Somewhere Only We Know (9 page)

Kate woke with a start and was surprised to f
ind herself lying on the hall floor of her house, surrounded in darkness. She moved slowly and groaned loudly. She was stiff from falling asleep on the hard, wooden floor of her hallway.

“Kate,” Finn’
s voice came through the door, startling her. She couldn’t believe he was still outside her front door. She had no idea how long she had been asleep or how long he had been outside her front door, but he was still there. “Kate, I am going nowhere till I know you are okay. Please, I’m sorry for upsetting you, again.”

Kate sat quietly and listened to Finn
, as he spoke. She didn’t know what she should think of this man, who was a relative stranger, sitting outside her door. She wondered if she should be scared by his determination, but something told her she had no need to be.

“I know you don’t know me,” he continued
, as if he was reading her mind. “And right now, I am probably the last person you want to talk to. I just want to be sure you are okay.”

He didn’t speak for a few minutes and Kate began to wonder if he had left. She moved slowly
, inching herself closer to the door and propped herself against it.

“You know,” F
inn said finally and Kate knew he was leaning against the door on the far side. “When my mom died, Dad gave up. She was his best friend and the love of his life. He just didn’t want to go on without her. Sara and I had to go to his house every day and make sure he ate, some day’s to just make sure he even got out of bed. He did get up, but not because he wanted to. He did because we didn’t give him a choice.”

He stopped talking for a moment and Kate pr
essed her ear against the door. She could hear him breathing.

“Eventually, he got up each day without needing us to tell him to,” Finn finally said. “But he
had stopped smiling. He didn’t talk about Mom. It was just too hard for him, I guess. After a while, he did eventually start to talk about her again. But it was always with such sadness when he did.”

Kate listened to what Finn was saying and it made her feel sad. Sad for Jack for losing his best friend. Sad for Finn and his sister for losing their mother, and for having to watch their father fall apart.

She remembered her own dad when her mother passed away, he had been so strong. All he cared about was her and her two brothers. He sheltered them as much as he could. She couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if he had given up. If he had lost the will to fight, the will to live. For the first time, she wondered just how hard it had been for him to keep going when her mother died.

“Kate, the other day when you were in my father’s house,” Finn continued
, bringing Kate back to the one sided conversation. “For the first time since Mom died, Dad lit up when he talked about her. He loved her so much, and for the first time since we lost her, when he talked to you about her, he wasn’t afraid to show that. Kate you have brought him back to life.”

Kate brushed
away the tears that had suddenly welled in her eyes and broke free.

“I came here today to say…
” Finn said, as he struggled for the right words to say. “I wanted to say I was sorry for upsetting you the other night. I know I came on a little strong and it scared you. And then, today I…well, I messed up again and I am so sorry, but my dad…well my dad has talked none stop about you and about my mother for the past few days. I wanted to ask you to come and see him again. I know he would love to see you.”

Kate was surp
rised by Finn’s request. She had enjoyed her afternoon with both him and Jack, but they were strangers and the truth was, she came here for space and time alone. Not to be dropped into the center of someone else’s family, someone else’s grief. She had enough of her own.

“I would have called,” Finn continued. “But it seems you have decided not to take my calls, so I came around here, and took a shot.”

Kate cringed, as she thought of all the calls she had ignored lately, and not just from Callum.

“Kate,” Finn said and she could hear him move about outside the door and his voice now seemed a little clearer. “If you never wa
nt to see or hear from me again, I will respect your wishes. I just ask that you don’t blame my dad for my stupid behaviour.”

Kate was touched by what he said. She knew it
had taken a lot for him to have come there today and say this to her. She stood up and moved closer to the door, but she didn’t open it. Instead she pressed her forehead against it and sighed deeply.

“I will leave you
in peace now, if that’s what you want,” Finn said, finally coming to the conclusion, she was never going to open the door. “But before I go, it’s Dad’s birthday on Saturday and I know he would be so happy if you could stop by for a while, just to say hi.”

Kate stood for a moment, not sure what she should do. She liked Jack
and if she was really honest she liked Finn too. In fact, she liked him more than she thought she should have, and that scared her.

She could hear footsteps as Finn walked from her front porch and step
ped down on to the gravel driveway. Kate hesitated for a moment but then quickly turned the latch on her front door.

As she stepped out the door onto the front porch, Finn stopped
, turned back to her and gave her a breath-taking smile.

“I’m sorry,” he said
taking a couple of steps back towards her, then stopping.

“Y
ou did nothing wrong,” Kate shrugged, as her eyes dropped to the steps of the porch, she felt like a total bitch for how she had treated him. She blinked away the tears that had pooled in her eyes.

“
Yes I did,” Finn said taking another cautious step closer. “I acted like a presumptuous ass.”

“Yes, you did,” Kate laughed, feeling less uncomfortable. She allowed her eyes to meet Finn’s.

“I am not going to lie to you,” Finn said, taking yet another step closer and closing the distance between him and Kate. “I like you Kate, I like you a lot. However, if all you want is to be friends, then I would rather be your friend than the man you are running away from.”

“That’s all I can offer you Finn,” Kate replied, honestly. “There is so much about me you don’t know, so much you can’t even imagine.
And right now, I just can’t tell you.”

“You don’t have to say a word,”
Finn said as he took the final step towards her and reached out his hand. “Friends it is.”

