General announcement:  THE PLOT IS DONE!  It still needs some heavy editing, but I can tell you that there's a definitive end to the madness!  The updates should be a bit more frequent now. ;-)

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Cate wasn’t prepared for his sudden departure.  Sometime during brunch, Greg had tuned out of the conversation, and she couldn’t help but get the feeling he was unhappy about something.  It had been shortly after Jodi left, she remembered.  Could Greg be interested in Jodi?  She hadn’t gotten the chance to question her friend, but her uneducated guess was that Jodi was interested in Keith, which had been her entire reason for suggesting the four of them get together that evenings.  If Greg was interested in Jodi, that could set more than one of her plans awry.

    That’s what you get for playing matchmaker!  What an evening this could turn out to be—her hoping Greg would notice her again after their odd encounter the night before, Greg hoping to catch Jodi’s eye, and Jodi waiting for Keith to make a move.  It’s only a cookout, Cate.  Things will work out somehow.  She prayed that she was right—and that she’d gracefully accept the outcome.

    Greg was watching her, she realized.  It took her another second to realize he was likely waiting for instructions, since she was nominally in charge things.

    “Umm, do you mind taking the trash out the dumpster?”  Cate hated to pass such a dirty task on to someone else, but it was the first thing that came to mind as she glanced around the kitchen, and she felt the sudden need to get away from Greg once again and clear her head.  If she didn’t get into a decent frame of mind before heading to Keith’s, this was going to be a long afternoon, indeed. 

    For his part, Greg simply nodded and picked up a garbage can.  He headed out the door just as Keith came back into the kitchen.

    “Caty, are you sure you’re okay?”  His voice was concerned as he came to stand closer to her. 

    Trying not to be annoyed when she knew he was only concerned, Cate started to look up at him, but the pain in her neck stopped her.  “I’m fine,” she said softly, willing herself to meet his eyes.

    “Caitlyn, look at me.”  He reached to tilt her chin up and stopped abruptly as he saw the brief glimpse of pain in her eyes.  “Sweetie, I’m sorry.”  Keith brushed his hand over her cheek, horrified that he’d hurt her.

    “Really, I’m okay,” she insisted, but there was no conviction in her tone.  She didn’t resist when her friend put his arms around her.  Cate rested her head on Keith’s shoulder for a brief moment before the sound of the door opening told her they had an audience.

    Greg stopped in his tracks upon seeing Cate in Keith’s arms.  Despite his earlier suspicions, it was jarring to have them suddenly confirmed there in the church kitchen.  He set the garbage can down rather more abruptly than he’d intended, suddenly finding the pattern of the tile floor fascinating.

    No one spoke as Cate moved away from Keith.  The silence hung for a brief moment before Caitlyn reached for a broom and began to work on the floor. 

    For his part, Keith knew how the scene must have looked to Greg, who was interested in Cate, if he hadn’t missed his guess.  He had no idea how his two friends had come to know each other—he certainly hadn’t introduced them before that morning—but there was something going on there that he couldn’t put his finger on, and Greg looked slightly shell-shocked.  Now was not the time to explain, he knew.

    And how could he explain, really?  Cate had been a friend for over a decade, but she’d always been only a friend.  He’d been trying to work up the nerve to ask her out for weeks, and now he’d blundered into a public embrace after causing her even more pain than she was already in.

    Before he could say anything, Cate was reaching for the dustpan and Greg was headed outside with another garbage can.  Keith busied himself with putting away the dishes that had dripped dry while they had attended to other tasks until he heard Cate’s sharp intake of breath as she bent to try to handle both broom and dustpan.

    “May I?”  he asked softly, reaching to take the offending implements.  Too weary and sore to fight him, she surrendered them easily and washed her hands to take over his task of putting away dishes, telling herself not to protest when he went for the mop bucket next. 

Greg returned to help with the mopping and the two men insisted that Caitlyn get off her feet for a few minutes.   She had just settled into a chair in the fellowship hall when Greg came over with a glass of water and a bottle of pills. 

“These are just plain ibuprofen, but the might do something for your neck and shoulders.”  He took the cap off the bottle before handing it to her.  Cate normally hated to take medication of any kind, but she shook two pills out of the bottle and accepted the glass of water to wash them down with a grateful smile. 

The men were done mopping the kitchen in what seemed to be record time to Cate, but she refused to go check up on two adults and readily agreed to their suggestion to leave.  The trio headed to the parking lot, and Cate promised to be at Keith’s, DVDs in hand, in an hour or so.

The drive back to Keith’s was a silent one, neither man knowing quite what to say—or quite what had happened at the church that day.  Keith knew how things must appear to Greg, but he wasn’t willing to explain the incident and risk having to explain his feelings for Cate along with it.  Greg refused to question his friend, realizing the answer was one he probably didn’t care to hear.

