Houston, Texas

Opening her eyes as something blocked her sun, Katherine wasn't all too surprised to find Florencia standing beside her; her father was at work and her mother had taken a few days to visit a spa, citing that she needed to relax, leaving her the only family member home at present.

"Miss Wentworth, there's a young man here to see you."

"Mark?"

Not expecting anyone, she had to assume it was Mark, they'd been out a few times and prom was next week, perhaps he was missing seeing her everyday now that they were on spring break.

"No, he didn't give a name, even when pressed."

Shaking her head, Florencia's answer cut her thoughts short.

"Oh, well then, I'll be right in."

Throwing her cover-up on overtop her swimsuit, she walked inside, curious about who was waiting for her.

"Bobby."

Finding him standing at the foot of the staircase in the foyer, he was the absolute last person she'd expected to see in her home, which she was sure was plainly obvious from the way she spoke his name.

"Katherine?"

Following her with his eyes as she appeared through the doorway, the surprised tone he used matched her own.

"I came to introduce myself, but…"

"We've already been there, done that."

Feeling her heart thumping in her chest and the unfortunately familiar sickly feeling in her stomach, she didn't even want to begin to imagine how she looked or sounded. She hadn't been prepared to see him and without several glasses of wine to ease her mind her self-consciousness was stronger than her self-confidence.

Laughing nervously, glancing at Florencia, he answered, "yeah."

"Excuse us."

Shooting a smile in Florencia's direction, she approached Bobby, took his hand and led him upstairs, not asking for permission or waiting to hear any objections. She wasn't taking him to her bedroom, and even if she were, she had a feeling that he wouldn't be so keen to pick up where they'd left off the last time they'd met, not now that he knew a little bit more about who she was.

Silent as they ascended the curved staircase and headed down the hallway, she avoided catching his eye as she opened a door at the end of the hall and led him up another set of stairs.

Holding his hand loosely, it occurred to her as they emerged out of the darkness into the light of the finished attic that it was slightly ridiculous that she'd thought in a home the size of hers the attic was the only place they wouldn't be overheard, however that was exactly where her mind had gone.

Slipping his hand from hers as they stood still, he remained quiet, either unsure what to say or expecting her to say something.

"I'm sorry, would you like a drink?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I should."

Audibly exhaling, he seemed to chuckle, although she couldn't be sure it wasn't a nervous habit.

"Oh I understand that feeling."

In no less of a restless state than earlier a drink sounded like an excellent idea to calm her nerves, midmorning or not.

"Are you even old enough to understand it?"

Stepping away from her, distancing them as if he anticipated an answer other than the real one, he didn't look away, his eyes fixed on hers.

"Relax, I'm eighteen; I can have a drink any time I wish to."

Acknowledging her comment with a nod, he still didn't appear entirely comfortable, which was likely because the thing he was most shocked by wasn't that they'd encountered each other before, but that she was Pamela's sister.

"I think we'd better have this conversation with a clear head."

Walking away from her, towards the other end of the attic, he stared out the window at the pool and patio.

"Did you have a planned opening statement?"

Following him, she stood by his side, her stomach somersaulting when he looked down at her.

"I came to introduce myself to Pam's sister."

"I've been waiting a long time to hear you say that."

Pleased to hear him acknowledge her for who she was, she wasn't so pleased by what he said next, his tone and words far harsher than she was expecting.

"Really? Because it doesn't feel like that from my end."

"That's not fair! I spent months looking for answers, unravelling my mother's secrets, trying to make contact with you."

Fighting back, she raised her voice to him, not caring whether Florencia had her ear to the door at the bottom of the stairs and could hear every word coming out of her mouth.

"Then when you did, you said nothing, and…"

Putting her hand up, she cut him off. "I didn't plan what happened."

"No?"

Sounding as if he didn't believe what she was saying, his attitude needled her, prompting her to prove him wrong.

