Second Chance

Chapter 3

Katherine and Lucas make it back to the dog park the next Saturday around the same time they always do. This time she finds Chris sitting on a bench. He smiles and motions them over when he sees them. Katherine makes her way to him, crossing her arms in front of her, "Chris. Is this going to be a regular occurrence?"

He smirks, handing her a coffee, "maybe." He motions next to him, "sit." She turns to see Lucas playing with Dodger and Lucy.

"Okay." She sits on the bench next to him watching her son. She looked at Chris, holding up the coffee, "thank you."

"Of course. I didn't know what you liked so I just got you a vanilla latte." He positioned himself so he was facing her. "So how are you this morning Kate?"

She smirked, holding the coffee back up, "well, better now." She turned to face him as he put his arm up on the back of the bench. "Most men don't realize that caffeine is the way to a woman's heart."

Chris laughed, "I'll keep that in mind." His laugh made her blush. She blushed easily, he liked that. "So have you always lived in Boston?"

Katherine shook her head, "no. I'm from the midwest. I moved out here for school and stayed."

"Where in the midwest?"

She took a drink from her coffee, watching him, "St. Louis."

He nodded, "so, Missouri?"

She shook her head, "no. Illinois. But if I say that, everyone assumes Chicago. But I grew up just outside St. Louis."

Chris chuckled, "oh I see." He looked at her, "wait. Don't tell me you're a Cardinals fan?"

Katherine laughed, "yeah. I'm sorry. But St. Louis and Boston aren't even in the same league. So it really only matters if they go to the World Series." She bit her lip, "so does this mean we can't be friends?"

Chris smirked at her, tucking some hair behind her ear, "well you brought up a good point." He saw his touch made her blush again, "I can probably let it slide, if you can."

She nodded, "we'll see." She looked back at Lucas, who was still playing with the dogs, embarrassed at Chris's attention.

His voice brought her attention back to him, "so you said you came out here for school?"

Katherine looked back at him, nodding. "Yeah. Law school. That's where I met Lucas's father. So I guess I stayed after I finished school for him."

"I see. Can I ask about his father?"

She shrugged, "well you can ask anything you like." Chris laughed, as she continued, "I'm only joking. Um, we met at school. Fell in love, ended up pregnant. But um, he passed when Lucas was a baby."

Chris grabbed her hand, "oh. Kate. I'm sorry. Can I ask what happened?"

She cleared her throat, shaking her head, "um, he had a stroke. Didn't recover." She looked back at him as she felt a tear escape.

Chris brought his hand to her cheek, gently wiping away the tear with his thumb, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. It was a long time ago." She grabbed his hand from her face, holding it for a minute before letting go. She watched Chris walk over to Lucas and the dogs, playing with them. She saw Chris lean down to Lucas, telling him something. She sat back and watched Lucas walk up to her.

"Mom, can we have lunch with Chris today?"

She looked up to see Chris smirking at her. She shook her head, irritated, "I'm not sure that's a great idea."

"Please mom!"

She groaned, "fine. Go play with the dogs." She waited until he had walked away before turning to Chris, crossing her arms. She stepped close to him, "you don't get to use my son against me to get what you want. Ever."

Chris shook his head, knowing he had upset her, "hey. I'm really sorry. You're right." He went to run his fingers through her hair but she pulled away at first before leaning into his hand, dropping her hands to her sides. "Would you and Lucas like to have lunch with me?"

She felt her face getting hot at how close he was to her, playing with her hair, "sure. We should go." She pulled away from him, grabbing her coffee cup from the bench and throwing it away.

She watches Chris pull out his phone and hand it to her, "give me your number and I'll text you the address. I know a great taco stand. Do you guys like tacos?"

She accepts his phone as Lucas comes up to them, "I love tacos!"

Chris laughs as she takes his phone back from Katherine, "who doesn't."

Katherine looks up at him, "lunch. 1 o'clock. Text me where."

Chris smirked at her, "assertive. I will. I'll see you later."

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Katherine sighed as she walked hand in hand with Lucas to the taco truck to find Chris already waiting. After they ordered Katherine and Lucas sat at a picnic table while Chris got the food. He sat down, leaning forward, "so. You said law school. So I guess it's safe to assume you're an attorney?"

She laughed, "that's safe to assume, yeah. I'm a contract attorney. Leases, mortgages. I even do prenups, divorce settlements and custodial agreements. I have a little firm downtown. Most of my work is done for local real estate offices for leases and purchases." She smirked, leaning towards him, "so what do you do?"

Chris leaned back, laughing, "well I make believe for a living. So do you do any work for Compass?"

She tilted her head, "yeah. Why?"

He shook his head, "my friend Tara works for them as an agent."

Katherine stopped eating, looking at him, "Tara? I know Tara. We're friends. Apparently not that great though." She looked down, shaking her head, "she's mentioned her friend Chris before. I just never knew she was talking about you."

Chris laughed, "she's pretty protective over me. She doesn't really tell anyone. Girls just end up being friends with her because they want her to introduce them to me."

"Yeah. I get that."

She watched as he turned to Lucas, "so you're in what? Second grade?" Lucas nods as Chris continues, "what sort of stuff you like Lucas? Besides Captain America."

He takes a second to answer, "I like comic books. And video games, and LEGOs, and reading. Watching movies."

Chris looks at Katherine, "what sort of movies you like?"

"Besides Marvel?" Katherine giggles as he smiles at her, "we like Disney movies, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings. We're giant nerds. He's just started reading Harry Potter."

Chris laughed, "nothing wrong with anything you just said."

"Well. Thanks for lunch Chris. And for the coffee this morning." She stood up and cleared the table as Chris helped her.

"Will I see you at the park again next weekend?"

Katherine blushed, "I don't know. Maybe. Would you like to?"

Chris half smiled, making her blush, "I would. I'm glad our dogs get along so well."

Katherine shook her head, "oh Lucy isn't our dog. She belongs to Nicole. But Lucas has grown sort of attached so she lets him walk her on Saturdays and play with her."

"Oh." Chris patted Lucas on the shoulder, "well if you ever want a dog to play with, I'm sure Dodger would love it." He looked back at Katherine, not wanting to upset her again, "if it's okay with your mom."

She nodded, "we'll see." She grabbed Lucas's hand, "come on, we should go."

She watched Chris hesitate, looking from Lucas back to her. "Sure. I hope to see you guys next weekend."