Chapter 16

16

I was awake and I knew Carter was awake.

The early morning sun was peeking through my curtains and I wasn't ready to face the day. I was emotionally wrecked. Sometime during the night, I'd woken, Carter had been awake then, too, but neither of us had spoken. I stayed cuddled to his side staring into the dark and he held on tight.

I'd been grateful he hadn't tried to talk but this morning I knew I wouldn't be as lucky.

"Morning, babe."

"Too early," I grumbled.

I was a teacher. For nine months out of the year I had to be up at the ass crack of dawn to get ready and get to school. During the summer months and school vacations, I slept in. So much so, if I could get away with it, I'd stay in bed until lunch time.

"Time to get up to take me to work."

"Don't wanna."

"Come on, Laney. I skipped my workout but I need to go grab some clothes before work."

I glanced at my clock and it was nearing eight.

"You're gonna be late."

"I think considering the reason why, I'll get a pass. And I already texted Bernice and told her."

"Bernice?"

"She's the office manager."

"Never met her."

"Well, you will today. Time to get your sweet ass up. Come on."

Carter patted my ass and I rolled away from him. He rolled the other way and got out of bed. I watched him tag his pants off the floor and head to the bathroom.

I didn't move. Part of the reason was, I was mesmerized by Carter's backside. It was hot and I hadn't tried it, but I was fairly certain you could bounce quarters off the firm muscle. The other reason was, I was taken aback by the normalcy of our conversation.

Not that we'd never had normal conversations but I'd never been woken up by Carter asking me to take him to work.

"You're not up," Carter noted, coming back into the bedroom.

Damn, how long had I been daydreaming?

"Just go. It'll take me an hour to get ready. If I need to go somewhere, I'll call my mom."

"You don't need to get ready. You're just driving me to work. And besides, you're the only woman I know who wakes up lookin' better than after they get themselves made up."

"You wake up next to lots of women?"

My stomach pitched and my heart squeezed. He'd told me there'd been no one else, but I didn't like what his comment implied.

"Never woken up next to a woman other than you. But I have seen your sisters first thing in the morning. And I've seen plenty of women doing the walk of shame out of my house after one of my roommates fucked ‘em. None of them looked as beautiful as you as they walked out."

"Not sure that's a compliment," I told him, feeling better knowing the women he'd seen in the morning weren't women he'd spent the night with.

"That's because you're not a man. Baby, you look beautiful when you do your hair and put on makeup. But first thing in the morning? Stunning."

My stomach tightened again, but this time it filled with something warm. Something so sweet I couldn't deny it. Carter had never held back his praise. He'd told me often I was pretty, or he'd look at me and his face would change. But this was different. Couldn't explain why, but it was. More open maybe, adding the part about his roommates. People I hadn't even known existed.

"Laney."

"Fine."

I rolled out of bed and went in search of something to wear.

I was sitting in Carter's truck outside a shitty hotel while he ran in to change and grab his workout bag.

I hated this place.

I hated that Carter was living here.

Okay, the hotel wasn't total shit but it wasn't the Four Seasons and Carter certainly didn't belong here. It was one of those places where all the doors faced the outside. You could open the door to your room, step out onto the walkway and your view was the parking lot.

It was also old. I'd driven by it millions of times and the building had been here for as long as I could remember. The name had changed over the years but no improvements had been made when the hotel changed ownership.

God knows what the inside looked like. Gauging by the outside the furnishings were probably twenty years out of date.

There was no way he should've been staying there. My Carter was way too good for this place. I saw him come out of his room and made a decision to talk to him about moving in with his parents until he could find a place of his own.

We pulled through the security gate of Triple Canopy and I still hadn't found the courage to talk to Carter about moving out of the hotel. It was stupid but I felt like I'd be out of bounds. It wasn't my place to tell Carter where to live but it was bugging the hell out of me.

He parked next to my dad's truck, left his running, and jumped down, coming around to my side.

I always waited for him to help me down. Not that we'd gone a lot of places together, never out to dinner or on a date, but we had gone to the store together a time or two. And the first time I'd opened my own door and gotten out, Carter lost his mind.

I thought it was a little crazy and overboard but who was I to argue if he insisted on opening every door for me? I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd open the door to a public restroom for me if he could get away with it.

I was out of the truck, in his arms, and before I could protest his mouth was on mine.

It wasn't a sweet goodbye kiss, it was deep and wet and included a good amount of tongue. In less than a second I was lost in the magic he created. I loved the way he kissed me. Always had. And now that I'd kissed another man and had something to compare it to, I had confirmation Carter Lenox was the world's best kisser.

"I'll be done at four but I'm gonna work out after. If you can't pick me up around six, I'll find a ride home."

"You're gonna work out for two hours?"

"Every day, Laney."

"That's a lot."

"You like what you see?"

My mind was still muddled from the kiss, therefore my filter was nonexistent so I answered honestly. "Well, yeah."

"Then two hours isn't a lot." He smirked.

I didn't have time to be embarrassed, something caught my attention and my gaze moved beyond Carter.

Great.

My dad.

And he was walking our way and Carter still had his arms around me.

I tried to step away but his arms locked tight.

"No more hiding," he said.

"My dad's coming."

"I know."

"Morning," my dad greeted like there was nothing abnormal about Carter holding me close.

‘Close' wasn't an accurate description. More like intimate. My front was pressed to his chest, my arms around his middle, and his hand was on my hip.

"Mornin', Dad," I mumbled.

His eyes came to mine and he gave me a sad knowing smile. "Morning, sweetheart." Then they went to Carter and he asked, "Did you get my girl's car sorted?"

