Claiming Kara:Fate Harbor 3(19)

She fed Butch and Sundance, crawled into the bath, and flipped through  her phone. She ignored the two calls from Eric, and the three calls from  Dane. Obviously, Eric had talked to their brother Dane, so best to  avoid them. She saw that Trixie had texted her back and had added her  vases to the exhibit. God, she loved working with competent people. She  also saw that Jesenia had called and probably wanted to go out, or to  talk about supplying flowers for the exhibit. Kara would call her  tomorrow. So, now was the perfect time for the Josie gabfest.

"It's about time you called! I've been waiting all day." Josie didn't even say hello, but her greeting made Kara smile.

"Hello to you, too, Mary Sunshine! How is life in love and as a mom?" Kara asked, still smiling.

"How's life as a famous artist? Who lives on a secluded forest compound,  surrounded by ferocious security dogs, and is now seeing a hot, new  Seattle surgeon?" Josie asked.

"Well, when you put it like that, my life rocks," Kara said with a laugh.

"Tell me all about surgeon boy," Josie demanded. "How far around the bases have we gone?"

"What are you? My mother? Geez, Josie!"

"Geez, Kara! You've been holding this really cute guy off for over a  month, and last I heard he hadn't even gotten to touch a booby. So,  what's the deal?" Kara squirmed in her tub and grabbed her glass of  cabernet sauvignon off the floor to take a large swallow. "Are you  drinking? Cause if you are, that's not fair," Josie whined into the  phone.

"Yeah, well-you're the one who wanted to have a baby, so until you stop  the breastfeeding thing, no drinking for you. Serves you right anyway,  after asking me all these intrusive questions," Kara said indignantly.

"Intrusive, my ass," replied Josie. "I noticed you sent a whole hell of a  lot of ‘intrusive' my way when I first got together with Chance and  Sam. I think you just wanted to live vicariously through me," Josie  huffed.         

     



 

"Maybe I did, so sue me," Kara huffed back at her. "Don't tell me that  the shine is already off that particular apple. I know damn well that  you don't need to be living vicariously through me and Dr. Jim, so  what's with all the questions? You're not reporting back to my brothers,  are you?"

"Hey, I don't deserve that." Suddenly Josie's voice was serious. "I'm  just a little worried about you, Kara. Karen and I both are. It seems  like you might be settling."

"So, are you and Karen talking behind my back, or what? Because I just  played twenty questions with her this morning!" Kara said indignantly,  sitting up straight in the bath.

"Kara, now wait just a minute-"

"I'm sorry, forget I said that. Can you please forget I said that?  Please?" Kara waited. There was nothing but silence on the phone.  "Please, Josie, I didn't mean to sound like I was in high school. I know  you both only have my best interests at heart, I swear I know that."  Kara listened intently and heard Josie sniff.

"Ah, Josie, did I make you cry?" Kara asked.

"No," Josie said in a trembling voice.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. I'm behaving like an idiot. This whole thing  has me tangled in knots. I don't know how to explain it all," Kara  wailed.

"It's okay, honey, just talk. Say whatever comes to your mind, just get it off your chest," Josie encouraged.

"Okay. Remember, you asked for it, and I'm not going to make any sense,"  Kara warned. "I'm not going to sleep with him next weekend, but I am  the following weekend. My dogs hate him. What am I going to do? I like  him. He's nice. He smells nice. He's a nice kisser. He's a doctor. He  likes me. I'm worried that he might love me. Did I tell you that my dogs  don't like him? I have to shower every time I come home from a date  with him before they'll let me play with them. Josie, I'm thirty now.  I'm going to turn thirty-one this year. I want to get married. I want a  baby, too. He's nice. What do I do?"

Kara set the phone down on the side of the tub and hit speaker, and then  picked up her bottle of wine and refilled her glass. She took another  large sip-not a gulp, just a very large sip-of wine, while she waited  for her friend to make heads or tails of what she had just said.

"First, I'm glad he's nice. Nice is really important. What woman wants a deep-down asshole?" Josie asked.

