Like Father, Like Son ✔

Chapter 11 - Physical Attraction

Nick's guide dog came to see her, his damp nose nudging her knuckle and making her jump slightly, right out of her reverie. Shit, she really needed to stop thinking about this, otherwise she'd drive herself absolutely insane.

"Hey Duke," she murmured, scratching the yellow lab behind the ear.

"Do you wanna go bowling?" Nick asked suddenly.

It was just after dinner and Cat was absolutely stuffed, having eaten way too much of Nick's marinated chicken thighs, rice, and the tomato and avocado salad he'd served along with the meal. They'd stayed and hung around the apartment all afternoon, just listening to some music and chatting about things and getting to know each other. It was fun to involve Luke in their little dates, but Cat was really glad to have him all to herself for once.

"You can bowl?" Cat asked in a voice that sounded way too surprised to not be offensive. She blushed and hid her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I... um," she trailed off, realizing there really wasn't a better way to phrase it. Either way, it just seemed rude as fuck.

But Nick was laughing, the whole thing just rolling off his shoulders... like most things seemed to do. Cat couldn't remember ever seeing him truly flustered or even just upset. He was so goddamn composed all the time.

"I can bowl," he nodded. "I might need someone to just line me up right if there's no guild rail. There's sometimes one already there, or if not then I'll usually ask someone that works there. They're usually available, just stored away," he explained and Cat was hooked on every word. Before meeting Nick, she'd never been around people with special needs and so she'd never had to immerse herself in that world.

She was learning so much just by spending more and more time around Nick, and a lot of it was that he could do pretty much everything he set his mind to, and do it just as well as a sighted person could.

"Alright, let's go bowling then," Cat agreed.

They took the L to the nearest bowling alley, since the walk from Nick's apartment would've been just a little too long and they wouldn't have had too much time to actually do any bowling.

They rented some shoes, picked a lane and Cat put their names in the machine that kept the score.

"I can grab us some beer while you do that," Nick suggested.

"I'm, uh, not... legal yet," Cat said a little awkwardly.

"I am, and I'm buying. It's not like anybody's gonna care anyway," Nick shrugged.

"Rebel," Cat giggled, glancing over her shoulder toward the counter and already feeling a little guilty for what she was about to do. She didn't drink a lot, and she doubted she'd turn into much of a drinker once she did turn twenty-one in just over a year from now.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," Nick smirked devilishly, and suddenly Cat found her heart rate just a little too quick and her face just a little too warm.

"Alright, go get the beers," she giggled.

It was a really fun time, and Nick was very quickly introduced to Cat's incredibly competitive side. They were both very mediocre at best when it came to bowling, so the fact that Cat was winning by a margin of seven points wasn't actually that huge of an accomplishment. The game was fun regardless of how much they sucked, and whenever Nick broke out in his ridiculous little victory dance he had Cat doubled over laughing.

By the end of the tenth frame Nick was leading by only two points. Cat had one last turn, a last stitch effort to beat him.

"Alright, last turn," she said, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet as she prepared herself to— wait. "Nick, what are you doing?" she giggled, pausing as she was about to lean over with her bowling ball. She glanced over her shoulder to find Nick's face right there, his breath warm against her ear. He smelled of beer, aftershave and just general male muskiness.

"Winning," he said in a slow drawl, running both his hands up the length of her arms and then back down again. Goosebumps that had nothing to do with the temperature inside the bowling alley ran all over her skin and her breath hitched in her throat.

"You're distracting me!" Cat hissed, but she didn't swat him away and she didn't make a move to duck out of his embrace, letting both his arms wrap around her waist.

"That's the general idea," he said against her hair.

Cat laughed, turning around so that she was facing him. "Then distract me good and proper," she told him as her arms reached up to wrap around his neck, her fingertips playing with the short strands of dark hair that were peeking out from underneath the beanie he was wearing.

"I can most certainly do that," he grinned before closing the gap and taking her mouth with his. In the distance, a group of guys gave loud, drunken wolf-whistles and a little further away from them, a little girl of about nine squealed with delight. "Mama, those two are kissing!" she said in a very audible voice that carried all the way to Nick and Cat. 

Safe to say, Cat was in no state to do well when she actually did have her turn, so Nick ended up winning the game. He was certainly on his way to winning Cat's heart too. God, the way he made her feel was just so unreal.