26. Chapter 25 Carter
A pril 2024
“Do you have any idea how special tonight has been for me?” When I look over at Katrina, she’s looking down at her hands instead of at me. Throughout our date, she has kept shyly glancing up at me through her lashes. “No one has ever done anything like this for me before.”
There are so many reasons I want to punch Jacobson in the face, and this is becoming the number one. The way he’s made Kat retreat in on herself, and believe she’s not worth being treated with love and consideration. She’s so unsure what to do now, and I hate that he diminished her confidence, but it’s also something I’ve experienced.
What he did to me sucked, but it has allowed me to use my platform in ways I could have only dreamed about. I’ve had so many young, queer athletes tell me I’ve made an impact on their lives and helped pave the way for making the sport more inclusive. He cannot take that from me; I’ve never let him have that power. Now I’m also going to right every wrong he did to Kat, and hopefully, get her to see she deserves a great love.
“It’s a good thing you decided to go out with me then.” I grin at her. “This is my style. I’m sure some people think it’s too much.”
“That’s impossible.”
Silence settles between us again, but it’s not the kind I feel the need to fill. Most first dates are doomed when the silence settles in, but not this one. I’m content to just sit here all night, even if neither one of us says another word. I’d still get to spend the night with her.
She’s looking back at the pool now. The way the lights reflect off the surface, catching on something in her eye. Normally, I can get lost looking at her, but there’s something else in her gaze, something different this time. There’s a longing I’ve never seen from her before.
My eyes drift to the surface of the pool before sliding back to her. “When was the last time you went swimming for fun?”
The question must startle her, because she looks up at me with wide eyes. “What?”
I nod toward the pool. “When was the last time you went swimming?”
“I don’t know,” she admits with a laugh. “Probably high school.”
“What?” I stare at her, jaw slacked. “No way. That’s not possible. I don’t believe you.”
“That’s your choice, doesn’t make it any less true.” She shrugs, looking back at the pool. “I wasn’t the girl who got invited to pool parties, nor did I have much desire to leave the house in a swimsuit.”
I could make a comment about how I hate knowing she’s ever felt that way, but it wouldn’t matter. I can’t take those memories away. I can’t stop people from being assholes or preying on people’s insecurities, but I can help her make new memories. Maybe new memories will also help chase away lingering insecurities. I can show her, and constantly remind her, just how beautiful she is to me.
I stand, pulling my shirt over my head in a fluid motion I’ve perfected over the years. I can feel Kat’s eyes tracking my every movement. When I look down at her, she’s staring up at me, desperately trying to keep her eyes from roving over my chest. When I reach for the buckle of my belt, her eyes widen even more.
“What are you doing?” She laughs, but it’s a strained sound and she’s looking everywhere but at me.
“What?” I cheekily reply, toeing off my socks and shoes so I can pull my jeans off. They end up in a pile with the shirt, leaving me in just my black boxer briefs. “I can’t remember the last time I swam for fun, especially with someone I was into.”
She stares up at me, wide eyed. I’m sure if we had better lighting, I’d see a pink flush to her cheeks. “Carter, we cannot go swimming right now! Are you crazy?”
“Why not? I’m pretty sure I own this pool and my contractor said it’s good to go, so I say we can go swimming.”
To emphasize my point, I say nothing more, and take a few quick steps toward the edge to dive in. When I surface, she’s still sitting there, staring at me in utter shock. This isn’t how she expected our night to go. I push my hair back out of my face to focus on her better.
“Aren’t you cold?” She moves to her knees but doesn’t move to get up.
I shake my head. “Not at all!”
The weather in Columbia has already reached the upper eighties, with several days being sunny without a cloud in sight. So, the water is the perfect temperature, not too cold, and not too warm.
I’m just about to tell her she doesn’t need to come in if it’s not something she’s comfortable with, but then she’s standing and shimmying out of her shorts to reveal a pair of dark gray boyshorts. Nothing too fancy, more practical, but my gaze can’t help but linger on her smooth thighs. She hesitates for just a moment before pulling her tank top off to reveal a matching sports bra.
I bite my lip, taking her in as she pulls her hair into a loose ponytail. I knew she was beautiful, but now that she’s standing before me like this, I can’t look away. The lights scattered around the pool deck and floating in the water seem to dance off her pale skin, highlighting new areas to draw my attention to.
She flashes me a grin that stirs something deep within me. I know I’m in trouble. This woman is going to be the death of me, and I don’t even care. I watch as she hesitates for only a second before she gets a jogging start to cannonball into the pool. I move toward her as she goes under, ready to pull her close as soon as she surfaces.
When she does, she’s grinning from ear to ear. My arms wind around her waist, feeling the glide of skin against skin as I pull her in close. Her legs wrap around my waist, and I use my legs to keep us afloat in the deeper water. I move toward the wall in case we need some leverage. I guess I hadn’t even asked if she can swim.
