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flicked to her mother, drowning out the rest of her father’s conversation. Her mom had never let on how stressful it had been being a cop’s wife but looking back now Kate could only imagine how many sleepless nights her mother had spent, counting the hours down until the end of night shift, waiting to hear the familiar sound of her husband’s car pulling into the driveway, sighing with relief that he’d survived another day.
    “Well, darling, I’d better go. Your mother is out shopping. I snuck this call in so that I’d actually get to hear my beautiful daughter’s voice. Once your mother gets on the phone I never end up getting to speak to you because she hogs the limelight and talks too long.”
    Kate laughed. It was so good to hear the familiar banter that went on within the family. She knew it was all in good fun and her parents adored each other. God forbid that something should happen to one of them. She didn’t know if the other would be strong enough to carry on. Kate hoped to have that one day. Someone to grow old with that still loved her as much as the first day they’d met.
    They hung up and Kate sat for a few minutes, drinking in the conversation that had left a nice, warm fuzzy feeling in her belly and a smile on her face. After all that she’d gone through in the last week, hearing her father’s voice had warmed her to the core.
    Work was now the farthest thing from her mind as thoughts switched from family to Jake. Damn it! He was doing it again. Or maybe this was strictly her doing. As much as she wanted to forget all things Jake Alexander, she couldn’t help but miss the deep passion she’d felt when they’d been together. She’d lived and craved, eaten and breathed him. No matter how close they’d been it had never been enough. His soft, full lips that upturned in the corners had belonged on her. His kisses had sent her into raptures, sometimes soft but always ending up in a rough feeding frenzy.
    Kate’s body had fit into Jake’s perfectly.
    She looked down at her chest and noticed her nipples pebbled hard underneath her tee shirt. God! She seriously needed to learn some self-control. Rising to use the bathroom, she decided she needed to keep powering ahead with her work to keep her mind out of the gutter. It was the only way. The article was far from complete but she knew that it would only take a few more cups of coffee and some 80’s pop/rock tracks on her Apple iPod to help get into the zone and she’d have the article knocked over by say, 7 p.m.
    She put the thoughts of hot sex and Jake, which naturally went together in the same sentence, out of her mind. For God’s sake, she was still so mad at him and holding a hell of a grudge the size of the Grand Canyon that if she ever saw him face to face she’d knock his charming, delectable smile clean off his face.
     
    ***
     
    Midday raced into evening and the light outside morphed for the tenth time that day. Shadows danced on the buildings until darkness engulfed everything. Kate’s article was all but finished as she decided she’d had enough for one day. So much for relaxing and taking it easy and so much for not breaking her promise to Cindy. She’d get her article, but not today. Kate’s neck and back ached and her eyes felt gritty and dry. She stretched and rotated her head a few times to try and get rid of the kinks. The clock on the wall above the computer desk read 9 p.m. Her eyes bugged out of her head. What had happened to the 7 p.m. finish time?
    Her stomach growled angrily at her for not having fed it, so it was time to head outdoors and nourish her weary body. There was only so much black coffee one’s system could handle before it realized it was being tricked into thinking the dark, extra strong liquid was actually food.
    In the bedroom, Kate searched among some semi-warm clothes, deciding on a pair of black three quarter length pants, a plain white button-down shirt, and a lightweight synthetic cardigan with