Just Sex by Heidi Lynn Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

familiar butterfly feeling overwhelmed her and Kat remembered that she was mad at Patricia. “We have all day for the juicy details.” She whirled and sashayed toward the house.
    Patricia trotted behind her. “You bitch!”
    Kat whirled around. “Payback for setting me up and abandoning me.”
    “Someone had to do it. Think of me as your Fairy Godsister.”
    Kat unlocked the door. “Yeah, I turned into a pumpkin.” She walked into the foyer.
    “No you didn’t.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I need a shower.”
    Patricia followed her up the stairs. “Why are you mad? I bet J.J. comes back with your glass slipper.”
    “What does he want from me? I can’t give him a future and I don’t know if I am cut out for a fling.”
    Patricia threw up her hands. “Grr! You whine too much.”
    Kat had enough. She was hung-over and felt betrayed by the one person who had always been on her side. “You bitch! We can’t all be skinny and beautiful like you.”
    “I can’t believe you don’t know how sexy you are.” Patty stomped after her. “Men drool over you.”
    She grabbed a towel out of the bathroom closet. “Oh stop it. They do not.”
    “Do you know how many of Ron’s single friends have asked about you since Gary died? What is it that scares you about J.J.?”
    Leave it to Patty to cut to the heart of the matter. “I’m not scared of J.J.,” Kat said.
    “Bullshit. You are terrified. Why?”
    All of her insecurities exploded inside her. She collapsed onto the bed and took a deep breath. “Would you like a list?”
    “Yes.”
    Kat willed herself not to punch Patricia in the nose. “Okay, first, the only person to see me naked since I had Sam is you and I haven’t had sex in over eleven years. What if I suck?”
    “Honey.” Patricia plunked down next to her and wrapped her arm around Kat’s shoulder.
    “He’s used to being with young skinny girls.” Tears pricked at her eyes. “Not thirty-five-year-old women with stretch marks.”
    “But he’s seen you naked and he didn’t run away. He called me for help.”
    “That’s different.” Kat stood and walked into the bathroom.
    “How?” Patricia leaned in the doorway. “Did he give you any indication that he didn’t like what he saw?”
    All the fight left Kat. “No, he looked at me like I was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.”
    “All right then, what do you have to lose?”
    “Oh I don’t know. My pride.” She needed to get away from Patricia before Kat did or said something she would regret. She pushed past her best friend, back into the bedroom.
    Patricia turned and snorted. “What pride, your husband fucked around on you for years.”
    Pain hit Kat hard and fast. The tears that had stung her eyes moments ago fell down her cheeks.
    “That’s enough, you two.” Ron walked into the bedroom. “Patricia, that was low.”
    “She needs to hear it,” Patricia defended and marched out of the room.
    “Maybe she’s right,” Kat said and sat on the bed.
    Ron knelt in front of her. “I heard you two, and coming from a man’s point of view, we don’t see stretch marks, cellulite and whatever else you think we do. Give J.J. the benefit of the doubt. He’s not Gary.” Ron walked out.
    Every man in her life since high school had rejected her in some way. “Maybe it’s me.”
    Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, Katherine Elizabeth, life is not worth living without risk. Her grandmother’s voice echoed in her head.
    Kat gazed upward. “What would you do?”
    Her grandmother’s words floated in her mind. Have fun. Life’s too short to waste it being boring, and screw that boy five ways to Sunday.
    Kat glanced at the frame on her dresser and chuckled. “Thanks, Gram.” She ran her finger over the old photo.
    She picked her discarded pumps off the floor on her way to the closet and set them on the shelf. “What’s that Alfred, Lord Tennyson saying? It’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at