His fingers traced small circles onto her skin. It was amazing what great sensations came from such small contact. He could feel her body relax under his hand, as if she melted away, her breathing becoming deep and even.

"Kate?" He whispered, wondering if she was still awake.

Silence.

"Kate?" He asked again only a little louder this time. Still no answer, so he leaned over to see if her eyes were closed; they were. Continuing to run his fingertips across her back, he settled into bed trying to unwind.

"You know…" he said in a hushed tone, "I really like having you with me." He thought quietly for a moment, letting the silence overtake the room. "I should probably tell you this when you're awake, but I don't want to pressure you into saying anything back…still, I need to tell you something." He looked again to make sure her eyes were still closed.

"I think I love you, Kate Ryan." He waited a moment as if he were expecting a reply. It felt good to say it. Better than he thought it would, but in the same instance…disappointing. It was anticlimactic. He had, in his own mind, made it out to be such and achievement – saying that to her – and now she wasn't even awake to hear it. Yet he felt as if a weight had been lifted. Like something in him had been released.

On the other hand, part of him was glad she couldn't respond. One: because he didn't want her to say it just because he had said it, and two: he was afraid that things might be moving a bit to quickly. When he was seventeen, a month seemed like a long time to be with someone. Now that he was older he realized it's not a very long time at all. Spending then length of your lifetime with someone; now that was a long time. But it was something he wanted.

"I'm extremely aware that it's only been a month since my divorce was finalized and you left Matt, and I shouldn't be feeling these things, but I am. I'm crazy about you." He laughed softly just thinking about it.

He had gone into this relationship expecting nothing and gaining everything. He was head over heels for the girl lying next to him and he knew it. "I love it when you smile…it just makes you even more beautiful than you already are. I don't think you're aware of how you can light up a room. And I love your eyes. I love the way the wind blows your hair when we go on walks…I even love the fact that you're a vegetarian." Jack could see her so vividly in his mind, picking at a salad, sitting so delicately balanced with one leg wrapped up underneath her and reading the newspaper. He smiled…there wasn't a thing he would change about her.

"I have to confess, I don't believe in love at first sight, but I think this is pretty damn close. I finally understand what people mean when they say ' they just know' that they love someone." He stopped drawing on her and lay back in bed. It was amazing – this feeling – when he let himself get lost in it. He was happy to know what this felt like because he couldn't ever remember feeling like this with Sarah.

Kate flirted with the line between awake and asleep, accidentally hearing everything Jack had to say. Surprisingly, it didn't scare her like she thought it would. Usually when it got to this point in a relationship, she felt uneasy and awkward, but this was different. Maybe because he had said it with no objective of hearing it back. He had said it with no strings attached.

She smiled faintly in her almost asleep state. She was happy with Jack. That was something she hadn't felt in a very long time.

000

When Kate came around it was a little after eleven. She groaned and dropped her head back into her pillow, pouting about how long she'd slept. But then again…she normally didn't do things like this and last night had been more intense than usual. And now she knew why. Smiling to herself, she rolled out of bed to take a shower.

Unfortunately for her the day moved slowly. She kept looking at the clock every half hour and she kept getting disappointed that it was still another umpteen hours until Jack came home. Kate had been finding herself more and more eager for Jack's arrival each day. It was like having a crush on him, only she had it better. Each night she got to lay down in bed with him, she got to eat dinner with him, watch a movie with him…

She tried in vein to keep herself busy by doing dishes and laundry but when that was done she felt a lack of constructiveness. Opting to watch TV for a while, she claimed the last can of diet coke, took possession of the remote, and made herself at home on the couch.

The next thing Kate remembered was stirring slightly from a deep sleep at the sound of the door opening. Noticing that the lights outside had dimmed almost completely she knew it was Jack and didn't get up to welcome him home. He would probably take a shower and then come back downstairs, find her there on the couch and sit with her for the rest of the evening.

Satisfied that she had a few minutes yet to catch some sleep, Kate rolled over and snuggled into the crease of the couch where the cushions met. She sighed and bid her eyes to close.

