Page 79 of Perfect Chemistry

The memory of me striking out with the beautiful woman at a party still made me laugh. Lacy had convinced me that Valery was making eyes at me all night, so I gave it a go… And the woman laughed in my face. Turned out she wasn’t making eyes at me, she was making eyes at Lacy.

I introduced them and the rest was history. They’d been together for six years now. When their adoption finally went through three years ago, they asked me to be their son Xavier’s godfather.

I was honored. I still am. The shit that kid had been through in his short life, yet he acted like every day was a gift. I had never seen a kid wake up with a smile laughing before Xavier. He was just a magical kid. As silly as it seemed, he gave me hope.

I got home with a gift wrapped bat, glove, and ball. I promised Xavier I would teach him how to play baseball, and I was going to keep that promise.

Showered, changed and slightly more hydrated, I drove to Lacy’s house to celebrate Xavier’s sixth birthday. The yard was overrun with kids when I pulled up across the street. I parked my car and grabbed the gift bag from the back seat. It was time to join the chaos.

As I rounded the corner to the back garden I heard Andie’s voice. Her son had been in the same kindergarten class as Xavier and the two were thicker than thieves.

“Lacy, this is my best friend since high school, Katie. She just moved back to town so you will probably see her a lot-” Andie’s words filtered into my ears and my feet stopped.

“Xavier, this is my godmother I told you about!” Aiden was excitedly introducing her to Xavier as well. She was Aiden’s godmother?

“KAI!”

Everyone stopped talking as Xavier yelled my name and ran to jump into my arms. I barely had time to catch him before he knocked into me.

“Hey, birthday man. How old are you now? Ten? Twelve? You’re getting so big!” I asked laughing as I hugged him back. I looked up to see Andie, Lacy, Val, and Katie all staring at me. Shit.

Val and Lacy were smiling. Andie looked pissed. And Katie. Katie looked like I had just broken her heart all over again. What the hell?

“Hey.” That was it. That was all of the words that I could muster in that moment. There was a long moment of silence before Andie finally spoke up.

“You’re an idiot,” she directed at me. Before smiling at the kids and continuing, “Aiden, Xavier, why don’t you boys go put the gifts on the table and go play. Ok?”

The boys smiled and ran off without a second thought. Lacy looked from me to Andie, looking confused for a split second before she realized something. Her eyes widened as she looked at me again mouthing, ‘Ohmygod.’ Her eyes darted over to Katie, and I knew that she had just connected the woman standing in her garden with every stupid confession I had made over the years.

Fuck.

“So, this is fuuuuunnnnn. Right?” Val cackled. “Andie, I had no idea that your best friend was Katie.”

Shit. Val had it all figured out too.

“Yeah. I’ve known Katie for what seems like forever. Kai, you must have told some great stories about us from high school, huh?” Andie’s tongue was as barbed as I remembered. She walked toward me and pulled me into a hug, and I flinched expecting her to knee in the balls or worse.

She whispered in my ear, “You fucking drunk called her last night, asshole.”

What? I didn’t-

My eyes closed as bits of memory passed through my head. I just assumed that when Amy told me the bartender’s name was also Katie, I drunkenly confessed to a stranger. No. I had confessed to Katie. My Katie. I opened my eyes as Andie pulled away and looked over at the woman I could never get over.

“Hey,” was all that she said to me.

“Hey. Um, you want to grab a soda and catch up?” I asked Katie, not wanting to see the looks the other three women were giving me.

She seemed uncertain, and looked at Andie. “We’ve got time, go ahead and grab something to eat too. You had a rough night,” Andie said the last bit to her but she was looking at me.

I gestured toward the back of the house and walked with Katie trailing slightly behind me. I was nervous. Katie Preston was here and I was the asshole who drunk dialed her in the middle of the night. I was an idiot.

* * *

Katie’s POV

I couldn’t speak. First he called me last night while he was out with his girlfriend, and now he was just staring at me like I owed him something. I gave Andie one last look, hoping she understood how angry I was with her right now.

I followed him into the house. It was a beautiful home filled with bright colors, toys, and children’s artwork. Once upon a time, I wanted this. With him. I pushed all of that back down and sat at the end of the sofa in the living room. Kai took a seat across from me and handed me a 7Up. Did he remember that I didn’t like dark sodas? No. That was stupid. It was a children’s party, so of course they wouldn’t serve dark sodas.

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