Donnie was puzzled when he walked up to Kate’s front door and found it standing open.  Maybe she was still out running and someone had broken into her house?  He quietly walked into the house, looking around for anyone. Surely she was back from her run by now.  Nothing seemed out of place, but then he had never been inside her home before.

He heard the washer running and followed the sound.  He was completely unprepared to see Kate sitting in the floor leaned against the front of the washer with her eyes closed.  She was wearing a robe. A very short robe. That had come untied.  If it were open any more than it was, he wouldn’t have to imagine her naked in his fantasies anymore. He swallowed.  He knew something was wrong. “Kate?” he said softly.

She opened her eyes but didn’t look at him. He slowly walked toward her and sat down beside her.  He was afraid to sit in front of her.  The last thing she needed if she was upset was him staring at her boobs.  “Are you okay?” he asked her once he got comfortable.

She turned her head and looked at him.  “I don’t know if I’m okay.  But I will be. I was gonna make something to eat. Will you stay and have something with me?”

He couldn’t have told her no if he had wanted to.  But he had to get her to cover up a bit.  “Sure. On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“That you put on some more clothes before I do something we’ll probably enjoy but regret later.”  He stood up and turned his back to her.

She laughed.  He was trying so hard to be a gentleman. “I can get dressed.  You stay turned like that and I have something right here in the dryer I can put on.  He heard her open the dryer and could tell she was moving around.  “Okay, you can turn around now.”

He turned but had his hand over his eyes.  “Are you sure?”

“Everything is covered sir.”

He opened his eyes and she was still in the robe. It was barely long enough to cover her ass.  But he couldn’t see more than her face and her legs now.  He’d still rather she put on some real clothes. “I had hoped you’d put on something more…substantial.”

“I will.” She grinned at him. “I had to put on some underwear first.  They were all in the dryer. Surely you wouldn’t want to know I was walking around with no underwear on.”

“Kate, you are playing with fire here. You are a very beautiful woman and I’m just a guy.”

“What kind of fire am I playing with, Donnie?”

“The kind that kept me up all night fantasizing about what it would feel like to make love to you.”

“I see.  I dreamed that you came back here last night and climbed into my bed and made love to me.”  She took one step toward him and could see just how hard he was working to hold himself back.  He was able to be seduced. Somehow she sensed that it was important to him for them to go slow, that he was serious about taking time before he made that kind of step in a relationship.  It made her want him even more.  She laughed to herself.  Brian had her totally addicted to sex.

He walked quickly around her and into the kitchen .  “I have to have something to drink.”

Kate headed towards here bedroom and called out “There’s bottled water in the refrigerator, some other stuff too. Glasses are to the right of the sink. Help yourself to whatever you find.”

Donnie opened the refrigerator and stood there enjoying the cool air for a minute before snagging a bottle of water and drinking half of it. He continued to stand there staring at nothing hoping the cool air would help him get a grip.  He heard her bedroom door close and could tell when she was standing near him in the kitchen.  He was almost afraid to look at her.

“Can you hand me one of those please?” he heard her say.  He pulled another one out and closed the refrigerator.  He turned around slowly.  She was wearing a simple green t shirt advertising Mountain Dew, jeans, and flip flops.  She had pulled her hair up into a pony tail and still had not put on any make up.  She looked absolutely perfect.  And way too young to be alone with someone like him.

“How old are you?” he blurted out. Kate just laughed and walked to the other side of the room and retrieved something from her purse.  She walked back to him holding out a card.  “What’s this?” he asked.

“My ID. No one ever believes me when I tell them how old I am.  It’s easier this way.”

He studied her driver’s license closely.  Kathryn Marie Parker. He liked it.  He then saw her birthday.  She was just a little over 2 years younger than him.  “Seriously?” he asked handing her ID back to her.

“Seriously.  It was a curse when I was younger. Now it’s nice. I have to dress different and wear makeup most of the time to be taken for an adult.”

“Yeah, with your hair up like that you look even younger.  Beautiful, but young.”

She blushed a bit.  “Thank you.”  She started preheating the oven and soon she and Donnie were working together in her tiny kitchen cooking dinner.  It was the most fun she could remember having outside of a bed in more years than she wanted to remember.

