Life Reconstructed: Chapter Twenty-Six

Catching herself short on the thought, Cat had the grace to feel vaguely sick at the direction of her thoughts. Okay. Jealousy was one thing, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever be entirely convinced that Amelia wasn’t, indeed, flirting with Matt, but letting that turn her against her friend, her friend, well that simply wasn’t acceptable.

Blushing at her baser feelings, Cat lowered her head, her eyes traveling down to her feet, which were crossed at the ankles, as she tried to swallow the delusional side of her that seemed to have taken over since the moment she’d walked into the hardware store.

“Cat? Ah, Cat?”

At the sound of Matt’s voice, she jerked her eyes up and into two pairs of amused faces. Amelia was biting back a smile. Matt was rising that infernal eyebrow again. Well, great.

“Fall asleep over there?” Amelia teased.

“Sorry.” Cat shrugged, but her eyes avoided Amelia’s playful gaze. “Zoning out a bit.”

“Woodworking isn’t really her thing,” Matt assured Amelia.

She giggled. “Color me surprised.”

“Oh, because you love it so much?” Cat snapped. She regretted the words immediately: for one thing, it sounded bitchy and for another, Amelia’s head flew back in hot reaction.

“Ah, okay,” Matt said, jumping into the fray of fissured silence. His voice was smooth in its redirection: “I think I’ve got everything I need tonight.” He tapped his pencil against the notepad in his hand. “I’ll, uh, I’ll draw up a quick sketch and email it to you in the next couple of days, and we’ll go from there.”

Amelia nodded slowly, but her eyes barely left Cat’s. “Okay. Yeah, that sounds good.” Holding out her hand, but a bit more stiffly this time, she smiled. “Again, thank you. I’m so grateful for this—and so excited.”

Matt took her hand. “Yeah,” he said, “no sweat.”

“Okay.” Pulling at the ends of her coat, Amelia made an odd movement. “Well, we should probably get going, huh?” Without waiting for a response, she spun on her heel and marched back down the long warehouse toward the door the store. Her shoulders were set a stiff, harsh angle.

Well, Cat didn’t care if Amelia was in a flying rage. Pushing herself off the table, she mumbled a quick goodbye to Matt, her chin tucked under the collar of her jacket: “See ya later.”

Only she wasn’t allowed to get very far.

“Whoa. Cat, wait up.”

“Can’t,” she called over her shoulder, hardly slowing down. “Amelia’s waiting for—oh!”

Swinging roughly back around by the sudden grip of his fingers against her wrist, Cat found herself staring up into Matt’s shadowed face. Towering over her, he stared down into her shocked countenance, his eyes falling to her slightly parted lips.

Then he smiled, his gaze flicking back up to her guarded eyes. It had a predatory fashion.

“Jealous, Cat?”

It was having it put out there like that, so blatant and clear. Opening her mouth in embarrassed surprise (because, even though she was well-aware that she had been jealous, she hadn’t expected him to call her out on it), Cat choked on her reply: “What? N-no, of course not.”

“Ah,” Matt said, clicking his tongue. “Try again.”

“Oh God, get over yourself,” Cat muttered, tugging at her arm. In response, he only tightened his hold.

“I should stop teasing you, I know,” Matt said, but whatever response Cat might have had to that blatant form of conceitedness, he forestalled her words when his head bent over hers, his mouth coming down to whisper over her trembling lips. Almost but not quite touching….  “But you make it so hard.” His lips just hovered over hers, tantalizingly close, his eyes narrowing on her misty gaze.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cat said, but she was smiling in confession, her head tilting upward just a tick. She could almost feel the impression of his lips—just one breath away.

“Pouting in the corner,” he side, his fingers releasing her wrist to skim up her arms. There was no reason to hold her captive; she wasn’t going anywhere.

“I didn’t think you’d notice,” she sighed out on a jerk, her chest rising sharply in anticipation as the pads of his fingers just skimmed over her sensitive skin, making her stomach jump, lips just barely brushing over hers with the force of their words.

“Life’s a lot easier when you stop overthinking everything,” Matt assured her.

“So they say,” Cat agreed.

“Yeah, I’m getting the feeling that nothing is ever the easy way with you,” Matt said, the last words slightly muffled as he lowered his head the rest of the way, his lips swallowing her answer as they settled at first gently and then not-so-gently, against her mouth. At the first touch of his lips, Cat let her mouth fall open, welcoming the entrance of his tongue.

