Chapter Ten
Billie
The party I put together for Little J is in full swing, and it looks like everyone is having a great time, but the only person I care about being happy right now is the boy with the red curls who is currently smashing open eggs to try and find the small dinosaur toys I spent last night stuffing inside. Carter was there, too, of course, spending time he should be working on his dating app profile helping me with my project instead. When I asked him about why he hadn’t put it together yet, he shrugged and brushed my comment aside, telling me he would work on it after the party was over. I don’t want to come off as pushy, but I really need him to start going out on dates soon because him spending all his free time with me is giving me ideas. Ideas that involve a lot more of what happened last week.
The shopping and spending time together was wonderful, and we got to learn even more small tidbits of information about each other. In addition to both being the children of immigrants, we also enjoy quiet nights at home and prefer summer over winter. Over the course of the afternoon, Carter also learned that I hate sunglasses that cover half of my face and need at least two snack stops when out on a shopping spree. To remedy that last need, Carter bought us both an ice cream and we sat on a wooden bench to rest and talk while we ate our cones. We talked about the projects he was working on for the shop and I talked about more of my party plans for JJ, but we also talked about how he reads thriller novels even though he scares easily, and that he thinks deep dish pizza is more like a lasagna, but he still enjoys it.
I talked about my time in college and how it was basically a blur of parties, and confessed that even though I acted that way a lot in the past, what I actually love to do is eat in front of the television while I watch reality dating shows. After hearing that, Carter has spent every night since then showing me how to make dinner before we watch the latest season of Love Boat UK, a dating show where singles literally live on a boat for a month while they look for love but really just end up hooking up with one another. Carter shook his head in dismay as we watched, bemoaning the fact that this is what dating had come to, but I saw him laughing every now and then, especially when the more dramatic contestants would start fighting with one another. I think he secretly likes it just as much as I do.
In addition to the shopping and getting-to-know-you sessions, I got to spend a good amount of our day with my hands all over him. It was a bit torturous, trying to keep things PG as I smoothed my hands over parts of his body to check the fit of his clothes. The first time my fingers grazed the bare skin of his stomach and felt the dusting of hair that comprised his happy trail, a wave of pleasure washed through me. From then on, I had to be diligent about being more careful where I touched him lest I soak my panties or make a fool of myself by pushing him back into the dressing room and trying to have my way with him. Carter is so sexy in a way that he doesn’t realize is sexy. He works hard, is so giving, and he listens so attentively any time I talk. After so many years of being seen as just a pretty face, it’s nice to be with a guy who actually pays attention to my thoughts and feelings, though he is so much more than that. He is so many amazing qualities wrapped up into one perfect man. That kind of perfection is intimidating as hell, but damn if I’m not drawn to it as well.
Currently, my eyes are drawn to Carter as he helps Jake sling a pi?ata over a large tree branch in the backyard. He looks really good in his new clothes. His flannel fits a lot more snugly, giving a better hint at the body underneath, and his pants show off his amazing ass really well too. The best part is that his flannels aren’t quite as long now, so when he lifts his arms over his head to raise the paper maché dinosaur higher, I get a peek of his hard stomach and the treasure trail I had my hands on just a week earlier. Grabbing a paper plate off the table, I fan myself a little to try and cool down from the barrage of heated thoughts that batter my brain. Children’s party, Billie. Keep it clean.
“You okay there?” Maya asks. When I turn to her, she has a knowing smile plastered on her beautiful face.
While I’m sure that the teensy, okay huge crush I’ve developed on her brother is obvious, I don’t need to give her confirmation of it. She would definitely tell Jake and he’s already warned me not to mess with Carter. The last thing I want or need is a lecture from my best friend about how I’ll just use and abuse his brother-in-law only to disappear back to Denver when I’m done. I don’t think that’s true, but even the possibility that I could hurt my new friend makes me leery of pursuing anything more or even mentioning my wanting to. “It’s just a warm day,” I lie. Placing the paper plate back on the table, I turn to Maya and smile. “Are you happy with the party?”
Her head bobs in approval, her blonde hair waving as she does, though she shoots me a look letting me know she’s not happy with the subject change. “The party is amazing,” she tells me, her wan look melting away into a smile. Nodding down at her son who is busy kicking up sand with his friends, she reaches over and pulls me into a hug. “JJ is having an amazing time, but more than that, it means a lot to me to have other people showing up and caring about him.” When she pulls back, I see her eyes are a little misty, but she blinks it away. “It was just the three of us for so long, but now we have so much more. Thank you.”
