CHAPTER 11
CAT
Luke got so excited the second he found out that his dad was coming over to pick him up. Cat waited until the very last possible moment to tell him, just in case James decided to bail at the last minute, which had happened too many times before.
"You got everything, buddy?" Cat asked her son, watching him pull on his sneakers with her hip resting against the wall.
"Yep," Luke replied.
"I think we're all good," James grinned, picking his son off the ground. Luke laughed that sweet, childish laugh of his as he was raised high into the air above James' head. "What are you doing this weekend anyway?" he added, and the fact that he seemed to genuinely want to know kind of surprised Cat.
"I'll probably just catch up on some shows I have recorded on my DVR or something," she said lamely, straightening up and giving Luke a kiss on the forehead. "Might do some cleaning around the apartment... You'd be surprised. For such a tiny guy, that boy can cause a mess."
"Sounds good," James nodded.
It was only a few hours after James left with Luke that Cat began feeling restless and bored. She did the dishes from lunch and mopped the kitchen floor, after which she went downstairs and did some laundry. She had to stay down there to make sure nobody else came and stole her clothes, which gave her plenty of time to read a few chapters of a new e-book, since she'd finished the other one last night.
After going back upstairs, folding everything and putting it all away in closets and dressers and the linen cabinet, she found that there really wasn't much else she needed to do. She had Luke clean his room before going off with his father and the living room looked presentable...
What else was she supposed to do? She really didn't feel like watching TV and all of her friends were visiting family for Easter.
She decided to get dressed and go for a walk. After all of the food she had last night and the two cinnamon rolls she scarfed down, it was probably for the best that she went out and burnt a couple calories. It'd been a little under three years since she had Luke, and yet still she was a few pounds over her pre-pregnancy baby weight, but no matter how hard she worked out she could never quite get rid of those extra eleven pounds.
When she started walking in a certain direction, she didn't really have a destination in mind. She'd forgotten her phone at home on the kitchen table, but she did have her purse with her, so she could stop if she really wanted to do some shopping or even just get a coffee from Starbucks just a few streets down from her apartment complex.
It was only when she realized she was just a few blocks from Nick's place that she decided to go see if he was around. It was perhaps a little impulsive to just show up without even texting him, but she already knew he didn't have anything planned – he said so last night.
So she decided to give it a shot, walking right into the apartment complex and climbing up the stairs to the top floor. She fixed her hair and adjusted her sweater before ringing the doorbell.
She waited for a few seconds and was just about to turn around and go, figuring he must've gone out to do something, when the door swung open.
"Hi, it's—," she began, her voice trailing off at the sight of him standing there. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry and her tongue seemed to weigh more than it should. "—me," she concluded as a rush of heat reached her cheeks and the back of her neck.
He was obviously just coming out of the shower, and while Cat really didn't want to be that girl that just gawked at a half-naked man like an idiot... she really, really couldn't help it. His upper half was still glistening with water droplets and his dark hair was a wet, tousled mess on his head. She tried really hard not to glance below his shoulders, but it was a very difficult task when he looked like that.
"Catherine, hey!" he said. He was seemingly unaware of just how much she wanted to jump his bones at that precise moment in time. God, she was glad he couldn't see her face right now. "Sorry I kept you waiting here. I was in the shower," he said.
"I've noticed," Cat murmured and suddenly it wasn't just her cheeks that felt hot but her whole damn face. Her flustered and slightly breathy voice was completely betraying the way she was feeling right now, and the goofy ass smirk suddenly inching its way onto Nick's face made it clear he was well aware of her current state.
"Eyes up here," he said in a sexy sort of drawl, pointing at his face. He ran his fingers through his wet hair and Cat was certain her legs were about to give way and turn to jell-o. Shit, he was causing Cat's blood to boil with just how much she was blushing.
"Sorry," she said, embarrassed.
She forced herself to look at his face, but the more she willed herself not to look at the rest of him... the further down her eyes went, from the dip of his collarbones and the swell of his broad shoulders to the flat stomach and the thin line of dark hair inching down his midriff and sneaking underneath the navy towel he had wrapped around his narrow waist.
"You can hang out on the couch for a sec, I'll uh... just go put some clothes on," he said with a slightly awkward chuckle.
"You don't have to..." Cat began dumbly, but the moment the words left her lips, she felt her face flush some more. "I mean... not that I want to see you half-naked..." she tried again, her voice shaky with a sudden onslaught of nerves and embarrassment.
A smirk was tugging at Nick's lips now and his sightless eyes were bright with amusement. He didn't speak, letting her ramble on. She could tell he was enjoying this too much to try to help get her foot stuck out of her damn mouth.
"That didn't sound right either... I really don't mind seeing you half-naked, just... uh... Oh my God, just go put some fucking clothes on," she grumbled, hiding her face in her hands, feeling completely humiliated.
"Will do, just don't drool all over my floor," Nick drawled as he spun around on his heels and walked a straight line toward the hallway, leaving Cat no time to come up with a cute reply or even just a single word at all to say to him.
He walked – actually, it was more like a saunter, as if he was trying to turn her into a pile of mush on the floor – down the hall and turned left, disappearing into what Cat assumed to be his bedroom.
She went and perched herself on the armrest of his couch, letting out a long, shaky sigh. He had the ability to make her feel this way so damn easily, and yet there she was, a complete idiot when it came to sex. She didn't know how to turn guys on. She didn't know how to flirt or talk dirty. Then there was the whole blind thing. She realized that sex wasn't all about looks, but physical attraction was... right? He could be attracted to her personality or the sound of her voice, but when it came right down to it, most people did judge a book by its cover.
What did he see when he thought about her? Did he find her attractive? What did he find attractive about her? Was he thinking about having sex with her at all? God, why was dating so goddamn confusing! She didn't want to say or do the wrong thing and mess everything up!
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.