rented a cabin from Mike Hill.”

“How?”

“I’m going to create a Web site for him in exchange for room and board.”

Booker tried to search for some logical reason she should stay, even though he knew her leaving was probably best. He couldn’t offer her anything more than he’d offered two years ago. “You just got your Internet service,” he said.

“Mike has service at the ranch. I’ll use his.”

“What do you want me to tell Andy if he calls?”

“Whatever you do, don’t tell him where I am.”

“Katie—”

She finally got her suitcase latched and tried to lift it. He moved to intercept her before she could hurt herself or the baby. For a moment, they were only inches apart. Booker could see tears caught in her eyelashes, which made the tightness in his chest that much worse. He watched one slip down her cheek and raised a finger to wipe it away. “What do you want from me, Katie?” he said softly.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t want anything from you, except a ride to High Hill Ranch.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

IT TOOK KATIE ONLY a couple of hours to get settled into her new house. When Mike had said the cabins were small, he wasn’t exaggerating. Strung in a chain, like an old-time cabin-style motel, they were only twenty feet square. Each cabin had one room with a small kitchenette in the corner, a sofa sleeper along one wall, an inexpensive oak entertainment center with a small TV sitting across from the sofa, a desk and a chair to the side, and a bathroom barely big enough for a tiny shower. There would scarcely be room for the baby’s bassinette, provided she ever got one. Katie supposed she could make the baby a bed out of blankets on the floor, but that seemed too primitive, even to her.

She glanced at the book she was just slipping into her desk. The Adoption Option. After she’d finished unpacking, she’d taken some time to read real-life experiences of mothers who’d given up their babies. In a candid, nonjudgmental way, the book had discussed why they’d done what they’d done and how they were coping with the results. But reading wasn’t making Katie’s decision any easier. She was still torn, and she had so many other things to think about.

A vision of Booker’s stony expression as he dropped her off this morning flashed through her mind. Her new place seemed strangely quiet and lonely without him, Delbert and Bruiser. She felt as if she was missing her family. But she knew she’d made the right decision. She couldn’t go from living with Andy to living with Booker, because she didn’t know how to be friends with Booker. Their relationship didn’t fit any one category, and that had never been more apparent than last night when he’d spent the night with Ashleigh. Katie had felt all sorts of things she shouldn’t have felt as a friend: pain, betrayal, even envy. She knew what it was like to lie beneath Booker. Knew the way he tasted and smelled and moved—

A knock at the door made her stomach muscles tense. Booker had said Andy was in town. Which meant it was probably only a matter of time before he found her.

“Who is it?” she asked, creeping closer. Her door was pretty bare and functional. It had a lock but nothing as elaborate as a peephole.

“Mike.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Katie swung open the door.

Mike looked up from arranging a white plastic chair and a geranium on the small concrete slab that served as her front porch. “I brought you a couple of things,” he said.

Katie was surprised by the gesture. Mike always seemed so preoccupied with work, she hadn’t expected him to take special notice of her.