Just Sex by Heidi Lynn Anderson

night.”
    Heat ran up Kat’s spine. “I’m kind of seeing someone, but it can’t go anywhere.”
    “Why not?”
    “He’s much younger.”
    “So?” Axel cleared his throat. “You’re a lovely woman.”
    “After Gary, I can’t put myself out there like that.”
    “Out there like what?”
    She wasn’t going to explain to her father all the reasons she and J.J. couldn’t be together. “I can’t give a twenty-five-year-old a life.”
    “Did he ask you for a life?”
    “No.”
    “Why can’t you just date the boy and have fun?”
    Embarrassment hit Kat in the solar plexus. “Dad.”
    “Katherine Elizabeth, I might be an old man, but I know the ways of kids today. Go and have fun.”
    It felt good to laugh with her father. “That’s sounds like something Grandma would say.”
    “It is.” He took her hand. “You remind me so much of her.” Axel brushed a curl off Kat’s face.
    The fatherly gesture warmed Kat’s heart. “How?”
    The chair creaked when he rested back. “Well, you look just like her. You think of others as she did. The one big difference between you two is you never put yourself first.” Axel crumpled up his food containers. “Put yourself first for once.”
    “I think I will.” She crumpled up her food bags. “Let’s get this done, shall we?”
    * * * * *
     
    J.J. walked into the Shady Horse. He had spent the afternoon helping his mother re-arrange her dining room, which kept him from thinking of Kat all damn day. J.J. needed a stiff drink and some greasy food. He spotted Ron and Patricia. He lumbered up to them. “What are you two doing out?”
    “We do this every year. How are you doing?”
    “Fine.”
    Patricia and Ron laughed. “You look like shit,” she said.
    Ron motioned for him to sit. J.J. flopped into the seat opposite them. “God, I miss her.”
    “Kat will be home in a couple of days,” Patricia said.
    “How is she, really?” J.J. asked.
    Patricia’s eyes widened. “Haven’t you talked?”
    “Yes, every day. She tells me everything is fine, but I can hear it in her voice that something’s wrong.”
    Empathy swelled in Patricia eyes. “Let’s get you a beer and I’ll tell you another story about our Kat.”
    Anger and hurt flashed hot in his heart. “I don’t understand why Kat doesn’t tell me herself.”
    “Kat’s too proud,” Ron said. “She doesn’t want you to have to deal with her issues.”
    He would have to work on making Kat trust him. “Tell me what’s been going on with Kat this week.”
    “Her father wants Kat to take over the mill sooner than she expected.”
    “Is she going to do it?” An unpleasant sense of doom washed over J.J.
    “She will eventually,” Patricia said. “But I think Kat can run the business from here. She can’t live in Maine. Kat and her mother would kill each other.”
    Ron ordered another round of drinks. J.J. watched Ron and Patricia. They have what it takes to make it forever , he thought and wondered if he and Kat could make it work.
    * * * * *
     
    J.J.’s phone rang at one thirty in the morning. He fumbled for his cell in the dark. “Hello.”
    “Hi!” Kat’s sexy voice caressed his ear.
    He cleared the sleep out of his brain and sat up in bed. “How are you?”
    “Better now.”
    “What happened?” His dick twitched to full staff.
    “Mill stuff.” Her words slurred with fatigue. “How was your day?”
    “Busy. I saw Patricia and Ron at the Shady Horse tonight.”
    “I thought you were going to help your mother get ready for Thanksgiving.”
    J.J. arranged his pillows. “I did. Then I went to the Shady Horse for a beer. Ron and Patricia were there, so we had drinks.” His dick pulsed and jutted up to his navel. “Where are you?”
    “I’m in my room, sitting on the bed, why?”
    “What are you wearing?” He took his stiff cock in his hand.
    Her sexy chuckle caressed his ear. “Jeans and a T-shirt?”
    He stroked his dick in a slow rhythm. “Take them off.”
    “You are