Chapter Twenty-Two
“What are you doing here, Fletch?” Carly couldn’t believe her eyes as she gripped the door handle so hard it almost injured her good hand.
Her stomach twisted sickeningly at the sight of the man who’d once turned her life into tabloid fodder.
The open door allowed a cool fall wind to surround her, and somehow that made the moment feel heavier, like a ghost from her past had suddenly shown up to run its fingers down her spine.
She shivered in horror. It had been almost a year since she saw the man last. Frankly, she would have been fine never seeing him again.
“I missed you,” he replied. He took a step toward her as though he’d planned to kiss her.
She moved quickly away, turning to go deeper into the house. “You missed me? I haven’t seen or spoken to you once in months, but you missed me?”
She could still see as clear as day the time she walked into the stable that his dad owned.
Fletch had asked her to stay on the circuit for another year, despite the homesickness she’d been experiencing since Elizabeth left Australia, and she’d sought him out to discuss it more.
She hadn’t wanted to say yes, but he said that he could get them on the cover of Outback Sports Magazine—one of the biggest in the country.
The sponsorship deals that came with doing a cover of such a prestigious magazine would have paid her double what she’d been making.
And that had almost been enough to convince her to stay.
Because in the back of her mind was a space full of childhood trauma—of things being taken away and smelly secondhand clothes being thrown at her and the uncertainty of whether she’d get to eat that day.
She’d convinced herself that staying was the right thing to do.
She could move back to the States the next year after she got more money.
But as she’d rounded the corner to tell Fletch, she’d found him naked, rolling around in a fresh hay bed with some groupie.
She’d yelled at him, told him that they were through.
She didn’t know why it had been that breaking point for her.
It wasn’t like he was ever faithful to her, and she knew it.
She guessed knowing and seeing it in the flesh were two different things.
A few days later, she was injured when her friend’s horse had startled, and Carly had found herself headed home shortly thereafter.
Fletch looked at her now, giving her an angelic look that did nothing for her. “You disappeared on me,” he said, “and blocked my number. How was I supposed to tell you how I felt?”
Carly crossed her arms, being as careful as possible not to aggravate her injuries.
“You seriously can’t think that I would have wanted to speak to you after what I saw that day.
Besides, you and I both know that you don’t feel anything for me.
All I’ve ever been was a publicity tool for you and your daddy’s rodeo circuit. ”
“We were good together.”
“No.” She eyed the man in front of her. He was tall and muscular with long blond hair that fell to his shoulders and eyes the color of the ocean.
At one time she been taken in by his attractiveness.
She knew better now that the blinders were off.
What she once had thought was confidence she now knew was arrogance.
He was the type of guy who knew how good looking he was.
He used that and his father’s money to his every advantage.
He narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean no?”
“I mean what I said. You and I weren’t good together, nor were we in love with one another. We had an incredible run that gave us enough publicity to help people know our names, but that was it.”
“Is this because of that guy you were seen dancing with?”
Carly stilled. “What are you talking about?”
Fletch grabbed his phone out of his pocket and pulled up an image.
It was grainy, but she recognized it right away.
The picture was her and Jesse slow dancing at the Tenacity Social Club the night of the fundraiser.
She had a vague memory of someone taking her picture, but she hadn’t thought too much about it because she’d been so intoxicated with Jesse.
She stared at it now, seeing that and several others of them were all over the tabloid’s website.
Even now, in Tenacity, she couldn’t escape them.
She felt violated. And worse, she’d brought Jesse into it.
That was all they needed—for the press to descend when Oscar had just started to adjust to school.
She could only hope that it would blow over.
It wasn’t like she was Tom Brady or someone of that caliber.
People in the States didn’t follow rodeo like other countries did.
But…how was she going to explain all of this to Jesse, in case the press did show up? She fought back the urge to cry.
“I have to admit,” Fletch said, “the press in Australia is not being too kind to you right now. They’re saying you’re flighty.”
Carly looked at him in absolute disgust as her anger started building inside her. “Let me get this straight. It’s well known that you cheated on me with multiple groupies—”
“You know that was all alleged.”
She ignored his remark. She knew what she’d seen in that hay bed. “And I move on with the man of my dreams, and I’m the flighty one?”
“Man of your dreams?” Fletch’s face twisted, and he didn’t look so handsome in that moment. He laughed dismissively. “I doubt that.”
“I’m in love with him,” Carly replied more firmly, even though she fully planned on giving Jesse a piece of her mind the next time she saw him. “I have every intention of spending the rest of my life with him.”
Fletch ran an impatient hand through his hair, his face full of disbelief. “You’re kidding me.”
She raised her chin proudly. “I’m not.”
Fletch began to pace. “You and I aren’t built like that, and you know it. That’s why we were so good together. I know you, Carly. You love the lights and people shouting your name. You’re addicted to the fame, just like I am.”