“Is it cold?” I ask, searching her face for any sign of discomfort. Whether it’s from the way I’m holding her or the temperature of the water, I want to know what she’s thinking.
She shakes her head, leaning down to kiss me. I’m caught by surprise, so she’s able to deepen the kiss. It’s the first one she initiates. I press her back against the wall, allowing my grip on the edge of the pool and my legs to keep us afloat as I kiss back.
The movement of the water keeps pressing us closer and closer together, the limited amount of clothing between us leaving nothing to the imagination. I let a hand trail down her shoulder, running my fingers over the strap of her bra before going lower to grip her waist.
“Carter,” she breathes, throwing her head back as soon as she pulls away to catch her breath. I waste no time, moving my lips down her neck toward her collarbone, where I suck, and nip gently. I’m rewarded with a gasp, her legs tightening around me.
More than anything, I want her to keep making those sounds, to keep moving her hips against me, but I know we can’t go further. Not here. I can’t sleep with her for the first time here. I want it to be special, and I don’t think that’s what Bryce meant when he advised me to go for a romantic night by the pool. He can forgive a lot of things, but not that.
We’re both breathing deeply when I pull away from her neck. I reach up to push the wet hair from her eyes, which earns me a grin. She’s leaning back against the edge in a way I can’t see as being all that comfortable, but doesn’t complain.
“I should have asked; you can swim right?”
Her answer is to reach out and push the top of my head until I’m under the water. I feel the movement as she uses the wall to push off and swim away from me. When I surface, her laughter is across the pool. Grinning to myself, I chase after her. Despite nothing going the way we planned, this might be the best date I’ve ever had in my life.
We mess around in the pool for a little while longer, just swimming, and being playful. It’s interrupted with a few more kisses and light make out sessions, but nothing that’s as heated as the first one, before we decide to get out of the water. We collapse on the blanket, and I’m instantly regretting not having any towels. We make it work with some blankets, and then cuddle in close to fight off the chill.
“Why’d your mom call?” I feel her stiffen under the movement of my fingers on her shoulder blade before she relaxes again. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“It’s not that. We just have a messy relationship and I’m not sure it’s something that can ever be fixed.” She tilts her head back to look at me. “I’ve told you my family is chaotic at best.”
From what she’s told me, they sound like assholes, but we’re too new in our relationship for me to say that right now. “Do you want to talk about it?”
She moves until she’s sitting up; her legs crossed beneath her. Something in the air shifts, telling me we’re about to have a serious conversation, so I follow her lead and sit up a little straighter. She picks at the edge of the blanket but doesn’t say anything. Reaching for the glass of wine I’d just poured her, I offer it to her and watch as she takes it with shaky hands. She takes a small sip before setting it back down.
“I’m a disappointment to my mother and Thomas in so many ways,” she begins, and I hate her parents even more than I did two seconds ago. “Thomas never really wanted kids; he’s not wired for them. He and my mom are perfect for each other, though. Two emotionally unavailable people who were able to find love and physical attraction with one another. All the emotional currency they have, they use on each other.”
She continues, “It took me a long time to be okay with knowing I’ll never measure up to what they want me to be. I didn’t think Thomas would ever hire me, but my mom was worried about how embarrassing it would be for me not to have a job in the field my stepfather monopolizes.”
“So that’s why you got hired?”
Her eyes lift to meet mine. “Carter, this place is the biggest project he has ever trusted me to lead. Normally I’m assigned small businesses or family homes. Anything he doesn’t think is worth the company’s time—that’s where I go and it’s always in Charleston, so he can keep an eye on me.”
My gaze sweeps across the amazing pool deck surrounding us, taking in all the hard work and painstaking detail Kat put into it. The way she brought a dream of mine to life. My gaze drifts back to her. “But you’re amazing at your job.”
She laughs, bitterly. “I know! He just refuses to see it and my mom refuses to see me as anything other than someone who should be on the arm of an important man.”
“I’m sorry, what? Why would that be what she wants for you?”
“Because it’s all I’m good enough for.” She throws her arms out in the air, the anger at her mother coming out. “She’s mad at me because I ended things with Will. She’s the one who set us up. Apparently, she basically told him I’d make a good wife despite my many flaws. All the flaws she meant are superficial.”
“Kat,” I groan, closing my eyes, and counting to three in my head. “I want to be with you, but I never want to meet your parents.”
“There’s the family you’re born into, right?” I nod, urging her to go on. “And then there’s the family you get to create. I never really thought I’d be lucky enough to find one that I get to create, until I came here, and met all of you. You’re the family I’m choosing to create and, to be honest, I’m not sure the family I was born into is necessary in my life.”
