“You used to like cats,” Lori helpfully supplied. “As a matter of fact, I’d say your aversion to the feline species has been a recent thing. Maybe over the past couple of years.”

  What Lori said hit Tabitha and she scowled. “You don’t like cats because of me?”

  Jason threw his hands into the air. “Lord help a man being in the same room with the two of you.”

  Lori started to say something, but Jason shot her a silencing look.

  “I’ll visit with dad on Monday or Tuesday evening.” He raked a hand through his dark hair, leaving several strands sticking up at odd angles. “Maybe I can even squeeze in an extra visit one day at lunch.”

  Lori nodded. “I’ll let him know.”

  “No.” Tabitha shook her head, feeling guilty and confused, but sure she didn’t want to be the reason Jason skipped his visit with his father. “I don’t want to keep you from seeing your dad.”

  “You’re not,” Jason assured as if it were no big deal. “I’m just rescheduling.”

  Their eyes met and held. Jason’s eyes deepened to a rich chocolate and Tabitha held her breath to keep from brushing a stray hair that hung in his eyes back into place, to keep from wrapping her arms around him and begging him to care for her.

  “Why don’t you come with us?” Lori suggested.

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Why not?” Jason asked almost before Tabitha’s mouth closed.

  Why indeed?

  “Because—” She searched for a reason. “I have to baby-sit She-cat.”

  “She-cat?” Lori asked.

  “The cat. We’re not totally convinced she’s house-broken so it’s probably best not to leave her alone.” Did her excuse sound as lame to Lori as it did to her?

  “When did you get this cat?” Lori eyed Tabitha with skepticism.

  “Today.”

  “Today?” Lori looked confused. “Oh, never mind. You can lock the cat and the litter box in the bathroom long enough to come visit dad. I’m sure he’ll remember you.”

  Would he? She liked the older version of Jason the few times they’d met, but a lot of time had passed since she last saw Aaron Kelly and his memory came and went even back then.

  Tabitha glanced at Jason, trying to decipher how he wanted her to handle Lori’s suggestion. His face revealed nothing.

  “Jason?” she asked, wishing she could see behind the mask he wore.

  His eyebrows rose and she got the distinct impression she was on trial. Was this some kind of test? And what was she to answer when she didn’t know how Jason felt about her visiting his father? After all, a weekend fling didn’t go to visit dear dad at the assisted living home.

  “I’m more than capable of waiting here. But I’ll go if you want me to.”

  What a wishy-washy response.

  Jason stared at her a few moments, his eyes dark and unreadable.

  “Lori’s right.” He surprised Tabitha by saying. “You should go with us.”

  “What about She-cat?” Flimsy excuse, but suddenly she was nervous. As if visiting Jason’s father was some type of test.

  “Like Lori said, we’ll put her in the bathroom. She’ll be fine for the couple of hours we’re gone.”

  Tabitha eyed the sleeping cat. “If you’re sure.”

  “I am. Come on,” he urged Tabitha and Lori. “Let’s get this show on the road before it gets any later and dad goes to bed.”

  She glanced at her watch. Almost six.

  So much for their plans to have sex all weekend.

  At the rate they were going, they might not make it to bed again.

  Jason touched her low back as she carried She-cat to the bathroom. Heat burned through her clothes, imprinting his hand upon her skin.

  No matter if they didn’t have sex again.

  Just being with Jason was enough.

  Chapter Eight

  Jason couldn’t believe he’d forgotten his plans to visit his dad with Lori. It wasn’t like it was something new. They visited him every Saturday evening after Jason got off work. Unless one of them had a date. Which was pretty darn rare these days.

  At least for him.

  He was pretty sure Lori went out after they visited, but she never said and he tried not to play the role of domineering big brother no more than necessary. Besides, Dad always tired quickly anyway so they never stayed more than an hour or two.

  “This is a really great car,” Lori praised from the back seat. Tabby turned as much as her seatbelt allowed and thanked his sister. They chatted about the car.

  The car he drove.