"Yeah. I called Todd's and they're coming to pick it up this morning."

"I'm sending Brady over there this afternoon to put up cameras. Should've done it years ago."

I felt like my head was going to explode. They were carrying on a conversation about me, with me present, but acting like I wasn't. And I didn't want cameras in front of my house.

"No cameras," I told my dad.

"Delaney, I let you talk me out of them when you bought the house. I knew why you'd refused and I gave you that play only because you agreed to the alarm. But the cat's out of the bag. Not that it was ever in the bag. I gave you that, too, not talking to you about Carter's truck in your drive even though none of us had seen him or knew he was coming into town. You've been left unprotected for long enough. There's no need for privacy anymore so you and Carter can sneak around thinking all of us are too stupid to know."

I may've flinched—more than once—at my dad's statement.

He was correct, I'd refused to allow him to install cameras because I knew someone in the security room of Triple Canopy would be watching. And it wasn't like I could turn them on and off at will. Which meant when Carter came over, they'd know.

"Brady will be there this afternoon," Dad announced.

"Dad."

"Laney baby, you need cameras." I sucked in a breath and held it. Carter had never called me that in front of anyone. Most especially not our family. He called me Delaney when we were around them.

"But—"

"No buts. Last night someone was in your driveway long enough to knife all four of your tires. Thankfully you were not there. If someone's stupid enough to come back, it will be their last act of lunacy. I prefer for them to be cuffed and hauled away, it's less messy than the alternative."

"What's the alternative?" I inquired.

"The alternative is I have to hunt the fucker down. That's gonna take time. Time I'd rather be spending with you. Which is gonna piss me off. So when I find the asshole who was in your driveway I'm gonna need to get creative in how I take out my frustrations. Then I'll be coming home to you and you're gonna have to figure out how to wash bloodstains outta my clothes. That's messy."

I didn't much like the alternative, especially the part about washing out bloodstains. I also thought him committing a felony and being hauled away in cuffs didn't sound fun either.

"Cameras, it is," I grumbled, still not happy.

"You and Emily free tonight?" Carter asked my dad and dread hit my stomach.

"If we're not, we are now," Dad returned.

"Seven?" Carter asked and dread turned to ice. They were making plans that I was sure included me, but again, talking like I wasn't there.

"Hello?"

"You coming to us or are we coming to you?" Dad continued as if I hadn't spoken.

"Us," Carter answered.

"I don't know who ‘us' is, but I hope there's space in your hotel room to entertain my parents." Carter's eyes swung to me and there was a smile on his face. "There's nothing funny, Carter."

"Maybe not funny, but you're always cute when you're pissed."

"You don't get to invite my parents to my house without talking to me about it first. And before you say it, this isn't ‘us' talking about it. This is you being bossy and taking over."

"I didn't invite your parents to your house. I invited your parents to our house. And we're not talking about it because I don't wanna argue about it. There are things the four of us need to discuss and I know you don't want to discuss them. But I keep telling you, no more secrets. No more hiding. Everyone knows we're together, they've known forever. So it's not going to come as a shock but they are going to hear it from us officially and not just see us together. This is our family. People we both respect and love and they deserve the truth."

"We're not together," I protested.

"Laney baby, we've been together since the day you kissed me on the beach and told me you loved me."

"Yeah, and did Lorraine Beck know that when you took her to the football game and I saw you kissin' her by the bleachers? Or what about Allison Lawson? I didn't see it but I heard all about it. Did she know?"

"You want a rundown of what I did in high school, I'll gladly tell you. But it will be tonight, after we've spoken to your parents and we're lying in bed. But just to answer, everyone knew. I was in high school, I was young, I was fighting against the pull of you, struggling with wanting you so badly but having too much respect for your father and you to go there. So, yes, I played the field. But none of them were you. None of them had a chance. And none made me doubt what I felt for you."

"So then, we weren't together. And it must've been nice, you getting to play the field. Considering no one dared asked me out in fear of getting their asses kicked by you and my brother. Maybe since you got your Lorraines and Allisons now's the time for me—"

"So help me God, you finish that sentence, your father standing here or not I'll haul your ass back into my truck and I'll remind you of what I already warned. You do not ever talk to me about another man. It is a pointless, ridiculous conversation that will only piss me off because it is never gonna happen."

Shit, shit, shit. Carter had me so angry I'd forgotten my dad was standing there listening. I chanced a look in his direction and he was looking at his feet smiling.

"You can't say that to me," I snapped at Carter.

"Just did, Laney baby. You wanna stand out here and fight all day while my truck's running, burning fuel, with the possibility of every green peace-er in a hundred mile radius coming here to protest me not having a care for the environment, or can I get to work and talk to Brady about the system he's gonna set up? And you can go about your day, no doubt coming up with ways to further piss me off and plot my murder."

"I'll be here at six to pick you up. But the conversation isn't over, Carter. When we get home, it's my turn to talk and you're gonna finally listen."

"Looking forward to it. See you at six. Now, give me a kiss so I can get to work."

"I'm not—"

I didn't finish. His lips crashed into mine and kissed me hard. It was closed mouth but no less intimate and it was done in front of my dad.

Kill me now.

"Love you, Laney. Stay safe and alert. You see something that doesn't feel right, you call me."

I nodded.

That's all I could do. I was still reeling from him being bossy, the kiss, and hearing him tell me he loved me. Again, all done in front of my dad.

"See you tonight," my dad said on a smile.

"Yeah, tonight."

I didn't smile. I walked around Carter's truck, hauled my ass up, adjusted the seat and froze.

When we get home, it's my turn to talk and you're gonna finally listen.

When we get home .

Home.

Shit.