Fifteen
Leah
H e wasn’t in bed when I woke up the next morning.
The world had turned back on, and reality settled in swiftly, but my heart was beating differently now. It wanted him all over again, and I groaned in exasperation at myself for falling so quickly into him.
I needed to get away.
I was weak.
So, so weak.
In an ideal world, I would have been that strong woman, turning the other cheek at the man responsible for so much emotional turmoil. In that world, I would be looked up to for such strength and determination. But in the real world, with all its ugly truths, I wasn’t that kind of woman.
I was just a vessel of emotions. You couldn’t turn that off.
I got out of bed and dressed in a loose shirt and shorts. When I joined them on the deck outside for breakfast, I was happy that Molly was indeed gone. I could feel Carter’s eyes on me as I packed my plate with strips of bacon and eggs. My gaze found his on my way to the chair next to Marlena.
He gave me a wistful smile, and I was too shaken up from last night’s events to return it.
We’d talked for hours.
We’d drank.
We’d kissed.
And we’d cuddled.
It was an epic fail on my part.
“This weather is perfect,” Marlena remarked. “Hot, but not humid.”
“It’s nothing like LA,” Alyssa returned with a snobby look.
“Sorry Abbotsford isn’t rocking your boat,” I sarcastically replied, unable to hide the bite in my tone. I felt like shit. My head was pounding, and I knew it was a goddamn hangover.
When had I become such a lightweight?
Rome shot me a warning look and I ignored it as I took a small bite out of my food.
“Weather is weather,” grunted out Harold.
“And divas are divas,” Carter then inserted. “Hard to please.”
Rome exhaled in irritation and Alyssa rolled her eyes, hissing under her breath for Rome to defend her. He merely grunted, the dispassionate look in his eye impossible to ignore. The rest of us smiled as we ate.
Marlena turned to me, nudging me with her elbow. “I’m having dinner tonight. You should come around again. I love seeing you. It’s been so long, hasn’t it? You can invite Melanie, too.”
Rome noticeably stiffened. “No, Mom, not Melanie.”
“Why not? I like Melanie. She’s an incredible asset at the bar, and she doesn’t complain about unimportant things.” Marlena’s eyes flashed to Alyssa briefly, and I caught the gist of what she was getting at.
“She’s got work anyway,” I said, and it was luckily the truth.
“So then just you then,” Marlena urged with a smile.
I deliberated for a moment, feeling once more Carter’s stare. “I might,” I replied on a shrug. “I’ve got a long shift at work. I might not make it.”
“When do you get off?” Carter suddenly asked me.
“Um, mid-afternoon,” I answered ambiguously.
I didn’t want to make promises I wasn’t sure I could keep, and that involved coming back here to have my senses wiped clean by the blue-eyed gorgeous man who effortlessly dazzled me with just one look.
“So come after that,” Carter replied. “We’ll be here.”
“Not like we can go anywhere,” whined Alyssa. “You didn’t bring the guys.”
“What guys?” I asked.
“Bodyguards,” Rome answered on a sigh. “I figured we’re only here two nights.”
“But I wanted to go out,” Alyssa complained, fussing like a three-year-old child. “I haven’t been stuck in a house for hours like this before.”
I caught Marlena’s irritated glance at Harold. Harold, as ever, pretended to be oblivious. I felt bad for them, especially when Rome started to argue with his girlfriend about staying.
“You should try to be a little more understanding,” I suddenly said, looking at Alyssa evenly. “Maybe out there in your world you get to go out and do whatever it is you do, but this visit isn’t about you. It’s about Rome seeing his parents for the first time in ten months.”
Alyssa immediately shut up, looking away from me, pouting.
I knew it wasn’t my place to say that, but it was fucking true nonetheless. Marlena was too nice to put her in her place about it and Rome was just being a pussy.
What other choice did I have?
These were parents who loved him, and he was pissing them away like they would always be around for him.
Rome was better than that.
I cast him a stare that I hoped he could read, and judging by his dark expression, I was sure he got my message.
Checking the time, I quickly finished up my food and gulped all my juice down. Then I stood up and started to gather my things.
“I have to go,” I let everyone know. “My shift starts in an hour, and I’m cutting it close. Thanks for having me, guys.”
Carter pushed back his chair and stood up. “I’ll walk you to the car.”
“What did I just say about leaving the house?” Rome retorted.
“I’m walking her to the end of the driveway, Rome. Calm your shit.”
“At least put on a hat.”
“Yeah, I’ll produce my hat out of thin air, thanks.”
“Harold has one at the bottom of the stairs, on one of the hooks,” Marlena then said. “You can use that one in case there’s anyone around. We haven’t had a flux of cameramen in a very long time, but just in case they’re around, it’s better than nothing.”
Not really, I wanted to say. Nothing could disguise Carter. He stuck out like a sore thumb anywhere he went.
“See you later, Leah!” Rome called out to me on my way into the house.
“See you, Rome,” I called back.
Carter followed closely behind me as I walked down the stairs and to the front door. Moving past me suddenly, he grabbed Harold’s trucker hat on one of the hooks on the wall and opened the door before I could. Smiling charmingly at me, he waved me out.
“Just being a gentleman,” he explained when I shot him a puzzled look.
“Didn’t think you had it in you,” I joked as I slipped out.
He fitted the hat over his head, and it looked damn good with his longish hair poking out of the sides.
“You look like a Southern man now,” I teased, hiding my smile.
“Bless your heart,” he replied in a thick Southern accent. “That makes me happier than a tornado in a trailer park.”
I burst out laughing. “A tornado in a trailer park?”
