“So why are you all dressed up?” he asked snidely.
Katie rolled her eyes. “I have a job.”
His jaw worked as he tried to formulate an answer. "I heard you've been working for one of them. The weird one that still lives at home with his parents." He chuckled. "I guess you figured if Ridley could marry up, why not you, huh?"
She crossed her arms. "What do you want, Don? Really?"
"Nothing. Just making sure my kids are still being taken care of properly. All I'm hearing is how much time you're spending cozying up to the Alexanders and it makes me wonder who's taking care of my boys."
In that moment, Katie learned that it was possible for your blood to literally boil. She wouldn’t have been surprised to look in the mirror and see steam coming out of her ears.
"How dare you insinuate that I would ever neglect my children? I've done nothing but take care of them every day since they were born. Which is more than you can say. If you hadn't stopped paying child support I wouldn't have to work so much to afford to take care of them, did you think of that?"
He opened his mouth to say something but Katie was too livid to even listen. She marched into the laundry room and opened the door to the still running dryer. She knelt and grabbed his damp clothes from the machine. His shoes were sitting on top of the washing machine, so she grabbed those, too. When she came back into the kitchen, she threw his clothes at him.
"Get your crap and get out. You told me when you left that you had better things to do, so go back to your barely legal girlfriend and stay out of my business."
When he didn't move, she threw one of his shoes at his head. He apparently hadn't been expecting that because he didn't even try to duck. The shoe struck him square in the middle of the forehead. He dropped his sandwich.
"Ow! Shit! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?" Katie held the other shoe over her head.
That seemed to communicate her sincerity because Don grabbed the pants she'd thrown at him and hurriedly stepped into them.
"You can get dressed outside. I'm not on your timetable anymore."
He stared at her in disbelief but rushed to grab the rest of his clothes while backing out of the kitchen.
"I don't know what the hell is going on with you. I’m just trying to see the kids."
"That's fine. I've never tried to keep you away from them. But you won't just show up whenever you feel like it and let yourself in.”
Katie followed him out of the kitchen and watched as he hurriedly redressed. By the time he finished, his shirt was on backward and he was only wearing one shoe.
“So what am I supposed to do?” he whined.
“Yo
u need to show up on time and ring the doorbell. Not early. On time. And if I’m not here, you can wait in your car. Things are different now. Get used to it."
He stepped out onto the front porch. When he turned around, he opened his mouth, probably to make some sort of smartass comment. Katie threw the shoe she was still holding out the door after him and then slammed it shut.
A half an hour later, after a whirlwind of packing clothes for the weekend and making sure that Hunter had his favorite pillow this time, Katie watched from the window as the kids drove off with Don. It was always hard to see them go, even though she really wanted them to have time with their father.
No matter how bad things were between her and Don, he was still their dad. She thought back to how much she’d missed her own father after his death. She’d never want to take their father away from them. But it didn’t make it any easier to watch them leave.
Especially since now that she was faced with the prospect of a long weekend without the kids, there was nothing to distract her from her earlier thoughts about Bennett.
What the hell were they doing?
Katie picked up her phone. Should she call him? Seeing him covered in blood had jarred her today. But they didn’t have that kind of relationship. They had fun together and he did things to her with his tongue that were practically inhuman but was that all it was? He seemed happy with the way things were and she wasn’t sure how she felt. Did she really want to get in deeper with another man after being hurt so badly?
What you have with Bennett is a dream. A handsome man that rocks your world and doesn’t expect you to pick up his dirty laundry. What more do you want?
Katie thought of Bennett alone in his loft, trying to maneuver alone with a bandaged arm. Before she could talk herself out of it, she quickly typed out a text to him.
Katie: Are you okay? Do you need anything?