  Tabby had undergone a radical personality change. Two years ago she’d have bit off his head had he even suggested driving her car. Tonight she’d handed over the keys and asked him to drive.

  For the life of him he couldn’t figure out what any of it meant.

  From her arriving at his doorstep asking for a weekend of sex to how she doted on the cat to how she’d actually put him first several times today without so much as a pout, whine, or blink of an eye.

  Now she’d handed him the keys, put him in the driver’s seat. Tabby never willingly gave up control. What the hell was up with that?

  She’d morphed into the Tabby he dreamed of. The one who didn’t seem to always have distrust, anger, and need for attention lurking beneath the surface.

  “You’re awfully quiet, bro.” Lori leaned forward between the seats. “Something on your mind, or has the cat got your tongue?”

  Little sisters could be such a pain at times.

  “Just watching traffic to make sure I don’t bang up Tabbycat’s car.”

  “Tabbycat?” Lori turned toward Tabby. “He still calls you by your nickname? How cute. Of course, he’s called you by a lot of other names over the past two years, too. More of the female canine variety though.”

  That did it. He was going to strangle her the first chance he got. Or make her blabbering mouth walk.

  Tabby stared ahead, looking out the windshield. He wished he could see her expression, her eyes, but without stopping the car, he couldn’t.

  She didn’t say anything. Lori continued to prattle a mile a minute, mostly words of praise for Tabby and how much she’d missed her.

  Lori had missed Tabby.

  Tabby served as the sister Lori never had. Tabby had taken Lori under her wing and showered her with attention. She’d been devastated when he and Tabby broke up for good, begged him to forgive Tabby, but there had been no forgiving her betrayal.

  He still hadn’t forgiven her.

  How could he?

  She cheated on him. So what if they’d fought? They fought all the time.

  Even now the memories cut into his gut, angered him.

  He needed to hang onto that anger. It would protect him from getting hurt this time.

  He couldn’t forget that although Tabby seemed different, she was still the same woman.

  Jason stepped into his father’s assisted living apartment, if you could call the two rooms that, and tried not to let the scent get to him. How could something smell so sterile and so stale at the same time? Like death waiting to happen.

  Still, this place was a lot better than the nursing home Dad started out in following his long hospital stay. More expensive, but worth it.

  Lori kissed their father’s cheek. “Dad, you remember Tabitha? She’s a friend of Jason’s. They dated a few years back.”

  Aaron Kelly’s weary gaze lifted to Tabby and lit with recognition. His face brightened and Jason would swear his dad shed ten years.

  “Kitty cat.” He reached out his hand and Tabby took it as if he were Prince Charming. She smiled, apparently pleased at being remembered.

  Jason wondered if Dad would since he didn’t remember his own name on some days.

  The year before Jason met Tabby, his father fell a hundred feet from a steel rafter. His body broke in so many places that it was amazing he’d lived. He had, if you could call this mind coming and going existence living.

  Jason never knew from one visit to the next if he’d be dealing with a father who loved him or a man who saw him as a complete stranger.

  Still, he visited at least twice weekly. Lori, too.

  “It’s Tabbycat, but you can call me anything you like, Sugar.” Tabby leaned forward and kissed the opposite cheek from Lori. “How are you doing, Mr. Kelly?”

  “Mr. Kelly is an old man. Or Mr. All Business over there.” He gestured toward Jason. “Call me Aaron,” his dad shamelessly flirted from his wheelchair.

  Jason shook his head in wry humor. Some things never changed. Tabby’s affect on men, whether old or small, seemed to be one of them.

  “Silly me.” Tabby winked and added, “Aaron.”

  “Hey, Dad. You trying to steal my girl?” Jason stepped up and shook his old man’s hand.

  “In a heartbeat, son, in a heartbeat.” He smiled at Tabby. “I always did wonder why you let this one get away. Glad to see you had enough sense to win her back. Make sure you hold on this time. Doesn’t say much for her taste that she’s with you again though, does it?”

