Making It Right: Part 2
By Morganperidot
1.
"Ridge?" Brooke said. "Why are you out here?"
Ridge looked into Katie's eyes for a moment and then turned to face her sister, his fiancée, as the three of them stood outside the restaurant where they had been having dinner after the wedding rehearsal. "We need to talk," he said to Brooke, his voice calm and smooth. He was standing in front of Katie, and she knew why – to block Brooke's view of her. But Katie knew she couldn't hide from this anymore, and she stepped to Ridge's left.
"Katie?" Brooke said. "Are you OK? You look flushed. Did something happen?"
There was concern on Brooke's face, and Katie realized that Brooke hadn't seen that she and Ridge had just been kissing. Katie also realized that it was still possible to let her own feelings for Ridge slide so that he and Brooke could be married. But then she remembered the soft touch of his fingers and his lips, the way he looked at her, and how he said her name – and she couldn't do it. She couldn't let him go. "I'm fine," Katie said.
"I need to talk to you in private," Ridge said to Brooke.
"Of course," Brooke said. "I just don't understand why…"
"I'll explain everything," Ridge said. He turned to Katie then. "You can make it home?" he asked. Katie met his gaze again and saw with clarity what he was saying to her – that he would come there when he was done with Brooke here.
"Yes," Katie said. She stole a look at Brooke and saw her confusion, and again Katie had second thoughts. Weren't Brooke and Ridge destined to be together? Even if he had feelings for Katie now, wouldn't they one day dissolve away like those he'd had for Taylor, and then he would go back to Brooke again as he always did? Katie felt an urge to do what felt in that moment to be the right thing, the safe thing, and withdraw from this before she tore apart Brooke and Ridge's relationship forever, the same way Brooke had destroyed hers and Bill's. She could be the better person, the more honorable one…
"Good," Ridge said quietly, smiling at her, and without thinking about it, Katie smiled back. No, she thought then, there's no better person here. She saw Ridge take Brooke's hand and lead her back inside the restaurant. Katie watched them go and then finally turned in the direction of her car.
2.
Back at her house Katie relieved the babysitter and checked on Will, picking him up and holding him close to try to keep the from worrying about what was transpiring between Brooke and Ridge. But even her sweet little boy didn't have the power to do that. She didn't know what Ridge was telling Brooke; there wasn't much to tell after all. There were feelings and possibilities of where those feelings might lead, but that was all. Would he even go into that? Would he just say he needed more time before the wedding?
Ridge had told Brooke he would explain everything. But could he really do that? Could he look into Brooke's eyes, the eyes of the woman who had been the love of his life, and tell her that he felt more for her sister than he did for her?
It made Katie crazy just thinking about it. She wondered if she should have stayed. Should she have been there when Ridge told Brooke whatever he was going to tell her, and taken her share of Brooke's reaction?
Will was sleepy, and Katie laid him down in his bed before going to her own bedroom, where she changed into jeans and a soft blue t-shirt. She felt sick to her stomach as all sorts of scenarios ran through her head. What if Ridge changed his mind when he saw how hurt Brooke was? What if he decided that what he and Katie shared was just a brief infatuation? What if Brooke really was the only one who could truly possess his heart?
Or what if he did break with Brooke and in doing so actually broke her? Brooke had always been the strong one, but she had also always believed in the forever of her relationship with Ridge, since the moment they first fell in love. Katie couldn't imagine that Brooke would accept that Ridge was leaving her again for someone else – especially not her own sister. There would be tears and fury and vindictiveness and pain – enough to swallow up all of them.
What am I doing? Katie thought. Do I really think I could have a future with Ridge, or is this just revenge against Brooke and Bill? She didn't know. Her thoughts were in turmoil, like a tornado swirling around in her head. She found a book and started reading, and though her thoughts drifted occasionally, she kept at it for the better part of an hour.
When she finally glanced at the clock and saw the time, saw how much time had passed, she thought with certainty: He's not coming; he chose her. Ridge chose Brooke. Of course he did. How had she ever believed that it would be otherwise? She couldn't compete with her gorgeous, sexy, vivacious sister; she never had been able to. It had been so easy for Brooke to take Bill from Katie by just turning her attention to him and batting her eyelashes. She and Ridge had been part of each other for years and years. There was no way he was going to really walk away from that for Katie.
