“Ms. Williamson, I think my computer froze.”Kat looked up from her own computer to see Danny Tucker raising his hand. She restrained a sigh. The kid’s computer inevitably froze at least twice each class period, mostly because he seemed determined to press as many buttons as possible until the computer gave up the fight.Kat fiddled with the mouse and, seeing that the cursor was frozen, she used the tried and true Control-Alt-Delete and told Danny to do only exactly as he was told when the computer rebooted. Danny nodded, but she knew that was basically code for “I’m going to mess around again the second your back is turned.”Kat didn’t mind teaching most days. The kids were entertaining, and she essentially babysat while they played keyboard games to improve their typing skills. It was a far cry from her work as a computer programmer, and if she thought about how she was wasting her own education to sit here and make sure kids like Danny didn’t cause their computers to explode, she
The day after Emma’s incident—what did they call it this time? the computer lab incident?—Gavin told himself he had every right to be angry at Kat and it was none of her business what he did in regards to his daughter. She didn’t know Emma’s history. How could he explain that the three times he had taken Emma to therapy, his daughter would become so panicked afterward that it was like talking a person off of a mental ledge? Every time had been worse than the time before. After the third therapist, Gavin had vowed never to put Emma through that ever again.He told himself that as he got Emma to go to sleep the night after this incident. He told himself the same thing a day later, even though guilt had started to niggle at him. The day after that, he told himself he’d maybe been a little harsh, but he’d still been well within his rights to tell her to back off. He couldn’t think about the look on her face, or how he’d probably screwed up everything with her already, and as he did work a
As Kat lay in Gavin’s bed, staring up at the ceiling, she knew she wasn’t going to sleep tonight. For one, the sheets smelled like him, and she couldn’t help but inhale that scent and think of kissing him. Thoughts of kissing only made her more awake than ever, and so by one in the morning, she’d given up all hope of sleeping.She debated whether or not she wanted to make herself a cup of tea. Would she wake up Gavin if she did? But something warm sounded too good to pass up, and besides, she’d gotten good at being quiet when Lillian had been alive. Kat had gotten up so many times in the middle of the night for one reason or another as her grandmother had declined, losing more and more of herself to the dementia taking hold of her mind.Kat sighed. Getting up out of bed, she snagged her robe and her glasses. She tiptoed past Emma’s room and entered the living room to get to the small apartment kitchen. But when she saw a figure sitting up on the couch, she stifled a gasp. Gavin. It w
Gavin realized the irony that was his life when he wanted the woman who was currently staying at his apartment and driving him crazy. Not because she was a bad houseguest. No, she was the ideal houseguest, he had to admit: clean, quiet, and she cooked. But it was seeing her walk around his apartment, seeing her toothbrush next to his on the bathroom counter, and smelling her scent everywhere that drove him insane. It was like having a wife again.And he really, really didn’t need to think of Kat as his wife.It didn’t take long for word to get around town about what had happened. Joy had stopped by Gavin’s to see Kat, and Adam had also dropped in, asking if they could help in any way. Soon it seemed like everyone in town wanted to help: Grace, Jaime, even Gavin’s parents, along with every person who had ever talked to Kat. Her coworkers from school stopped by in droves, bringing casseroles and other dishes, hugging Kat and offering her various condolences. And then, of course, there
When Kat woke up, it was already dark out. She fumbled for her phone and groaned at the time displayed: nine o’clock. Now she’d never sleep. She stared up at the ceiling, dimly registering that she’d somehow ended up in Gavin’s bed, and not for the reasons she would’ve preferred.Sighing, she rose and went into the living room, where she found Gavin reading. He looked up when she entered.“How are you feeling?” He got up to lead her to the couch.“Tired, but I’ll be okay.” Embarrassment made her edgy. She hadn’t cried like that in front of someone since her mom had died. Kat wished she could bury herself underneath a rock and maybe hide there for the foreseeable future. When she glanced at Gavin, she saw that his expression was full of concern, and she had to admit, it made her even antsier.“I think I’ll go home tomorrow,” she said out of the blue. She hadn’t even thought about it, but she needed distance. Time. Space to think about what the hell she was doing. Having sex with a m
“Dad, I can’t wake up Mom. Please come home.”Gavin had been at work when Emma had called him after finding Teagan unconscious on the bathroom floor. As he’d left work, he’d called 911 and prayed to every deity he could think of that his wife wasn’t already dead.“I’ll be there as fast as I can. Can you go to the front door and make sure to open it if the police get there before me?”He didn’t want to think about how calm his seven-year-old daughter was in the face of this trauma, or how he had to ask her to be there to let the paramedics in to help Teagan. He didn’t think about anything as he drove home. Anger roiled through him with such intensity that at a stoplight, he had to lay his forehead on the steering wheel to catch his breath.How could she do this? he couldn’t stop thinking. It was the mantra running through his mind when he arrived home to see an ambulance with its lights flashing out front and a fire truck not far behind. It was the thought that wouldn’t leave him wh
Kat didn’t know where she would go now. She couldn’t go back to Gavin’s apartment, could she? She drove to Lillian’s place, ignoring the boarded-up window and the police tape left behind in some spots. A police car sat parked some yards away, always on watch. At least she wouldn’t be completely alone.The house seemed especially lonely tonight. She flipped on a light and wandered through the house, stopping in her grandmother’s room. She found herself crawling onto the bed that was covered in a quilt Lillian had sewn some years ago when her eyesight had still been good, and Kat inhaled its scent: lavender and Bengay. She smiled. She missed her grandmother fiercely, and especially on a day like today, when she could’ve used her frank advice.You can’t help men from being stupid, she would say. They were born stupid. All you can do is hope they figure it out before you end up six feet under. Then she would’ve made Kat homemade macaroni and cheese with freshly baked bread and filled her
Gavin had been in a bad mood for days. The worst part of it was that he was well aware that it was his own fault, so he walked around with a metaphorical cloud over his head, constantly raining down on him. Despite his best efforts, Emma noticed and asked him what was wrong, but how could he tell his daughter what had happened with him and Kat? So he’d told her it was just the gloomy weather and left it at that, although his daughter was way too perceptive to take him at his word.The weekend before Halloween consisted of getting River’s Bend ready for its Halloween festivities. The vineyard hadn’t done much in the way of celebrating in the last few years, but with the good harvest this year, Adam had decided they should celebrate as much as possible. When Gavin entered the vineyard’s main building, the entire front room was decorated with pumpkins and gourds, bats and skeletons, and he had to wave away fake cobwebs to get to Adam’s office in the back.“He’s not in yet!” Kerry, the f