I took a deep breath because I understood his protectiveness of Victoria. Then I glanced inside their home. It was Christmas…everywhere. Not overly done, but beautifully done. You could see the light touches of a woman with an eye for detail who knew when enough was enough. A fresh tree stood in their living room to the right, and if I hadn’t been so caught up in my thoughts, I would’ve seen it through the front window. Even their garden gnome that Katherine had given them with pride had a matching Santa hat. A nice touch I thought.
“I need to find my fiancée. I need to bring her home to have Christmas Eve with our friends, and then I need to take her to meet her future mother-in-law. That is, if you think she still wants me after my huge fuck-up today.” I had no doubt Katherine and I were solid, but I thought her best friend might not understand my absence of the last hour and a half.
Tori moved to stand next to Cam, looking, I hated to say, terrible.
“You’re not wrong.” She burped and tried to be lady-like about it. “Hang on.” She held up the finger of one hand and covered her mouth with the other.
Cam pulled her hair back, and we all waited to see what was going to happen next.“Okay,” she breathed. “I’m okay. Kath said she was going to find you at your favorite surfing spot. She said you mentioned it when you needed to clear your head.” She put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes as if she was waiting for the room to stop spinning.
“Victoria?” Cam smiled down at her.
“I’m good…” She attempted a shaking smile and tried again. “I’m good.”
“Did you see the ring?” I asked.
“Pretty,” she said, her face moving into a beautiful, soft smile.
“We probably won’t make it tonight,” I told her. “I’m sorry, Victoria, I will try. I know you were looking forward to having this holiday eve with your friends and family. But I hope you know it won’t be the last time my future bride and I share a celebration with you and yours.”
“I was kind of hoping you’d say something along those lines.” She grinned, though it looked painful for her to do so as a grimace warred with her smile.
I turned to go, but she stopped me with her hand on my shoulder. “Holst?”
“Yes?”
“She’s new at this whole relationship thing. She’s an awesome friend, but relationships are new territory.”
“Today, I made the first of what I’m sure will be many mistakes. And when I get to Katherine, I’ll tell her exactly what those were. But I assure you, lovely Victoria, I’ll spend the rest of my life giving her what she needs, because today, for a brief moment, I had to watch her walk out a door with another man. When I get her back, I’m never letting her go again.”
“Swoony,” she said on a sigh and smiled that smile that apparently made Cam fall in love with her.
“I’ll let you know when I get to her. I’ll send a text so you don’t worry.”
“I’d wish you luck, but I don’t think you’ll need it,” Cam told me, pulling his wife into his arms.
“Drive safe,” Tori called as I made my way back to my car…to find Katherine.
Katherine
I still hadn’t seen or heard from Holst, and though the hot surfers that had come and gone into the ocean were nice to look at, I needed only one in particular.
I didn’t want to go back to the apartment. Holst was there, in every way a person could be…except physically. Finally, my phone rang in my pocket.
Unfortunately, not the call I was hoping for.
“Mom,” I answered.
“Please don’t hang up on me,” she said quickly.
She couldn’t see it, but I shook my head, “No, I won’t hang up.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m sitting on a bench, looking over the train tracks in North San Clemente. Low tide. It’s gonna rain, I think.”
“Katherine…I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s done, Mom. I think…I don’t know…under the circumstances, you did the best you could?” She didn’t speak, so I did. “Has Dad been smacking you around all these years?”
“Let’s not talk about that.”
“Mom…”
“Only when I do something he thinks is stupid.”
“And do you do a lot of stupid things?”
There was a long pause before she said, “Yes, honey. Apparently I say a lot of stupid things. But…he won’t hear me say stupid things anymore.”
“You’re leaving him?”
“I left him. Eventually, honey, you and I need to sit down so we can discuss all of this, but I have to know…are you somewhere with Max?”
“Are you high? Of course not! I got the closure I needed.”
“I kept trying to get in touch with you…emails and messages.”
“I know,” I choked out, tears threatening again. “But Mom? You should’ve tried harder, and I don’t mean to warn me you were all coming here for Max’s engagement whatever.”
“Katherine—”
“Mom,” I choked out. “I’m gonna talk to someone…a professional…but I know now, I was young, Mom and he…he was…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. It sounded…wrong somehow. I wasn’t a child. So to put the word “molester” after it…
“I’m sorry—”
“Hang on…let me finish. This isn’t just about Max, Mom. Dad…he doesn’t like me. I always felt it, but what he’s done all these years…it’s way worse than what happened with Max.”
She’d started to cry. “I’m so sorry I didn’t stop it when I should have, honey. Where exactly are you? I rented a car. I’ll come and get you.”
“No,” I argued. “No, I need to think about what happened today and—”
“Katherine,” a stern voice barked not far from me, footsteps pounding on the pavement grew close.
“Mom, gotta go.” I disconnected immediately and stood up to see Holst only a few feet away.
When he reached me, I couldn’t read him. Then he whispered his next words, each one with a desperate emphasis, “Don’t you ever fucking walk away from me again. I’m sorry I can’t bend on this.”
“What?” I asked.
“I shouldn’t have let you walk out the door with him.”
“I asked you to!” I returned, a little attitude, hand on my hip.
“I know you don’t need a man to boss you around, and I know you don’t want it, either. And I’m standing here, looking at the woman I love, basically scolding her because I fucked up!”
I squinted my eyes in confusion. “What?”
“I told you I’d always be by your side in battle, Katherine. I let you go in alone because I…” He ran his hand through damp hair and exclaimed, “Fuck it!”
One hand grabbed the back of my neck through the thick jacket. His other arm went around my waist as he knocked me off my feet, over his knee, and slammed his mouth against mine.
I held onto him as hard as I could, gripping the skin of his back through his clothing.
He broke the kiss, but kept his lips against my face.
“Don’t let me go,” I begged.
“Never, baby.”
“I’m sorry…earlier…” I breathed through my tears. “God, I’m sorry. I know how it must’ve looked to you, but it wasn’t like that.”
“Katherine,” he said, pulling back just enough to look into my eyes. His voice thick as he said against my lips, “My Katherine.”
“Your Katherine,” I confirmed. “Always. There was never one, single moment today when I wasn’t your Katherine. Even when I couldn’t find you.”
The rain started to fall. It was overcast; it was the end of December, and somehow, there, in the moment with him, we could’ve been pelted with hail and probably not even noticed.
But Holst, being the practical man he was, righted me to my feet and said, “We should go to Victoria and Cameron’s holiday party.”
“Do you want to know what happened today?”