Languid, her head fell back at the thrust of his ministrations, her hands coming up to rest against his upper arms, her fingers playing against the bunched muscles coiled there, her legs tangling inside the length of his. Her senses were alive to the slight buzz of the fluorescent bulb overhead, her skin smothered by the soft cotton of his shirt, the scrap of his calloused fingers as he brought his hands upward to cup the sides of her face. She shivered.

“Matt…” she breathed when his teeth found her lips, nibbling against them.

“Yes?”

She moaned. “Kiss me.”

“’Atta girl,” he whispered back before his lips claimed hers again, swallowing the whimpered sigh of her satisfaction.

The minty taste of his mouth overwhelmed her, his lips forming to the contours of hers in a devouring kiss that knocked her breathless. Clutching at his shoulders with the last of her strength, Cat allowed herself to sink into the sensations as his hands moved to support her back, bringing her closer into the curve of his body.

“Cat? Cat, are you still back here…” At the sudden sound of Amelia’s voice, Cat felt the shattered return of reality. She hadn’t heard the back door reopen, but the echo of Amelia’s booted feet against cement floor was not be ignored.

“No,” she heard herself muttering as Matt lifted his head, his brown eyes dark as they stared down at her flushed face.

“Cat?” He mumbled, his hands still caressing her face, even as he set her away from him. “You okay?”

“Hmm?”

Matt chuckled, his hands still holding her by the shoulders. Her body swayed indolently in his arms. “You’re going to need to stand on your own.”

“Oh. Oh!” Laughing at little, Cat dropped her eyes down to the floor, letting her hair cover the vulnerability that was clearly stamped across her expression. “Yeah, I suppose…”

“Oh, thank God,” Amelia said, entering the back area of the warehouse. She laid a hand on her chest, her eyes wary as they connected with Cat. “I thought maybe you’d left me here.”

“No,” Cat said, her brain sluggish as she tried to think of something to add to that statement.

“I was asking Cat how the kitchen turned out,” Matt offered saving Cat when she remained monosyllabic.

Cat peeked up at him. A little of her hurt shone through. “A little late in the game to care, surely.”

Amelia pulled her lips into her mouth. Probably hiding mirth, Cat supposed.

“I figured it must have gone well,” Matt said, his gaze moving back to her. He shrugged. “Otherwise, I’d have known.”

Cat glowered, but she couldn’t deny the truth of those words. “It looks great. Better than before, actually.” Still, it hurt that he hadn’t actively cared. Then again, she was more than well-aware that her emotions were on high alert today.

“I’m not surprised,” Matt said. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glanced at Amelia. “I’ve never a met a woman who took the adage to return things to their owner in better condition than before they found them, more seriously than our Cat.”

Our Cat. She refused to read anything in that statement. Still, her body hummed at the quiet admission.

Amelia shook her head, her gaze also on Cat—and there was a hesitant, almost guilty expression on her face. “Yeah. I’m learning that.” Then her gaze switched between Cat’s still slightly flushed face to Matt’s knowing grin. “Well? Are we ready to go?”

“Yes. Yeah,” Cat said quickly, too quickly. She peeked up at Matt. “Thanks, Matt.”

“Yes. Thanks again,” Amelia called and once again, she took that as her cue. With little more than a game wave, she turned on her heel and started marching toward the door.

Cat hitched her thumb over one shoulder, “Well, I should probably follow after her this time.” But still, she waited.

Matt only nodded. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

Turning on her heel, her disappointment hidden inside a plastic smile, Cat took a step forward.

“Oh, Cat?”

Pausing, she didn’t turn around, merely lobbing over her shoulder. “Yeah?”

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

Much as he’d known she would, at that Cat whirled to face him. “To-tomorrow?”

Matt smirked. “I’m going to work on the design for Amelia’s cabinet.”

“Okay?”

“Want to help?”

“Me?” Cat stuttered. “Shouldn’t you be asking Amelia that question?” She hated the very thought of that idea.

“I already have,” he said, “five minutes ago.” He gestured behind them toward the table saw. “That’s sort of what we were talking about.”

“Oh, right.”

His lips twitched, his arms uncrossing to dive into the front pockets of his jeans. “Besides, I got the impression she doesn’t really know what she wants.”

That was true enough. “Oh, well, yeah, I guess…”

“And isn’t that why you’re really here?” Matt asked, that hateful grin spreading across his face.

Cat drew in a breath. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, it was an excuse, all right,” Matt assured her.

Cat stared at him, bereft of words.

In response, Matt took a step closer. “I know a bluff when I hear one. The design concept Amelia described to me was nothing more than nonsense.”

“Well, she’s not a carpenter…”

Matt clearly wasn’t buying it. Worse, he’d obviously seen right through their subterfuge. “She really does need a new wardrobe,” Cat confessed, giving up the game.

