Katie's Glimpse (The Glimpse Series) (11 page)

                 Jackson,
Tennessee

                    Present
Day

I rushed back to the
apartment after my last class and crashed on the couch. I was glad to have the
day off from the nursery. All the running back and forth over the past week was
more tiring than I had expected. My fatigue had put me in a foul mood, and I
took it out on a poor guy in my accounting class. He picked the wrong day to
comment on my eyes. He must have figured out I wasn’t interested by the scowl
on my face and quickly moved on to the blond two seats up. I knew I’d been
rude, but I just wanted to be left alone. I could now see that my college life
wasn’t going to be that much different from my high school days. The only
exception was I didn’t have Hallie to keep me company. I missed her so much it
hurt. I decided to call her since I hadn’t spoken to her in almost two weeks.
We never went that long without talking.

She answered on the
third ring. “Hallie, I miss you,” I whined as soon as she said hello.

“Oh Katie, I miss
you too. Tell me how school is going.”

 I brushed her
question aside and instead told her about my new job.

“Wow, I’m impressed.
You’ve gotten your first real job. How about guys? Have you met any hot ones
yet?”

I laughed nervously.
“Well..um, I have met one, but he’s not a college guy. He’s my boss.”

She squealed loudly in
my ear. “What? You are already dating your boss? What does he look like? Is he
rich?”

Leave it to Hallie
to get straight to the point. “We are not dating. We went out to eat one time,
as friends, after my first day of work. We haven’t gone out again. He’s
twenty-five, a grown man. As far as being rich, I haven’t thought about it. I
mean, he owns his own business so I’m sure he does fine.”

I heard her sigh.
“Katie, you need to be careful. He is way older than you. This man may be
looking for more than kisses and hand holding.”

Ugh! Why does she
have to go there? It doesn’t matter what he is looking for. He isn’t getting it
from me.

 “I know. You’re
right, but like I said, we’re just friends anyway. So tell me what’s been going
on with you.”

She spent the next
twenty minutes talking about how much she loved college and her new sorority.
She told me about lots of new people she had met and a few cute guys she’d
talked too. It sounded like what college was supposed to be like. We said our
goodbyes and promised we wouldn’t wait so long before our next chat. I hung up
the phone feeling worse than before. I had just wanted to hear her voice, but
it only brought back painful memories and visions of a life I would never have.

 I thought maybe
Levi and I had made some sort of connection- even if it was just as friends. But
after that one dinner out, he’d kept his distance from me. He was still nice and
polite at work, but he seemed different, less flirty.

I grabbed the remote and switched on the TV,
banishing all thoughts of Levi from my mind. After a few minutes, my eyelids
grew heavy and I didn’t try to fight it, deciding a nap was just what I needed.

***

  An achy pain in my
lower belly woke me up. I recognized it immediately- cramps. I had started my
period. I dragged myself from the couch and into the shower hoping the hot
water would ease the pain. It didn’t, so I threw on my old favorite kitten
pajamas, popped two ibuprofen, grabbed the heating pad, and curled back up on
the couch. I lay there for a while watching mindless sitcoms as the pain
continued on. After two hours, it was obvious the heating pad and
over-the-counter medication were not enough to cure these cramps. It was time
for something stronger.

Decision made, I
raked the blanket and heating pad into a pile on the couch. I took a step
towards the kitchen when I heard a knock at the front door. Groaning, I
shuffled over to answer it. I made the mistake of flinging the door open
without checking the peep hole and was startled to see Levi standing there. He
looked as handsome as ever in his dark jeans and red long-sleeve polo.

Taking in my rough
appearance, his smile fell a little. “Are you sick?”

 I gave him a tight
smile. “No. This is how I normally look, surprise.”

 He chuckled. “I
thought maybe we could hang out for a while if you wanted to. Have you eaten
yet?”

 “No. I haven’t,” I
answered, irritated that for the second time since I’d met him, he’d shown up
on my doorstep unannounced. “You are stalking me, aren’t you?” When he answered
with a sweet smile and a shake of his head, I replied, “Fine, you can come in,
but I don’t feel like changing clothes. You’ll just have to look at me like
this.”

“You look beautiful
no matter what you’re wearing. I especially like the new hairstyle,” he said
and reached over, tucking some hair behind my ear.

What?
I reached up and touched the top of my head.
Gone was the neat bun I’d put it in before my shower and in its place felt
something terrible.
Horrified, I
turned and bolted towards the bathroom. “Come on in. I’ll be out in a minute,”
I yelled over my shoulder and heard him chuckle.

 When I saw my
reflection in the mirror, I cringed. My neat bun had been transformed into some
weird half-in half-out hair explosion. It looked like I had spent some time
wrestling a small woodland creature and it had obviously won. I closed my eyes.
I can’t believe he saw me like this!
I managed to fish out the rubber
band and brush out the tangles without too much damage to my hair. I arranged
it into a semi-decent twist and switched off the light. I’d done all I could.

I trudged back into
the living room and found Levi sitting down on the couch, right next to the
heating pad and blanket.
Fabulous! This just keeps getting better.

I blushed when I saw
him glance over at them and then back at me. “Is your stomach hurting?” he
asked.

I didn’t know what
to say. I did not want to have a conversation about cramps with my hot boss.
“Uh, let me just get this stuff out of the way.” I tried to scoop it up off the
couch, but he laid his hand gently on my arm.

 “You don’t have to
do that, and please don’t be embarrassed. I’m twenty-five years old so I know a
little bit about women. Now come on and sit down. I’ll find us something to eat.”

