A/N: Thank you to Vampgurl90, Lara F, Kira Tsumi, Twisteddrklynoon, The Doctor Rose, Kingdomalith, and Jaded Baby Blues for commenting on the last chapter. I'm terribly sorry it took so long, but my Mom sprung a vacation on me and the next thing I know I'm going to Fairbanks,AK for a few weeks so we could spend time looking at all the interesting places there. Course we were staying with friends up until they went on their own vacation and sent us to a hotel that had no Internet connection.

I know you guys wanted the blood bath next, but I'm saving that for next chapter ;)

Chapter 8

Catherine had heard Jerry's truck leave, but, at that time, she didn't dare to look up. The handsome man would have stunned her into the deep recesses of her teenage girl mind so she had opted to just keep laying down on the blanket under the tree that sheltered her back from being irritated by the unforgiving afternoon sun.

Her mother and sisters thought that the wind would help her lacerated back so that infection wouldn't set in and it'd take some of the pain they thought she was feeling away, but Catherine still didn't have the courage to tell them that she didn't feel the pain from the whip lashes anymore.

It was a miracle.

It was like something had taken her pain away from her, and left her with nothing but the need to heal.

Catherine's Catholistic mind told her that it was God that took her pain away because she had never done anything to go against him so why would he punish her with the pain from her fathers whip? She might be reading too much into it, but it seemed as if there was a Guardian Angel within her midst, but who could it be?

Could it be the handsome man that had stolen her first kiss? If it was, Catherine would pay a thousand life time's just to feel his lips against hers once more. To feel herself come alive once more, because those few seconds of freedom while he kissed her had been intoxicating.

She even felt the low hum of the feeling in her veins right now; wanting to be released from the cage that it had been forced into all of Catherine's life.

As she layed there, she imagined what it would be like kissing Jerry again. The smooth chap of his lips against her smooth healthy lips made her pant lightly, as if her mind was giving her the full force of the emotions that would be running through her veins once their lips joined once more in a passionate kiss that didn't taste like the salt from her tears.

She opened her eyes so she could play with the strands of grass at the end of her blanket as she thought of the man that could bring such sinful thoughts to her mind, but, if they were sinful in the first place, why would she be allowed to think them? God would have struck every mortal man, woman, and child down for thinking such things wouldn't he?

Maybe what the kids that wore all black said in her school was right, maybe the angels and God himself were jealous of mortals because they could think anything without any consequence, but when they acted out those thoughts, that's when they were punished.

God was jealous of her? He was jealous of Catherine, because she was mortal? That she could die at any point in time and it would affect only the people she knew?

These thoughts started confusing Catherine, because in the Bible God had never said he was jealous but it was plausible that he made man-kind with the ability to die because he wanted to see just how resilient man-kind was.

Catherine knew that one book couldn't answer the nightmare of questions that plagued her thoughts so she decided to just let the world be. The world knew who it was, and Catherine knew what she was; she was a shy, quiet girl that just yearned for the freedom that she wasn't allowed by her father.

She wished her mother had married Marcus Karrigan instead, but hopes and wishes wouldn't bring the man from his own life to Catherine's anytime soon. He could be married by now with children of his own.

But one person she did know that would always watch her was Mr. Jerry Dandridge.

Her neighbor, and the man that she has had an odd fascination with ever since he openly kissed her on her front porch just yesterday, because he either cared for her or wanted her in an intimate way.

There her mind goes back to the kiss they had shared, but her mind couldn't help it because he was so intriguing; like everything he did had a purpose behind why he was doing it, and Catherine couldn't help but to wonder where he went this afternoon.

Was he going to work?

Was he going dancing with a woman friend?

Was he going out to a random bar to think about his life?

Catherine's mind was going wild with possibilities, and only one seemed plausible.

He could have gone out to a woman's house for a nice dinner since he might think he wasn't the best of cooks in the world.

It seemed like something Jerry would do, because all men liked a woman that could cook a good meal. As her mother once told her, the way to a man's heart was through his stomach.

At least, that was how her mother got to Marcus' heart. She told her children that she had cooked a steak the way he liked it when her family was hosting a Barbecue one summer afternoon so Marcus and his mother had decided to join in on the festivities.

She was manning the grill and helping out in the kitchen when her mother needed her, and Marcus had asked her to make his steak medium-rare.

On request, his steak turned out how he liked it, and she had told them while laughing that he had, for visible humor, tipped his chair over. As he was on the ground he groan about how good the steak tasted, and everyone had started laughing at his antics.

She wondered if her mother would allow Catherine to make a Green Apple Pie since Jerry liked Green Apples; seeing as he's always eating them.

The more Catherine thought on it, the more she liked the idea. Making a Green Apple Pie, and topping it with brown sugar and hot fudge feels like something he'd keel over for or just stare at wondering if he had really eaten it.

Catherine couldn't help, but giggle at the reaction that she was picturing to see on Jerry's face. It was between bewilderment and love.

Catherine bit her bottom lip to keep a loving smile from coming onto her face.

There was only one emotion – nay- one word that could fit the emotion that was coursing through her veins at that point in time.

Smitten.

Catherine Angel Alexson was smitten over Jerry Dandridge.