Executive Engagement

Kat leans back on the chair, sipping her coffee. I play with her hair, and she leans into my touch, a sweet, soft smile creeping across her face.

“So where are we going to live?” she asks before taking a hot sip from her cup. “I mean, I don’t mind, but I did just move in to my apartment.”

“I’m really not sure about the balconies. It was way too easy to get up there. I don’t think it’s secure.”

She gives that deep, loud I-don’t-give-a-fuck laugh. I never met anyone who laughs like that—more concerned with their own mirth than how they appear to others. She looks at me teasingly.

“You’re going to have to meet Bea,” she adds in, then laughs. “I think you two have something in common.”

“I want to meet everyone in your family,” I say. I move closer, stroking her cheek. “I want to know everything there is to know. I can’t wait to spend my life doing it.”

“Me, too,” she replies.

Her voice is soft, and she leans into me as we look out over the lake, so dramatic with the mist rolling in, like we’re contained in our own soft, quiet universe.

Kat leans her head back on my shoulder.

“It really doesn’t matter where we live,” she starts as she grins up at me mischievously. “So long as there’s room for the baby.”

I can’t think for a second. I’m staring at her. I know the words, but it’s not making sense to me.

“Will?” Kat’s smile starts to slip. “Are you okay? I was only joking, I mean.”

“What do you mean?”

Anxiety’s rising in me; my chest feels tight.

“Explain, please?”

She looks worried now, a slight frown on her gorgeous dark eyebrows. But she gathers herself and looks me in the eye.

“I was only just thinking…we never used any protection. I’m not on the pill. It’s just a possibility, darling. Are you okay? I can go to the doctor as soon as we get back to the city, if it’s that big of a deal to you.”

She pulls away slightly, taking a sip from her cup with those mesmerizing eyes fixed out the windscreen, mentally and emotionally pulling away from me. I put my cup down on the floor.

“Kat,” I start.

I reach out and take her shoulders so she has to turn to me. She looks down into her lap, then up into my eyes again.

Even though her eyes are glittering at the edge of tears, she faces me dead on, no doubt already planning her life without me.

She’s fire. She’s ice. A warrior goddess.

“I want you to listen to me very carefully.”

I run my hand down her arm until I’m holding her hand, stroking the beautiful ring she’s decided to wear for me.

“My dad sucked at being a dad…”

My voice catches. I clear my throat and push on again. “Having kids isn’t something I ever thought about, because there was no way I was going to put that sort of thing on a kid. The floozies I was banging, their fucked-up morals, my lifestyle, and the company…well, my life sucked growing up. It just fucking blew almost every goddamn day. So I just figured, it’s not for me—this kid thing.”

Her big eyes are getting bigger, and I have to bring a hand up to her cheek and brush her lips gently.

“But I thought the same thing about meeting a woman like you. And here you are, in my arms. My kid’s going to have you for a mother. I can’t be happier. I can’t wait. What do we buy first? Cradle? Shoes? I don’t fucking know!”

Kat bursts out laughing and spills her coffee—and probably mine too—as she forgets the existence of the cups altogether to throw her arms around my neck. In the mess of limbs, and hair, I find her lips with mine, steaming warm, and lightly fragrant from the coffee.

I kiss her gently and deep, our lips sliding against each other as my hands reach around her back and pull her close to me.