Katrina paused, her eyes lowering and a faint blush touching her cheeks. "Not exactly."
Damon cocked a brow at her and chuckled. "What do you mean by not exactly?"
"Well, I sort of work here."
"Oh?" Coming up to the doors leading to the gardens, he opened it up and stepped back, letting her enter before him.
"Yeah."
"What do you do?"
Chapter 3
Katrina's insides were turning to jelly as the memories continued to compound. Damon's confession only added to the turmoil brewing within her. She had no idea that seeing him would have such a powerful effect on her. If she'd known she may have reconsidered coming tonight.
"Kat?" Damon prompted.
"Not all of us were able to do well for ourselves out of high school and leave this place Damon," she snapped and then cringed at the look of surprise on his face at her reaction.
"Did I say something that implied that working here was a bad thing? If I had it wasn't my intention."
Sighing, Katrina raked a hand through her hair, embarrassed she'd gotten so touchy with him. "No. I'm sorry. I just..." Walking over to the seven foot tall marble fountain in the center of the gardens she sat down on the white marble bench, crossing one shapely leg over the other. The flow of the water trickling down the sculpture and into the base helped soothe her slightly frazzled state.
With a frown creasing his brow Damon walked over to the fountain and sat next to her. "What's wrong? Maybe I can help?"
Giving him a rueful smile, she shook her head. She began to finger the lace at the hem of her skirt trying to distract herself from the slew of mixed emotions flowing through her. "I'm being overly sensitive. I'm sorry. Just seeing you and seeing the others... Well, it makes me feel like I've wasted the last ten years."
Damon covered her small delicate hands with one of his and hooked the index finger of his other hand under her chin tilting her eyes up to meet his. "Why? Why would you think such a thing?"
Her heart rate accelerated and another wave of emotions flooded her as she looked deep into his dark brown eyes. It occurred to her that perhaps the problem was that she never really got the closure that she needed. On some level she'd hoped maybe they'd work it out at a later date. They'd made so many promises to each other all those years ago and none of them came to be.
She fingered the expensive material of his jacket lapel a moment as she gathered her thoughts. "I'm a banquet server Damon. I can't pay my bills and haven't even come close to feeling for a man the way I..." She stopped herself from finishing the sentence, feeling foolish. Who held a touch for a high school crush for ten years? No one. Just her.
"There's nothing wrong with being a banquet server Kat. Nothing at all."
She huffed and gave him a forced smile. "Things just seemed so much easier back then. And I guess I didn't realize how much I've resented the life that I've made for myself until the past few days when I did a full autopsy of it."
"You know, I've done a similar autopsy recently."
"Oh."
"Yeah. You wanna know how many women I've had relationships with since high school?"
Katrina couldn't even harbour a guess if she wanted to. He was educated, sexy-as-sin, successful, she guessed too many to count. She shook her head.
"None."
Katrina laughed and gave him a swat on the shoulder. "Oh, come on. A guy like you."
He grinned cocking a brow up at her. "A guy like me?"
"Yeah. Good looking. Too smart for his own good and it's blatantly apparent you've done well for yourself. How could you not?"
Damon shrugged. "When at Stanford, my studies were number one. When I graduated, work and building my company was my focus. I always thought I'd have time later on in life to find someone and have a family."
Katrina rolled her eyes at him, laughing lightly at the gloomy nature of his comment. "Oh come on, you have lots of time for that. Women have a shorter expiration date on having children than men."
He grinned, amusement gleaming in his eyes. "I'm not even going to comment on that statement."
"Such a smart guy." Her mood lifted. "So guess that means no children, huh?"
The amusement in his eyes dimmed and the sadness she thought she'd seen earlier flashed in his eyes, but only for a moment and then amusement reappeared. "None. You?"
She shook her head. "None."
"And do you want kids?"
"I always did. I just have to.... ya know. Find a man. Get married. And all that before I can get to the children part."
"At least the man part anyhow."
Katrina grinned. "Well, a man isn't necessity needed."
Damon laughed. "We do carry an essential ingredient to the baby making formula."
"You know what I mean silly." Leaning into him, Katrina gave him a little nudge to his right side. To her surprise his breath hitched and he flinched, his smile fading.
Her eyes widened in surprise at his reaction. "Oh-my-God, I didn't think I nudged you that hard. I'm sorry Damon!"
His jaw clenched and a smile returned to his lips. "Nah, you just took me by surprise. I'm fine."
Not convinced she reached to pull at his shirt to get a look at his side and he jerked backwards away from her, taking her hands in his. "I'm fine Kat..." he gave her a stern look, a look he used to give her when they were younger when he had no intention of discussing something further. "Really."
He's lying, a voice in the back of her head told her. Despite the years that had passed, she could still tell when he was lying, but she didn't press the topic. If there was something going on that he wanted to share with her, he would, in his own time.
"Okay."
He gave her hands a light squeeze. "I'm fine," he repeated.
****
Damon's side was hurting like a bitch, and he had to force himself to keep from wincing. It had been healing well, but she'd nailed him right on the incision. He could tell she suspected he was keeping something from her, but the last thing he wanted was to reconnect with her and within the first hour of being with her toss out the "Big C" news. If she was anything like she was when they were younger - and from their brief discussion so far he suspected she was - then she'd become sick with worry. He wanted to enjoy being with her, not suddenly be a target of pity. No, he'd keep that information tightly guarded unless he had to fess up.
He glanced down at her hands in his. They were so petite, his large ones eclipsing them completely. He unconsciously stroked the palms of her hands with his thumbs.