Chapter 20
Katana
The afternoon had a cool, gentle breeze blowing in off the ocean water, bringing with it a wonderful scent. I sat on the deck getting some vitamin D from the sun and enjoying the gorgeous day.
Nix had had lunch with one of his business partners, then he said he’d be home after that. I loved the fact that I had someone coming home to me every day. It was so different from my life before.
A man cleared his throat, taking my attention away from my thoughts, and I pulled my shades down to see who it was. A tall man stood on the stairs looking at me. “Hi there. You’re a new addition to this neighborhood.” He gestured to the deck. “May I?”
“Of course,” I said, sitting up and making sure my dress was straight. I’d been lounging and had no idea what kind of state I was in. “I’m Katana Reeves.”
He came to me and shook my hand. “John Simmons. I live next door. You related to Nixon?”
“No—no, I’m not.” I didn’t know how much to tell the man.
“Oh, okay.” He pointed to the other chair. “You mind?”
“No, please sit down.” I pointed to the unopened bottle of water on the small table between us. “Thirsty?”
He shook his head. “Nah. So, where are you from, Katana Reeves?”
“Portland,” I told him. “But now I live here.”
He nodded and ran his hand through his thick, dark wavy hair. “And why’s that?”
I found him quite nosy, but I supposed neighbors liked to know who was living next to them. “Well, if you must know, I’m pregnant with Nixon’s baby.”
“Oh!” he said with raised brows. “Now that’s some news.”
“Are you a reporter?” I joked with him.
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “Just a nosy old man with little to do.”
“You’re not old,” I said as I looked him over. He wasn’t super young, but he wasn’t old either.
“How old do you think I am?” he asked with a smile. “And don’t sugarcoat it. I really want to know how old I look to you.”
“Forty,” I said without thinking too much about it.
He nodded. “Forty-two. But I feel much older than that. I guess going through a divorce does that to people.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. How long ago was it?” A little stab in my heart had me asking.
“It’s nearly been a year since it became finalized. But it took two years to get the whole ugly thing done.” He ran his hand over his brow. “I waited too long to leave my wife. I stayed for our two kids. I spent twenty years with the woman I thought loved me. Some six years back I caught her cheating, and only then did I find out she’d been doing it all along. I even had to get my kids tested to make sure they were mine. They were, so I stayed. I stayed and stayed until our youngest graduated from high school and moved off to college. Then I left, and that woman who’d done me so wrong tried to do even more to me. She wanted half of everything. So it took a long time to get the divorce finalized—my lawyer had to fight hers just so I could come out losing only a quarter of what I had, instead of half.”
“That sounds awful,” I said as I shook my head.
“It was.” He nodded. Then he pulled his shades down and looked at me over the top of them. “So you and Nixon, had you known each other long before this happened?”
I felt embarrassment heat my cheeks. “No. Not at all.”
He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Damn.”
“Yeah, well, it is what it is.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“And your plan is what, exactly?” he asked as he slid his sunglasses back up his nose.
“To live together and have the baby and let life take us wherever it takes us.” I sighed, knowing that sounded like a flighty plan.
“Oh, one of those kinds of plans. Got ya.” He laughed and slapped his denim-covered leg. “I don’t envy you guys, I can tell you that.”
Although I was slightly offended by the blunt man, I found myself asking, “And why is that, exactly, John?”
“Well, my wife and I had a plan, and even that didn’t make things work out for us.” He sighed, and I could feel his sadness about how his marriage had turned out. “We started our marriage out of love, not merely because she was pregnant. The odds are stacked against you two.”
“I’m not worried about any relationship between Nix and me. What worries me the most is how our child will be affected by both of us. That’s all that really matters. I believe Nix and I have the baby’s best interest as our focus.” I leaned back, feeling great about what I’d said.
John just laughed again. “Oh, honey!”
Oh, honey?
I shook my head. “What does that mean?”
