Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)

Kat answered the phone. “Mom? Is something wrong?” No reply. She had been too slow to answer. She punched the recall button and it went to voice mail, her gaze finding Jason’s. He arched a brow and she shook her head. “She’s not answering.”

Kat stood up and grabbed her bag. “I have to go over there.” She took off for the hall, dialing her mom’s number again. Voice mail again. Her heart was in her throat. She could feel it in her bones that something was wrong in a very bad way.

She dropped her bag at the bottom of the stairs and searched for her pants, racing around the room, to no avail. She dialed the phone again and heard Jason charging down the stairs.

“Did you reach her?” he asked, and the urgency in his voice did her heart good. He was worried with her, he cared. She wasn’t alone.

“No,” Kat said, turning to him as she reached the bottom step. “I don’t know what to do and I can’t find my damn pants.”

He handed her pants to her. Gratefully, she accepted them and started to pull them on. “Thank you.”

Jason tugged a shirt on over his head. “Have you tried your father?” he asked, grabbing his boots to put them on.

Kat started dialing, not sure why she hadn’t thought of that, knowing she needed to calm down and invite a little reason into her thoughts. She tucked the phone between her shoulder and ear to shove her feet into her socks and tennis shoes. The phone went to voice mail two times in a row. She ended the call and redialed.

“Nothing,” she said grimly.

“Keep trying,” he said, standing up. “It’s probably nothing. You’re overreacting, but we’ll go check to be safe.”

“We’ll?”

“You drive bad enough when you aren’t worried,” he reminded her

“I do not,” she said, grabbing her bag, where her keys were stuffed. “I don’t need a chauffeur.”

“Good,” he said, taking her bag from her, his eyes dark as they collided with hers. “Because there are a lot of things I want to be to you, Kat, and chauffeur isn’t one of them.”

She opened her mouth to argue, scared to count on him, to lean on him, only to have him leave again. He was going to leave again. But the voice of reason she’d been looking for reminded her that he was here now and she needed him.

Kat reached for the bag on his shoulder and pulled out the keys before dangling them in front of him.

8

THE RIDE TO her parents’ house was ten minutes that felt like forever. “Why aren’t they answering?” Kat asked Jason from the passenger seat of her rental car.

“Maybe they were fighting and now they’re making up,” he suggested, “in which case we could really embarrass everyone, including ourselves, by showing up unannounced.”

“Please do not suggest my parents are having makeup sex,” she said. “That isn’t something I like to think about.”

“Makeup sex is a logical answer,” he pressed. “If there was something wrong when she called, then I’m sure your mother would have left a message. Better yet, she would have taken your calls. Think about it. What’s the one time when you wouldn’t answer your mother’s call? While working or while having sex.”

“Again, Jason,” Kat chided. “I know you’re trying to distract me, but it’s not working. I have this bad feeling in my gut I can’t ignore. Maybe they aren’t taking my calls because one of them is rushing the other one to the hospital and doesn’t want to scare me.”

“Yet they tried to call you earlier?” he asked, and then gentled his tone. “Kat, baby, you’re working yourself up for what is probably nothing. This isn’t like you at all.” He turned the corner to her parents’ house. “See? No firetrucks and no police cars.”

Kat let out a relieved breath before quickly fretting again. “Unless they’re already gone.”

“What is up with you?” Jason queried. “Do you really have that bad of a feeling or is it something else? You’re supposed to be more calm now that you’re home and close to them, not less.”

“I know,” she agreed. “I know. I do, but they don’t tell me things, Jason. I found out six months after the fact that my mother had a cancer scare last year. She must have been terrified and I wasn’t even aware it was going on. They’re older now. I need to be here if they need me. I need them to know I’m here for them.”

“They know,” he promised. “And they’re proud of you for all you’ve achieved. You know they are.” He pulled the car into her parents’ driveway, and put the gear in Park. “Let’s go put your mind at ease that all is well.”

Kat was already shoving open her door before he finished the sentence, but Jason was fast and met her at the hood of the car, falling into pace with her as she headed up the drive. It had been so long since she’d had him by her side, she was surprised by just how right he felt there. But then, maybe she shouldn’t have been surprised at all. Their breakup wasn’t created by cheating and lies, or even love lost, between them. It was distance that always destroyed them.