Page 8 of Mr. McBeefcake

“Congrats on finishing your doctorate. That’s so damn amazing.”

Her cheeks pinken as she looks up at me. “Thank you.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I haven’t quite decided. I actually sold the patent for the prototype I created for my dissertation. It’s given me enough savings to live off of for a while. So I can take some time deciding what’s next. I’d really like to just work on my own, developing projects that I care about.”

“You sold your patent? What’s it for?”

She licks her lips and my cock stirs.

“It’s for a safer helmet for quarterbacks, since they’re tackled most often and are more prone to concussions. The type of padding I used and its placement has shown that it can help reduce the risk of concussions by a significant amount. I mean nothing can fix it completely. Except flag football. Which is lame.”

I am literally biting my tongue so I don’t fall to my knees and beg this woman to marry me. How did I not know that’s what she’d been working on? Was it ridiculously arrogant of me to presume she’d done that for me? To keep me safe?

“I’ve had three,” I say.

“I know. Thankfully none of them have been severe,” she says, her eyes back on the glass bottles.

I reach across the table and put my hand on hers. “What you’ve done is amazing. I hope they paid you well. But thank you.”

She opens her mouth to say something, then just nods.

Then we’re back to working in silence until she finally says, “They paid me very well.”

“I’m glad.” I stare at the top of her head for a moment, but I know I have to ask. Waiting any longer is just going to drive me crazy. “Kathryn,” I say.

She looks up at me. “Donovan.”

“Will you please tell me what I did so wrong back in high school? I’ve never been able to figure it out.”

She rolls her eyes. “I doubt that.”

“I’m serious. I know that one day you were my best friend. I went away for the summer, and when I came back you ghosted me.”

“First of all, those were not the only things that happened. Shortly after you came back, you started dating Mona.”

“Okay,” I say. “So, you were jealous?”

She shakes her head. “No.” Then she stares at my face, searching. “There’s no way you didn’t know how cruel Mona was to me. She was relentless. And you just let it happen.”

“When? When was she cruel? What did she do?”

“Teased me and called me names for one. If it had only been that, I could’ve handled it. It was just dumb clichéd things. She tripped me in the library when my arms were full of books. ‘Accidentally’ dropped an entire tray of food on my head in the cafeteria.”

The more words she says, the angrier I get. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were there. It’s not like you went to a different school.”

“No, but I only ever saw her be nice to you.”

Kathryn releases a humorless laugh. “She cornered me and told me that my time with you was over. We’d run our course, and it was time for you to take your rightful place in school. The quarterback and the head cheerleader, as it was meant to be. Not you hanging out with the fat, nerdy girl.”

I shake my head. “Don’t call yourself names.”

“I didn’t. Those were your girlfriend’s words.”

“She told me she overheard you saying that I’d come home from football camp a dumb jock and you were done with me.”

She stares at me, then gives me a look. “When have I ever thought you were dumb? I’m an engineer, and you’re probably still better at math than me.”

“Son of a bitch.” I rake my fingers through my hair.

“So you’re telling me that you truly had no idea any of that was happening?”

I shake my head. “No. KitKat, I would’ve stopped it. Stopped her. I would’ve dumped her far sooner than I actually did. I would never have picked her over you. I need you to believe that.”