Chapter 24
“W E BID SEVEN and a possible,” Reggie stated after Gavin said he had one book.
“What!” Carrah shot back, studying her hand. It was nothing to brag about. Hopefully Ava had been luckier than her or they were about to get their butts spanked. After her meltdown on the kickball field, Carrah didn’t want to reveal her tendency for being a sore loser at the card table. A glimmer of hope taunted Carrah when Ava winked at her. The problem was she knew Ava didn’t know how to play spades. “What you got, Aves?”
Ava fumbled the cards around in her hand confirming Carrah’s fears. The people Carrah would’ve partnered with hadn’t been invited. So Ava it was for the night. “Uhh… maybe two. What other cards are considered trump?”
Reggie and Gavin burst into laughter as Carrah sank in her seat. This was about to be a disaster.
“Give up your Black card, Ava,” Gavin said mockingly and then took a sip of his Hennessy. “Might as well throw your friendship away too. We all know Carrah hates to lose at the card table.”
Ava peered over at Carrah and gave her the I-don’t-know-what-to-do shrug, which forced Carrah to refocus on her hand. There were thirteen possible books, and the boys were saying they had eight. Probably more if they were banking on Ava’s rudimentary skills to sabotage Carrah.
“I don’t play with cheaters.” Carrah folded her hand and turned it face down on the table.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! How you calling us cheaters?”
Reggie piped up, visibly frustrated with Carrah’s actions. Unbeknownst that this was part of her game. Get in his head prior to starting. “Ava is the one who cheated. Up here talking across the table telling you she don’t know what to do. If she can’t play, she needs to get up. This is a grown folks’ game.”
Ava pushed her chair out, stood up, and threw her cards down. “I can’t do this with y’all. The game hasn’t even started and three of you are acting like some Bebe’s kids.”
“Reese,” Gavin called to the other side of the room, where she sat booed up with Duncan. “Come take Ava’s spot.”
“Reese don’t wanna play,” Dunc responded before dropping a kiss on her forehead.
“Doesn’t want to play what?” Chris asked, entering the room. “Sorry I’m late. What’s going on?”
Carrah’s heart rate sped up. It had been calm all afternoon. Now, it was back to racing like it had earlier at the café when they met for tea. She had to get herself under control, vanquish idle thoughts that would leave her looking like a fool and a turncoat to her family.
“Come take Ava’s spot.” Gavin nudged Reggie, reminding him of Carrah and Chris’s tumultuous rapport.
Carrah ignored them and how they were acting. They didn’t know she and Chris had moved past coexisting from a distance. It wasn’t like they could announce their rivalry was suspended because they’d entered a business agreement. In fact, they would never tell their friends for risk of bringing unwanted attention to their arrangement.
“What y’all playing?” Chris asked again.
“Spades,” everyone answered.
Chris came to the table. His eyes seemed to avoid Carrah on purpose, like he wanted to remain hidden behind their secret wall. “I’ll play. Who’s my partner?”
The room became silent as the night before Christmas. Everybody started looking at each other and then nowhere to evade replying. Carrah sat up in her chair, but didn’t take her eyes off the table. If he had avoided acknowledging her when he arrived, there was no telling how he might react now.
“I am,” she finally said.
Chris sat in the chair Ava abandoned. He picked up the stack of cards left behind and let out a long whistle. “You ready to whip these boys’ asses, partner?”
Carrah perked up. Her heart stopped as she met his gaze from across the table. The wink he gave her made her smile so hard, her cheeks hurt.
“What the hell?” one of their friends drawled. She couldn’t make out the feminine voice. However, she registered the surprise.
“What?” Chris and Carrah said at the same time.
Quinn came over to the table and looked from Chris to Carrah and then to Reggie and Gavin. Her jaw was slack as she stood there saying nothing. “Y’all know what.” She harrumphed. “The two of you on a team—working together—it’s a tad bit creepy.”
Howling laughter escaped Chris as he scanned the room and then gave Carrah a look of knowing. “Teamwork makes the dream work. I got your back.”
She nodded, accepting the sincerity he extended to her from the other side, for Carrah understood he wasn’t only talking about cards. Over tea they’d discussed her exit strategy from Noir, right before she had him proofread her response to Olivia, accepting representation. After which he offered his cottage to her as a quiet place to write so she could meet deadlines. She trusted him.
“Then let’s do this. How many books you got?”
“Three and a possible,” Chris responded to her while sorting his cards.
“I’ve got three, solid. Safe to say six?” Chris accepted and Carrah scribbled the number 6 onto the score sheet.
An arrogant cackle louder than normal came out of Carrah as she set her sights on Reggie and Gavin. The twisted expressions marring their handsome faces as they began recounting their hands made Chris taking Ava’s place more than worthwhile.
“Ah shit!” Duncan chortled and came hoovering by the table. “This about to be good.”