Carly was done with this conversation. She started walking back toward the door. “You don’t know me at all. I never loved the invasiveness of the press, the complete lack of privacy. I liked the money. I won’t deny that. But there are more important things to me now. Rodeo isn’t everything.”
Just like her mom said all those weeks ago.
Fletch stiffened. “What are you saying? You’re going to throw away your career on some hick from Montana?”
“He’s not a hick,” she said, whirling back to face him. Jesse was a man with integrity who fought for those he loved. He had grit and a heart of gold. He was everything she ever wanted and more.
“You can’t seriously be settling in some backwater place like Tenacity.” Fletch ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “You’re Carly Hawkins—rodeo-circuit darling. That life is in your blood. You can’t give up the career you love for this guy.”
“You’re not hearing me, which just proves some things never change,” she said, her chin lifting stubbornly. “There’s something else I love a lot more now—someone else.”
“But what about the European deal?”
Carly stiffened, and Fletch’s eyes went wide, as though realizing that he’d slipped for the first time in his life and made a mistake.
“How do you know about that?” she asked before she realized the truth. “You’re behind it, aren’t you? You and your dad’s entertainment company?”
Fletch met her eyes. “Dad’s letting me head up the tour in Europe as long as you sign on.”
Carly looked down at the floor, feeling stupid. They hadn’t wanted her for her. They’d wanted her because Carly Hawkins and Fletch Alistair made headlines, and their messy relationship sold seats. “Your dad’s business interests will survive without me.”
“But I won’t!” Fletch replied insistently.
He gave her an imploring look. “After you left the Australian tour, sales dropped by forty percent. The only reason we’ve gotten any interest in Europe is because of rumors that you’d be a part of it.
You know that together we’ll be unstoppable. I need you to be a part of this.”
Carly felt dirty. This had always been the heart of their relationship. Fletch never gave a damn about what her thoughts and needs were. He only cared about what she could do for him.
She continued to the front door and started to open it. “The answer is no.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” Fletch said, his face turning ugly as he started to lose his temper.
“I know this is going to come as a surprise to you, but for the first time in your life, someone is telling you no. You’re going to have to deal with that.” She opened the door fully but kept her eyes on Fletch. “I want you to leave, and don’t ever come back here again. We’re done.”
“Carly—” he started to say.
Another voice interrupted him. “You heard the lady.”
Carly swung around to see Jesse standing on her porch. Her emotions practically flew out of her chest at the sight of him—anger, relief that he was there, guilt over those pictures, worry about what he would say. But most of all, the all-consuming love that she felt for this man.
Jesse had on his cowboy hat, shadowing his eyes. It gave him a mysterious, menacing air. He gave her a brief once-over to make sure she wasn’t in any danger before he turned his attention back to Fletch, giving him a look that made Carly nervous.
“I believe she asked you to leave,” Jesse said. He didn’t raise his voice, but he didn’t have to. The calm authority in his tone was enough to make even a man like Fletch flinch.
She had never seen Jesse this way. There was a quiet danger to him.
Moreover, there was a protectiveness in the way he angled his body toward her.
She hadn’t felt this safe with someone since the first day she’d met her parents and they’d promised her that nothing would ever hurt her again.
She hadn’t realized she needed that sense of protection still—until Jesse gave it to her without a word.
Something healed in her at the steely-eyed look in Jesse’s gaze as he stared Fletch down.
“The lady and I are having a private conversation,” Fletch said, all bluster.
“The conversation is over,” Jesse said, his voice low in a way that enthralled her.
The way he was acting shouldn’t have turned her on, but it did. Her pulse leapt deliciously at the way his eyes narrowed on Fletch. Honestly, she needed to stop listening to Remi go on about those romance novels of hers. It was making Carly think ridiculous things. But she couldn’t help it.
She really hoped they weren’t about to get into a fight. Not in the middle of her hallway anyway. While it would have been satisfying to watch Fletch get knocked down a few pegs, she didn’t want him to actually get hurt. He was such a baby when he was.
“Go on, Fletch,” she said. “Leave.”
Fletch looked from Jesse to her. It was clear that he was internally debating: Did he try to argue with her some more, or did he realize that Jesse could very well knock him on his butt if he didn’t do as he was told?
“What a disappointment you are,” Fletch spat before he headed toward the door. Jesse took a step toward him that made Fletch recoil, but Carly held up her hand to stop him from going after her ex.
“The feeling is entirely mutual,” she replied.
Fletch walked by Jesse, giving him as much space as he could given the width of the porch. Jesse watched him go, not taking his eyes off the other man until the Aussie was in his rental car and heading down her driveway. Only then did he turn back to Carly.
Carly leaned against the front door, her earlier hurt and betrayal at his absence after her injury quickly rising. “You have a damn nerve—”
Jesse stepped into the house and grasped her shoulders, slowly backing her up against the wall. He then cupped her cheeks in his palms and lowered his head, kissing her as if his life depended on it.