Moon, Bitten

Chapter Eight

          What on earth had she been thinking? She paced the confines of her room, thoroughly and utterly racked with nerves, thinking of nothing but the impending dinner.

          Why had she agreed to this?

          Because you owe him.

          She sank to the edge of her bed, her thoughts replaying her near brush with death. He had managed to snatch her from that crumbling edge with such an agile swiftness, a trait so unlike a man of such considerable size, she mused.

          And just what was he doing in the forest? He certainly couldn’t have been jogging, especially dressed in jeans and leather boots.

          For a man that embodied city-bred, she surely hadn’t expected to run into him in the most unlikely of places, atop that mountain.

          She was pulled from the recesses of her thoughts as an unrelenting tapping permeated from her front door. Rising, she made her way downstairs to find a giddy Julie beaming at her threshold.

          Oh boy. Had she made a mistake in telling her friend about the dinner-date?

          Not date! Her sound-mind snapped almost immediately.

          Julie grinned cheekily, practically skipping into the parlor as she swept by her.

          Kate noticed a rather stuffed bag suspended from Julie’s arm, “What’s in the bag?” she asked, shutting the door firmly.

          Julie’s smile widened as she held the bag in the air for display, “Goodies.”

          Kate grew suspicious, “Goodies?”

          Julie spun about, her cheeky grin broadening all the more. “Sit, sit. You must inform me on all the details before we get into cosmetics.”

          Kate froze in her pursuit of a chair, “No, no makeup.” She said with a grimace, shaking her head.

          Julie glowered at her but shrugged her shoulders, “Alright, scratch the cosmetics, amp up the dress.”

          “There will be no amplifying anything.” Kate asserted, recalling a little mishap with a drunken buffoon and a particular red dress that had been aimlessly shoved to the back of her closet.

          Julie scowled, stomping her foot indignantly, “What’s your drama?”

          Kate sighed, dropping her eyes to avoid the weight of that cerulean stare, “I haven’t even told you who it is yet.”

          Julie straightened, her eyes brightening with an eager curiosity, “Who is it then?” she demanded anxiously.

          Her stomach, already in knots, tightened all the more as she disclosed her mystery date’s name.

          Not date!

          Julie’s jaw went slack, falling open and nearly unraveling to the floor, “Ronan Morrissey?”

          Kate felt a blush creep to her face.

          “Are you serious?”

          She groaned aloud and pressed her face into her palms.

          Julie threw her hands in the air, “This changes everything!”

          Kate straightened rigidly, “What, no, what do you mean?” she asked almost baffled.