Chapter 24
Chapter twenty-four
Carter
“I know you’re angry, Kels, but don’t hurt the man!” I say, jogging after the petite blonde who captured my heart.
“I don’t think you understand the magnitude of the situation, Carter,” Kelsey shoots back as she continues her power walk along the tan tiles of the stadium.
The river comes into view outside the large glass windows that make up the walls of the building, and I narrowly miss the vendor packing up his snacks now that the concert is shut down.
“Kels, he’s just fucking with you,” I say, knowing it won’t do any good.
“I’m going to make him wish he was never born.”
I sprint a few steps, catching up with Kelsey just as she pulls open the door to the security staging room. After I slam my hand against the door to keep it shut, she turns the full force of her attention on me.
“Move, Carter.”
“He’s basically a puppy,” I say, pleading Nash’s case. “You can’t blame him for chewing up a few shoes.” I slide my body in front of her, holding the door in place with my back.
“I don’t think you understand how dog training works,” she says, an adorable crinkle forming between her brows as she pulls the handle with no success.
“True,” I say, lifting my hand to cup her jaw. “I never had a dog.”
“No fair using your power of seduction against me.”
I lean down, lightly pressing a kiss against her lips. “Is it working?”
“Of course it’s working,” she huffs, though the tension in her body has faded away.
“You know he didn’t post anything on your social media. He’s just kidding.”
“He better not have. I don’t post shit on socials, and he knows that.”
My head drops back against the door as I laugh.
“Are you guys fucking against the door?” Nash’s voice filters through from inside the room.
“Never mind,” I say, stepping aside and opening the door for Kelsey. “He’s all yours.”
“Nathaniel Ashton Parker,” Kelsey says, her tone deadly. “Where is my phone?”
I watch her stalk into the room, Nash backing up with a look of concern in his eye.
“Here. Right here. I was just joking. Just like you do.”
“No, not just like I do,” Kelsey says, crossing her arms over her small, perky breasts. “Because I’m funny. You. Are. Not.”
“I was just teasing,” Nash says, a puppy whine entering his voice.
“You’re an idiot.”
“Come on, Kels. You don’t mean that.”
She checks her phone quickly before flipping open the lid of the earpieces’ container, pulling out one to check. “I most certainly do.”
I join Kelsey on the other side of the table, pulling out another earpiece to examine.
“You can go now, Nash. We’ve got this,” Kelsey says, gesturing toward the door with her hand. “Carter’s mostly useful now.”
“Thanks, babe,” I say. “Quite the compliment.”
Nash and Kelsey both look at me, eyebrows raised.
“What?” I ask.
“Did you just call her babe?”
Fuck.
“Nope. You must be hearing things.”
“Kels, you definitely heard him call you babe, right?”
“I take back what I said before,” Kelsey says, a smirk pulling on her lips as she keeps her eyes trained on the black earpiece in her fingers. “You’re both idiots.”
Nash laughs, a full, rich sound that bounces off the walls of the small room. “Sucks to suck, boss,” he teases.
“Go away, Nash,” I say.
“Oh, sure. Need some privacy. I totally get it.” He walks to the door, pulling it open with one tug. “I’ll just go see what Mikayla is up to!”
“Nash!” Kelsey and I both yell at the closing door.
Nash sticks his mouth into the small gap still open. “Just kidding, Mom. I’ll keep everything on the up-and-up.”
The door slams, and we both stare at it, not sure if he’s coming back or not.
Kelsey looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Did he just call you Mom?”
I chuckle at the confused look on her face. “No.”
“It really sounded like it.”
“He calls me Dad,” I say, trying to match her seriousness.
Her eyes go comically wide for just the briefest second before she pulls her mask of neutrality back on. “You should fire him.”
I can’t contain the laughter that spills from me, and soon, Kelsey is chuckling along as well.
“I can’t believe you called me babe. And said it in front of him.” A hint of pink coats her cheeks at the statement.
“Is it a bad thing if Nash knows I use terms of endearment with you?” I ask, turning my full attention to her.
“No. I think Nash may have already been aware. I’m just not sure I’m much of a babe.”
“Sweetheart?” I offer, but Kelsey only snorts.
“Darling?”
“Who are you? A shadow daddy?”
I cock my head to the side, not following the reference, but she just shakes her head.
“Lila’s taken to giving me books to read.”
“How about angel?” I joke, knowing she’ll turn that one down.
In classic Kelsey fashion, she just glares at me.
I search my memory for another term of endearment, but love is the only other one I can think of besides hot stuff, and I feel both are likely inappropriate suggestions. Then it hits me.
“Cupcake? Final offer.”
“Hard pass,” Kelsey says on a laugh.
We work in silence for a couple of minutes before Kelsey pauses, looking up at me from beneath her eyebrows.
“Speaking of outrageous nicknames. Are you going to explain Puffin to me?”
Dang, this girl. She’s got a memory like a steel trap.
“I did explain it,” I hedge.
“I mean, you lied to me about why your Army buddies call you Puffin. But I thought now that you’re throwing around terms like babe, you might tell me the truth.” She flutters her eyelashes at me.
“God, you’re cute,” I say, leaning across the table to give her a light kiss on the lips.
Her hands reach up to cup my face, deepening the connection between us. We make out like a couple of teenagers before she finally pulls away a few minutes later.
“So, are you going to tell me?” she asks.
Her cheeks are rosy, her breath coming quicker than before. I can’t help but stare at her lips, which are red from the friction of our kiss.
