Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Two nights later, after Carson had been moved to a regular room, Griffin and Ethan came in to visit, bringing the cheeseburger and Animal-Style Fries he’d requested from In-N-Out.
They were fries topped with American cheese, caramelized onions and the chain’s signature spread, what his sister Jordan called a revolting combination.
“I thought you didn’t eat that crap, as you call it,” Griffin remarked as he handed over the bag to Carson.
“I usually don’t, but I’ve been craving it for some weird reason.”
“A near-death experience is a good reason to eat whatever the hell you want,” Ethan said.
“How’re you feeling today?” He was about six two, with thick, wavy dark hair that he kept long enough to receive regular commentary from their father about needing a haircut.
Ethan liked to say that the ladies loved to run their fingers through his hair, and there was no way he was ever cutting it.
Women also loved his golden-brown eyes and handsome face made more so by the perfectly curated stubble on his jaw—another thing their father hated.
“Like I got sliced up and stapled back together.” Carson dug into the fries like he hadn’t eaten in a year. “But better since I’m not attached to a hundred beeping monitors.”
Ethan cringed. “That sounds horrible.”
“Didn’t feel too good either.”
“Do you remember it happening?” Griffin asked.
“Vaguely. It replays like something I saw happen to someone else.”
“Did it hurt at the time?”
“I don’t recall pain so much as surprise at realizing someone had stabbed me. And I remember collapsing like a house of cards and not being able to control any aspect of the fall.”
“Damn,” Ethan said. “The whole thing is just crazy. When I heard you’d been stabbed… Like, what?”
“It was fucking terrifying,” Griffin said. “Not knowing for hours if you were going to make it.”
“Sorry to put you through that.”
“Not your fault, man,” Ethan said.
“Still no sign of him?”
Griffin shook his head. “The FBI is involved, too, because he’d shown up as a suspect in one of their cases before the stabbing.”
“I’m officially a federal case.”
“Too soon for jokes,” Ethan said.
“Since when is it ever too soon for jokes in this family?”
“Since we almost lost you,” Griff said. “It’s still raw for the rest of us who didn’t have the benefit of being knocked out for hours.” He was the token blond of the brothers, favoring their mother with his sun-streaked hair and lighter eyes.
“That’s fair.”
“Jules is upset that he didn’t find a way to get rid of Beckett faster,” Griffin said. “He said he’s guilty of a lack of urgency.”
“He did everything he could,” Carson said. “We all did. The cops were involved. I mean… What more could’ve been done but wait for the next available court date as usual?”
“I think having the violence strike close to home is a reminder to all of us that domestic cases are super volatile, and our system doesn’t move fast enough to protect potential victims,” Griff said.
“That’s sadly true,” Carson said. “I don’t want Jules or Cresley or anyone else beating themselves up over this. They aren’t the ones who stabbed me.”
“Gramps says you’re planning to go home with Cresley,” Griffin said in a deceptively casual tone. “What’s up with that?”
“They invited me.”
“They?”
“She and Ty, who’s the coolest kid ever.”
Griff raised his left brow in an expression of disbelief. “Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, like, you’re with her now?” Ethan asked.
“Something like that.”
“Weren’t you with me at Jules’s house a couple of weeks ago trying to figure out what the hell he was doing with Isla?” Griffin asked.
“Yeah, that was me.”
“What gives, man?”
“I like her—and her son.”
“Okay…”
“You don’t have to go home with her, Carson,” Ethan said. “We can set you up with help at home, and we can take turns—”
“Thanks, but I’m going with them. I think Cresley needs to do this because she feels responsible for me getting hurt, as silly as that is.”
“Remember when we were screaming at Jules about sliding off a cliff with Isla and not doing anything to stop it?” Ethan asked.
“What about it?”
“That’s what you’re doing with Cresley! You’re over the edge and about to slide into something you can never get out of.”
Carson thought of the sublime pleasure he’d found in her arms and shifted to hide his immediate physical reaction from his brothers. He was thankful that the equipment still worked. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Just like Jules did, right?”
“It’s not like that. I’m not acting a fool over her.”
“Call me crazy, but her being here most of every day sure looks like girlfriend behavior to me,” Ethan said.
“We’re hanging out. Having fun. I’ve already got one federal case going on. Don’t go creating another.”
“Right,” Griffin said, “but with a preponderance of the evidence pointing in one irrefutable direction…”
“Don’t trip over your big vocabulary, brother. I’ve got this under control.”
