Saving Katie Baker by H. Mattern Read Free Book Online Page B

debated climbing into his bed next to Katie; it was a King size after all so he wouldn’t have to even touch her, but he knew this was a bad idea. She would never go for it. The guest bedroom was all the way on the other side of the house, though, so Blake decided that the couch would be his best option. If Katie needed anything she could easily find him just outside her door. Blake grabbed one of the pillows off the master bed and walked back out to the living room couch. He was exhausted; it didn’t take long for his dreams to find him as well.

    Katie fell in and out of sleep all night, but it wasn’t until she rolled over onto her side and instantly felt a sharp knife-piercing pain from her shoulder, that she came fully awake. She shot up in bed to grab at it and was immediately brought back to her present situation. Looking around the room, she realized she wasn’t in her own home but in his, the motorcycle guy’s. All the events from the night before came back to her, she wished that she could just go back to sleep and find it just a dream.
    Katie glanced down at her pants and gasped as she noticed that they had been cut down the center. Her brand new, recently purchased, long sought-after, perfect fitting jeans! How dare he! Does he not realize how hard it is to find jeans that fit perfectly? Does he not have any boundaries? Her anger began to rise until she looked over to find her daughter on the floor, snuggled up next to the huge golden retriever. Then the anger erupted.
    “Are you fucking serious? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

    Blake could hear Katie screaming profanities in the bedroom. He had a feeling he was about to get a mouthful more from her when she came out to face him.
    Katie stood up, quickly stumbled over to check on Micah who was now happily up and obsessed with petting the dog. She stormed into the living room to find Blake peeking over the back of the couch at her with a small smile on his face, as if innocent.
    “How dare you? Do you even know how much those jeans cost me? And keep your stupid dog away from my daughter, he could hurt her you know.”
    Blake wasn’t going to just sit back and have her continue to berate him with her little tantrum. He decided to stand up for himself and not try to play the nice neighbor anymore. This woman needed to know that there were other people in the world than just her.
    “Look woman, the dog is awesome with kids. If it weren’t for me taking care of that shoulder last night—well, you never know what might have happened. As for the leg: how was I to know that it was only a little scrape? For all I knew, you could have been hiding another big gash like you had on your arm. I could have taken the pants off, by the way, but I didn’t because I’m a gentleman. But do you see that? Nope.” He grabbed his shirt that he had thrown onto the floor last night and fiercely put it on.
    “If I were you, I’d learn how to be a little more thankful because you have another set of eyes watching you. She’s going to learn to be exactly what you model for her, and right now, Katie Baker, you’re modeling a selfish, nagging bitch.”
    Blake realized too late that he had just cursed in front of Micah. His hand went up in front of his mouth and he didn’t know what to say. He stormed out of the house in the hope that some fresh air would do him good and get him away from the female hormones pervading his home.
    Blake went to find his generator; he hadn’t used it since his last track day and, since this was his first time using it on the house, was hoping it would be just as simple to figure out. It ended up taking him a lot longer than he had anticipated, but because he embraced the distance from his houseguests, he didn’t mind.
    Once he had succeeded in getting the generator up and running, he went to turn on a few essentials: the refrigerator, the coffee maker, and the lights. Blake decided to make some coffee. No wonder this morning started out so