Going Home

21. Leaving Denver

I move my hand over hers to stop her from fumbling with her fingers. I know it's a nervous habit of hers, but it's starting to annoy me. What I never would have expected is that she would continue the fumbling with my own. Trying to ignore the constant touch and what it does to my insides, I focus back on her eyes. "We can always go back to being just that. All you have to do is stop pushing me away. You have to let me in on things that bother you. I'm here for you Kat, I have always been there for you but you wouldn't let me in."

I see the look on her face change and soon tears are running down her cheeks. I reach to wipe them away with my other hand, but Kat turns her head away. "No, don't. I don't deserve any of your care, affection or even your kindness. I treated you like you were nothing yesterday. You confessed your true feelings and I just stepped on them, treated them as if they were nothing."

There are a lot of things I can deal with. Seeing blood, broken bones, surgeries. I could handle them all. A crying girl, not so well. So going with my instincts, I wrap my arms around Kat and pull her into my chest. "It's not that big of a deal, I left you to fend for yourself in a strange city after you told me I have a daughter. I should've been there for you."

I don't know how long we're sitting like this, but I finally start to feel Kat relax in my arms. Her sobs have quieted down and she lifts up her head to look at me. "I'm sorry, Ian, for everything." And that's all she manages to say before I cover her soft, pink lips with my own.

Instead of pushing me away and slapping me across the face like last night, Kat now melts into the kiss. I move one of my hands to her cheek, preventing her to move away. I am the first to pull away from the kiss and rest my forehead against hers.

I look her in the eye, caressing her cheek with my thumb. "You have nothing to be sorry about. We can't change what happened in the past, so why dwell on it?" and while saying those words to her, I realize myself that they are true. Whatever happened with Duke, the pregnancy and anything else during the four years we spent apart, there is nothing we can do to change them now.

I am caught by surprise when I feel Kat's sweet lips on top of mine again. "Have I ever told you what an amazing guy you are?" She asks me, not expecting an answer. I pull her closer to me, if that's even possible, and just hold her there. She rests her head into the crook of my neck and lets out a deep breath. "Can't we just stay here, like this. Not having to worry about how we're getting home?"

"We could do that, but that way we would starve to dead and are never able to finish our degrees, see our friends. Would that be worth it?" I ask her, keeping my tone light. She groans into my neck in reply. "I hate it when you're right, you know that, right?"

The defeated look on my face causes me to laugh and I kiss her on her forehead. "Come on, let's go home," I say standing up, reaching for her hand to pull her off the bed. "Although I'm not a big fan of New York City, I do miss my own bed and the possibilities to do other things than just driving through the country."

"Fine, you win, we'll get going again. I'll just grab my stuff from the other room, meet me downstairs?" Without waiting for my answer, she opens the door that leads to the hallway and is out of my sight.

It's weird how things can work out. Seeing Kat in the grocery store with Mia opened a lot of old wounds, but now, after only three days I understand why she did what she did. It only took me three days to rediscover my true feelings for her. I remember the girls I tried to date during my three years of studying at Columbia, but nobody could ever win the invisible competition against my Kat.

Glancing over the room one last time in order to check if nothing is left behind, I grab my backpack and walk out of the room, making my way to the lobby downstairs. A smile is brought to my face when I see Erin managing the little reception she created for her Bed and Breakfast.

"You seem surprisingly happy. You should smile more often, boy. It suits you. I take that things went well with the girl last night?" A bright smile shows on her face and I can't help it to return it with a wide smile of my own.

"Something like that, yes. Actually I screwed up, but she found a way to get to me after all. Right now, I couldn't be in a better mood. I owe a lot of it too your advice, though, so, thank you Erin." Not caring about proper behaviour, I walk over to her and wrap her in a big hug.

The sound of a door closing adverts my attention to the source of it and I see Kat standing there, carrying a small bag and a big smile on her face. "Kat, this is Erin. Erin, this is Kat, the girl I told you about last night."

Erin walks over to Kat, taking in her appearance. She then turns back to me with another bright smile on her face. "You didn't tell me she's such a beauty, you're lucky to have her."

"Actually, Erin, I am lucky to have him. He's the good catch here. I don't know what you said to him, but thank you. I don't know what I would do without him." She says and then walks over to me and pressed a soft kiss on my cheek. "I'll take our stuff out to the car. Erin, it was nice to meet you," she says with a smile before she takes my backpack and steps outside.

I take out a paper and a pen and write down my number and my email address, before turning back to Erin. "Here, take this. Don't be a stranger Erin, who knows we will be back here sometime." I don't know why I did what I did, maybe because she reminds me of my own grandma, but I would love to stay in touch with here, to be able to talk to her. I give her one last hug while saying my own goodbyes before I step outside and see Kat leaning against the car with a bright smile on her face.

"Good, you're here. I was starting to get worried you might have replaced me already." Her words are followed by a light giggle, a sound that is music to my ears. I step closer to her and wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her into my chest. "You are irreplaceable, you're stuck with me. You better get used to it." And with that I close the final distance between us and press my lips softly on hers.