  “Dad,” Lori scolded, patting her father’s shoulder. “You’re going to scare Tabitha away.”

  Aaron eyed Tabby, grinned, and shook his head. “Nah, this one doesn’t scare easily. She’s made of tougher stuff.”

  “Oh, what makes you think that?” Jason asked, sitting down in a chair across from his father’s hospital style bed.

  “She’s got backbone. Spunk. Always did remind me of your mother, God rest her soul.”

  Tabby like Mom? Not in a million years. But he wouldn’t point that out to his dad. Odd, most of the time Dad’s memory was all gone or all there. He wouldn’t point that out either.

  “Mom was a great lady,” was all he said.

  “Did your therapist come by today?” Lori asked, changing the subject.

  “Yep,” Aaron scowled. “That old crow is determined to snap my legs off yet.”

  “What did she do this time?”

  It was a conversation similar to the ones they had every Saturday. He and Lori both visited separately during the week and together on Saturday evenings. It wasn’t near enough, but when working six and seven days a week, he couldn’t manage more.

  Lori was right. He was working too much.

  He should manage more. Lots more. This was his dad. He should be able to stop by as many times as he wanted. Not just when it was convenient to his workaholic schedule.

  Why had he not realized that before?

  Maybe he had.

  After all, he’d been ready to move on to the next stage of his life by asking Annie to his apartment to discuss her daycare plans. To ask her to stay for dinner and hope it led to something more serious. Like marriage.

  Now the thought of spending the rest of his life with the kind, cute, petite Annie didn’t appeal. Not in the slightest.

  He liked leggy, bosomy redheads with a smart mouth and a flirty wink.

  Annie would bore him to death now that he’d had another taste of Tabby.

  Damn it all to hell.

  Now he’d have to start over on looking for a woman to share his life.

  Tabby watched the torrent of emotions cross Jason’s face. He was thinking about his father’s comment. The one about her being like his mother.

  Jason thought his mother a saint. A real honest to goodness June Cleaver. He probably hadn’t taken kindly to the comparison. June Cleaver Tabby wasn’t.

  But she wasn’t that bad, either. Well, maybe during the time she and Jason dated, she had been. But time changed her, she’d grown and, for that matter, so had Jason.

  His fist clenched then unclenched as if he struggled with his thoughts. Okay, so she wasn’t the type to name her kid Wallie and ‘the Beave’, but she wasn’t exactly some psycho witch either.

  What was she thinking? She didn’t want kids.

  Did she?

  Her gaze landed on Jason and her uterus clenched as surely as his fist had.

  Damn it.

  What was wrong with her? She’d asked for one weekend, not the rest of Jason’s life.

  She had to stop her current train of thought and remember why she was here, for sexual healing. Nothing more, nothing less.

  Otherwise her heart would break when she left tomorrow evening. Who was she kidding? She might be healed sexually after their weekend, but she’d also be leaving her heart behind.

  Either way, she didn’t regret this day. This time with Jason. She’d seen sides to him she hadn’t known existed. Sides she liked. Sides she wanted to explore in detail.

  Had they been there all along and she’d been blind to them?

  Possibly. She’d been so busy protecting her heart she’d closed herself off to a lot of things about Jason. Done a lot of stupid things to keep him from getting closer.

  She’d intentionally driven him away. In more ways than just the final deathblow to their relationship.

  Now, her reasons for doing so seemed shallow, selfish. Fear of pain, of hurting, led her to destroy Jason’s love.

  He had loved her once upon a time.

  How could she have been so foolish?

  Her eyes met his and she bit into her lower lip to keep it from trembling.

  Was it really too late to start over? And over as what? Friends? Lovers? More?

  “Bye, Tabitha. It was wonderful seeing you again.” Lori hugged her in the parking lot in front of Jason’s apartment building.

  “Same here.” Tabitha hugged her friend back, breathing in Lori’s flowery perfume, and feeling the real warmth of the embrace. Lori meant her words and Tabitha felt the same. “Call me and we’ll go for lunch.”