Once they were eating, Donnie mentioned that he was going to be heading out of tour in about 2 weeks.  But he wanted to know he could stay in touch with Kate while he was gone.  “Of course you can call me.  I like you.  A lot.  I’ll be missing you.”

He smiled at her.  “I like you a lot too.  How come you’ve never asked me about my band? You talk to me about anything I want to talk about, but you don’t ask me about my life or my work.  I don’t think it’s because you aren’t interested in what I do…”

Kate’s face paled a little.  Brian had been in a band too.  She wasn’t allowed to ask about the band or concerts or anything with his family.  The closest she got to knowing anything about Brian when he wasn’t with her was seeing pictures of Baylee on his phone.  He was so precious.  She had spent so many years not prying, that it was second nature.  “Maybe I don’t want to hurt your feelings and tell you that Jon was my New Kid crush?” she teased. “I guess I figure if you want me to be part of that area of your life, you’ll let me know.”

“I want you in every part of my life in spite of all my grand plans to take things slow.  Most of all right now, I want to know why you were so upset earlier.  I’ve never seen you look so lost.”  His voice was full of concern.

There was no way she could tell him the whole truth.  Not yet. “I realized that in order to find out what it is that’s going on between you and me, I had to change some things about me.”  He was staring at her.  “Like I’ll have to make myself more available.  I had to decide if I wanted to give up my nursing career, or jump headlong into my Event Planning business.  It just kind of hit me all of a sudden that I have to give up who I used to be and start new.”  That wasn’t in the least bit untrue, but she left out the parts about Brian.  She had been debating with herself for weeks over giving up nursing.

“You’re really going to give up nursing?”

“I think so.  I really love hosting events and getting everything together. It’s challenging, but less emotionally stressful. I’m considering expanding. I’ll have to hire someone to help me. That’s gonna be a challenge…I’m hell to work with.”

“I don’t think so.  I’ve enjoyed working with you.”

She laughed. “Donnie, that was me working for you.  I’m kind of a control freak.  When you are supposed to be working, you’d better be working.  I don’t tolerate goofing off on the clock.” She sighed.  “Let’s talk about something else.  I come up with better plans when I’m less distracted.”

“Something else?” he said.  He scooted his chair closer to hers at the table and looked her in the eye.  “Tell me about this crush you had on Jon Knight.”

“I don’t think so…”

Donnie’s cell phone rang, both interrupting and saving her at the same time.  Donnie checked the caller ID, excused himself for a moment and took the call.  After a few minutes he came back smiling.  “Do you have plans for the rest of the evening?”

“Well, I do have a mountain of laundry to do…”

“Great! You’re coming with me to the DYC lock-in…they need more chaperones.  More kids showed up than they planned for.”

“Ok, I have got to grab a few things and I’ll be ready to go.” She darted into her bedroom and put on a little make up, grabbed her toothbrush & toothpaste, and put on some more comfortable shoes.  Donnie was a little shocked when she grabbed her purse and was pretty much ready to go. All in about 5 minutes.

Donnie drove them over to the DYC and they joined the fray going on.  Kate got drafted into kitchen duty with Donnie after dinner.  They had way too much fun washing and drying dishes.  He ended up kissing her again after she was putting away supplies in a cabinet that she had to stand on a stool to be able to reach.  When he helped her down, he kissed her.  It was just a sweet kiss for fun.  When he pulled back and looked in her eyes, she saw something there that she didn’t expect to see.  She grabbed his hand and pulled him back out into the gym and they blended in to the crowd of teens and adults dancing.  At one point, the DJ pointed out Donnie and asked him if he would be doing the Tango that night.  Donnie  whispered and asked Kate if she knew how to tango.  She smiled.

“Only if you play the music Ken…”  Donnie  pulled Kate close to him and the crowd around them parted into a circle giving them room to dance.  Donnie was impressed with Kate’s dancing.  She matched every step.  He never expected that to happen.  What really blew his mind was that he had fun just being with her.  She was able to keep up with him and was still able to go have breakfast with him the next morning after the kids were picked up. Even though Donnie realized how crazy busy her life was, he still couldn’t figure out how someone like Kate could possibly be single.  The way she kissed him when he dropped her back off at her house was enough to make him wish he wasn’t about to go back on tour with his band. How did that happen?

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