Chris reared back to look at Duncan and then made eyes with Carrah. In the time they’d spent together, she could tell without asking that he wanted to know what was happening.
She giggled. “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum bid seven and a possible. We just bid six. I’d like to see their asses get set.”
“Play to win.” Chris side-eyed Gavin and Reggie, who sat at his right and left sides. It was nothing personal, just once one sat at the spades table, allegiance was only to your partner. “You’re lead off, Gav.”
The room became intensely quiet. Gavin contemplated his hand then mumbled as he threw out an ace of diamonds. Chris followed suit, throwing off a high card, which made Carrah aware he had no more diamonds. She eagerly waited for Reggie to play, and after he did, she pulled the deuce of diamonds from her hand and tossed it at the pile.
Gavin reached to retrieve the book and stopped as Chris’s hand covered the stack. “What’s trump, Gav?” Chris’s laughter was drowned by expletives from the other two at the table as he collected the book.
Carrah loved the sound and planned to keep it going. She followed the next set with dropping the big joker and then sat back, enjoying the way Reggie and Gavin squirmed while Chris talked trash.
By round five, patience was beginning to wear thin for Gavin and Reggie since they had managed only one book. After Chris threw out a low card, Reggie cut him with a spade. From the corner of Carrah’s eye, she watched Gavin’s face curl into a malicious grin. He pulled a card and began tapping it on the table by the played pile. Of course, Gavin being a seasoned player was baiting her, trying to garner a reaction since he figured she would probably cut Reggie.
The second she threw out another spade to trump Reggie’s, Gavin stood up and slammed his card on top, making him the victor of the book. “Not today, Ms. Andrews.” He gloated, slapping fives with Reggie before he claimed the book.
“You should be thanking me for giving you that book,” Carrah snipped at Gavin. “The rest are ours,” she said across the table to Chris.
He snickered, pretending to bow to her. “Your wish is my command.”
Chris and Carrah won the next book. The ones that followed belonged to them too. No less than thirty minutes later, she and Chris fist-bumped across the table, claiming the victory while ignoring their opponents’ disgruntled commentary. Eventually Reggie and Gavin acknowledged their win. However, they didn’t miss the chance to call Chris out for breaking bro code.
“Hey, everybody!” Summer entered the parlor along with Peyton and wasted no time coming over to the card table. “Who won?”
“Chris and Carrah!” Reese giggled. “The irony.”
Everyone laughed except the two of them, who remained locked in each other’s gazes from across the table. If someone would’ve told Carrah before the summer started that an old family foe would become a friend, she wouldn’t have believed them. Those light eyes stared back at her, piercing her soul while unmasking the desires of her heart. She wished things could be different.
“It is ironic.” Summer’s nasally voice removed Carrah from her contemplation. “Considering how you don’t like her.” She plopped down into Chris’s lap.
Unexpectedly, anger clashed with jealousy inside Carrah and she struggled to keep it cute. All her life she’d deceived herself into thinking she didn’t like Christopher Chennault. The last few weeks revealed a lie. She had always liked him, and that was why she wanted to be his friend when they were kids. Only, he had rejected her. Made her feel unimportant, and that was what she’d done to him all these years to suppress a spark she wasn’t allowed to light.
So to watch a woman like Summer Bradshaw sit in his lap and then make a mockery of the way they had interacted with each other for over twenty-years stung. No one could know, though, especially Chris. Remaining true to who she was, Carrah got up from the table and left the parlor.
“Really, Summer?” Ava roared before she darted out behind Carrah.
Chris got to his feet, dumping Summer from his lap. All of his instincts screamed for him to run behind Carrah. Instead logic won. No one knew he was representing her or that they’d warmed up to each other… or that he’d somehow had a need to protect her. If they did, then that meant their families might have questions neither was prepared to answer.
“Why would you say that?” Chris’s attempt to remain calm felt futile while ten sticks of dynamite exploded inside him.
Summer gave a wry smile before she tried closing the gap between them. “Well, it’s true.”
“Maybe it is. We don’t say it,” Gavin clipped. “Thanks for making things weird again.”
“Oh my God!” Summer stomped her feet. “It seems like it was just yesterday they were at odds over a kickball game. I could keep going. It’s always been weird.”
“No,” Quinn barked as she started moving closer to Summer. Peyton came off a stool at the bar and grabbed her. “No, it wasn’t weird. For as long as I can remember, Chris and Carrah have always shielded this friend group, which you technically are not part of, from their families’ differences. They coexisted from a distance”—Quinn glanced at Chris—“or whatever they call it so we could all still have each other. You just made the shit weird.”
“Because she likes Chris.” Reese stretched her claws out like a little cat. “You have since debut. Admit it,” she hissed.
Chris didn’t need Summer to admit a damn thing. He knew she had an interest in him. He simply never had any in her. Perhaps if he’d been clearer about that he wouldn’t be standing here now with egg on his face and Carrah gone.
