Always Been You

“Well” Claire said “Get ready to get really angry then”

Katherine frowned, not understanding what Claire had said. Claire nodded to her left, smiling and Katherine’s gaze went in that direction.

And there was Jensen Packard. Just walking down there, obviously looking for where to sit so he could watch the game.

God! What the man did to her. Katherine thought. Just looking at him did things to her insides… Made her feel things she couldn’t explain.

The formal business suit and crisp white shirt she was used to seeing him wear were gone and in their place he was wearing jeans and a checked shirt. The cords hugged the long, lean lines of his legs, and as Katherine felt her glance drawn helplessly along the length of him, she was aware of certain disturbing sensations prickling warningly inside herself. It was so unlike her to be aware of any man and yet with Jensen it was completely different.

That night he had left her house was the last time she had seen him. She knew that he had been avoiding her and she honestly didn’t know how she felt about it. It was always that way when it came to Jensen. She was confused about everything concerning him.

She was so engrossed in her assessment of him, that she didn’t know that he had seen her and was staring too till her eyes met with his. When, hot-cheeked with embarrassment she managed to drag her gaze away, it was with the uncomfortable knowledge that he was every bit as aware of her reaction to him as she had been herself. It was right there in his eyes.

The sexual awareness between them had been something Jensen would have had to have been blind not to see. He had experienced it before- it had always been that way with her or at least he had been on the receiving end of it before, he reflected cynically. A man did not make it to his age and status in life without being on the receiving end of a fair amount of feminine advances, but he had been coolly clinical in all his dealings with the female sex, sleeping with them, enjoying them sexually, but not allowing himself to become emotionally involved, except when it came to Katherine Kavell. And so here he was reacting like an overgrown schoolboy to a woman who had rejected him.

Shuddering slightly as much in shock as her own overwhelming reaction to him as anything else, Katherine returned her attention back to Claire, who had been watching her the entire time with a smile on her face.

“Wow,” Claire said. “You could cut the tension between you guys with a knife. Can you both just fix whatever it is that’s bothering you guys and stop tormenting each other for nothing?”

Grimacing faintly at herself for her almost compulsive attraction and curiosity about him, Katherine turned her attention instead to her surroundings. Back to her son’s game, back to cheering him. That was what she was here for. She focused her attention on Tim till the game was almost over, then she saw Caroline, a single mom whose son was in Tim’s class, come to sit with Jensen.

Caroline wore Italian Italian leather heels, white linen pants which hugged her hips and clung to her legs. Her top revealed part of her chest and brought several of the fathers present at the game to attention. Her hair framed her beautiful but petulant face.

Jezz. Katherine thought. Who the hell dresses like that to a game.

It didn’t matter. She told herself. Jensen could do whatever he wanted now. But she realized that he mattered a lot when she saw Caroline slid a hand to his muscled thigh, her fingers squeezing slightly.

Katherine felt a knot in her stomach. Felt it tighten, but stubbornly attributed it to the tart lemonade. From beneath the veil of her eyelashes, she watched Jensen’s strong hand remove Caroline’s and placed it on her lap.

Claire watched both Katherine and Jensen with amusement till she couldn’t hold it in anymore and she laughed out.

“What?” Katherine asked.

“Could you want him more?” Caroline asked, her eyes gleaming. “I have been watching you. You looked so angry when Care came to sit with him and now you are about to squeeze the life out of that cup. Fix things with Jensen please. I hate seeing you this way”

Katherine didn’t reply because she didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t deny that seeing Jensen with another woman made her want to punch something. So she forced her attention back to the game till it was over and Tim came running towards them.

“Did you see? Did you see me, mom?” he asked excitedly.

“Yes, honey,” Katherine replied. “I saw. You did amazing. I’m so proud of you”

Tim beamed as Claire’s sons came to join them too.

“And see, Jensen came too,” Tim said. “I knew he would. He watched the game too. Come on, I wanna go say hi”

Katherine knew disagreeing was useless as Tim was already on his way to Jensen. So she and Claire followed. She watched Tim fling himself on Jensen and felt a pang in her heart. She watched Jensen hug him back.

“Did you see me?” Tim was saying when she got there. “My team won”

“Yeah I saw, kiddo. You did great. I’m proud of you” Jensen replied.

“You didn’t come to my last game,” Tim said. “I really wanted you to but mom said you were probably busy that’s why you couldn’t come”

Jensen looked up at Katherine before he returned his attention back to Tim. “Yeah” he agreed. “I’m sorry, little man. I just had a lot of stuff to take care of. But I came today so am I forgiven?”

Tim smiled and nodded. “yeah,” he said.

“Alright” Katherine said. “You guys go wait by the car”

Tim and Claire’s sons raced towards the car while Claire chatted with one of the parents.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“HI,” Jensen said to her.

“Hello,” Katherine replied. “Thanks for coming for Tim today. He’s been wanting to see you and asking after you for a while now that I have honestly run out of things to tell him”