24. Chapter 24
Beth
“ O h, come on, Beth. You can’t just stay home and mope all night.” Amy held another dress out to me.
I shook my head. “I’m not going to mope. I’m going to read my book and not walk around in shoes that hurt my feet, pretending like they don’t.” She huffed when I shrugged, tossing the dress on my bed.
“It’s a Friday night! Just come out with us.
” She looked willing to beg. For a moment, I thought I might let her, but I wasn’t going to go anywhere even if she did.
I held my book against my chest like I had been dying to spend a night reading, but we both knew that I was avoiding Carter—and Benny too.
Isabella sat down next to me, taking the book and setting it on the nightstand.
She was about to take a gentler approach.
“Honey, we’re just worried about you.” She looked at Amy, shooting her a warning glance.
“I know this guy who will be at the party tonight, and he wants to meet you. Maybe he can take your mind off Carter.”
“I don’t think so.” I reached around her, snatching my book back.
“What? Why not?” She looked at my book, scrunching her nose when I flipped it open. “It would be good for you to have some distraction.”
I was grateful for the interruption when the phone rang. “I’ll get it,” I said, jumping up and keeping my book in my arm as a shield. “Hello?”
“Hey, cherry. It’s really good to hear your voice.
” It was good to hear his too, but it was almost enough to make me consider taking Isabella up on her offer to set me up with some barely-more-than-a-stranger guy in one of her classes.
I hung up the phone, and both of my friends met me with wide-eyed stares.
“Who was that?” Amy asked. I cocked my head to the side. As if she really had to ask.
I shook my head. “Nobody. It was a wrong number.” They shared a look of disbelief with matching pursed lips. Then the phone rang again, and Amy jumped for it faster than I could grab it.
“Hello?” she said, already cocking her head in an I told you so manner.
“Oh, hi, Carter. Beth hung up on you? Oh. Let me see if she’s free to chat.
” I shook my head hard enough to knock a few curls loose from the crooked ponytail on my head.
“She’s shaking her head. You want me to tell her you’re sorry?
And that you just want to talk? None of it was true. ”
“Tell him I don’t want to talk to him right now,” I whispered, even though I was sure he could hear me.
Amy put her hand over the phone and tried to hand it to me, but I put my hands up. “Take the phone and tell him yourself,” she said. Then she smirked. “Either you take the phone and talk to him, or you come out with us. Take your pick.”
She held out the phone to me, and Isabella smirked next to me. I groaned. “Okay fine. I’ll go to the stupid party. Just tell him to stop calling.”
“Thank you ,” Amy said, bringing the phone back to her ear.
“Sorry, Carter. I guess she just can’t come to the phone.
She said for you to stop calling.” I heard him start to argue with her when she hung the phone back up, and my stomach sank with the click.
“Now I guess it’s time for you to get dressed.
” Amy picked the dress up off the bed, holding it out to me before deciding against it and dropping it again to return to the closet for a different option.
I dropped back onto the bed and opened my book, wishing I could disappear into the pages where I didn’t have to go to a party—and where the girl got the happily ever after. “There’s plenty of time. The party isn’t until way later.”
“Come on! Let’s go!” Amy was being as patient as ever while Isabella checked her hair in the mirror one more time. “The party already started, and I don’t want them to run out of jungle juice.”
My stomach lurched at the thought of the cheap, liquor-heavy punch served in giant coolers. “Do I really have to do this?” I asked, following them down the stairs and out of the dorm.
“Yes, you do.” Isabella hooked her arm through mine while Amy took hold of the other. “It will be fun.”
When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we came to a halt. Carter stood there, holding a boombox and a take-out container from Hank’s. “What are you doing here?”
“You said to stop calling,” he said. “But I can’t let you believe anything Benny said. Beth, you have to listen to me. I mean, for crying out loud, I’m here practically begging you. I brought pie.”
“That’s kind of cute,” Isabella whispered, and I elbowed her in the side. She grunted and clamped her mouth shut.
I sighed, stepping forward. “How did he know you made me the tape and that you took me to your spot? He said you’ve done that with every girl just to get them in bed. How did he know all that if it’s not true?”
Carter gritted his teeth, and his fist tightened around the handle on the boombox before it relaxed again.
“He saw me make you the tape, right before I told him where we were going. I didn’t know he would use it against me.
” He held up his hands, showing me the pie and the boombox again.
“I have never once groveled. If you were any other woman, I would’ve let you go. But, cherry, I can’t do that with you.”
“Why not?” What was stopping him from letting me do exactly that? “Why not me?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because the first time I saw you blush, it changed something in me, or maybe because you smile and the entire room stops breathing.
Or maybe it’s because I have craved nothing but cherry pie for the last three weeks, and you’re the only one I want to share it with.
” When he closed the distance between us, I didn’t back away.
“Please, believe me that there’s absolutely nothing about you that can be found with any other woman. ”
“What about Benny?” I blinked back the tears that teetered on the edge of my eyelids.
“I’m done with Benny. I kicked his ass and told him to find somewhere else to live.” He handed me the pie again, smiling when I took the container from him. “I meant it when I said I can’t let you go.”
I looked at the pie, and my stomach grumbled. It sounded a lot more appetizing than any messy drinks. “Carter…” I couldn’t bite back the smile pulling at my lips or resist the rush of need that flooded me when I got a whiff of his cologne.
He set the boombox down on the sidewalk, hitting play.
The familiar intro took me back to the front seat of his car the day we had gone for the drive.
Carter started to sing. “And you want my love. Well that’s alright.
Well it will be there for you, morning, noon, and night.
” Butterflies I had missed started to race around my stomach. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging.”
“But you gotta be good. And do it right. Ain’t got no time for part-time lovin’ in my life,” we sang together, getting louder with each line until I forgot that there were people listening to us.
I forgot that I had spent two days crying and convincing myself that I shouldn’t have gotten so attached.
I forgot that I had been gullible enough to believe the lies.
Carter grabbed my free hand and tugged me against him.
“Well you wanna be loved. Hey that’s okay.
” Then he kissed me while the song continued.
I melted against him, savoring the familiarity of the way his tongue danced over mine and the way he inhaled each of my breaths so eagerly.
“What do you say, cherry? Think you can believe me?”
“Yes. Yeah.” I nodded, throwing my arms around his shoulders and kissing him again.
I kissed him until I whimpered, and someone cleared their voice behind us.
“What do you think? Think you can forgive me for believing Benny and not giving you the benefit of the doubt or letting you talk to me?” My stomach flipped when I said it out loud.
I hated when people in the movies didn’t talk it out, and I had been so fast to jump to conclusions myself.
“I’ve already forgiven you.” He kissed my forehead before resting his against it. “Now what do you say we go inside and have that pie?”
I giggled when my stomach grumbled again. Then I looked over my shoulder at my friends who had probably not so much as blinked during this whole thing. “I’m supposed to go to a party,” I said, nodding over my shoulder.
“What if we go to a party tomorrow night? I don’t think I want to share my girl with anyone tonight.
” He wrapped his arm around me. My girl.
I looked back at my friends, unsure if they would demand that I hold up my end of the bargain.
When Isabella sniffled and Amy gave me a thumbs up, I figured they wouldn’t mind too much.
“I love pie.” I let him lead me toward the dorm while I cast a final look over my shoulder. “I’ll catch up with you two later.”