"Thank you!" Kara toasted the phone. "I always knew nice was important," she agreed vehemently.

"But nice is just the flour of a recipe, you know? We still need to add  in the other ingredients to make up the dessert. For Olivia, we needed  to make up chocolate cake. For me, it needs to be a brownie. For  Jesenia, it needs to be a torte almandine. For you and Karen, it needs  to be cinnamon rolls. They all need flour, but after that, they all need  very different ingredients."

"But we all agree, we have to start with cake flour, i.e. nice," Kara  said into the speaker phone, taking another large sip of her red wine.  Finally she was feeling the effects of the bath and the wine. The  conversation was beginning to tense up her muscles, though.

"All of us can agree that we need nice. We need flour. What else do you need in your treat?" Josie asked.

"Mmmh?" Kara sighed, but the phone picked it up, and Josie heard.

"Kara," she said sharply. "Jim is nice. What else does he do for you?"

"He ummm … he ummm … " Kara bent over the side of the tub and picked up the  towel from the floor and put it behind her head, and stretched back,  resting her head against the towel. After she was comfortable, she took  another large sip-not a gulp-of her wine. Damn, now she had to refill  her glass again.

"Okay, let me ask it from another angle. What do you need from your  treat? What does your treat, your man, need to provide to you? Provide  for you? Do you even know what you want, honey?" Josie asked in a soft  and supportive voice.

"Yeah Josie, I do know. I know that my treats have to be here. They have  to want to be with me. He-they-won't send me away. They can't say they  want to be with me, and then keep finding more important things to do.  So, if you ask what Jim provides, well, he wants to be with me. He likes  me. He won't leave me. He'll stay with me."

"Honey, you have two dogs that will stay with you. There's got to be  more than that," Josie said in that same reassuring tone. Kara lifted  her leg out of the tub and watched as the water sluiced down her skin  back down into the bathwater. She was taking the time to consider what  her friend had said, and then answered straight from her gut, from her  heart.         

     



 

"I want what you and Karen have, I want a family. I've been waiting for a  long time for fireworks. But now I just want nice, and a family. Is  that so wrong? I've been on eighteen first dates in the last year and a  half, and this is the first guy who has made it to the second date,  Josie. I'm a picky bitch. I'm going to sleep with him, and I'm probably  going to marry him, and count myself lucky."

"But you don't love him," Josie wailed.

"I can learn to love him," Kara assured her. "I've learned how to unlove  someone. Okay, two someones. How tough can it be to learn how to love  just one someone? Especially when they're nice and smell good?" she  asked. Oops, now her voice was beginning to sound sad. No more wine for  her.

"All I want is for you to be happy," Josie said softly. Kara was worried she could hear a tremor in Josie's voice.

"Josie, I promise not to do anything foolish. I'm going to think  everything through very logically and make the smartest decision I know  how to make," Kara assured her.

"That's what I'm worried about," Josie sighed. Kara could hear Lissa crying in the background.

"So when do I get to babysit? I need a Lissa fix," Kara complained.

"Plan on coming over on Wednesday at five o'clock and just spending the  night, because I don't know what time the three of us will be home. So,  bring the puppies. We have plenty of fenced-in space for them to play.  We won't want you driving home so late."

"Josie, it's a twenty-minute drive home, and I've lived here all my life." Kara laughed.

"Sam and Chance will worry. They'll insist on following you home, and  then it'll ruin the momentum of the night out, if you get my meaning."  Josie giggled, and Kara joined in.

"I don't want to interfere with you and your men's mo-mentum. More like  mo-jo, if you ask me! Okay, I'll pack a bag. Are you sure about Butch  and Sundance? They aren't really puppies anymore. I can put out their  food, and they have their huge doghouse outside, anyway. So, it's fine  to leave them alone all night."

"Are you kidding? Sam will love taking them on a run around the lake Thursday morning."

"Yeah, of course he'd enjoy that, because my traitorous dogs like Sam,  but they don't like Dr. Jim. Can you please explain that to me, Josie?"  Kara demanded. Josie just laughed. Kara heard Lissa crying harder in the  background.