Chapter Twenty-One

I'm Fine

To my beautiful, fabulous, unbelievably cool and awesome reviewers: Thank you so much! I love you all! I really do appreciate it! And with your help, I've reached one hundred!

I'm impressed with how fast I'm beginning to crank these little babies out...The weather hasn't been that great here lately. Either it's raining or it's too cold out (typical Minnesota – ha!) It usually takes me a few days to do a chapter, so I'm going to guess with finals coming up you're going to see me being able to do two a week instead of the usual amount...whatever that is LOL

As for how long this is going to go...I don't know. I intend for this book to be longer (maybe fifteen more chapters? Maybe more? Who knows. All I know is that I don't plan to end it soon). But I do know what's going to happen, so that should speed things up and not delay with writers block.

I could have sworn that I put this chapter up yesterday, but it's not showing...I guess I'm just going crazy finally! LOL

"Are you alright, darling?"

Kate tore her eyes away from the cream colored carpet that her eyes had been transfixed on and looked at Will, who asked that question. It had just been her and Will for two hours. Kate was quiet, she realized that. She didn't know why. Did she miss Jack? Was it hard to talk to Will because she couldn't look at him without imagining the look on his face if he knew what she was thinking about?

"I'm fine," Kate replied, snuggling closer to Will on the couch. "I'm just tired."

"It's because you didn't have something for breakfast."

Kate loved Will's caring nature, but the more she thought about it, she wasn't given freedom with him. With Jack, she could be given all the freedom she wanted, he even said it herself. And she believed it, too. She wouldn't have to be asked what was bothering her. Her and Jack...they wouldn't even need to talk. Things were already unspoken between them.

"Please don't worry about me," she purred. "I'm fine."

And she was fine! When she was hungry, she became dizzy. She thought it was a miracle she drove home safely from her photo shoots half the time.

"I'm glad you got that job of your's," she said, trying to change the subject. "You start Monday, right?"

"Yes," Will said. "They have an outfit for me and everything."

Kate smiled. "I'm proud of you. You got your first twenty-first century job."

"Coincidentally the same as my eighteenth-century," he grinned.

"And I'm equally proud for you not starting another fight with Jack."

Will kissed her forehead. "You distracted me."

As soon as Will got home, Kate had suggested that he work on the drivers ed booklet, while Kate suggested that Jack go downstairs to try a puzzle. It had not been five minutes until she heard a pounding on the table downstairs and yelling, Jack saying "Fit, you little piece of–"

"He was too busy getting angry at a one hundred piece puzzle of two kittens." She laughed. "Who knows what tomorrow's adventures will bring?"

"Somehow I doubt that you'll let him finish a puzzle?"

She grinned. "I think you're right, Mr. Turner."

Two things that Jack had learned about Kate: She knew how to get what she wanted, and she was a lot better of a cook than Melissa.

Kate made something that she called grilled cheese, which Jack loved. The day before, she had made something called macaroni and cheese. What was with this girl and cheese? Or more like, what was with him and his new love for cheese?

"There," Melissa said, starting the microwave timer for three minutes. "I figure that I can't burn a box of microwave spaghetti if I follow the directions."

Would tomorrow never come? Jack was beginning to count the hours until he could see Kate again. He could see her body, her lips...

"And Fort Snelling? Did you get a chance to tour it?"

Wanted t' tour Kate, he thought.

"Too busy," Jack said. "Talked t' Kate, though. That girl doesn't keep quiet, does she?"

"No," Melissa laughed.

"She's smart."

"Yeah...she's the only person I know that could pull off straight As in school, manage a crazy job like modeling, and be on the school dance team all at once."

"And when she wants somethin' she gets it?"

"You have no idea. She's an only child. If you look up spoiled in the dictionary, her picture's there."

Spoiled, only child, interested in two men at once...Kate sounded like a certain pirate that he used to know...

"I heard there's supposed to be a storm on Friday," Melissa said, walking to the dishwasher and putting some dishes away.

"A really big one?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. Might have some tornadoes. I hope the power doesn't get knocked out. There was a storm three years ago..."

Jack didn't seem to hear Melissa anymore. He wanted Kate so much that it hurt. He was craving her...Just one night with her. That's all she'd need to leave The Whelp behind and join Jack's side.

Did he feel bad about doing this to Melissa? A little. And considering that she was head over heels for him, and that Kate himself told her that if he was going to end things with her, it was now, rather than later.

But...Melissa might come in handy. Jack still had a feeling she wouldn't be a saint by the time he was through with her.

Besides...she was pretty nice...

Kate was different today, and Will wanted to know what Jack did to her.

He insulted her! That's what it was! He probably said that she was too skinny and was just having a hard time dealing with it. Or maybe it was just the fact that she had to be alone with him. It would put Will in a bad mood for the rest of the day if he had to do that.

Will loved Kate. He wanted to tell her that. Maybe he should climb on top of the house and declare his love for all the town to hear. Then they could ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.

Right. And Will had a chance getting back to the eighteenth century.

But really...how could he tell her? It'd be spur of the moment. You couldn't really plan how to say "I love you." It just comes out...like last time, with Elizabeth. That was spur of the moment, a last try to get Elizabeth to leave the commodore, and it had worked.

Only this time, there was no other man in Kate's life. He could tell her right now if he wanted. Well, she was asleep right now and probably wouldn't appreciate being woken up.

It had to be romantic. Maybe with candles...sometime when Jack wasn't around to disrupt them...

Yesterday, Jack was trying to sex Melissa in the car while they were at a stoplight.

This morning, he was a little angry with her with the whole deal about the pink shirt. But that was not her fault! She had spent the rest of her paycheck on groceries for the week and bought the only shirt that was in her left-over four dollar budget, and if it was a pink shirt, then so be it.

But this afternoon...he didn't seem to want to talk to her. Was he upset with the pink shirt thing still? It was just a color! And besides, real men wear pink.

She just wanted to talk to Jack! She wanted to hear his witty, lewd, and sometimes superfluous comments. Yes, she thought they were stupid, but this was Jack! And she loved him...she really did. She hadn't felt this way about a guy in a long time. True, he was nearly twenty years older than her and old enough to be her father, but love was love.

Right?

Melissa's Blog Entry

I wonder what's bugging Jack...I didn't do something wrong, did I? He can't be mad about the pink shirt...He's been, wow, quiet today. I wonder what he's thinking about. I'll let him go back to his puffy shirt tomorrow if that makes him happy.

Love,

Melissa Rose

Kate's Blog Entry

Curiosity. It's a curious thing, isn't it? You can want to know something so bad that you'll feel like you'll die if you don't have it, and in the end, it may not even be the right thing for you. That's how I feel about Jack. I mean, I really am curious. I want to know why I feel about him the way that I do. If I'm supposedly perfectly content with Will, I shouldn't have the wandering eye, should I? And why is this so sudden? Do I really want to, as Jack would put it, "give up my flower" that badly? I don't think it's that so much...I just really lust for him. And he's basically giving me the okay for me to cheat! With him!! But cheating's bad! I couldn't do that! Oh my God! What's going to happen next week when Will goes to work and it's just Jack and me alone? I'll have to tell Melissa that I'll be working all week...No! I can control myself. I am an adult.

God, I'm a bad person!

You do not lust Jack, you love Will. You do not lust Jack, you love Will.

And I mean, it was just flirting with him today at Fort Snelling. It's not like I actually cheated. I didn't even kiss him. I was close to it, but I didn't! Ha! See? Just harmless flirting!

XOXO,

Kate