I can’t imagine not having my family on my side or never seeing them again. They mean everything to me, but they’ve never treated me the way Kat’s parents have treated her. They’ve never made me question my worth. If Kat were to ask my opinion, I would tell her that people who make her feel small aren’t worth the effort, but I know it’s harder with family, and I’m grateful to know that she’s found something better to hold on to. Something that will empower her.
“I don’t know what the future holds for me or us,” she says, “but I really don’t think my future is in Charleston or at Dalton Enterprises. To be honest, I’m not sure they’d even care if I left. I think they’d be relieved to know they no longer had to babysit me.”
“You’re a thirty-year-old woman, Katrina; you don’t need babysitting.” I hope she knows the anger in my tone is directed at them, not her.
She nods, reaching out to take my hand. I unclench my fist, flexing my fingers before tangling them with hers, my thumb rubbing over her knuckles soothingly. “I know that now. I feel like the future is mine again, you know? Like I get to have control over where my life goes and if that means cutting out toxic people, even my parents, I have to do it. Right?”
I reach my free hand up to cup her cheek, tenderly wiping away one of the few tears that escaped the corner of her eye. She blinks in surprise.
“I’ll never tell you what to do, Kat. That’s not my style. I’ll just stand here and support you—whatever you want to do. I’m on your side, no one else’s. If they make you feel bad about yourself, screw them. If you want to give them another chance to make things right, I’m there. Whatever you need, that’s my priority.”
She blinks up at me, like I’d just offered to pull the moon down for her. Taking a deep breath, she grabs the hand I have on her cheek. “I’m worried I don’t deserve you.”
I’ve never felt my heart hurt like it just did, the pain shooting down into my chest. I lean forward until I can brush my lips against hers. “You deserve more.”
I don’t go back to Georgia until Sunday afternoon, which means Kat and I can have date number two and three in one weekend. By the time Bryce comes over to Kat’s rental on Sunday morning, she and I have officially decided to be together, cute titles and all. Which I think Bryce can tell the second I open the door after he knocks.
“Say nothing,” I warn, turning to go back to the living room where Kat’s waiting for us.
“What would I even say?” he asks, closing the door behind him and following me. “Kat, your boyfriend is being mean to me.”
“Nope.” Kat’s shaking her head, not even looking up at him. “We’re not doing this, Clark. I don’t know what he’s told you, but I’m not looking at your weird, knowing smirk.”
I haven’t told him much of anything, just that we’re officially together and I’m happy. Which I know, in turn, makes him happy.
“You’re dating my best friend, Kat. Do you really expect him not to tell me things about the two of you?” I glare at Bryce as he sits down in the armchair.
Closing her laptop, she places it on the coffee table before moving to cuddle against my side, and my arm wounds around her shoulders, Bryce’s gaze tracking every movement. “Of course, I know he’s going to tell you things. Just don’t make it weird around me or I’ll return the favor. You think Josie hasn’t told me things?”
I laugh at the look that crosses Bryce’s face, the way his brow crinkles in discomfort. Turning my head to hide my laugh, I end up pressing a kiss against Kat’s forehead, which earns me a soft look from her. Bryce gags in mock disgust.
She turns a glare back at him. “Why did you need to come over here to talk to both of us on a Sunday, Bryce? Why couldn’t I come to your place?”
“Actually, it’s more like Carter and I need to talk to you about something,” he replies. “You could have come to my place, but I don’t want Josie to hear this conversation. Plus, you kind of kidnapped my best friend for the weekend.”
“Play nice,” I warn. “There’s plenty of me for both of you.”
“Oh god,” Bryce shakes his head, and Kat looks up at me with a grimace. “That’s weird. Please don’t say that.”
“Ever again,” Kat pleads. “No one’s fighting over you.”
“I mean, honestly, Kat, you can have him,” Bryce replies. “I’ve had him for almost thirty years, kinda sick of him.”
“But what do I do when I get sick of him?” She pouts.
I pull my arm from around her shoulder, moving so there’s some space between us, and give them a mock pout. “I can go back to Georgia!”
“You know we’re just kidding, right?” Kat replies, reaching out to grab my hand and tug me back. I go willingly, unable to resist her. Once we’re both comfortable again, she looks over at Bryce. “So, what’s going on, and why isn’t Josie involved?”
He straightens up, looking more serious. “You told us you had a guy who can do the sign for the side of the building with the logo Mia decided, right?”
She nods. “Yeah, he said it’ll only take a couple of weeks once you nail down the name and get it to Mia.”
“Does he need the name if he already knows the font and everything Mia will use? Or can you add the name to the logo?”
She turns to me with a slight frown. “Why is Bryce being so secretive? And why don’t you seem at all surprised?”
“Because it’s a surprise,” Bryce answers. “For Mia and Josie.”
I can see the moment she realizes what Bryce is getting at because a tightlipped, playful smile spreads across her lips. “We can work something out. Tell me everything.”