Chapter 36
CARTER
Over the next week, I paid closer attention to everything. I did my best to try to make sure Val didn’t put herself on the back burner. She’d gone on that girls’ night out, but she was still canceling not only social events, but also meetings.
“I’ll just go next year,” she said one evening as we slipped into bed, when I asked her if she’d bought tickets to a wine-tasting festival in Florida she’d told me about. She was smiling as she said it, but I still worried.
“Go this year. I want you to have fun.”
“But I am having fun with you,” she replied. “You happen to know how to keep me entertained.” Lowering her voice to a whisper, she added, “And let me tell you a secret. You’re very good at it.”
I laughed, pulling her against me. “What would I do without you, huh?”
“You would miss me terribly.”
“You think?”
“I’m one hundred percent convinced.”
“You happen to be right.”
I kept her close to me as her breathing evened out, even though sleep evaded me.
A few days later, I arrived home particularly late. I’d been convinced I would find Val sleeping, but instead she was on the couch, bent over a stack of paper, writing furiously.
“Why are you up so late, pretty girl?” I kissed the top of her head, but she held out a finger.
“Give me half an hour. I’m in the zone, making notes for another potential line with Sephora. They mentioned they could see our collaboration becoming a yearly thing, and I’m bursting with ideas. I want to get them down on paper before I forget them. I didn’t get to it this afternoon.”
I sat in the armchair opposite the couch, watching her.
She was magnificent, all serious and focused.
Energy was rolling off her. I smiled but felt a pang deep in my gut as I remembered something Hailey had shared at the first Friday dinner I’d attended, about how Val used to only have time to work on her ideas late at night.
I swallowed, discovering a lump in my throat.
I knew better than to bring it up. She’d done nothing but appease me every time I did. I was going to change tactics.
Which was why, the next evening, I sneaked up on her in the kitchen after I put Peyton to bed.
I stopped in the doorway, watching her. She was wearing sweatpants and a tight top, and her hair was pulled back in a braid.
She was also dancing, holding the spatula like a microphone.
I laughed. She whirled around to me, startled.
“I didn’t hear you come up. Why are you laughing?” She parked both hands on her hips. “Not at my dancing skills, I hope. If you are, lie quickly. I happen to be very proud of my moves.”
“Slow down, woman. I’m not laughing at anything in particular. Just enjoying the view.”
She gave me a smile before returning her focus to the oven, where a cake was baking. I walked up behind her, placed my hands on her hips, and whirled her around.
“I want to talk to you.”
“Uh-oh. That sounds bad.”
“It’s not bad.” I pulled out the voucher from my pocket, dangling it before her.
“What’s that?”
“A surprise.”
Excitement sparked in her eyes. She licked her lips, wiggling her eyebrows. “Gimme, gimme. I love surprises.”
I took the voucher out of the envelope, dangling it some more. She was too cute, the way she kept trying to read what was on it. Then she snatched it from me.
“Tickets to the wine-tasting festival. And a voucher for a three-night stay at a hotel,” I said.
“Oh, that’s awesome. When are we going? After you drop off the girls at your Dad and Mom’s?”
Peyton and April had a week-long vacation, and my parents had insisted I bring them over.
“No, this is just for you and whoever you want to take.”
“You’re not coming?”
“No.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’ll stay with Peyton and April at my parents’ while you’re away. Then we’ll have a few days to ourselves when you come back before I pick up the girls. You go to the festival and take whoever you want. Go with Hailey and Lori, or your friends. Make a girls’ weekend out of it.”
She looked at the voucher, then back at me. “Why are you so bent on me going without you?”
“I want you to go and relax. You have girl time to catch up on, and I think some time on your own will do you good.”
Her smile froze. “What do you mean?”
“I know you like having your own space, doing your thing with your sisters.”
She lowered her gaze to the voucher and stared at it for so long it made me wonder if she was really reading the details or was just avoiding looking at me.
“What is going on, Carter?”
“You’ve been bending over backwards for me and the girls for weeks. This is not okay. You need some time to relax.”
She slid away from my grasp, walking toward the kitchen window, leaning against the windowsill.
“I see. So, it was okay for you to take on my case even though it was a risky move for your business, and it was also okay for you to work sixteen hours a day because it was on top of your other cases, but what I’m doing is not okay?”
“The case was temporary,” I pointed out. She folded her arms over her chest.
“So, what, if it had dragged out, you would have jumped ship?”
“No, of course not. Look, it’s not the same thing.”
“Yes, it is. You were there for me when I needed you, and now I’m here for you.”
I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated that I couldn’t make her understand my point of view.
“You’ve told me that while your siblings were growing up, you had no time for yourself, and that you started to enjoy your work-life balance only a few years ago.
I don’t want you to feel as if you have to give this up.
” I took a deep breath, knowing that my next words would upset her…
but I needed to say it, just this once. Otherwise, this fear would gnaw at me bit by bit.
She was caught in the daily grind now, but what if she woke up one day and thought she couldn’t do it anymore?
I’d had a few relationships explode in my face because I was a package deal, and I hadn’t cared for those women nearly as much as I cared for Val.
She was the one.
Maybe it wasn’t fair to lay this at her doorstep, but I needed to know with absolute certainty that she wasn’t going to give up on us later down the road.
“Use the time at the vineyard to think about all this, consider if it’s really what you want. Are you happy?”
She jerked her head back, blinking rapidly. “Of course it’s what I want. Why would you even say that?”
“Because it’s taking a toll on you—”
“So I have to rearrange a few things, big deal. I’ve always known I will have to slow down someday if I want kids, which I really, really want.” She stopped abruptly, dropping her gaze to the floor. “You don’t?”
“Yes, I do. I do.”
“So stop saying nonsense. I don’t need to reconsider anything. I love you, and I love Peyton and April.”
“Val—”
“Don’t Val me.”
I advanced toward her, but she skidded to the side. The message was clear.
“Thank you for the tickets and the voucher. I will use them only because I don’t want them to go to waste.
But for future reference, don’t do this again.
Don’t decide for me. I don’t appreciate it at all.
Now, I still have to wait fifteen minutes for the cake to be ready, and I’d like to be alone, please. ”