“Friends it is,” Kate said with a smile as she took his hand and shook it firmly.

“And Saturday?” he added hopefully.

“I will call by for a little while,” Kate replied and smiled.

“Excellent!” he exclaimed and Kate was surprised how genuinely happy he seemed. “Okay then, I will see you on Saturday, about three-ish.”

“Okay,” Kate said with a half-laugh.
She stood and watched Finn, as he hurried down the walkway to his car, then, after quickly turning back to Kate and giving her one of his gorgeous smiles, he climbed into the car and drove away.

Kate headed back into the house and made her way straight to the kitchen.
She was suddenly hungry and wanted to make herself something to eat. She decided on some pasta.

As she prepared her food, s
he couldn’t help but giggle to herself and she thought of Finn. What must he have thought when he arrived to find her trapped on her own back porch, because of her epically stupid mistake.

She thought of their kiss, and although she knew she wasn’t ready to take such a huge step, she couldn’t deny she liked Finn and if she was honest,
she was excited at the thought of seeing him again.

S
uddenly, she thought of Callum. She remembered a time when she felt silly and excited about seeing him. There was a time, she couldn’t bear the thought of being apart from him for even the shortest of times.

Kate wondered what he was doing right at that moment and how he was. She missed him. She missed everything about him. Kate didn’t doubt that she still loved Callum. In truth, she loved him so much she could barely breathe.

However, love wasn’t the problem. The problem was they had let each other down, they had hurt each other and were just no good for each other anymore.

She wanted Callum to be happy again but she knew she could never mak
e him happy the way she once did. Too much had happened.

When her food was ready, s
he took it to the living room, curled up on the sofa and switched on the telly.

She look
ed down at her pasta and thought of the first time she had cooked for Callum, she had made him chicken pasta bake, once of her specialities. But it didn’t quite work out the way she had hoped it would have.

They had been seeing each other for about a week, in fact they had been almost inseparable. Kate really liked Callum, but they had yet to take their relationship to the
next level, even though they had spent almost every night together since they first met.

Callum had spent the day in meetings and was running late. Kate had decided she would make him chicken pasta
bake. She had just slipped it into the oven when he called to say he was delayed. She turned the heat down on the oven and decided to make the most of Callum’s delay, and ran herself a bath.

She lay soaking in the hot water and bubbles when the intercom sounded.

“Damn,” Kate cried, as she quickly climbed out of the bath, wrapped her dressing gown around herself and hurried to the speaker next to the door.

“Hello,” Kate said breathlessly when she pr
essed the button.

“It’s me,” Callum’s voice boomed through the speaker on the wall. “I managed to wrap things up quicker than I thought I would.
So I thought I would surprise you.”

“Come on up,” Kate chirped and smiled, happy he had arrived early. While she waited for him to climb the stairs, she
hurried into the kitchen and turned the heat up in the oven.

She heard Callum tap on her front door. She quickly hurried back to the door to let him in.

“Hi there,” he said with a big smile when Kate opened the door.

“
Hey,” Kate said, as she stepped back and let him into her apartment. She instinctively pulled her dressing gown tighter around her body, suddenly aware she was completely naked beneath it. “I wasn’t expecting you for a while. I have dinner in the oven. If you just give me a few minutes while I get dressed.”

Callum quickly took Kate by the hand and pulled her closer to him.

“I like what you are wearing now,” he whispered into her ear before he kissed her lightly on her ear lobe, then slowly inched his way down her neck. “You smell good enough to eat.”

Kate wrapped her arms around Callum’s broad, strong shoulders, as she clos
ed her eyes, her whole body came alive. She pressed her body against his and she could feel his rock hard cock against her hip and her stomach lurched. She wanted him. She had never wanted anything more.

He pulled back from Kate slightly
, looking down into her eyes, searching her face, asking for permission. She smiled at him and gave him a look that gave the permission he was waiting for. He smiled back as he lifted her up and carried her to her bedroom.

Standing her down next to her bed, his eyes never leaving hers, he tentatively reached fo
r the belt of her dressing gown and pulled it open. Kate held her breath, as her dressing gown hit the floor. They stood for a few moments, neither saying a word.

Kate was the first to move, as she nervously reached up and began to unfasten his shirt. As she did, Callum softly traced his finger
s down her cheek and gently brushed her hair back from her face. Then, taking her face in his hands, he pressed his lips to hers.

Kate slid her hands back up his bare chest and slipped his shirt o
ff his broad shoulders and down his arms. Callum dropped his hands, letting the shirt fall to the ground then pulled Kate into his embrace, as his kissed deepened.

Kate quickly reached for the waist band of his trousers and yanked open the button, before slipping her hands inside, pushing them, along with his boxer shorts
down to the ground, freeing his rock hard cock. The head of his cock pressed against her tummy and Kate’s breath caught in her chest, as her heart began to race faster and faster.

Kicking his shoes from his feet, he scooped her up into his arms, before climbing up onto the bed. When he climbed over her, he quickly claimed he
r mouth once again. Then, releasing her mouth, he slowly trailed his tongue down her neck, pressing his lips tenderly on her collar bone before he continued his journey down her body.

By the time Ca
llum reached the apex of Kate’s legs, her heart was hammering so quickly in her chest she thought it would burst free. She had tried sex before, with her previous boyfriend, but it was never more than a quick fumble.

This was different, this was slow, sensual and everything Kate thought it would be.