Page 94 of The Catch

“Minnie!” Emma squealed, jumping up from her seat to give her a hug. Just like Cat had predicted, the two got along like gangbusters. Since Emma had found out she was pregnant with a little boy, they’d even begun spending time with each other outside of these little group gatherings.

“Hey, Emma,” Minnie replied, hugging her back. “And Dani. Where’s Sonya?”

Dani stood to greet Minnie as well, clinking their wine glasses together. “She’s on vacation with her man. We’re hoping she’s coming back with a ring.”

Minnie turned to Cat. “Wow,” Minnie said, pulling up a seat. “Well, I hope it happens. Weddings are the best.”

Cat dropped into one of the wooden Adirondack chairs, pulling her knees up to her chest. She looked over at Josh again, smiling when she saw he’d joined the football game. He snatched the ball out of the air, pretending to fall to a fit of laughter from Mattie.

“Maybe Cat and Josh will give us one,” Emma said, sharing a mischievous look with Minnie.

“God, this again?” Dani rolled her eyes. “Didn’t Maria teach you anything? Don’t push Cat. She’s emotionally unstable; she’s liable to fall.”

Cat frowned. “Says the last single one in the group. Dani’s putting my legacy to shame with all the guys she turns down.”

“Like Dylan,” Minnie said.

Cat oohed annoyingly. Dani and Dylan had been especially celebratory last New Year’s Eve, and Cat had been using the incident to get Dani back for years of torment.

Dani kicked her foot. “Just because we’re stuck in this group of love birds doesn’t mean we have to hook up too.”

Emma smirked over her glass of wine. “I give it the summer until they’re hooking up.”

“What would you like to bet?”

“No,” Cat said. “No more bets.”

“The fish is great, guys,” Emma said, digging into her grilled haddock.

“Catia prepared it,” Josh said. “We just threw it on the fire.” He nudged her knee with his under the table and watched her blush in the light of the citronella candles flickering down the length of the picnic table.

Dani took a bite and shook her head. “Josh, if you even knew how much Ramen this girl ate in college. Now she’s making her mother’s Soupa and preparing haddock. You put her in a house with a real kitchen, and all of a sudden she’s Barefoot Contessa.”

Josh laughed but watched Cat carefully out of the corner of his eye. So far, she’d seemed just as confident as she said she was in their new life together, and now was not the time for her to be spooked by an offhand comment. She was smiling though, a look of self-satisfaction on her face as the rest of the table chimed in with their compliments to the chef.

When dinner was finished, everyone moved to the firepit. The breeze off the water that was keeping the temperature comfortable made the flames flit and dance almost in time to the soft music pumping from the kitchen window.

Cat was perched on his knee. He set the beer he’d been drinking down in the grass beside him and clasped his hands around her stomach. The hot summer night and the whole group together had him feeling nostalgic. Or maybe it was the weekend they had planned. He and Cat were leaving the next morning for four days in Virginia Beach. That trip a year ago had changed his life, and he was hoping this one would too.

“It’s a beautiful night to be by the water,” Dani said, taking a deep breath of the salt-tinged air through her nose. “You really do live in paradise.”

“You thinking of making the move?” Dylan asked, flopping down beside her. Josh shared a look with Cat. Dylan had been trying to close that deal for a year now to no avail. Cat shook her head discreetly and leaned her head on his shoulder. Just like the first time she’d done it, everyone else disappeared.

“Babe,” Cat called from the bathroom, ribbons of impatience threading through the honey of her voice. The shower had been running for ten minutes now, and the fruity scent of her shampoo was already wafting throughout the room. She’d clearly started without him.

After another hour or so of celebrating, Josh had not-so-smoothly suggested it was time to end the portion of the night where he had to share her. They’d seen everyone out, done a quick clean up, and now he had one more thing to do before he could finish his night the way he wanted to.

“I’m coming.” He pulled his t-shirt over his head with one hand, still tossing last-minute items into the suitcase that lay open on their bed—sunglasses, deodorant, Cat’s overflowing bag of toiletries that wouldn’t fit in her own case. When he’d filled it beyond reasonable capacity, he peeked around the open bathroom door to make sure she was still behind the curtain.

Satisfied by the sound of Cat’s humming, Josh moved stealthily over to his closet and reached around under the linens. With one more glance over his shoulder, he pulled out the last thing he needed to pack.

The little velvet box snapped open with a push of his thumb, and he inspected his mother’s ring. He’d asked Cat’s father for his blessing when they’d spent the day at the baseball game, and Carlos had agreed without hesitation. Josh had it polished and re-sized right after, and the platinum and diamonds flashed as he turned it beneath the soft light of their bedroom. A reassuring wink.

The next day he would pack it into his Jeep, and they would head off to the tiny little patch of sand where it all started. There’d been a moment since then when he’d thought this wasn’t going to happen. A moment where he’d questioned why he was meant to find this woman just to see her slip away, but they’d come back stronger than ever. Having Cat full time was better than he imagined and he needed to tie that up with a promise

“You’re not going to have any hot water,” she sang.

Josh smiled, closing the box and tucking it into the inside pocket of his luggage. He stepped out of his shorts, leaving them in a puddle on the floor, and followed the sound of her humming. He swung open the curtain, startling her, and she screamed, then giggled, slapping her wet palm against his chest.

“So impatient,” he joked.

She whipped her wet hair over her shoulder and moved aside so he could step under the stream. “I’ve been waiting for you forever.”

“Me too.”