Chapter 13
Audrey
“Please don’t fall,” Gianna said. She was standing on the ground beside the stool I was using as an impromptu ladder.
I climbed up here a minute ago to fix the fallen corner of our banner.
For the carnival fundraiser tonight, Gianna and I were assigned one of the bean bag toss booths. We’d already glued the buckets onto the plywood board and hung up the plush prizes around the booth. The main thing giving us problems was this damn banner.
“Don’t worry,” I heard Carter’s voice. “I’ll catch her if she does.”
I glanced down to see he’d joined Gianna’s side.
His company tee shirt hugged his muscles in all the right places, and the smile he was offering was charming enough to make any woman smile.
He and his company have been here since the morning, assisting the event staff with setting up the booths for the vendors.
He’s been by this way often to check on Gianna and me.
His timing was perfect this time around.
“Can you help us with this banner?” I asked. I carefully stepped down from the stool, still clutching the other end of the cloth and the stapler in my hand. “It has a personal vendetta against us.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I got you.”
Easily, he hopped up on the stool and stapled the banner into its proper place.
His position on the stool offered a perfect view of his arms and torso, sculpted from the raw labor he put in at his job.
Underneath the soft pink light from the setting sky, his light brown skin glistened like a pile of shimmering gold.
I couldn’t help but take the moment to admire the beautiful man he was.
He caught my stare as he climbed back down. A smile spread across his face. “You like what you see?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Hm,” he hummed, stepping closer. His hands slithered over my hips and he tugged my torso against his. Between our clothes, I could feel the subtle poke of the bulge in his pants. “It’s all yours whenever you’re ready to take it.”
My cheeks burned as his eyes fell to my lips, and desire flooded through his irises. I almost melted underneath the heat of his gaze.
In my peripheral, I noticed Gianna doing her best to pretend she wasn’t paying us any mind.
Carter dipped his head down to my ear. “Will tonight be good for you?” He asked, his voice dropping to a husk whisper. His hands slid from my waist down to my thighs. “After all this is over, I can take you back to my place. We can order some food, watch a movie - or let the movie watch us.”
I opened my mouth to tease him with another maybe. But, Gianna nudged my back.
“Mayday, mayday,” she whispered under his breath. She was staring in the opposite direction of Carter and me, eyes widening with every passing second.
Confused, I turned my head to follow her gaze. I instantly caught sight of a man with dark brown skin and locs pulled up into a neat ponytail.
“Davis,” he exclaimed as we locked eyes. “Long time, no see!”
I didn’t need to look to know who was a few steps behind him.
I quickly broke out of Carter’s embrace and turned to face the two of them as they approached our booth.
“Hey, Tony,” I greeted. I looked at his companion. “Hey, Max.”
I doubted he even heard me. His eyes were already on Carter, flicking from his hands to his head. As if wondering which one he was going to break first.
Tony opened his arms wide. “Come here, girl! Don’t act like I’m a stranger!”
Smiling, I hurried around the counter of the booth and into his arms.
He squeezed me tight for a second before pulling away to do a once over. “Look at you! Grown and gorgeous! No wonder my boy’s head hasn’t been straight. Tight as shit, aren’t you?”
Max barely spared a glance at his trainer, his gaze still fixed on my current beau.
Behind me, I could feel the heat of Carter’s body change from lust to something else. Not quite anger, but still burning with animosity.
Shaking my head, I said, “We’re still friends. Right, Max?”
Hearing my voice say his name finally caught Max’s attention and he glanced at me. “Yeah, something like that.”
Tony chuckled. “You two haven’t changed a bit,” he murmured.
“This is my friend, Gianna,” I said as I moved back around to the other side of the counter. “She’s one of the psychiatrists on our department team.”
Gianna offered a polite smile. “It’s nice to meet both of you.”
I jutted my thumb to my other side. “And this is Carter.”
“Her boyfriend,” he added. He threw his arm over my shoulder and pulled me against him.
Max’s eyes tracked Carter’s hand like it was a bug he wanted to stomp. “Really?” He asked. “When we hung out the other night, she said she was single.”
Gianna’s brows raced to her forehead, and Tony coughed to hide his laugh.
One of Carter’s jaw muscles jumped as his arm tightened around my neck. The cordialness he was trying to uphold fell, and he unleashed a glare that would send shivers down anyone else’s spine.
Max smirked underneath it, silently challenging Carter to back the look up with his fists.
“Well, we just wanted to say hi,” Tony said. He clasped his hand on Max’s shoulder and started shoving him back in the direction from which they’d come. “Good seeing you, Audrey.”
“You too, Tony,” I replied.
Unease swished through my stomach as Carter yanked his arm from around my neck. “What the hell was he talking about?” He snapped. A shade pulled over his eyes, darkening them as his glare fell on me.
“He and his mom came over for dinner not too long ago, and-”
“And you didn’t tell him you had a boyfriend?”
“I told him I was seeing someone.”
He scoffed. “So, you’re just ‘seeing’ me? Not dating?”
“It means the same thing.”
“Not to guys like him. If they think you’re unclaimed, they’re going to think you’re free game.”
It was my turn to scoff. “Unclaimed? Free game? I am not an animal to be kept on a leash.”
“I’m not saying you are, but-”
I crossed my arms. “Then what are you saying? Because we don’t need titles for me to respect what we have going on.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about.”
I averted my eyes. Max might test my boundaries, but he’d never cross them. He knows good and well where the line is right now. But, Carter wasn’t going to understand that. Right now, he was too absorbed with nursing the bruise on his ego. And I wasn’t going to help him.
“Thank you for helping with the banner,” I said. “I think we’re good now.”
“Audrey,” he murmured. His face fell as he realized his mistake. “Audrey, I didn’t mean-”
“She said we’re good now,” Gianna reiterated. She took a few steps forward, standing a few inches in front of me like a shield. “Thank you.”
Scoffing, Carter shook his head and stormed away from our booth.
“Thank you,” I told Gianna.
She waved me off. “Girl, please. He was being an asshole. But…” Her lips curled into a mischievous smile. “Why were you hanging out with your ex? The real answer - not the bullshit you told him.”
“Max is spicing it. We haven’t actually hung out. He’s come by my window a few times and we had dinner with our parents. That’s it.”
“Hold on, we’re not going to speed by the window part. Someone’s got a real-life Romeo on their hands.”
I rolled my eyes. “The bottom line is: nothing has happened between us. Max was just trying to get under Carter’s skin.”
Gianna nodded. “I see, I see. So, this type of behavior isn’t new?”
I shook my head. “In high school, he used to chase boys off like it was a sport.”
She laughed. “Sounds like he still has feelings for you.”
“No,” I replied quickly. “Max is just overprotective. Always has been.”
“Or…he wants that old thing back.”
“Gi, Max and I are friends. I’ve made that very clear to him.”
“But, are you both alright with being just friends?”
“Yeah. I mean, we have to be. I’m dating Carter, and Max…” I sighed. “I feel like I don’t even know who he is anymore.”
“I didn’t ask if y’all needed to be. I asked if that’s what y’all want.”
“Gi, we are in a carnival booth, not a therapist’s office. Can we not talk about this right now?”
“Sure,” she said with a shrug. “But you can’t keep running from the answer. No matter how fast you think you are, it’s going to catch up with you.”
“I know,” I murmured. And based on the brief interaction I saw tonight, it was catching up faster than I expected.