Chapter 3

The message read:

Hi Jensen,

I know this is out of the blue so…surprise! It’s been a while, huh? I know… Guess we have both been really busy.

Anyway, Jon told me you are opening a brand new building back at home. Congrats on all your awesome accomplishments, by the way.

It is actually the reason why I am texting you right now, but I don’t think we should discuss this in a text or on the phone for that matter. That is why I would love for us to meet next week and discuss this in person.

You pick any day you will be free and I will be there. I do hope I hear from you soon.

Best, Katherine Kavell.

Jensen frowned. Memories he had fought so hard to suppress rushing back at him. Anger blazed in his chest. Singing. Devastating. He had to hand it to her, he thought. The woman had a lot of fucking nerve.

So this was how she was going to play it? No ‘How have you been all these years?’ Acting as if nothing had happened? Like they had barely known each other? Like everything was okay between them?

As if they had simply…fallen out of touch and she was initiating a reconnection while she had a few minutes to spare in her busy day?

Well, he could do cool and impersonal if that is the way she wanted it. Hell, he was a master at it. He thought.

He decided to ignore the text. Keep her waiting. Ignore her like she had ignored him. Keep her waiting like she had kept him waiting. Wondering if she would ever come back. Well now she wanted to see him… But it was just because he was opening his new building. If not for that he wouldn’t have heard from her. He was really mad at her.

He put his phone away and pulled his laptop closer. Determined to get to work and ignore the text… Maybe even forget about it.

But that was impossible. He couldn’t concentrate. Now that he had read that damn text. He kept thinking of her. What the hell did she want? How was she? He wondered. Was she still as beautiful as she used to be? He didn’t doubt that one bit… She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen… With an amazing heart… Until she had crushed his.

“Damn you, Kat,” he muttered under his breath.

He stopped working and relaxed in his chair, then closed his eyes. Letting himself do something he never let himself do for years - think about her.

Her long brunette hair, her big black eyes, her lips — lips he tried so hard to keep from kissing — and failed, her sexy body. She was gorgeous. His mind drifted to the first time he saw her. It was a long time ago.

He had been eight years old and he had gone to her house to play football with her brother Jonathan. Jon had been his best friend — still his best friend. Although Jonathan used to say Katherine stole Jensen from him.

Katherine had been four then, and she was hell bent on joining the match. Which Jon didn’t want… And he asked her to leave. But Katherine wouldn’t listen. She was very, very stubborn. She insisted she was going to join.

When Jon had captured her in a headlock to teach her a lesson and force her to leave them alone. Jensen had gone to her rescue.

Free of Jon’s hold, Katherine had stared up at him with wide, adoring eyes, and the damage had been done. She had followed him around from then on.

He didn’t want that. Didn’t want some little girl following him around. It was embarrassing. So he had done everything he could to discourage her. She didn’t take a hint though.

The next time he was fourteen and she was ten. He was on an errand for his father, walking down the gravel path that cut from his father’s cabin.

She was hanging upside down from an old tree, her skinned knees hooked over a low thick branch. She was swinging back and forth, so her long braids dangled like ropes. The whole time she hummed while she blew the biggest pink bubble he had ever seen.

He didn’t know you could hum and blow bubble gum at the same time. As he walked past her, there was a loud pop.

“Where are you going?” she swung up so she was straddling the branch with one leg, while the other dangled down. Her palms propped up by her body and she stared down at him.

Dust fell all over him and scowling, he wiped off his face and head. He frowned. On the same level as his nose was a pair of blue canvas shoes. He slowly looked upward along her legs and knees to the small indignant face, which looked like a doll.

She blew another bubble, sucked in and popped out in an obnoxious way. “I asked where you were going,” she repeated like she was the queen of some island.

“None of your business, Kitty,” he said, trying to annoy her. It worked.

Jensen turned his back on her and started to walk away.

She jumped out of the tree and appeared beside him.

“My name is not Kitty,” she said. “Don’t call me that.”

He grunted some response and kept walking.

“You are such a grump,” she said.

He stopped and looked down at her. Her expression dared him to ignore her again.

He started walking away again and she kept up with him, not saying anything, but he could feel her studying him. He looked at her finally. All he saw was an expressive face and a pair of frowning black eyes.

“Go away,” he said.

“I’m not a baby, you know,” she piped. “I know a lot of things.”

“Oh really?” he said sarcastically.

“Yeah.”

“Things like what… Kitty?” he asked.

“I dunno,” she replied. “Anything.”

He almost laughed then. She was so weird. He thought… And kinda funny.

“Go ahead,” she said. “Ask me something.”

He stood, looking at her face staring up at him with a look that dared him to argue with her. Which he wasn’t in the mood to. Didn’t want to.

He could have called her bluff. But he didn’t. He knew all about pride. It was something he understood.