Getting a little choked up myself, I smile to cover it up. “It’s no big deal. Just a party.”
“It’s a lot more than that,” she breathes out. Her eyes are on her fiancé and my best friend, and I know she’s thanking me for dragging Jake back to Starlight Lake and back to his family.
“He would have come on his own eventually,” I confess. With as much love as Jake had for Maya, I’m sure he would have been back to her within a month of me having brought him.
Maya nods. “I know, but I’m glad I didn’t have to wait any longer than I already did.”
Her smile grows as Jake walks up to her and pulls her into his side, kissing her temple as he does. “Were you two talking about me?”
“That’s incredibly self-absorbed, but, yes, yes we were,” I inform him. Jake isn’t that full of himself, and it is a good bet that if Maya and I are talking, it would be about the one thing we have in common. My eyes catch Carter crouching down and helping JJ break one of his dino eggs. Maybe we have a few other things in common now too.
Jake looks over at me. “This is a great party, Billie.” He pulls me into his other side and gives me a hard squeeze. “I’m really proud of you.”
“Thanks.” His praise means a lot, especially since he was always the more hard-working and responsible of the two of us. “Maybe I’ll do this for a living.” The idea doesn’t immediately thrill me like I had hoped it would and my eyes flick over to Carter to see him studying me. Not wanting the scrutiny at the moment, I turn back to my friend.
Jake’s eyes light up and he nods happily at my proclamation. “I think that sounds like a great plan.” The mention of plans coming from him is no surprise, but I’m not fully on board with the party planning train yet to be as excited as he is.
When I turn back to Maya, she’s glancing over at her Aunt Sue with a smile. I met the woman earlier and she is just the right amount of sassy while still being funny. “You know, Sue said she would watch JJ so that we could have a night out. Why don’t the four of us go out on the town?”
Shock paints my face as I look over at the happy couple. “You want to give up the opportunity of a date night to hang out with me and your brother?” My eyes narrow in suspicion. I smell a set up.
Maya waves off my statement. “I see Jake every day now.” When her fiancé gives her a slightly affronted look, she smiles sweetly at him. “And I love every minute of it. But now that we don’t live together anymore and I’ve cut back on my hours at the store, I haven’t gotten to spend as much time with Carter.”
Her expression looks genuinely distressed at this and I feel slightly guilty for having questioned her motives. “Okay, but only if you let the two of us babysit Little J next weekend so that you guys can go out on your own.” When Maya nods her agreement, I rub my hands together and bounce on my heels. “Now, what should we do?” I need something fun to take my mind off the fact that I’m still not certain about this whole party planning business and that my life might not be coming together as much as I had hoped. “Oh, I know. Is there somewhere we can go karaoke?”
Jake groans and Maya winces slightly, but she nods. “Yes. There’s a pub on Main Street that does karaoke on Sunday nights.”
“Perfect.” I give both of my friends a taunting look. “I don’t like to brag,” I say, ignoring Jake as he sputters his disagreement with my idea of a good time. “But I’m not a bad singer, so you all better bring your A game.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about me,” Jake mumbles. I know for a fact that he’s not a great singer, so I’m not sure what he’s talking about.
Before I can get any clarification, Carter walks over and joins us, turning his head back to the kids before looking at the three of us with wide eyes. “The kids are starting to get a little squirrely, so we might need to move onto something else.”
Jumping into hostess mode, I clap my hands to gather all the kids’ and adults’ attention. “All right, everyone. Who’s ready to break a pi?ata?” The kids squeal, and the adults wince at the loud sounds, but we all move over to the big tree and get ready to watch them get out their toddler aggressions on the newspaper crafted tyrannosaurus.
As we walk, Carter comes up to my side. “This party has been a huge hit.” He leans closer and nods at me. “You don’t seem as happy about that as I thought you might be.” The sound of his low, honeyed voice has me reeling, but it’s his words that cause me to nearly trip over my feet. Busted.
Carter reaches out to steady me with a hand on my arm. With a fierce blush overtaking my cheeks, I right myself and look up into the deep green sea of his eyes. “You noticed, huh?” When Carter nods, I simply shrug. “I just don’t know if it’s the right fit, you know? Planning the party for JJ was great, but I’m not sure how good it will feel if I’m doing it for strangers. That seems a lot like the job I just left, and while it wasn’t all bad, it wasn’t great either.”