Caitlyn arrived as agreed, still looking a little pale, but neither was willing to question her—Keith realized he’d been treating her somewhat like a child and knew nothing annoyed his longtime friend more than that.  Young-looking for her twenty-eight years, Cate was mistaken for a college student, or even a teenager, often enough at work that people who knew better were given little tolerance for treating her that way.

Keith suggested they put in the first of the movies—he’d nearly groaned when he realized Cate had three DVDs, all based on the novels in the series, in her hands, but he’d promised to watch them with her and figured he could ask Greg’s forgiveness later. 

Her chin in the air slightly, Cate made a beeline for the armchair in the corner, not wanting to be jostled by either man on the couch—or to be uncomfortably close to either of them.  She couldn’t help but notice the way they were both watching her, and she wasn’t sure if it was the pain in her neck or their quiet watchfulness that was beginning to unnerve her.  She chose to concentrate on the movies instead, hoping Jodi and Meghan wouldn’t take long to close the store.

“Aunt Caty!”  Four hours and two movies later, Casey launched himself into Cate’s lap for an enthusiastic hug.  Cate ignored her pain hugged the little boy as his mother apologized.  Not wanting to excuse behavior Jodi was trying to discourage, Cate smiled up at her friend as Keith offered Jodi his spot on the couch and retrieved a beanbag chair from the spare bedroom that the kids immediately pounced on.  That done, he excused himself to light the grill.  Greg looked relieved to be able to escape the third movie, now beginning on the screen, and followed.  Cate rolled her eyes, turned the movie off, and found the cartoon channel, which immediately hypnotized the kids.

After a few preliminary inquiries about the store, which Jodi rebuffed by telling Cate that everything was fine and she should concentrate on her day off, Jodi turned from tying Alyssa’s shoelace to ask, “So how did you guys do after I left?”

“When they weren’t hovering over me like a pair of mother hens, things went quite well, really.  We got things cleaned up and out of there fairly quickly, even if I am ready to fall over.”

“Well, isn’t mother’s day a day for hens, too?” Jodi asked reasonably. 

The two women laughed for a moment before Cate looked at her friend seriously.  “Can I ask you something?”

“I think you just did, but sure.”

“Are you interested in Keith?”

Jodi took a moment to answer.  “I don’t know if interested is the right word, Cate.  He’s a wonderful man, and I’d have to be blind not to notice now handsome he is, but being a single mother has its challenges, and the idea of dating someone is one of them.  I mean, really, what man in his right mind is going to want to take on a ready-made family with a woman who has to work two jobs to be able to have any hope of supporting herself and her children?”

“The right one,” Cate told her friend softly.  They’d discussed this before, but she’d somehow hoped that Jodi’s outlook had become a bit more optimistic.  She’d made her mistakes, but everyone had, and surely the man God had in mind for Jodi would find a way to get past that and take care of Jodi and the kids—and her good friend might not have to work so hard all the time.  Cate strengthened her resolve to do her own part toward that and speak to Carl and Jackie the next day about promoting Jodi to the assistant manager’s position, GED or not.

“He’d have to be awfully special, Cate, to want to put up with all of that.”  The arguments hadn’t changed much.

“He will be, Jo, he will be.”

The men chose that moment to rejoin them, Greg perking up to see cartoons instead of more prairie romance on the screen, and no one else noticed that the two women had gone quiet.  Cate hoped that they hadn’t been overheard—Jodi and Keith would both be embarrassed if the other had overheard the question Cate had asked Jodi, and she was certain that Jodi wouldn’t want Greg, whom she barely knew, to hear her thoughts on her personal situation.  Cate decided to work the schedule carefully for the upcoming week to make time to ask Jodi to lunch—and she wouldn’t be taking no for an answer.

Cate had risen to get a drink of water when Keith entered the kitchen, presumably to check on the grill that stood just beyond the patio doors.  Instead, he came to stand next to her, wondering at his own sanity for being this close to her with people in the next room.  “How are you feeling?”

Cate sighed.  “I’m fine, just like I have been the other sixteen or so times I’ve been asked that question today.”

“Caty-girl, we’re just concerned about you—Jodi and I are your friends, and Greg is . . . well, how do you know Greg, anyway?”

She had to laugh at the look on Keith’s face.  Cate explained the strange story as quickly as possible, leaving her friend shaking his head.

“And you’d never met the man before he called your store to complain on Friday?” he asked incredulously.

“Not unless you’d introduced us before—but somehow I think I would have remembered that.”  The last statement escaped the filter between Cate’s brain and mouth and she mentally slapped her forehead.

