Chapter 10
Kate didn't end up leaving the loft after all, not after her body succeeded in wooing her brain into sticking around, which, truth be told, required surprisingly little effort on its part; but to what end, she didn't know. In fact, it seemed the more time she spent with Rick the less she knew for certain, and for someone whose everything was built on certainty, navigating in that growing haze was becoming a tougher battle by the minute.
He, of course, was elated by her decision to stay. For him, her time was a win, to be sure, but he was also aware of just how far over her line he'd stepped that morning, and he could feel the tightrope he was walking shaking gently beneath his feet. The net below was likely gone, and her still being there with him was the balancing pole he knew he had to cling to.
With food and drink aside, he'd offered to show her around the loft-as benign a suggestion as he could come up with-and like a pair of kids caught at something, they both startled at the voice that came out of the blue as they stood in the doorway of his upstairs gaming room, the sweet kiss of their elbows being fought by neither.
"Richard, are you still here?"
"Ignore it and don't move," he whispered at Kate's ear. "Maybe it'll go away."
Kate angled her head back into the hallway. "Is that your mom?" The voice called his name again, once then twice. "Is she okay?"
"She's a pain in the neck is what she is. Give me a sec." Rick walked to the edge of the landing, shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. "Yes, Mother, I'm still here, and I thought you were going to be at rehearsal until this afternoon."
"Oh, there you are, darling." Martha came to an abrupt halt and had to smooth her hair back into place because of it. "Well, well, and you aren't alone I see. Hello there. Manners, Richard," she tsked at his subsequent inaction. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
Kate snuck into the picture when curiosity got the better of her. That, and watching him squirm suited her just fine.
"Kate, meet my mother, Martha. Mother, meet Kate."
Martha's face lit up like the sun. "Kate as in-"
"Yes," Rick interrupted, justifiably fearful of the hole she and her tactless way might be about to fling him into. "She's here to pick up her check."
Kate's eyes traveled his way and then back to Martha below. "It's nice to meet you, Martha. If you two need to…I can go."
Rick and his mother lobbed simultaneous objections, hers more eloquent in that it contained actual words, not just some unintelligible sound that resembled a whine.
"Don't be silly, no, no. You stay right where you are. I've only returned to gather something I left behind earlier. Richard, where did you put the book that I asked you to sign for Agnes? It's her birthday tomorrow, but I'd like to surprise her with it today while I have her."
"I didn't put it anywhere, Mother, because you never asked me to sign a book." He brushed a hand along Kate's lower back that left her with the good kind of shiver, moved around her, and headed down the stairs.
"Goodness, I could've sworn I did. Well, all right then, would you quickly John Hancock one for me now please, darling, so I can get my derriere over to the theater? I'm going to be late as it is."
When Rick wandered off toward his office, Kate made her way downstairs.
"You're not really here to pick up a check, are you?" Martha asked, sounding utterly disappointed. She glanced over her shoulder to be sure they were alone. "You've made quite an impression on him, I must say. He's barely talked about anything else since the night you two met. Of course, he hasn't, just look at you. You're gorgeous."
"That's…Thank you. Rick's been an interesting client."
"Client," Martha echoed, punctuating it with an "Oh, dear" under her breath. "Well, the course of true love and all of that, I suppose. I do hope you're able to find a nice girl for him if that's the path we're on. I know Richard can be a pain in the"-she substituted the word with a lyrical hum-"but he's one of the good ones, the truly good ones, and that's not just his mother talking."
Already on his way out of his office, Rick rejoined the women. "Here you go, Mother. I added a dirty limerick for the occasion because I'm a giver. Whatever she told you, I deny, 100%," he directed at Kate as Martha flipped open the cover of the book with apprehension, only to find a lovely note scribbled inside.
"You see?" Martha passed it to Kate to read and it brought a smile to her eyes, too.
"See what?" he asked to a response from neither.
"I'm off again, kids. To the stage for me. Maybe go and have some fun on a gal's behalf, hmm?"
"We're going for a walk," Rick replied, the news a surprise to Kate, whose expression let him know it.
Martha gave her son a peck on the cheek. "Very good, and thank you for this, Richard. You're a sweet boy. Kate, I hope I'll be seeing you again. Maybe next time you might bring along a list of potential suitors worthy of a fiery redhead who enjoys fine wine, visits to the art museum, reading biog-"
"Goodbye, Mother." Rick walked her to the door and shut it after her. "Please do not help my mother find men." He paused. "Wow, that's not a combination of words I've ever had to use before," he thought aloud. "Having a matchmaker is one thing. Sharing a matchmaker with my mother is too much sharing."
"She seems great. I wouldn't invite her into my kitchen, but great." Rick grinned wide. "Where did the walk thing come from?"
He crossed back over to her. "I thought we could if you're up for it. There's something I'd like to show you."
Ten minutes later they were in the elevator. "There's one thing I need to grab before we go," Rick said and pressed the button for the garage instead of the lobby. Kate thought nothing of it and followed him out the door when it opened. "This is us. Get in." He stopped beside a car, pulled out his keys, and the locks popped.
"What do you mean? I thought you needed to get something."
"Yeah, the car. This isn't a kidnapping," he assured her blank stare. "It's not a windowless van, it's a Mercedes. I promise, we'll both be very much alive at the end of this drive."
