She sighed and plopped down on her couch. This was ridiculous. She was a grown woman in an adult relationship. Her boyfriend had given her a key to his apartment so she could wait for him. It shouldn’t conjure memories of her mother and being stressed out with her family.
It was no big deal. In fact, it was a good sign that he wanted to keep their relationship moving forward.
It wasn’t like he’d cleaned out half his closet and invited her in.
Damn. Why did her brain go there? Was that what she wanted? With a groan, she wrapped up the remaining dough and tossed it on the table. She wanted to be with Kevin.
She was falling for him and it was freaking her out.
She’d been through enough therapy to be able to recognize that. She squared her shoulders. Yeah, falling for someone was scary.
Falling for a guy she didn’t totally trust even scarier.
Maybe she needed to trust her gut. Freaking out was a warning sign. She’d wanted to take it slow and as she’d pointed out to Kevin, slow went out the window when she pulled him into her bed. His key weighed heavily in her pocket. He was expecting her. What would he do if she wasn’t there?
He’d be pissed. Her stomach tumbled. She shouldn’t just blow him off, but if she called or texted, he’d talk her into going to his apartment. He had all the smooth words to convince her.
She needed to wrap her head around what she was doing and where they were going. Standing up, she grabbed her cookie dough to put in the fridge. She turned her phone off and went to take a shower.
When she crawled into bed a while later, she didn’t feel any better. She lay awake for a long time, staring at the clock wondering where Kevin was and whether he was angry with her.
Chapter Fourteen
Kevin was dog-ass tired as he dragged himself into his apartment. No lights were on and as soon as he stepped through the door, he knew Kathy wasn’t there. He felt the lack of her presence.
Well, damn. He pulled out his phone and sent her a text. Everything okay? I thought you were coming to my house.
He loosened his tie as he walked through the apartment with his phone in his hand, waiting for a response. He tried calling, but the phone went straight to voice mail, so she had it turned off. Why would she do that?
He stripped and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Thinking back over their evening together, he couldn’t come up with any reason why she would’ve changed her mind. When he dried off, he still hadn’t heard from her and his anger was mounting.
He had half a mind to go to her apartment and demand to know why she hadn’t come over and was ignoring him now. But he also knew that if she wasn’t already asleep, she would be by the time he got there. Making a scene by waking all her neighbors wouldn’t win him any points.
So he crawled into bed alone and set his alarm. Kathy might be avoiding him now, but he’d get to the bottom of it first thing in the morning.
* * *
When his alarm rang, Kevin slapped at it and didn’t want to move. He made a mental deal with himself that if Kathy had sent him a text to explain last night, he could sleep in. Maybe it had been a simple misunderstanding.
He swiped his phone on, the bright blue light nearly blinding him. No texts. No calls. She’d been awake for at least a half hour, so she would’ve seen his text and missed call from last night.
Unless she hadn’t turned her phone back on yet.
He rolled over with his phone in his hand, willing it to buzz with some acknowledgment.
He dozed off and when he rolled over twenty minutes later, there was still nothing. He got out of bed, determined to get some answers. The thought of calling or texting crossed his mind, but that was too easy to ignore. She couldn’t pretend he didn’t exist if he was standing in her shop.
The drive to Love in Bloom was fast, considering most of the world was still asleep. He peered through the front door, but saw no sign of her, so he walked around to the alley. He rang the bell meant for delivery drivers.
When the metal door clanged open, Kathy stared at him with a startled look on her face. Her eyes were impossibly wide. “Hi. What are you doing here?”
“You were supposed to come to my apartment last night.”
“I know. I was really tired, and I fell asleep.” Her eyes shifted away and he knew she wasn’t telling the whole truth.
“Can I come in?”
She nodded and stepped back, still holding the heavy door open. She made no move to give him a kiss. What the hell happened between dinner and bed last night?
The door thunked shut with a loud clatter. Kathy brushed past him and went to her office. He followed. Memories of the orgasm he’d given her there assaulted him. He cleared his throat to focus.
“Why didn’t you come over?”
She moved behind her desk and sat down. “I told you—”
He stayed standing, hating the distance the desk created between them. “Cut the crap. You could’ve gone to my place and fallen asleep. You decided not to come over, and then you turned your phone off to avoid me.”
His words were sharper than he’d intended and she gripped her hands together in her lap. She looked like a kid getting reprimanded by her parents. That’s not what this was supposed to be. He just wanted to understand what was going on in her head. He moved around the desk and squatted in front of her.
He put his hand over her clasped ones. “What’s wrong?”
“I freaked out.”
“About what?”
“This. Us. Going to your apartment, spending time there without
