Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)

“You had a tour you didn’t even tell me about,” he argued.

“I would have,” she countered. “But you told me you were leaving long before I had the chance.”

“And I foolishly didn’t ask,” he supplied.

“You didn’t ask,” she agreed. “That night, I swore you would never leave me in a damnable hotel room alone again. I swore that I was done. And still you haunted me, Jason. Still, I couldn’t forget you. Marcus’s one of the good guys fame hasn’t corrupted. He was good to me, but he wasn’t you, and I couldn’t make him you no matter how I tried. But Jason, I did try. For the first time since we divorced, I really did try. And still, I failed. I couldn’t get past you, and I wanted to.”

Long seconds ticked by, the silence filled with nothing but a steady, slow tapping of rain on the ground.

“Let’s go inside, Kat,” he finally said, his voice softer now, his eyes as dark and turbulent as the weather.

“I don’t have my keys,” she admitted. “I left them in my purse in the car.”

“Damn. I should have thought about your purse. I’ll go get it, and then we have to talk, Kat. Really talk about all of this, not talk around it.” He turned to leave.

Kat grabbed his arm. “No. I don’t want you to help me. If you’re done, you’re done. Be done and go home.”

Before she knew his intent, he pulled her close and she wanted to push him away. Again, she failed. She couldn’t push Jason away. She just didn’t have it in her.

“I’m never done with you, Kat,” his voice raspy with evident emotion. “Even when you hurt me like you did tonight with Marcus, I can’t say it’s over and mean it.”

“I didn’t know he was coming.”

“And you didn’t tell me about him, either.”

“Because he changed nothing between us,” she said. “Or so I thought.”

He studied her intensely, then said, “Let me go get your purse and—”

“I can’t stand here and wait for you to get back,” she said. “I’ll go crazy. I’ll end up breaking the window to get off this porch.”

“Then come with me.”

She shook her head and backed away from him. “No. Then you’ll take me to your place to prove something when it’s too late. You brought me here. This is where you wanted me and where I belong. I don’t have my phone either. Just please call me a cab and I’ll take care of this.”

“I can be there and back before the cab ever gets here,” he said. “And I brought you here because I swore to you, and myself, that I wouldn’t force you into my world.”

“You never forced me into your world, Jason. You forced me out.”

“I’m the one who pursued you, Kat,” he said. “I tried to hold on to you. I tried to get you back.” He ran his hand over his wet hair. “Look. There’s plenty more I’d say right now, but your purse is important. I’m going to get it and I’ll be back.” He turned away again.

“Marcus didn’t know who you were or he wouldn’t have come.”

He kept his back to her, his spine just a little stiffer. “So you never even told him about me either.”

“I never told him your name. Our relationship was, and is, ours alone. I simply told him I had an ex-husband I was still in love with.”

He was perfectly still, the sound of the rain pattering on the roof filling the silence, before he finally said, “Wait for me.” And then he was gone. How many times had she said those words in her head? And then he was gone.

* * *

THE EX-HUSBAND I was still in love with. Kat’s words replayed in Jason’s mind as he rode through the rain, keeping his Harley on slow and easy. There was nothing slow and easy about his thoughts, that was for sure.

He loved Kat. He wanted Kat. He needed her. But she was tearing him apart. In his heart, he yearned to believe that Marcus meant nothing, to her or about them. Leave. You’re good at it. Those had been her words, in various rephrased ways tonight. Marcus wasn’t the problem. The past was the problem.

Jason pulled to a halt behind Kat’s car when a police vehicle pulled up behind him. He headed toward the officer who was wearing a yellow rain jacket and met him halfway.

“Not a good night to be out,” the officer shouted. “Anyone hurt here?”

“We’re fine,” he said. “My wife had a blowout, and we forgot her purse inside the vehicle.” Wife. He’d said wife, just like Kat’s father had in the casino. How easily that had come out of his mouth, too.

“You call for roadside assistance, I assume?” the cop asked.

“Not yet,” he said. “The rain was pounding on us too hard. It’s a rental.”