“So that’s how it is?” Keith hoped his voice was more even than his emotions at Cate’s honest admission.

“That’s how what is, Keith?  I’m not sure I like that question.”

“But you like Greg.”  It was a statement, not a question.

“I don’t know him well enough to know if I like him or not!”  Cate’s voice rose a fraction of a decibel and their heads turned toward the living room, wondering if they could be heard. 

He laid a hand on her arm.  “Cate, I’ve been telling you about Greg Tanner for years.  He’s a great guy—I’m just not sure he’s the right type for you.”

“And what type do you think is the ‘right type’ for me?” 

Cate’s voice was edged with sarcasm, but Keith ignored it and plunged ahead.  “My type.” 

The words were so soft she nearly missed them, but the look on his face confirmed what her ears could not.  It was there—pure and simple interest, coupled with fear. 

Cate didn’t know how to respond.  This was Keith, her oldest and dearest friend.  She’d never seen him as anything more than a friend—a friend who’d always been there, through the disastrous dates in college, on their graduation day, when she’d struggled to find a job while he stormed into law school, when she’d finally secured the job at Dawson’s and later been promoted to manager, through the battle to keep an assistant manager in place the past few months.  She’d rarely even had time to think of herself as lonely—she’d always had Keith and his friendship.

But now he wanted more—and to most, it was the natural progression for two people like themselves, so obviously compatible in many ways.  Keith’s mother had been dropping hints for years, Cate knew, and her own family had asked on more than one occasion, only for her to laugh and say there was no way either of them would ever see the other in that way.

She’d been wrong, obviously.

“Forget I said anything.”  Keith had taken her silence as rejection and turned out to check on the fire in the grill.  She stood mutely in the kitchen and watched him step outside.  After a few minutes, it became obvious that he wouldn’t come back inside with her still standing in the kitchen.  Cate returned to the living room, hoping the others would be involved with the children or the television, because she didn’t feel much like talking to anyone right now.  She settled into her chair and tried to relax, knowing her tension was probably increasing the pain she felt in her neck and shoulders.

Jodi cast a speculative glance in her direction, but said nothing.  Greg was engrossed in a conversation with Alyssa and Casey and only looked up long enough to smile at Cate and acknowledge her return to the room.  He was fascinated with the open, honest faces and smiles of these two children, and their imaginations knew no limits, it would seem.

“And then there was a dragon.  It breathed fire, and it took the princess and ran away and hid her,” Casey said in a serious tone.  His sister was hanging on his every word. 

Greg tried hard not to laugh as he made eye contact with their mother, who wore a bemused expression.  He had a stray thought, wondering how a woman like Jodi was still single, then glanced down at the children and realized there was more to this story than he knew.   There had been no mention of a father or a husband, not even in casual reference, and Greg knew he would have to wait to hear more about the situation.  Cate knew, he was sure, but she didn’t strike him as the type to betray confidences, and she seemed rather protective of her employees in general and Jodi in particular.  He had a feeling she was like that with those she loved, as well.  Suddenly, Greg wondered what it would be like to be loved by Caitlyn Jordan.

That was dangerous territory to wander in, the more conservative part of Greg’s mind warned.  Especially with the woman in question seated only a few feet away.  He surveyed the room in an attempt to take another casual glance at Cate, who had changed after church, he realized.  She looked even better in jeans and a sweater than she had in a suit, if that was possible.  He wondered what was taking Keith so long at the grill—checking the coals wasn’t rocket science.

He focused on what the children were saying—easy to do, because Casey and Alyssa were delightful.  They were very respectful of their mother and her friends, and it was quite obvious that they adored Cate as they jockeyed for position in her lap and in the chair next to her.  Watching her interact with the kids, he realized why—she was obviously interested in what they had to say, not simply humoring them like many adults, and she had the ability to talk to them at their level without sounding like she was talking down to them.  Her hugs were genuinely affectionate, and her smile went all the way to her eyes.

Cate felt eyes on her and turned from Casey to see Greg watching her.  Immediately self-conscious, she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and looked away, wondering if Greg’s eyes remained on her as she did.  Her eyes met Jodi’s for a moment, and she knew there were going to be yet more questions if she and her friend got a moment alone.  She had no desire to avoid Jodi, but Cate suddenly hoped there wouldn’t be such an opportunity—she had plenty of questions herself, but no answers at the moment.

Keith slipped back into the room not meeting anyone’s gaze, leading to another speculative glance in Cate’s direction from Jodi.  The adults in the room had gone quiet, though the drone of the television and the chatter of the children still buzzed in the air.  Cate shook her head a fraction of an inch in Jodi’s direction and settled back to watch the television.