“It means you’re living in a fantasy world. That’s what it means.” He smiled at me as if what he was saying should make me feel better, which it didn’t. And I had been feeling pretty damn sure about everything before he’d arrived. Especially since the doctor’s appointment and that special moment Nix and I had shared, where I had felt my heart open up to him.
Sure, I hadn’t gone so far as to let Nix know about that little miracle, but I would. One day. Time had to pass, or he’d think I was telling him I loved him much too soon. I couldn’t have that. So I’d keep it to myself, for now.
But this guy, this virtual stranger had just told me I was living in a fantasy world, and he didn’t even know the half of it. So I enlightened him. “I don’t think I am living in a fantasy world. Well, that’s not entirely true. You see this place, this home, the man who comes home to me each day—now that is just like a fantasy. And not one I’d ever had before. I hadn’t meant for any of this to happen, and for things to have fallen into place so easily is a gift. Nix is a gift.”
John smiled. “Now that’s a pretty sweet sentiment. So, you like this guy a lot then?”
I nodded. “I love him.” I couldn’t believe I had just admitted something so huge to this man, a man I didn’t know from Adam. “And I think he’ll grow to love me. I think he and I can make a fantastic family together.”
John’s brows shot up. “Oh? I don’t suppose—since you’re from Portland—that you know much about the man you’re living with.”
“Not a lot about his past. But I’m getting to know him more and more with each passing day—and he’s a good man. A man I respect immensely.” I picked up the bottle of water and took a drink of it, as my impassioned bits of speech had made my mouth dry.
A cluck of his tongue told me John wanted to fill me in on something. “Well, you should know the man has quite the eye for beautiful women. And he’s never kept any of them around for long periods of time. Being his neighbor, I can tell you why that is. Would you like to know?”
I did, and I didn’t. What did it matter how he’d been with other women in the past? But that damn curiosity raised her ugly head and used my mouth to say, “Yes, I would love to know why. I’m assuming it’s because you think he’s quite the player.”
When John shook his head, I had to admit I was surprised. “Nope. I mean he’s been with a boatload of women, but I don’t think it was by choice necessarily. You see, Nixon Slaughter is easily distracted, and not by other women, but by business. His downfall is that he’s neglectful of people. I’ve seen him out on this very deck with beautiful woman after beautiful woman, and I’ve watched him get phone call after phone call and end up leaving them all alone on his deck with the perfect view. And I watched as he forgot he had a woman waiting for his return at all, sometimes even leaving her to go somewhere else without giving so much as a goodbye.”
It didn’t seem that he could possibly be talking about the man I knew. “Are you sure you’re talking about the man who lives here? Because the man I know isn’t neglectful in the least.”
“Maybe the baby has something to do with that right now,” John offered. “But I do believe his natural ways will kick in sooner or later. And where will that leave you, Katana? Here, home alone with a baby and no one to help you with it?”
“I don’t think …” I tried to say.
John shook his head. “I know you don’t think he’ll be that way with you or with this child,” he said. “I’ve been around the block a time or two. I’ve lived next door to this man for nearly three years. I’ve seen him. I know him. You don’t. He’s high on the fact he’s about to be a father for the first time. The man is almost thirty and probably didn’t even know himself how ready he was to be a father. Even men yearn to have children at a certain age.”
“Maybe it’s the baby that’s changing him. Maybe that is true. But I think it’s a change that will stick. I have faith in that,” I said, then looked over my shoulder when I heard the familiar beep of the security system that signaled someone’s arrival. “I’ll have to say goodbye and nice meeting you, John. He seems to be home now.”
John got up and waved as he headed down the stairs. “See you around, Katana.”
When I got inside, I found Nix coming in through the kitchen, having come through the garage after parking his car. His smile was the first thing I noticed and then his arms were around me, holding me close as our mouths met in the sweet kiss we always shared when he came home.
I loved the little ritual. But I couldn’t help feeling a little uncertain after the conversation I’d just had. John’s words about Nix’s past had me a little worried about admitting my love for the man too quickly. I couldn’t stay in a neglectful situation again. No child deserved that—and neither did I. It was a total deal breaker in my book.