Page 36 of Serenity Harbor

“So you’ll stay?”

She was so stupid to agree to this, given these fragile new feelings bursting to life. “Yes. I’ll stay. I’ll bring my things with me tomorrow morning.”

He must have sensed her conflicted feelings. He leaned in, his eyes serious and intent. “You don’t have to worry about a repeat of what just happened. You’re saving my ass, helping me out with Milo until the autism specialist can arrive. I know what a huge favor you’re doing me and that it means you won’t be able to spend as much time as you intended with your family. Believe me, I fully understand what’s at stake, and I won’t jeopardize that again. I would be stupid to screw things up between us simply because I’m attracted to you.”

“Good night, Bowie,” she said, then pulled away, wondering why his firm assurance left her feeling vaguely depressed.

By the time she made the ten-minute drive between Serenity Harbor and her childhood home, her heartbeat had almost returned to its normal rhythm and the butterflies in her stomach had quieted down for the night.

Her thoughts continued to race, though, after she pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine.

That kiss.

When she closed her eyes, she relived every heavenly moment of it. Who would have guessed that a computer geek would be so tightly muscled or that he would know just how to kiss a woman to make her feel like she was some kind of priceless gift?

It would be entirely too easy to fall for Bowie. Staying in his house might be the hardest thing she ever had to do. How would she do it, manage to keep her headandher heart when she wanted to surrender both to him?

I would be stupid to screw things up between us simply because I’m attracted to you.

His words rang through her head again, and she had to close her eyes. She didn’t want toknowhe shared this low hum of awareness that seemed to sizzle through her veins whenever they were together. Now that she knew, how on earth was she going to focus on her job, on taking care of Milo and keeping focused on her goal of adopting Gabi and making a new life for her child?

It would be so much like the same old Katrina to throw away everything important to her because she was weak. She wasn’t proud of her track record when it came to men. When she looked back now, she was mostly embarrassed that she had dated so many different guys and typically lost interest after a month or so.

Contrary to what some of the old biddies in town might think, she wasn’t promiscuous. Yes, she liked to flirt and have fun, to tease and flatter a guy, but that was about as far as it went, for the most part.

She had kissed more than a few, but she had slept with only three guys—her first boyfriend in high school, her college boyfriend whom she had dated for a year, the standing record, and then stupid Carter Ross.

After giving it considerable thought these last eight months when she had been focused on everythingbuthaving a man in her life, she thought she finally understood why she thrived on the attention.

When a guy was smiling at her—totally focused on her—she didn’t feel stupid, weird,wrong.

That was just one of the repercussions of the epilepsy she had suffered as a kid, that constant awareness that she was different, that at any moment she could totally lose it and have another stupid seizure.

Limbs thrashing, teeth grinding, head flung back, out of control.

Having an overprotective mother hadn’t helped her fit in at all. Charlene hadn’t allowed Katrina to play sports or even go out on the lake with other kids. She hadn’t been allowed to go to sleepovers either—not that many of the kids’ parents wanted her.

Because she missed so much school, she had been behind everyone else—and the medication she took in an attempt to control the seizures left her fuzzy-headed and sleepy, with a hard time focusing on schoolwork.

StupidKat. TwitchyKat.

She had hated both nicknames. Kids had said them to her out loud on the playground, but she had also felt the implication from their parents, with their whispers and their pitying looks.

Her seizures made her different—and when you’re a kid and you’re different from everyone else, you can’t help but feel it.

Like a miracle, the best possible answer to all her prayers, the seizures started to taper off as she grew older and then stopped completely around the time she hit puberty. Her doctors said that wasn’t uncommon, for kids to grow out of seizures.

As the months went on without seizure activity, she had begun to feel unrestrained by her physical condition for the first time in her life. Charlene, of course, had still been inclined to hover over her and keep her wrapped tightly in her warm arms at home, but her dad had finally put his foot down, one of the rare times she had seen her parents argue.

Around the same time the stranglehold eased a little at home, Katrina had started to develop curves and grew into her features. Some of the tourist boys coming to the lake for the summer started to notice her, which made the local boys suddenly wake up and really see her for the first time.

Heady stuff for a girl who had always feltwrongsomehow.

She wasn’t that girl anymore, she reminded herself now. She was a grown woman with a college degree, a career, and hopes and dreams that didn’t leave time for her to heedlessly throw her heart at the next gorgeous guy who smiled at her.

While she lived in Bowie’s house, she simply had to keep her attention focused on those dreams. To remind herself of them now, she pulled out her tablet and clicked to the images of Gabi.

This little girl loved her and was counting on her to provide a better life for her, and she couldn’t afford to let anything distract her from that.

---