Carter nods in agreement. “I get it, and luckily you have time to figure it all out.” He reaches behind me and pulls me closer to him. “Either way, I’m proud of you for all you did for JJ and for knowing that even though you enjoyed it, it might not be the right fit for you.”
Floored by his words, I’m momentarily stunned into silence. “Thank you. That means a lot.” It means a lot more than I can express with words, but they’re all I have at the moment. Carter nods and continues on toward the pi?ata area while I’m rooted to the ground, wondering why the words he just spoke to me, the same words that my best friend of just about forever said earlier, somehow mean so much more when they’re coming from him.
****
The Ram’s Shed Pub is a lot busier than I would have expected for a Sunday evening, but Maya mentioned that summer brings in a lot more tourists and it’s not unusual to see crowds this size up until late fall. If I would have known that there would be this many people, I might not have picked karaoke. I’m not worried about myself. Working a crowd has been something I’ve done and perfected over many years of partying and playing hostess to clients, but I know Carter is a little more reserved and I feel bad that he might feel pressured to get up in front of everyone and sing. The last thing I want to do is ding his confidence when I know that’s something he has struggled with in the past.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else,” I suggest. The four of us have sat at a table closer to the front of the makeshift karaoke stage and have already placed our drink orders. “We can have a few drinks here and then move on to another spot.”
“Oh, ho, no way,” Jake argues. He smiles at the waitress as she drops off his beer, wine for me, and two cherry colas for Maya and Carter. The first time I had alcohol in front of the siblings, I felt bad since their parents were killed by a drunk driver. When I said as much, they assured me that just because they choose not to drink doesn’t mean they have a problem with other people indulging as long as they do it responsibly. Now I don’t feel bad about the occasional glass of wine, but make sure to refrain from even that if I plan on driving. “You wanted to show off your skills, so now you’re going to.”
My eyes widen and I nonchalantly nod my head in Carter’s direction, but Jake just shakes his head at me. “Fine. We can stay,” I announce. Reaching over to Carter, I clasp his shoulder. “No one else needs to feel pressured to sing, though.”
Carter gives me a funny look. “Okay, but I’m kind of excited to do it. I brought Jake and Maya once a while back, and it’s been a long time.”
“Not long enough,” Jake mutters. Before I can ask him about it, our conversation is interrupted as our waitress comes back and takes our order. In the meantime, a particularly nasally-voiced individual has started singing Miley Cyrus’s, “Party in the USA.” To their credit, the crowd claps and cheers at the end despite our collective ears having bled for the last three minutes straight.
As I flip through the song catalog, my eyes light up when I find one of my favorite tunes to sing. Scribbling down my choice, I pass it up to the deejay and look over to see Carter writing down his choice as well. “What are you singing?”
Carter holds the paper to his chest. “That’s a secret.” He smiles and winks before he walks the paper up to the deejay himself.
While my mind reels as it tries to process the sexy wink I just got, I dumbly turn to the rest of the table. From the looks on their faces, Maya and Jake are still struggling to pick a song. “What are you two going to sing?”
Maya shrugs and Jake looks pained for a moment before a smug smile takes over his face. “Actually, I think we’ll sit this one out and leave it to the professional.” Maya starts to talk, but he quiets her with a quick kiss on her lips. “No, let her find out the hard way.”
“Find out what?” I ask. Before anyone can elaborate, I’m being called to the front for my song. Doing a little shimmy in my chair, I stand and turn to the front, smacking directly into a hard wall of man. From the mossy, wooden smell flowing over me, I can tell it’s Carter, and I would love nothing more than to bask in the scent as well as the warmth radiating from his body.
My eyes find his and see that he’s smiling sweetly down at me. “Good luck, Elskling .” He spins me to the front and gives me a gentle shove to the stage. I’m glad of his help because my mind is still stuck on whatever he just called me. I wish I knew what the word was so I could look it up later, but I was too caught up in my fantasies to really be paying attention.
Shaking off my Carter-induced haze, I grab the microphone from the deejay and head onto the stage while the opening notes of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walking,” starts to play. The fact that I am wearing strappy heels and not boots isn’t lost on me, but the red shoes paired so much better with my flowy blue skirt and black shirt that I don’t even care about authenticity at the moment.