“Where have I heard that before?” Ethan asked.
“From our long-lost brother Julian, who thought he had things under control, too,” Griffin said, “and now he’s a domesticated house pet with a wife and two kids.”
“They got married?” Carson asked. “How long was I out for?”
“Too long, and they’re not married yet, but all signs point to future matrimony.”
“I don’t think he’ll get married,” Carson said. “He knows better.”
“What if it’s what she wants?” Ethan asked.
“She just got out of a bad marriage,” Griffin said. “I bet it’s the last thing she wants.”
“I guess we’ll see,” Carson said, “but don’t go lumping me in with him. My situation isn’t like his.”
“Is that how you’re justifying it to yourself?” Griffin asked.
“Let’s talk about something else. This topic is boring me.
” It was all any of his siblings had wanted to talk about any time they got a minute alone with him when Cresley wasn’t there, which wasn’t often.
She’d set up a group of trusted friends to help with Ty so she could spend as much time with Carson as possible.
Each day, she arrived shortly after dropping Ty at school and stayed until dinnertime, when she returned to the house in the canyon to spend some time with him.
Julian came in as Griffin and Ethan were about to leave.
“What’s good, boys?”
“Carson thinks he’s got this situation with Cresley under control,” Griffin said.
Julian, who looked tired and stressed, offered Carson a sympathetic smile. “I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”
“No one trusts you on this subject anymore,” Ethan said.
“Oh well,” Julian said with a shrug. “I had a good run.”
Half an hour later, Julian and Griffin had to take off, but Ethan offered to stay for a little longer to watch the end of the Lakers game with Carson.
“So, hey,” Ethan said after a few minutes of silence. “Something happened that I think you ought to know about.”
“What’s that?”
“Cresley’s friend Marlene…”
“What about her?”
“We met at The Roxy the night Jules’s band played. You and Cresley had already left. I didn’t know who Marlene was… and we hooked up. I found out who she was to Cresley when I got here after hearing you’d been stabbed. I almost had a heart attack when I saw her sitting next to Cresley.”
“Jeez, man. Of all the women in all the world…”
“I know! How do you think I felt when I realized that she’s your girlfriend’s bestie?”
“So by ‘hooked up,’ you mean…”
“She spent the night at my place. We had a lot of fun.”
“And then what?”
“Nothing, man. It was a one-night thing. No big deal.”
“Does she know that?”
“Yeah, she gets it.”
“Which means you’re not going to cause any trouble for me by causing trouble for her, you got me?”
“Yeah, bro, I got you, and don’t worry about it. I’m not looking to go down the road you and Jules are on. No way.”
“Funny how I said the same thing not that long ago.”
“That’s never going to happen to me.”
“I guess we’ll see about that, won’t we?”
Ethan held up his hands as if to fend off Carson’s insinuation. “Nothing to see here. Never has been, never gonna be.”
After Ethan left, Carson pondered the questions they’d asked, the same ones everyone was asking about him and Cresley.
His brothers were awestruck by her and hadn’t tried to hide that from him, not that he could blame them.
They were only human, and she was a stunner.
But as beautiful as she was on the outside, she was even more so on the inside, and that inner sweetness had him hooked on her.
He couldn’t deny he was hooked and couldn’t wait to get home to her and Ty. But was he going to take leave of his senses over her the way Jules had over Isla?
Nah, that wasn’t going to happen.
Carson ended up spending a week in the hospital before he was medically cleared to go home. Anthony drove Cresley to Cedars to bring him home. Carson’s entire family had volunteered to drive him, but he’d told them she had it covered.
Because she’d barely glanced at her phone in days, except to coordinate care for Ty, Marlene had told her that the story of Carson being stabbed by her ex in her yard had dominated the headlines all week.
Everyone in the world wanted to know who Carson was to Cresley, and the speculation had been running rampant while Cresley had been spending time with him.
Cresley had chosen not to look at the coverage, as it didn’t matter what people said about her. As long as Carson was alive and getting better every day and that Ty was coping as well as could be expected after what his father had done to Carson, that was all she cared about.
Would there be career fallout over a violent incident happening at her home?
Possibly. She’d deal with that later. This past week had been all about compartmentalization, taking each thing one minute and one hour at a time, with all her focus on Ty and Carson and making sure they both had whatever they needed.
For the first time in a decade, her career had barely crossed her mind.