Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)

“I’ll call for you,” the officer said. “Who’s the agency?”

Jason told him, having seen the bumper sticker on Kat’s car. “I’ll stay here and make sure you get off all right,” the officer offered.

Jason gave him a salute and took off down the muddy incline. He slid inside the vehicle, the water pouring off him.

“Glad it’s a rental and not the BMW you’ve always wanted,” he murmured. His hands tightened on the steering wheel with the thought. They were supposed to car shop tomorrow and he’d been looking forward to it. He wanted to buy that car with her, he wanted to be there for her, share her excitement at finally getting “the” car she’d always pined for.

He grabbed her purse and had a terrifying flash of the rental sliding off the road. Too easily, things could have ended up differently. She could have flipped. She could have died. He pounded the steering wheel. Life was too short for them to screw around like this, pussy-footing around issues. He could have lost her tonight forever. He grabbed her purse, shoved it under his jacket and ran up the hill. He and Kat were going to do something they should have done a long time ago. They were going to really clear the air, they were going to fight and yell, and get everything out in the open. And then, if he was lucky, they’d make love and they’d stay in love. He refused to consider any other option.

17

JASON PULLED INTO Kat’s driveway, putting the garage door opener he’d fished from Kat’s purse, along with her keys, to good use. Finally, he was out of the downpour and off his bike and he had plenty he wanted to talk to Kat about. He shrugged out of his jacket and left his bag behind, making a beeline inside the house and to the sliding glass door off the kitchen. The instant he was outside, Kat rounded the wall to face him, her hair beginning to dry and forming wispy strands around her face.

“Jason—” she started, sounding surprised.

He didn’t give her a chance to finish. He closed his arms around her and slanted his mouth over hers, the sweet taste of her like an addictive drug filling his senses. When he was certain he’d kissed her thoroughly, he said, “I love you, Kat. I want to marry you again. I want you to be my wife. Just remember that before, and when, we’re fighting.”

“I love you, too,” she said breathlessly and leaned back. “Wait. What? Fighting?”

Jason led her inside and shut the door, then put the table between them. When he was touching her, he couldn’t think. He just wanted to forget everything, to touch her and to love her.

“It’s time we have it out, Kat. We need to say everything we have ever thought and see if we can survive it.”

She sucked in a breath, and looked terrified at the idea. “I can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “If you say anything that hurts I…I can’t take anymore, Jason.”

“What hurts is goodbye, Kat,” he argued. “I took jobs because you encouraged me to take them.”

“What kind of selfish person would I have been to do anything but encourage you?”

“But yet you blame me for taking the jobs?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t blame you.”

“But?”

“No but.”

“Kat, damn it—”

“Don’t curse at me, Jason.”

“If that’s what it takes to get you to be honest with me—”

“I knew your career was the most important thing to you.”

“You were the most important thing to me.”

She made a frustrated sound and took off toward the other room. Jason caught up with her quickly. “We talked about this, Kat. Build up our careers and retire young, raise a family, travel. Whatever we wanted to do.”

“That’s what Ellie and her husband are doing,” she said. “And he’s missing her pregnancy.”

“We aren’t them, Kat.”

“No. They’re still together.”

A knot formed in his chest. “I’d turn back time if I could. I’d do it right because I clearly didn’t do it right the first time. But I will this time if you give me the chance.”

“Tonight, you said you were done with me. I let you back in and in a snap of your fingers, you broke me like a twig.”

“I found out about you and Marcus in front of a group of people who knew we were in a relationship,” he said. “Not only did it feel like a ten-ton boulder had been dropped on my chest, I had to pretend that boulder didn’t exist. For the first time in my life, Kat, I wanted to walk out of the show and just say I’m done with everything. You have no idea how hard it was for me to get on national television and act like I was okay. Because I wasn’t. I wasn’t okay.” Suddenly, he needed space. He left the kitchen, walking down a small flight of stairs that led to her living room.