As the beat plays, my body starts to move and I sing the opening lines of the song as I saunter back and forth across the stage. Every now and then I’ll stop and do a shimmy, earning a few cat calls from the crowd and I point out into the audience and wiggle my hips. My voice isn’t as great as some other practiced singers, but what I lack in vocal talent I make up for in showmanship. After another minute, the song ends and as the crowd applauds, I pass the mic back, hop down from the stage, and walk victoriously with my head held high back to my table.
Carter claps as I take a seat and slug some water. “Very impressive,” he tells me. His eyes are lit up and he does look genuinely impressed, and I find myself sitting a little taller and preening under the attention. It’s different from when other guys would be impressed with me because I know Carter better now and can tell he’s not as easily awed, and because of who he is, his opinion carries much more weight than any of the other guys I’ve been with. You’re not with Carter. The reminder from my brain is unwelcome and dampens my mood slightly.
When the deejay calls Carter’s name, I once again feel as though I need to give him an out, especially since he’ll have to follow my performance. “You really don’t have to sing if you don’t want to.”
Jake snorts and shakes his head at me with a cheeky expression on his face. My brow furrows at him, but Carter touching my shoulder pulls my attention away from my slightly annoying friend. “I think I’ll be all right, but thanks for your concern.”
Nodding, I watch as he walks up to the stage. After he grabs the mic, he faces the crowd and a few of them cheer before he’s even done anything. “What’s that about?” I ask Maya.
“You’ll see,” she says with a smile. Her attention goes back to her brother as does mine, the opening notes of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game starting to play.
“Why would he pick such a difficult song?” I ask myself more than the others. The answer comes as Carter starts to sing, his honeyed voice carrying over the crowd as he hits every note perfectly. “Holy shit.” Turning back to look at Maya and Jake, I wince as I see Maya shrug and Jake with an extremely self-satisfied look on his face as he crosses his arms and watches my face grow redder.
Feeling slightly ridiculous for thinking that I was some pro and that Carter wouldn’t be able to hold his own, I turn back and watch as he takes command of the stage. His voice easily moves from low and husky to higher and crisp whenever the song calls for it. Every note resonates within me, and as I watch him sing with such power and confidence, my panties practically soak through and I start to squirm in my seat. It doesn’t help that he’s picked one of the sexiest songs of all time. Each word he sings about falling in love brushes over me like the light whisper of fingertips on skin, causing me to shiver as goosebumps break out all over my body. If he was ever worried about his dates, all he needed to do was forget the small talk and belt out a few notes because I’m ready to jump him right now and the song is only halfway finished.
Once Carter’s performance is over, the crowd erupts into raucous applause. He smiles shyly and takes a small bow before handing the mic back to the deejay and coming to the table. When he sits down, he smiles at the plate of food that appeared in his spot while he was on stage being a rock star, exuding sex all over the stage. “Awesome,” he says as he picks up his cheeseburger. “I really worked up an appetite.”
“Same,” I mutter. The appetite I have is not for the pub fare in front of me but for the man on my right. Trying not to drool on myself as I stare at him, my eyes linger on the mouth that just sang so beautifully. “Where the hell did you learn to sing like that?”
Carter’s shoulder bounces as he chews his food. “I did choir in high school,” he explains.
Maya rolls her eyes and leans in. “He’s being modest,” she says with an indulgent glare aimed at her brother. “He’s always been a good singer, and the choir won the state competition his junior and senior year with him getting a ribbon for best solo performance. He could have been in All State Choir if he wanted to.”
Carter smiles at his sister before turning to me. “It’s not that big a deal.”
Tell that to the panties that just melted off my body. Leaning in so our dinner companions don’t hear, I whisper over to him. “Well, I definitely think we should showcase your skills a little more when we set up your app profile.”
Carter shakes his head. “No, I don’t want to come off as a braggart.”
I snort. “Says the man that just performed like he was born on a stage.” He shrugs and I let it drop for now. “Fine, but you should definitely keep that song in your back pocket so you can serenade someone sometime. That is a sure fire way to get the girl.”
Carter’s eyes bore into mine. It feels like he’s seeing something deep down inside me that I myself haven’t even found yet. He smiles sweetly at me, and my heart squeezes because it almost hurts to look at something so incredibly beautiful. “I’ll remember that.”
We go back to eating and talking a little more about what my next party planning gig could be if I decide to go that route, Jake’s latest client, and Maya wanting to go full time with her crochet business, but my heart isn’t quite in the conversation. It’s stuck on the man next to me and wondering what it is he saw that had him smiling like that.