Chapter Six

Anger. He was angry; furious with himself. How could he have let her slip through his fingers? He had his kitty cat in his arms and then that bloody door banged and distracted him. His eyes narrowed as he thought of the car that had hit her. For a split second he had thought she was dead; an animal howl of grief building in his throat then he’d watched in disbelief as that blond man had picked her up and driven her off.

He’d broken his own rule and had gone to her apartment. She had escaped him and the only way he could feel near to her was by being in her home. He’d only been inside once, but was keeping an eye on the building. Wouldn’t be right to get too comfortable with a kitty cat. Kitty cats had nasty claws.

He felt out of sorts. The next two kitty cats had been sloppy seconds. Not a real choice but ones that opportunity had thrown him. His mama had always warned him about getting to close; once a kitty had her claws in you son, you’ll never get away.

He knew he had to be patient and she’d turn up again, then Miss Kitty would be his.
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Jon scooped out fresh beans and put them in his coffee machine. There was nothing like fresh coffee first thing in the morning. He couldn’t get through the day without it. As the coffee brewed he walked over to the living room windows and stared out at the cold, frosty landscape and shivered, despite the near tropical temperature in the house. The swimming pool had been emptied and was covered for the winter with a hardwood cover to protect it from the elements. Normally no-one would be in the East Hampton house at this time of the year, but this year every thing had changed and nothing would ever be the same again. The soft click of the machine. Jon walked back to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain Roast.

He caught sight of a small calendar tacked up onto the cork board. Christmas was only two weeks away. Shit. He’d done nothing. Hadn’t bought any presents; not that they’d be welcome anyway, hadn’t even got a tree.

“Ooh coffee, just what I need.”

Jon turned to see Abby hobbling towards him, her riot of hair sticking out at all angles. She’d managed to get into the button up shirt but had mis-buttoned it, causing it to hang lopsided on her small frame. Coupled with the shorts hiked up round her waist and the plaster cast and Jon felt his gloomy mood start to lift.

“Afternoon sleepy head.” he said, smiling, pouring out a cup of coffee for her.

“Go, sit down I’ll bring it over. Hungry?” he asked, opening cupboards.

“ A little. God is it really the afternoon? I must have been so tired. That’s all I seemed to have done recently is sleep.” she said, sipping the fragrant brew.

“You know, I just realised that Christmas is only two weeks away, well ten days away really and I haven’t bought anything, no presents, no turkey, no ham, no tree, no nothing, so I thought we could go and pick out a tree today, if you’re up to it? Get you some new clothes as well while we’re at it, cause as cute as you look wearing my old stuff? I don’t think they really do you justice.” Jon smiled.

“Ok, let me go and get changed. I really could do with some more underwear. Do you have a jumper or something I could borrow? It looks really cold out there. Like it’s going to snow,” she turned to look out of the window,” Does it snow a lot up here?”

“Oh yeah, course I’m never normally this far up the coast this time of year so I don’t really get to see it here.”

“Oh, is this not your normal house then?” Abby asked.

“It is now, but it didn’t used to be.” Jon was looking slightly uncomfortable but Abby was facing away from him.

“Oh why’s that then?”

“The divorce. Dot got the house in Redbank, in Jersey, and I kept this one.”

“Oh god, Jon. I’m so sorry, I had no idea you were divorced. When did that happen?”

“Six months ago. Well it was final six months ago but really it was just after Christmas last year that I first knew about it.”

“Oh, come here.” Abby turned to him and held her arms out.

Jon walked into them and she hugged him tightly, kissing his cheek. Jon rested his head on her shoulder feeling the warmth from her slim body penetrating through the fog in his mind. He nuzzled into her neck, breathing against the warm skin.

Abby stepped back slightly from his tight embrace and smiled.

“Guess I need to get cleaned up or we’re never gonna get to the tree place in time.”

She turned to go, thankful he’d not said anything about the red hot blush on her cheeks.

Jon sipped his tepid coffee as he waited for Abby to get ready. He’d seen the blush and it just made him want to hug her even tighter. She was such a sweet person. Dark, intrusive thoughts gathered in the back of his mind. Thoughts about how wrong this was and how he should stop this now before he was in too deep. He consciously slammed the metaphorical gate on them, turn the key in the lock and threw the key away. He was well known for being ruthless and dealing with problems when they arose but this time he wasn’t. The last problem he’d dealt with so called ruthlessly had resulted in his being served with divorce papers. The ground hadn’t even hardened, the grass not yet laid, and she’d kicked him out. No more. He was going to start enjoying himself and if the only way he could do that was to eject the ruthless part of himself then so be it. He had lawyers and business people to take care of the Bon Jovi Empire. Did he really need to oversee everything? To put his stamp of approval onto every little change?

He was still pondering this massive shift of consciousness when Abby rejoined him in the kitchen. Jon had been so caught up with his thoughts that he hadn’t thought to lay out some clothing for her so Abby’d been forced to dig through the drawers in her bedroom.

Jon looked up and his breath caught in his throat. Abby was wearing a pair of Indigo boot leg jeans and a big sweater with the American flag knitted across it. Jon blinked back tears and cleared his throat as he remembered the last time he’d seen those clothes.

“I hope you don’t mind. I found these in a drawer unit in my room. I think they fit me better than your clothes would anyway.” the smile on her face died slowly as she looked at Jon’s drawn, dark face.

“Jon?” she began, as she hobbled towards him, “Are you ok?”

Jon smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine baby, just forgot those clothes were here, that’s all.”

“I’ll go change if you want me to.” Abby said, meaning it but hoping he wouldn’t ask her to.

“Nah, it’s just me being silly, besides you take long enough as it is…” he chuckled, as he picked up his car keys and jacket.

“Come on, let’s go get a tree. I know this one place that let’s you saw your own trees. Always wanted to do that.”

“Ok Tarzan.” she smiled as he led her out of the house towards the carport.