After Rick climbed into the driver's seat and shut his door, Kate stood a moment, contemplated her options: there was the office, there was home, there was him. Two of them she was absolutely comfortable with, one of them not as much, but in a way that she obviously couldn't resist, because the next thing she knew, she was buckling in beside him.
"Thank you for trusting me. Just ignore that rope and shovel in the backseat," he teased. "They're for my…rope tying and hole digging class."
Kate gave him the side-eye. "Do they teach that at the same school as your power of suggestion class? Where are we going anyway?" she asked when he only chuckled.
"We're going for a walk, on the beach."
xxxx
They'd watched as the ominous afternoon clouds had made their crawl toward them across the water, but not until the drops had started to fall had the pair reversed course, and by that point they'd strayed too far from the shelter of Rick's place to have escaped the worst of it, even at a sprint.
Less than an hour after they set out from his beach house in the Hamptons, they came stumbling back inside through the kitchen door, both with their hair and clothes dripping from the rain, their laughter over it shared and hearty.
"On top of everything else, you run like an Olympian. Incredible," Rick huffed, shaking his head like a wet dog and sending spray in every direction. "Thanks for hitting the brakes and letting me catch up."
Realizing how little it was leaving to the imagination Kate tugged her clinging t-shirt away from her skin. "I had to," she said. "You had the keys." After lifting her scarf over her head, she opened her eyes to find Rick tossing his shirt into the sink, and surprise wasn't the only reaction that seeing his half naked body inspired.
"Funny. Give." He extended a hand, and she relinquished the scarf, which went the way of his shirt. "So, I have clothes here for me, obviously, but a tall, slender woman, I am not. Why don't you head to bathroom right down the hallway there, and I'll try to find you something you can put on while I dry this stuff. Yeah?" he nudged when she didn't immediately acknowledge the plan.
"Sorry, yeah. Wait, no, I'll be fine if you have a towel I can use."
She was distracted. It was in her voice and in her body language, and he quietly enjoyed the hell out of it.
"I definitely won't be complaining if you want to wear a towel. I might even join you."
Kate dropped her eyes to her feet so she could think. "I didn't mean…I can just dry off with it. I should go soon, anyway."
"Why?" Rick pushed his fingers through his hair, drew it away from his face. "Do you have a pet that needs food or a fire hydrant? I was hoping we could have some dinner." He continued when she didn't speak up. "But, sure, if you want to go, I understand. You didn't ask to come out here in the first place, so I'll take you home, of course."
As mortifying as it was, one of them might've been enough, but in tandem his bare skin and his puppy dog eyes made it impossible for her to want to go, or to remember why she should.
"The bathroom's that way?" she asked, and with a giddy nod he ran off in search of clothes.
He was upstairs but a few minutes before there was a knock at the bathroom door. Kate opened to find him wearing nearly the same as earlier and holding outstretched a robe.
"Way too big, yes, but comfortable and dry. You'll probably just have to wrap the belt around your waist a couple of times." When she took it from him, his eyes drifted the length of her body and back up again. She hadn't undressed yet, but it made her feel as though she had. "Bring your wet things out when you come, and I'll throw them in the dryer."
Kate thanked him and shut the door, let her forehead come to rest against it. It was all so cliché, the entire course of events that found her standing there with his bathrobe in her hand, and though she saw that clearly, she nevertheless was about to lay another brick in the path to a dangerous place. Dangerous in its temptation.
"Not bad, not bad," he remarked when she made her entrance. "I would've preferred the towel, but I get it. Here, I'll take those. You sit. I just opened a bottle of wine if you'd like to pour yourself a glass. They're up in that cabinet."
She felt ridiculous. He was dressed presentably, and she thought she resembled a sheet with a head, the robe's tie wrapped and wrapped, its sleeves rolled and rolled. All that and it smelled of him, too, which was equal parts good and bad, so she poured generously, and she sat.
"Okay, so I have good news and bad news," Rick announced upon his return. "The good news is that my kitchen isn't entirely empty. The bad news, potentially, is that all I have here for us is mac and cheese, olives, and popcorn. Embarrassing, I know. Why would I ever buy olives?" Kate smiled into her glass. "I figured I'd run over to the market and pick up a few things."
"I like mac and cheese."
"God, you really are the perfect woman. Oh, and don't worry, I do have ice cream in the freezer for dessert. The important stuff is covered." He looked back over his shoulder as he opened the pantry. "Not rum raisin, you'll be relieved to know."
Kate looked around the room, came back to him. "Despite the sad state of food affairs, this is a beautiful house, Rick. I'm sorry I didn't say so earlier."
"Don't be sorry. I thank you for the compliment, but I wasn't expecting one."
"That's why you brought me out here, isn't it, so you could show off your 'architectural gem'?" she said believing she knew.
"No, I brought you out here because I enjoy being with you and because I wanted to try to show you a fun time. You didn't get that from drenched by a rainstorm, dinner from a box, and being forced to walk around looking like a, a…sheet with a head? And here you seemed so perceptive."
Kate breathed a laugh, set down her wine, and slowly got up, approached.
"It's okay, there are directions on the box. I can't screw this up too badly. Really, you're my guest here, just make yourself comfortable."
But to help wasn't why she'd come.
Taking the box out of his hand and putting it aside, she looked into his eyes in his confusion and freed the words she'd been holding inside for all those hours.
"I'm sure."