He shrugged, dropping his surprisingly spot-on accent as he replied, “I’ve met my fair share of Southern people. Some of them say the weirdest shit, but goddamn, they'll take the shirt off their back to help you.”
“I bet.”
He walked alongside me on my way to the car, and we were all smiles despite our awkward as hell night. All I could think about was that damn kiss and how incredible it felt. He appeared distracted by thoughts too, and I had a feeling we were both thinking the same thing.
“I like your car,” he then remarked, staring at my dented to shit baby.
I glanced at it too, feeling my chest billow with pride. I saved that baby up cent after agonizing cent. “Yeah? Better than your Lamborghinis?”
He scoffed. “My Lamborghini has nothing on your fat ass car.”
“That’s right.”
“Did you buy this big boy with all these marks and dents?”
I studied the body for a moment. “Uh… some of them.”
He traced several of the long lines against the driver’s side, looking at me with furrowed brows. “Someone key it?”
I shrugged absently. “Yeah, I got keyed a while back.”
“Fuckers.”
“I deserved it. I kinda parked the car in the disabled parking spot.”
He bit his lip to stop from smiling. “You think some handicapped person keyed this?”
I nodded. “Oh, yeah. Melanie and I saw the tape when we went to the security team in the shopping centre. It was this perfect video of this miserable old man with a cane, and he was whacking it against the car before he keyed it. He got away with it.”
“Bastard.”
“I told you I deserved it.”
Leaning against the car, he said, “Just a little bit.”
“I got a ticket for it too. Talk about karma.”
He laughed. “A ticket on top of having your little beast keyed. No good, Angel.”
“It wasn’t my proudest moment.” I tensed. “You’re the only person aside from Mel that knows my shame.”
He grinned. “Lucky me.”
I unlocked the door, painfully aware of how hard he was staring at me. “The ticket thing hit me hard, and I felt bad for the cane dude. I don’t really care about what a car looks like.”
“You were never about the looks,” he replied softly. “It was refreshing. It still is.”
I glanced at him wryly. “My poverty is refreshing to you? That’s nice to know. But giving you a look over, I don’t see bling hanging off you either.”
He shook his head. “No fucking way. After what we grew up in, I couldn’t give a fuck about things. I don’t even have a Lamborghini—that was a lie.”
“That’s a shame.”
“Until you learn how much insurance costs for one. Rome will go broke with his car garage.”
I laughed, ready to reply when he pushed off and grasped the top of the car door, leaning closer to me. My skin prickled as he whispered, “I’m sort of on a fucking high right now.” His breaths hit my face, smelling minty and delicious as I stood still, hanging by his every word. “I’m not sure I can wait until the afternoon to see you, Leah.”
“Well, that’s not up to you, is it?” I joked. “I have a really horrible dick of a boss, and I can’t get out of this shift. So, it’s kind of unavoidable.”
“I doubt you put up with his shit. I know you.”
“When it comes to people paying me money, Carter, I have to put up with their shit.”
His eyes crinkled with amusement. “Well, I liked how you spoke to Alyssa, by the way. She’s a bit of a diva, and she deserved being put in her place. Just in case you feel like you stepped out of line, you should know you didn’t.”
I shrugged. “Even if I was out of line, I think she needed to hear it. Doubt it’ll stop her whining.”
He shook his head. “No, it won’t. Rome will have enough of her soon, I’m sure of it. It’s usually the way with him.”
“You know,” I then said quietly, taking a careful step closer to him, “she sort of looks like Melanie, right?”
He grinned down at me, those blue eyes bright. “She’s pretty much her replica. A duller version, really.”
My face lit up. “I knew it! Is he hung up on Mel?”
“If he is, he isn’t coming out with it.”
I frowned, rolling my eyes. “They’re both such babies.”
He chuckled. “So, are you coming back?”
“Um, I don’t know.”
“Why don’t you know?”
“Because… I’m freaked out by this.”
He cocked his head to the side. “What’s this ?”
I motioned in his general direction. “You. I don’t know if it’s wise to come back and see you again.”
His beautiful eyes narrowed in thought. “Have I scared you away with what I said?”
I hesitated. No point beating around the bush, or pretending I was Miss Confidence that had moved on. Honesty was the noble route.
“Yes,” I answered quietly.
With a frown, he scratched at his jaw, and I noticed the stubble there. I felt a tingle in the palm of my hand that was begging to touch it too. To run my hand over his cheek, to make him peer into my eyes.
What I loved about Carter was that he didn’t look like your average rocker. Not in his mundane clothes, anyway. He really was simple, like me.
“It was the truth,” he told me, quietly. “What I said to you last night wasn’t something that I just blurted out. I’m not doing it to get something out of you, either, Leah. I don’t take it back. But try not to overthink it.”
“How do I do that?”
“By living in the now. Stop listening to your head.” His hand shot up, and he lightly brushed my chin with his finger. “I’d be happy if you came back, and I think you would be too.”
My breath escaped my lungs as I took in the solemn look in his eye and nodded. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do,” I forced out, pulling away from his touch quickly. He blurred my senses when he touched me, and I needed the distance.
He stepped back and watched as I started the car, horrendously pulling out into the street. I saw him smile in the rear-view mirror at my driving skills.
Sticking my hand out the window, I shot him the middle finger. I watched him laugh as I took off down the street. When he was out of sight, I pulled over several streets later and had a mini freak-out. I felt like my heart had been punched out of my body. At the same time, my body zinged with adrenaline.
What are you doing, Leah?
One minute he was gone, and the next he was in my life like he’d never been away from it.