I gave in and curled
into the corner of the couch with the heating pad in place. The pain was
becoming almost unbearable. In my haste to fix my hair, I’d forgotten to take
my prescription pain pills. My doctor prescribed them after I had Asher. I’d
always had painful cramps, but ever since giving birth, they’d only gotten
worse.

I got off the couch
and made my way into the kitchen where Levi was making BLT sandwiches. He
looked so cute working in my tiny kitchen. I opened the cabinet where I kept
all my medication. I finally found the right bottle but the pain was so intense,
I struggled to get the child-safety top off.

His large hand
covered both mine, stopping my fumbling. “Let me help you,” He said, taking the
bottle from me. He turned it around and appeared to be reading the label. “Wow,
this is pretty strong stuff. Do you need one or two?”

I gave him a tight
smile. “Two please.”

He shook out two
into my palm, and as I swallowed them down with a sip of water, I noticed him
opening the cabinet door. I panicked, not wanting him to see all the other
prescription bottles kept in there and reached out to stop him. My hand bumped
his causing all the bottles to crash to the counter and roll off onto the
floor. Without a word, he bent down and scooped them up. He stood and studied
the label of one before holding it out to me.

 “That’s really rude
you know,” I barked, snatching it from his hand.

Levi raised his
palm. “You’re right. I’m really sorry.”

I looked down at the
label; it was my antidepressant.
Great, now he’s going to think I’m a nut
case.
I put it back in the cabinet, along with the other two he’d set back
on the counter, and flopped back down on the couch.

A few minutes later,
he brought the sandwiches and drinks into the living room, setting them on the
coffee table. He sat down next to me and gave me a gentle smile. “You know you
can talk to me, right?” he said and it nearly broke my heart.

I gave him a small
smile, but knew there was no way I could tell him about my problems or my past.
He would run for the hills.

 “You better eat, or
that medicine is going to make you sick.”

I smiled again and
took a bite of the sandwich. I glanced over at Levi; he had his head bowed. I
suddenly felt embarrassed for no longer saying grace. He raised his head,
meeting my gaze and gave me a quick grin before beginning to eat.

I cleared my throat.
“So tell me how you knew I had cramps. Do you have a sister?” I eyed him
warily. “You don’t have a wife or girlfriend, do you?”

He chuckled and
shook his head. “No to all of those questions, but I was engaged once in
college.”

That didn’t surprise
me. What did surprise me was that he was still single.
How had a woman not
snatched this wonderful man up yet?

I took another bite,
chewing slowly.
Was engaged? Hmm, who would ever let him go? Oh no! What if
he has a terrible temper? He seems like a great guy but so did Seth at first.
Dying
to know what had caused the breakup, I finally spoke, “So what happened? If you
don’t mind me asking.”

 “I don’t mind. Denise
and I met at college. She was a year behind me. I was a football player, and
she was studying theater arts. She was fun and outgoing, and I was drawn to
her. I thought I was in love and asked her to marry me my junior year. I was
good at football and on track to go to the pros, but then I blew out my knee in
a game, and it ended my football career. She decided she didn’t want to marry
me now that I was just a regular guy and not a football star. I was with her
for a year and a half, and she just walked away like it was nothing. She wasn’t
in love with me. She was in love with what she thought I was going to become. I
focused on my studies after that and graduated with a degree in business
management, which was a blessing really since that was when my dad’s drinking took
a turn for the worse, and I had to take over the nursery. God worked it all out
in the end though, because I’m so much happier with running the business than I
ever was playing football. Denise wasn’t the one God had picked for me to spend
the rest of my life with, and I’ve made peace with that.”

I couldn’t stop the
tear that rolled down my cheek. This sweet man had it all figured out. He’d had
his heart broken but had gotten over it and moved on with his life.
Why
couldn’t I do that?
Instead, I felt like I was stuck in a dark pit, and knew
all my lies would keep me that way forever.

 “Hey, why are you
crying?” He asked and slowly reached over, brushing my tears away with his
thumb.

 “I’m just glad
you’ve got your life all figured out now,” I answered and gave him a watery
smile.

 He looked deep into
my eyes. “Oh, believe me, about the time I think I do, God throws me a curve
ball.”

I let out a nervous
giggle. Surely he didn’t mean me. I wasn’t a curve ball. I was a fast ball
right to the face, and I would do major damage to him. I was not about to let
that happen. He’d already been hurt once, and I would just hurt him again.

 I settled back onto
the couch and noticed my belly no longer hurt. I felt a bead of sweat roll down
the back of my neck and threw the heating pad and blanket onto the floor.

Levi leaned back
against the couch. He eyed me curiously as I began to fan myself with my hand. “You
okay?”  

“Yeah. The pain is
gone but now comes the sweats. It’s just a side effect of the medicine.”

He stood and moved
to the wall, switching on the ceiling fan.

“Thanks. I’m sure
this is exactly what you had planned for your evening, hanging out with a
sweaty mess of a girl,” I muttered as he joined me back on the couch.

He brushed the damp
hair off my forehead and leaning close, whispered, “I wouldn’t want to be
anywhere else.”

I closed my eyes,
letting his words warm my heart for a moment, but only the tiniest of moments. That’s
all I could allow. I had to stop this from going any further.

I opened my eyes and
tried not to lose myself in his as I spoke, “Levi, you are an amazing guy, but
I can only be your friend. I don’t know if you want more from me, but I can
only offer you my friendship.”

He leaned back but
never broke our gaze. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

 “No. I don’t have a
boyfriend, and I’m not ready for one either.”

 His expression
changed to one of understanding and he gave me a sad smile. “Someone hurt you.”
It wasn’t a question.

 I looked away. I
guess this was all the confirmation he needed because he laid his hand gently
on my shoulder and said, “Tell me who.”