  Jason stiffened beside her but didn’t comment on the invitation. Was it wrong to want to keep Lori in her life?

  She wouldn’t shut Lori out this time. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice regardless of what happened between her and Jason. Somehow things would fall into place the way they were supposed too.

  She and Jason watched as Lori got in her car and drove away. Wordlessly, they took the stairs to his second story apartment.

  She glanced at her watch. Nine o’clock.

  This time tomorrow she’d be back at her apartment. Back to being without Jason. Unless she begged him to give her more time. Would he even agree? He had other plans. Plans that included Annie and not Tabitha.

  “I wonder what She-cat has been up to?” she asked, hoping to lighten her melancholy thoughts.

  “She’s a cat, so no good I’m sure.”

  “Now, now. You’ve really got to get over this aversion to felines.” She turned and tapped his shoulder. “For that matter, did you really call me a bitch?”

  He grimaced. “I’m sorry you had to endure Lori’s non-stop chatter tonight.”

  “Which doesn’t answer my question. Well, I guess in a round about way it does.” She inhaled a deep breath of air and laced her fingers with his. “I’ll let it slide this time. Just because telling the truth shouldn’t be held against a person.”

  “You continue to amaze me, Tabby.”

  “I’m an amazing woman,” she teased, not sure how else to handle his comment.

  He chuckled. “That you are.”

  Unlocking his apartment door, he held it open for her. “I’d offer to check on She-cat and let you sit down, but I doubt you’d take me up on it.”

  “You’re right. She’s my cat. I should be the one to see how much trouble she managed to get into while we were gone.”

  Meow. Meow. Meow.

  “I think someone missed us.” Jason opened the bathroom door and She-cat scrambled out of the room so fast Tabby only saw a streak of splotchy fur.

  She made a mental note that her new cat was claustrophobic and didn’t deal well with being locked up.

  Great. That should make coming home from work fun.

  “Hell,” Jason cursed.

  Tabitha glanced around the bathroom, noted the shredded bottoms of the shower curtain and winced. “I’ll pay for them.”

  “It’s my fault. I’m the one who forgot he had plans. If I’d canceled with Lori ahead of time this never would have happened.”

  “You did the right thing visiting your dad, Jason.” She shook her head at the shredded curtains, running her finger over a tattered run. “She’s my cat. I’m responsible for her. I’ll replace the curtains.”

  “It’s really no big deal.”

  They both stared at each other in amazement.

  “Can you believe we’re disagreeing without screaming at each other?”

  “Not really,” she admitted. “Must be some kind of record for us.”

  “Must be.” He grinned. “Come on. Let’s go see what super heroine cat is into now.”

  Tabby sank onto the sofa and kicked off her shoes. She-cat eyed her suspiciously from the opposite end.

  “Sorry about that girl, but we couldn’t leave you to have free reign over Jason’s apartment.”

  Free reign like what she wanted.

  She came here for one purpose. To find happiness and get over her bored blahs, to find sexual healing. She’d not even had sex for over twelve hours.

  “She forgive you yet?” Jason grinned and handed her a soda.

  Tabitha shook her thoughts away and smiled.

  “Not yet.” She sipped some of the fizzy drink. “That’s good. Thanks.”

  “Maybe you should bribe her with some of the pizza.”

  “The vet said to only give her that high protein, high calorie stuff until after he’s rechecked her next week.”

  Jason rolled his eyes and sat down beside her, sandwiching her between him and the cat. “The cat has been living off garbage and any kill she can make. I don’t think a slice of pizza is going to hurt anything, do you?”

  “Yuck.” Tabby curled her nose. “I guess you have a point. She did beg for some earlier, although she seems oblivious to it now.”

  “That won’t last long. Open the box lid and take a piece out. I bet your new friend will be in your lap in no time flat.”

  Tabitha opened the pizza box and pulled out one of the remaining two slices. She-cat’s head perked up, but the cat didn’t move, just blinked in annoyance.

 

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