Katie realized she had started crying, so she wiped the tears away with her hands. This was such foolishness, she told herself. No man was going to ride into her life on a big white steed and save her from her loneliness, especially not Ridge Forrester. The idea of it was ridiculous.
But the tears didn't stop, and neither did the fresh ache of losing Ridge. She sat on her bed for a while just crying quietly with her face in her hands. But she knew she had to distract herself again, so she checked on Will and then went in search of her briefcase that had some papers from work with which she could occupy herself, at least until she was tired enough to go to sleep. So she settled on the sofa with those papers, a snack, and a cup of tea and tried not to think about Brooke and Ridge.
The first time she heard the knock on the door Katie was certain she had imagined it, the remnant of some last-ditch hope that Ridge would come to her. But then she heard it again, stronger and louder, more urgent. Ridge, she thought. It had to be. But was that really possible?
Katie tossed the papers aside on the sofa and ran to the door. When she yanked it open, she saw Ridge standing there in the white shirt and gray pants he had worn at the rehearsal dinner, but the jacket and tie were gone. He didn't have a white steed, but he still looked like some shockingly handsome Regency lord who had stepped out a romance novel to stand at her door with windswept hair and a gentle smile. "May I come inside?" he asked softly.
"Yes, of course," Katie said, stepping aside so he could come in. For a frightening moment she expected Brooke to be there behind him, waiting to slap her face and then leave again with Ridge. But there was no one else there. Katie closed the door and looked at him, her heart pounding so hard that she had to force herself to calm down. "You came," she said.
"You thought I wouldn't?" Ridge said.
"I just, I wasn't sure," Katie said. She went over to the sofa and picked up the papers, shuffling them into a neat pile before setting them on the floor.
"Did you want me to?" Ridge asked.
Katie looked at him and saw that it was a question of clarification, not insecurity; there was no weakness in Ridge's stance or the look on his face. If there was any way that he was like Bill it was that – they both had pride, self-assuredness, and strength of purpose, though they carried those attributes in very different ways. She walked over to him. "Yes," she said. "I've been waiting for you. It was just that so much time passed, and I thought maybe you had changed your mind."
Ridge went to her and pulled her close to him, her body pressed against his strong, firm form. "I haven't," he said, "and I won't." Katie parted her lips to take a breath, and he covered them with his, sweeping her into the hot depths of passionate kiss that brought to life every part of her that had shut down since she lost Bill.
When her lips were finally free, Katie said simply, "Wow."
Ridge laughed quietly. "Yeah," he said. "Wow."
"Would you like a glass of wine?" Katie asked.
"Yes, thank you," Ridge said, following her as she headed to the kitchen. Once there, Katie took a bottle of white wine out of the refrigerator and filled two glasses before handing one to Ridge.
They sipped the wine in silence for a moment, Katie closing her eyes as cool liquid slide down into her heated throat. When she opened her eyes she saw Ridge's steady gaze on her and she knew they had to talk about what had happened between him and Brooke. "You should tell me what…"
"Later," Ridge said, finishing off his wine and setting the glass aside.
Katie drank hers down as well. It worried her that he didn't seem to want to discuss what he'd said to Brooke. "You…"
"Katie, I'm here," Ridge said. "I'm here with you. That's where I want to be."
This was what she wanted and needed to hear, and Katie knew he meant it. But she still had to ask, "Does that mean you aren't marrying Brooke?"
Ridge walked over to the wine bottle and refilled his glass. He now stood closer to her, and Katie could feel the waves of magnetism coming off of him. She had no problem understanding how her sister had fought so hard against Taylor to keep this man. "I'm not marrying Brooke," Ridge said. "I'm not in love with Brooke. I don't want to be with Brooke." He swallowed some of the wine. "Brooke and I are over," he added.
"Is she OK?" Katie asked.
"She will be," Ridge said. He set down the glass again. "You know Brooke, Katie," he said. "We both do. She'll be fine."
"I just think maybe…"
"Don't," Ridge said. "It's done. For what it's worth you have me now."
Katie laughed. "It means a lot," she said.
"Good," Ridge said, moving closer to Katie, "because you mean a lot to me." And he drew her into to an embrace that felt more right to her than anything had in a long time.
