Page 36 of My Single Dad Biker

I did do something significant.

I get up because lying here thinking about it isn't productive.

Shower in water that's too cold. Dress in jeans and a t-shirt. Go downstairs and make coffee and sit at my kitchen table with my hands wrapped around the mug trying to figure out what I'm doing.

Last night wasn't casual.

I was inside her and that's not something I've done lightly since my ex-wife. The implications are clear.

Katherine is mine now.

Not in the sense that I own her. In the sense that I've decided she's the person and I'm building my life to include her permanently.

The certainty should scare me.

It doesn't.

I check my phone. Six-fifteen. Too early to call.

Too early to show up at her door like some kind of obsessed person who can't wait twelve hours to see her again.

I drink my coffee and try to sit still. Last maybe three minutes before I'm on my feet pacing the kitchen. Check the time again. Six-twenty. Still too early.

Louis doesn't wake until seven on weekends. I have forty minutes and I'm going to lose my mind if I sit here that long.

I grab my keys and leave.

Katherine's house is dark when I pull up at six-forty. Her car is in the driveway where it always is.

Porch light off. No movement inside. I sit in my truck with the engine running trying to talk myself out of this.

Can't do it.

I get out and walk up her path. Climb the three steps. Stand on her porch for ten seconds with my hand raised to knock and my brain saying this is insane.

I knock anyway.

Takes maybe a minute. I hear movement inside. Footsteps.

The porch light comes on and the door opens and Katherine is standing there squinting at me like she's not sure I'm real.

She's wearing yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt that's falling off one shoulder. Her hair is a disaster. She's got pillow creases on her left cheek. She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

"Holt?" Her voice is rough with sleep.

"Hi."

She blinks at me. "What time is it?"

"Almost seven."

"Is something wrong? Is Louis okay?"

"Louis is fine. Nothing's wrong."

She just looks at me, confused and half-asleep and waiting.

"I needed to see you," I say.