His jaw twitched as he eyed Summer. “Who invited you anyway?” He took off to find Carrah, no longer concerned with what people might think.
Summer gasped, reaching for him while attempting to offer an explanation. Chris ignored her and kept going, taking the direction he’d watched Carrah walk away in. He came to the end of the hall and could either turn right or go outside. Thinking back to Carrah sharing that she loved landscapes and then seeing the breathtaking views of the lake against the twinkling lights made him go to the French doors. A crack in the door confirmed he’d chosen wisely and he stepped out into the Caldwells’ backyard.
He skimmed over the yard not seeing anyone. He then pulled his phone to call Carrah, but stopped when he heard voices. He stepped off the lanai and followed the cobblestone path to where it ended at Mrs. Caldwell’s greenhouse. The voices became louder, and before he got to the entry he had distinguished both Carrah and Ava.
He tapped the glass door and then pushed it wider. Ava greeted him warmly. Carrah, on the other hand, folded her arms and turned the other away. Her sadness ate at him, making him wish that they weren’t having to hide behind the antiquated animosities of their families.
Chris tabled that thought for later reflection and moved closer to where they stood within an almost overpowering scent of flowers. An awkward silence settled between them. For once in his adult life he was fresh out of words that needed to be spoken.
“What the heck?” Ava guffawed, turning her head from Carrah to Chris and back again. A breathless giggle escaped her. “Oh my God, you two did bump uglies.”
“No!” Chris and Carrah shouted at once.
Ava assessed him then Carrah. “Then what’s going on between you two, and don’t say nothing because clearly it’s something.” Neither offered a reply. “Did you make him take you on as a client, Carrah?”
“No one makes me do anything I don’t want to do,” Chris responded.
“And yet we stand in Ms. Caldwell’s greenhouse inhaling the most potent gardenia—”
“Rocket trumpet,” Carrah corrected.
Ava shrugged. “Fine, rocket trumpet… But we’re here because Summer pissed Carrah off and you came to comfort her?”
Chris didn’t avoid Ava’s directness. It was the one trait he’d always appreciated about their friendship and he wouldn’t be upset at it now because she had figured them out. “We have an attorney-client relationship. I do not dislike my clients.”
“Got it.” Ava’s tone was lofty. “Well, I’m going back up to the house. Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.” She squeezed Carrah’s shoulder then patted Chris on the arm. “You need to tell Summer you’re not interested.” She slipped by him and left the greenhouse.
Chris maintained his distance. After everything that had been said this evening, he wasn’t exactly sure of her head space.
“You can skip the part where you apologize for what Summer said. We both know it’s true. We can’t hide behind the attorney-client relationship pretending to like each other.”
“So you’re pretending to like me?” He closed some of the distance between them. “Because I was not.”
She cut her eyes at him and hugged herself tighter. “Neither was I,” she confessed. “But—” A pained expression stole her words right before she took a deep, steadying breath.
“The only thing ironic about us getting along is that our families don’t. They haven’t for a long time but that doesn’t have to be us.”
Carrah’s arms unfolded and she faced him. Her contemplation to let him stay in was evident by the way she swayed and laced her fingers. “Today after I left you, I went home and immediately accepted that I’d left my dream and reentered reality. I never even opened my book. Have you ever felt like you’re giving everything to everyone else and you may have nothing left to give yourself?”
Chris swallowed hard. He knew all too well. He’d watched his mother do it for years. For now, he chased those painful memories of his mother working so hard that the stress of the company came before her health.
“No, but I’ve seen it happen.” He sighed. “My mom, she was always giving to everyone, including me, and everything one hundred and fifty percent. When it came time for her to give the same to herself… she literally couldn’t. Her body was too exhausted.” He cleared the words attempting to choke his throat. However, the water welling in his eyes didn’t remain concealed.
It was obvious she saw by the way she slowly approached. She didn’t stop until the space between them was nonexistent. Yet full of something that pulsed around them and whispered to his unspoken desires.
He inhaled her scent. The one he’d come to know that he couldn’t get out of his head. It was heady and enchanting at once, reminding him of flowers that bloomed at night and citrus groves that used to grow near his grandparents’ cottage when he was young. In this moment he finally understood what he desired most, and it was her. Why had it taken him so long to realize that he didn’t have to hate his rival; he wanted to champion her.
“I wish I could’ve known your mom.” Her words were soft, stroking the hardened parts of his heart. “Sounds like she meant a lot to you.” He nodded and she continued. “I don’t want the same fate. Only, I don’t know how to escape it.”
“I will help you, Carrah Andrews.” Their gazes locked for a moment in time.
Her breaths stuttered as she shook her head. “You can’t,” she panted, “because… I’m afraid of falling for you.”
“Then, we’ll go off the deep end together.” Instinct overrode logic. He pressed his lips against hers. A primitive desire seized his heart, and he clasped her face between his hands and kissed her to the depths of her soul.