Matt only inclined his head. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Cat didn’t even try to bite back her grin. “What time?”

“Eleven-ish.”

She nodded. “Anything I should bring with me?”

At the words, Matt’s face darkened, his gaze sweeping up and down her body, assessing, gauging. “Nothing you don’t mind getting some sawdust on.”

 

 

Walking through the hardware store, Cat hurried her steps. For one thing, she needed to escape from this place, to unpack some of what just happened with Matt. For another, she was aware that, for the second time in as many attempts, Amelia was undoubtedly standing outside beside Cat’s car, waiting. Though, to be fair, Cat wasn’t sure she cared too much about that.

Brushing through the front door of McBoy’s Hardware Store, Cat saw that she’d been correct. Huddled against the wind, Amelia was bouncing from foot to foot, her arms crossed warmly over her chest, beside Cat’s locked car.

“Sorry about that,” Cat said, her voice clipped as she hurried over. With a quick click of her finger, she unlocked both doors.

Amelia brushed her words aside. “No, that’s fine. It’s totally…” stalling out when she realized that Cat wasn’t listening to her, that, in fact, she hadn’t even waited for her to finish speaking before getting into the driver’s seat, Amelia swallowed the last of her words. Clamoring inside, she barely snapped her seatbelt in place when Cat was pulling off the curb.

“I’m sorry. Look, I’m so sorry,” Amelia said, throwing out her arms in surrender. Her soulful eyes looked at Cat’s stern expression. “I went too far. I see that now. Well, actually, I saw that inside the hardware store,” she muttered inanely.

“Went too far?” Cat asked despite herself, her gaze shifting quickly to Amelia’s contrite countenance. “What does that mean?”

“Flirting with Matt—”

“You were flirting with him then?” Cat cried incredulously, her hands thumping against the steering wheel. “What the hell, Amelia.”

“No, wait,” she pleaded. “Let me explain.”

“Explain? Explain what, how you were going to slide right in and throw your gorgeous face and rocking bod in his face, even though you knew…”

“Well, at least I got a reaction out of you.” Amelia wiggled her eyebrows.

“No, no. Don’t be cute,” Cat warned, throwing her left blinker on with enough force to break the switch.

“Fine,” Amelia returned, sinking into her seat. “But at least understand that I did it for you.”

Cat laughed. “For me?”

“Yes. From the moment we walked into the hardware store, you got all weird.”

“Oh, I did not,” Cat returned, slowing the car as they came upon Amelia’s street.

“Yes, you did. You were stilted and stiff and kind of…I don’t know, you acted like you didn’t even want to be there. You just stood by the door. And when you bothered to join the conversation, you were snappish.”

“Oh!”

“It’s true,” Amelia insisted, reaching out to lay a hand on Cat’s shoulder. “And so I thought, well…maybe a little competition…?” Amelia laughed gently. “Only, I guess I went too far.”

Cat felt her lips curl. “Really?”

“Oh, come on Cat, you really think I’d do something like that? Compete for the guy you like?”

Cat heard the hurt in Amelia’s voice. Guilt nipped at her sides. “No, I don’t think you’d do that. That’s why I was so surprised earlier…”

“Surprised? Try homicidal.”

“Oh, whatever.”

“I promise, I thought it’d help. I thought it’d force you to stop acting like—”

“Like a freak?”

Amelia shook her head. “You need to believe in your ability to attract members of the opposite sex.”

“That’s how I was acting?”

“Yeah, it was like you gave up before you even tried.”

“Oh.”

Amelia grinned. “Although…” she let her teeth raze over her bottom lip as Cat pulled up to the curb. “Then again, maybe it worked, after all?”

Cat narrowed her eyes. “Come again?”

“What kept you and Matt so long when I left you two alone?”

“Matt told you…”

“He told me a pack of lies.”

Cat blushed. Throwing the car in park as they approached Amelia’s studio, she kept her eyes resolutely ahead of her.

“Hey Cat.” Once again, Amelia let her hand reach out to touch Cat’s shoulder. It was considerably less tense then minutes ago. “Look, if you don’t hate me, there’s still a bottle of wine in inside…”

Turning her head, Cat reached up to cover her hand over Amelia’s. “I don’t hate you. I’m sorry, too. I acted like a jealous child.”

“It’s okay.”

“And,” Cat pursed her lips. “Your right. It did work.”

Amelia’s eyes rounded. “Do tell!”

Cat laughed delightedly. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she reached for the door handle. “Wine first.”

“Then spill.”

“Deal.”

 

 

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