Chapter 12 #2
“I love you, babe.” He leans forward and cups my face in his hand, leaning in to kiss my forehead lightly, then looks into my eyes.
I smile at him. “I love you too. I'm never gonna get tired of hearing that!”
“Well, I can promise you I'm never gonna get tired of saying it.”
We sit watching dinner that he's made for us in front of Saturday night TV... bliss.
We go to bed early and don’t sleep much at all... also bliss.
Sunday afternoon, after a lazy morning in bed, we both go our separate ways with arrangements to meet for walking to school tomorrow.
When I hear Patrick’s car pull up, I glance out of the window to see him and Gary getting out with Jess, she's chatting their heads off as usual.
I open the front door and smile at my girl.
She sees me and comes running over. I crouch and open my arms, ready for her attack.
“Mummy, mummy!” she says as she comes running into my arms. “Guess what... Daddy says that I can have a puppy at his house.”
I look at him over her shoulder and straighten up, “Oh... does he now?”
Patrick cringes, “Sort of . . . what can I say? I caved. Gary and I have been considering it, and she tipped us over the edge!”
I love dogs, and if I weren’t allergic, I would have let her have one here. I smile at Jess. “You are one very lucky girl, you know that?”
She nods, “I do, mummy.”
“When is this puppy arriving?”
“We’ve found the most gorgeous Pug, it’s going to be a couple more weeks until she can leave her mother, but we’re taking Jess on Wednesday after school to the breeder to meet her. She’s gorgeous, though, Kate.”
I smile, “Can’t wait to meet her, and I'm sure Jess will come up with a lovely name.” I say sweetly to Patrick because I’m sure it’s going to be the most ridiculous name possible.
She hears me and her eyes light up, “Princess, Princess… I want to call her princess… or Merliah.” She ponders which is her favourite mermaid from a Barbie movie.
I laugh at Pat and Gary's horrified expressions. They asked for it. As if they weren’t camp enough, images of them shouting out Princess in the park is priceless!
I need to speak to Pat about Nate, so I put Jess’ favourite movie on the TV and tell her I'm going to speak to Daddy in the kitchen and that I won’t be long. Pat and Gary exchange puzzled looks before following me into the kitchen.
“Is something wrong, Katie?” Patrick asks
He’s always called me Katie. I don’t like it from anyone else, it makes me feel like a little girl, but I don’t mind it from him and Gary. It’s what Patrick always called me, and Gary followed suit.
“No, nothing’s wrong, nothing at all.” I turn around and rest my bottom on the kitchen worktop, smiling at them.
“I knew it!” Gary said, pointing at me.
“What?” I widen my eyes
“I told you, Pat,” he says to Patrick, and turns to me, narrowing his eyes. “You’ve got a man, haven’t you?”
My eyes go to Pat, who is watching me strangely. “Have you, Katie?”
“I have actually, he’s called Nathan. You’ve probably heard Jess talk about Lucia?
” They both nod. “It’s Lucia’s dad. We started seeing each other a couple of weeks ago – it was early days, so we decided to keep it quiet, but now we want to tell the girls that we’re more than friends, so I wanted to tell you first.”
His face goes soft. “It must be serious if you want to tell Jess?”
I nod, “It’s looking that way, yes.”
He smiles at me softly. “I'm happy for you . . . I really am. No one deserves to be happy more than you. I've heard Jess mention Nate a couple of times. I'm presuming that him?” I nod, “He’s a nice guy?”
“Yeah, he is Pat. You don’t need to worry about him spending time with Jess, and I’ll introduce the two of you to make you feel better about that, but he’s a nice guy and a brilliant dad to Lucia. . . he and Jess get on great.”
“I'm happy for you, too, chick,” Gary says and hugs me.
“Me too… I am, I hope he treats you nice.” Pat says, hugging me too.
“Good.” I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Phew, I'm glad that’s out of the way . . . who wants a cuppa?”
We have a drink before they get on their way, so I can prepare dinner for Jess and me.
I broke the news to her when we had finished dinner, after plucking up the courage, and I might as well have told her it was school tomorrow - no big deal at all.
She didn’t flinch. She’s used to seeing him and knows him well, so that helped.
However, when I told her that he was my boyfriend and that I care about him, she got excited about spending more time with Lucia and possibly having more sleepovers.
I got nervous about telling her for absolutely no reason.
I text Nate after I've put her to bed.
Well, that’s Jess told - she barely acknowledged what I said, she got excited at the idea of more sleepovers!
I get a text back about half an hour later.
Same here, Lucia asked when you were moving in! I told you she loves you… Not as much as I do, though. I had a fantastic weekend, babe. Wish you were here with me now. Miss you. xx
I reply.
I miss you, too, honey. I’ll see you in the morning. You coming back to mine when I drop the girls off? I don’t start work until 10? xx
I get one back immediately.
Hell, yes, I was supposed to be on a job for half nine, but I'll tell my lads that I’ll be a bit late and to start without me.
I put back
I love you, Nate. Thanks for this weekend. Xxxxxxxxxx
He texts back
Night, Kate, I love you. Xxxxxx
That leaves the path clear for us now. The only one who doesn’t know about us is his ex... Lucia’s mum and I’d rather she stay out of the picture altogether.