"No. My memory is a little hazy but I believe I have it straight. If you recall, you left this house after an argument with my mother. I didn't know what had happened beyond that so I went to find out myself. I found you and we started to talk, or you did, I listened. I wanted to ease you into the revelation that I was Rebecca's daughter, but it was difficult with your mood and apparent hostility towards my mother. Then all of a sudden we were too deep into a conversation for it to come out naturally and I couldn't think straight enough to redirect the conversation to rewind and introduce myself properly."

"So you knew who I was when you sat down beside me?"

Listening to her, all he seemed to hear was the one piece of information he wanted to, which wasn't the full story.

"Yes, but I had no malicious intentions. Like I said, I'd been trying to figure out what was going on for months and you were the only person I couldn't contact, so when I came home to find my mother in a state going on about how she'd thrown you out, I knew I had to find you, just to meet you. I needed to see for myself whether you were anything like I'd imagined and like you'd been described to me as."

"And?"

"Well, you were just as handsome."

Attempting to lighten the mood, still overwhelmed by his presence despite the tense atmosphere, her comment didn't go over all that well.

"Katherine."

"Fine; I liked your temperament, I was drawn to you and I wanted to cement some memories of my own with you, to build upon the mental picture I'd created over all those months."

Informing him of the rest of her thoughts upon initially meeting him, she was tempted to rescind a few of them in light of how he was treating her now, however she refrained as she could understand why he was bothered by her deceit.

"You should have said something."

"I know, but to be fair, the speed at which you were ordering drinks soon made it difficult for me to really grasp why keeping it a secret was a bad idea."

Grimacing, her words obviously hit him harder than he'd expected.

"I'm sorry, I took advantage of you."

Softening, his present demeanour was a world away from how it had been just a few moments ago.

"Thank you, but I didn't feel taken advantage of."

Accepting that he felt bad about what he'd done, she didn't think he really needed to. She hadn't felt bad about what they'd done together after the fact, not until weeks later when his engagement had been announced and later when the photos of his wedding appeared in the society pages, then she'd had second thoughts.

She'd wondered whether it was too soon for Bobby to move on from Pam with another lady, Jenna, and if it was then that had meant she'd been in the wrong by having an even earlier encounter with him than Jenna did.

Cliff had reassured her that Bobby had grieved and moving forward with his life was what was best for him, that he wasn't making a mistake by leaving Pam in the past, but the question of whether she'd betrayed her sister's trust by letting Bobby get so close to her was one that weighed on her mind.

Despite that, she couldn't blame him for what had happened between them, they'd made the choice together at the time, one they thought was right, and they couldn't change it now, so fretting and regretting was futile.

"So you wanted what happened to happen?"

"I didn't plan it but at no point did I stop and think I wished it wasn't happening, in fact, it was the opposite, I remember that."

Smiling sadly, he didn't say anything for a long while, then finally responded, barely acknowledging what she'd said.

"I should've recognised that you were in no state…"

Raising her hand again, she cut him off, using a far less aggressive tone than she had last time.

"Don't apologise. We were two people who leaned on each other for different things. You kept talking about a girl in Dallas, I knew that it wasn't Pam and I knew it wasn't me. I never expected what happened to happen and I never expected it to go anywhere."

Touching his hand to hers, lowering them and then letting go, he was gentle in his reply.

"You're Pam's sister, it shouldn't have gone anywhere and for that I apologise, to you and to Pam."

He was right, she knew he was right, her conscience had been telling her the same thing for weeks, and hearing him say it so plainly left them with very little to debate.

Whispering that he was correct, she took his hand again and led him over to the window seat.

"Will you tell me about Pam?"

Sitting, she was pleased when he took her hint and joined her.

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything. She was my sister and I never got the chance to meet her. I have Cliff's perception of her, but I want to know more."

She'd originally been seeking him for that very information, somehow getting swept up in who he was as well as who her sister had been, however now her focus was back where it belonged.

"I can help you with that. But first, can we agree that what happened between us shouldn't have?"

"I agree."

"I hope she'll forgive us."

Looking out the window, he felt miles away from her for a few moments, but returned his gaze to her when she spoke again.

"Is that the sort of person she was?"

Nodding, he smiled at the memory of her. "Pam was…"

To be continued…