"Who are you?"

Kate's eyes flew open at the sound of the unfamiliar voice and her body tensed sending her straight up, ready and alert.

A blonde woman wearing jeans and a tan t-shirt, holding a cardboard box, stood at the end of the couch with a key in hand.

"Who are you?" She asked again with more force.

"Kate." She answered in basic, her voice not portraying the nervousness she felt having a stranger in the house. "Who are you?"

"Sarah Shepard." She eyed Kate with curiosity. "Are you Jack's new girlfriend?"

"Yes." Her teeth grit with instant dislike of Jack's former wife. She stood up and shook her hand anyway. "Mind if I ask why you're here?"

"I came to pick up a few things. I'm sure you've noticed I never really moved out. Thus my key." She held it up so the metal caught the light.

The two women stood in the living room awkwardly for a moment before Sarah said, "I know where everything is, so I'll just be a second."

She left for upstairs leaving Kate downstairs alone. Having finished her coke long ago she went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. She threw the can away and headed toward the freezer to get ice. When she opened it, she found three unopened pints of Haagen Dazs White chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream. She smiled, touched at the small gesture that let her know Jack cared, when she heard a heavy thunking noise from upstairs.

Quickly, Kate set down the glass of ice and hurried to help. She found Sarah in the bedroom with one of the drawers completely out of the chest. The blonde was rustling through it rather hastily, pulling out articles of clothing now and then, and stuffing them into her box.

"Everything of yours is in that drawer." Kate started. "He thought it would be easier if you ever came back." She just stood to watch, feeling slightly superior to the woman on her hands and knees.

"Well, wasn't it nice of him to think of me." She sounded unfriendly and sarcastic.

"He was just trying to help. You don't need to dismiss him that way."

"Kate…" Sarah sounded like she was preparing for a long-winded speech. God knew she was probably aggravated enough to give one, but she just released the frustration by exhaling forcefully and went back to work.

When she was done she had a box of mostly clothing, a hairdryer, a jewelry box, and a bottle of perfume. It wasn't nearly what she had left in the house which made Kate wonder if she would make periodical trips like this until it was all with her, wherever she lived now.

"Thanks," Sarah said even though she had nothing to thank Kate for. Then she left the brunette standing in the bedroom totally and utterly confused.

"Sarah!" She called after the other woman, trying to catch her before she left.

Sarah appeared at the bottom of the stairs case. "What do tell Jack?" Kate wondered if she should say anything at all.

"Just tell him that I stopped by." Sarah said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, making Kate feel small and foolish.

Then she left.

Kate was felt bewildered and belittled. Sarah had just blown in and out in less than ten minutes and she hadn't been pleasant either. Was it because she was expecting no one home? Had Kate not been there, Sarah would have practically been breaking into Jack's house.

Did she really want that little to do with him? Was she so pained by him company that she had to wait for him to leave the house and slowly, trip by trip, empty his home of her things?

The brunette also felt threatened by her presence. Not that Sarah would hurt her, but she was afraid that by Sarah coming back Jack would still think about her. She was afraid that if he noticed all of her possessions disappearing ever so slowly that he would start to miss her. Even though he had said he loved everything about her, hadn't he loved Sarah once?

Kate struggled with the puzzle that Sarah was until Jack came home and hour later. He found her sitting in the kitchen – shoulders slumped, eyes listless.

Worried, he dropped everything and hugged her to his chest, burying his face into her hair and inhaling the sent that he'd grown to love. She returned the affection but not quite as forcefully.

He knelt down to her level. "What's wrong?" His voice was gentle.

"Sarah stopped by," was all she said.

This was kind of a filler chapter. I wanted to put a little fluff in it (thus the beginning of the chapter) and I wanted to introduce Sarah in way that would make her involved but not a main character – like Mark. He's going to play a very major roll later on in the story, but Sarah is just there to increase the tension. Well, tell me what you think! Leave me a review!

Next time: A shocking discovery about Kate that could very well change the course of her relationship with Jack.