16. Cat
16
CAT
Vince’s gaze seemed to be on me every time I looked his way. My skin felt as if it were on fire from all the heated looks he sent my way. I engaged in conversation with the people around me as much as possible as a distraction. Vince’s sister, Jenny , was the best at that. She had me pull out my phone practically the moment I sat down so I could show her my dream home Pinterest board.
She loved a lot of my ideas and told me my boards matched what she was already planning to do to Vince’s place. She said things like, “ Oh , that looks just like the color I was going to use for his bedroom,” or “ I wanted to use those same cabinets for his kitchen,” and “ Vince is definitely a clawfoot bathtub kind of guy. That’s the exact one I wanted for his bathroom.”
She had me believing most of her comments until the last one. Vince absolutely did not strike me as a clawfoot bathtub kind of guy. I started to sense she was taking the ideas I had and pretending they were Vince’s . Why , I had no idea.
Vince’s mother had brought Harry back into the room wearing a new sweater he definitely did not have when we brought him here. She tried to sit him in her lap while she ate at the table, but there were too many people for Harry’s liking, so he jumped off and scurried away. She seemed distraught at the thought that her new best friend had run away, so I told her he was uncomfortable around a lot of people, and that seemed to appease her for the time being.
The meal was great, and despite Vince’s warnings, there was no real family drama while we ate.
Vince, I noticed, kept stealing little touches here and there throughout the meal. His thumb would caress the back of my neck while his arm rested on the back of my chair. Twice , he rested his hand on my left leg as though it were an armrest of a chair. They weren’t sexual in nature. His hand never crept up my leg to inappropriate space. At the same time, they also weren’t touches that a friend would do. I didn’t know what to make of them, but I also didn’t want to draw any attention to it, so I just tried to pretend they didn’t happen.
Feeling more and more like Vince was undressing me with his eyes every time I looked over at him, I decided to get some space and use the restroom. Excusing myself, I navigated my way down the hall to the bathroom.
I took a moment to breathe in there. I had decided this morning that I would give Vince and me a chance, and if he wanted to keep going and see if this went beyond friendship, I would be stupid not to try along with him. Knowing that was what I decided and then having to spend much of the day with him staring at me every time I looked in his direction was daunting. It made it hard to focus. Twice his mom and sister had asked me questions, and I had to ask them to repeat them because I was distracted.
I fixed my hair a little after washing my hands and had just opened the door to exit when Tracy walked up.
“Oh good. Two birds with the same rock, or whatever the saying is,” she said to me, clearly messing up the common phrase. “ It’s clear that you and Vince have a thing going on, or he at least wants there to be a thing. Word of advice? Be careful. He’s my cousin, and he’s cool, but he’s a player.”
I started to interrupt her, not really wanting to hear what she had to say, but she kept going.
“He’s a legend with women. I know a couple of women who have been with him personally and many others who have heard all about him. He will be a good time in bed for you, no doubt, but if you’re looking for a man who will stick around and play family man, he ain’t it.”
I had no claim on him. Still , hearing these words said about him agitated me. I wasn’t sure if I was agitated that she was being so callous about her own cousin or if I was agitated about the content of her actual words.
“Do you know why he went into the Army in the first place?” she carried on without giving me a chance to respond. “ I’ll tell you. He got Laura Lynn pregnant and didn’t want to be a daddy, so he signed up for the military the very next day. He made good, promising to pay her child support and all that, but he dropped her like a hot potato once he was done with her. Ran away from all his daddy duty responsibilities as fast as the Army would take him.”
Feeling embarrassed that I didn’t even know Vince had a kid, I didn’t know what to say. She obviously mistook my silence as her encouragement to carry on.
“Again, he’s not a complete dick,” she said as though she hadn’t just spent the last few moments bashing him. “ He’s made it very clear to all the women he’s been with since that he isn’t interested in anything long-term or serious, so again, just doing you a favor here, woman to woman. You can have fun, but just don’t expect it to last.”
She flashed her hand in front of her signaling me to move. “ Now , can you move so I can use the restroom?”
I started to move away, but my legs were struggling after she just dropped that bomb on me.
“Oh, and you.” Tracy turned to point at Val , who had just come into the hallway. “ Stay away from Archer . He’s mine”.
She slid by me, practically pushing me out of the bathroom and into the hallway with Val . I stood there speechless while Val stared at me. She grabbed my hand and led me farther down the hall into the craft room we were in earlier.
“Okay, I didn’t hear everything she said, but I heard enough,” Val revealed. “ Cat , my gut tells me there is more to the story, because that doesn’t sound like Vince . I think you should just ask him.”
She was being kind and supportive and I appreciated that, but I was not ready to ask him about a kid that he clearly didn’t want me to know about. I understood why he hadn’t mentioned the child in his early letters. But we had gotten close in the last few weeks, or at least I thought we had. I realized at that moment Vince never really told me why he joined the Army .
“Cat, that woman is a bitch,” Val stated, referring to Tracy . “ Don’t take what she says at face value. Ask Vince .”
I knew she was right, but I still wondered if even a small part of it was true. I honestly didn’t know what to do, so I just nodded and told her I would.
We went back out to the main room, and as soon as I entered, Vince’s gaze was on me again. The smile on his face faltered a bit, and I sensed he knew something had happened. Not ready to have that conversation, if I ever did, I reached for the only distraction I could think of.
“Susan, I would love to see the cat-haven you talked about,” I announced to the table.
Susan shot up fast and clapped her hands with excitement. A quick glance back at Vince showed his knowing grin. He knew something was up but wasn’t going to call me out on it. At least not yet. My goal now was to avoid that conversation. Maybe forever.