“I actually have a secret I think you’d like more,” I offer.
“Oh, really?”
“Yep. But you have to promise it stays between us.”
“Of course.”
I pause, trying to build the drama. “I send all of Trent’s emails.”
A laugh bursts out of Kelsey. “What?!”
“I manage Trent’s work email account. I respond to all his messages.”
“So this fall…?” she asks.
“All me.”
“That checks out,” she says, her eyes twinkling with delight. “That was such a good secret. It all makes so much more sense now.”
“You’re taking this remarkably well.”
“I started to think Trent was intelligent. I may have even admitted to liking the electronic version of him.” I laugh again. “This is so much better.”
“You like the virtual version of me? Ah, that might be the first time I’ve ever heard you give a compliment.”
“What? No it isn’t. I’m a nice person. I give compliments every time they’re deserved.”
“I said what I said,” I respond.
Kelsey’s mouth drops open. “For that, now you have to tell me about Puffin too.”
“What? That’s not the deal. I told you about the emails!”
“We never made a deal,” she says, her smile wide. “You gave that information up freely. Now, tell me about Puffin.”
No matter how stupid it makes me feel trying to explain myself to her, I know she deserves it.
“What do you know about puffins?” I ask, my gaze still on her lips.
“Um”—she twirls her finger around the hair at the nape of her neck—“they’re birds?”
“Correct.” I chuckle at her answer. “They also mate for life, spending most of their winters apart before coming back together each spring.”
Kelsey cocks her head, thinking. “And you’re…really loyal?”
I consider lying. I could spin this in a way that doesn’t make me look like I’ve been pining after her since my voice first dropped, but I’m not sure that’s what I want.
If I’m going to have any chance of keeping Kelsey once we get back to Wild Bluffs, I need her to know that this isn’t just some passing interest. I mentioned my crush on her in high school, but not how that somehow morphed into an infatuation that I’ve never been able to shake.
I walk around the table, my hand gently lifting her chin until her eyes meet mine.
“One of the guys I was in the Rangers with was also my roommate freshman year of college. He knew about the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about when we first got to college.
The one I wished I had taken a chance on and asked out, especially after she stood up for my mom.
The girl who never left my mind, no matter where I was, or what I was doing, even though I’d never dated her—even though she wasn’t ever mine to come back to. ”
Her breath hitches slightly, and I see the realization flicker in her eyes. It’s like a spark between us as my words finally sink in.
“My Army buddies would set me up with women, but they were never as beautiful or as interesting as you were—or at least the you in my head. So they got annoyed with me always coming back from dates unimpressed with the women and started calling me Puffin. And like all ridiculous nicknames, it stuck.”
“How? You…we…you wouldn’t even talk to me in high school,” Kelsey says.
“Yeah. That’s what happens when you have a crush on someone since middle school: your brain stops functioning around them.
” I brush my thumb lightly over her cheek.
“But as for how, you know how small schools are: You know everything about everyone. You always fascinated me. And then, somehow, you burrowed your way into my heart and became the standard I compared all other women against. A standard that no other woman was able to meet. I realize it sounds ridiculous. Trust me, I’ve been told, and told myself, how ridiculous it was to compare every woman I met to you, someone I never even dated. ”
Her gaze locks on to mine, searching for something. And when she finally speaks, her voice is barely a whisper, but it’s enough to send a shiver down my spine.
“I never knew.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I chuckle. “Tell you? When? In high school? I couldn’t talk around you, and you were either dating seniors or seemed completely uninterested in any of the rest of us.
But honestly? I never wanted to pursue anything.
I knew it didn’t matter. I wasn’t planning on sticking around.
We both had big dreams, and I wasn’t going to risk holding either of us back.
Honestly, high school me didn’t think it was as big of a deal as my college and Army friends did.
Turns out, not everyone had a crush on a girl their entire middle and high school years and never did anything about it. ”
“It is a big deal,” she says.
I let out a low chuckle. “Are you saying I had a chance in high school?”
There’s a twinkle in her gaze now. “I mean, no, probably not. But not because of you. I was so focused on getting out of town and making something of myself that I put zero thought into connecting with the people around me—even my sisters.”
A weight lifts off my chest as she admits that, and for the first time, I understand why she always seemed so distant. Kelsey, always driven, always with her eyes set on something bigger. I can’t help but marvel at how much she’s changed—even though that drive in her is still the same.
“And now?” I ask softly, brushing my thumb along the curve of her cheek again. “Because I’m not going anywhere, Kels. Not this time.”
She looks down at our hands, her fingers lightly curling around mine, then back up at me, her lips pressing together like she’s holding something back.
“Why does this feel so…easy?” she finally asks, her voice barely audible.
“Because we’ve been waiting for this,” I reply, my voice steady. “For a long time, and in different ways. We just didn’t know it.”
Her eyes soften at my words. “You really think we can make this work?” she asks. “Even once we’re back in Wild Bluffs?”
“I know we can. You were the girl I compared every other one to for the last fifteen years, and now I know you’re the woman no other can compare to.
I tried to tell myself how irrational it was to have my baseline be a girl I was classmates with growing up, but it didn’t work.
And now I know the real version of you is even better than the one my adolescent brain concocted.
So giving up on us isn’t an option. Not for me. ”
“Okay, Puff,” Kelsey says with a smile. “Then it’s not an option for me either.”
And just like that, everything feels possible. Now, I just have to figure out how to break the news to Trent without losing my job.