Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Carter

“T hey’re gone.” Carter closed the door, thankful his dining room was an actual room.

“Good. Which one of you is going to tell me what’s going on?” Ryker asked.

“I—” Ashley started.

“Before you consider lying to me, try again.”

She huffed. “I wasn’t going to lie.” She stood up and walked over to him, putting her hand in his. “We’re, umm, seeing each other?”

Yeah, he didn’t know what to call it exactly, either. “We thought this through, fought it, and still came to this.” He wanted Ryker to know that while his opinion didn’t really matter, they had tried not to get here, at least until everything was over.

“And have you talked to Luke?”

“No. We plan to, but this is new.” Guess the secret was out now.

“I’ll give you tonight to tell him or I will.”

“Why?” Ashley moved closer to the screen. “I’m an adult, and I don’t need my overbearing brother involved in my love life. While it was never meant to be a secret, we wanted to handle things in our own time and way.”

“Ashley.” Ryker’s tone was a warning. “I don’t want to be the one to tell your brother that you’re very likely sleeping with the man he insisted you let move in with you.” His tone was contradicted by the smirk he was trying not to let slip.

“You’re enjoying this,” Ashley pointed out. “I cannot believe this.”

“Figure it out.” He muted the mic and said something. “Catherine wants to talk to you.”

Ashley sighed. “Okay.”

“Girl! I cannot believe we were right. Well, no, I’m always right, but I need to know, was it the one-bed thing?”

She blushed and looked away from Carter and the screen.

“Oh my god. I can’t wait to tell Paisley.” Catherine clapped. “I’m so happy for you two. I knew it would work out. You’re such a cute couple.”

“Catherine, stop.” Ryker tried to hush her.

“You, hush. It’s very similar to the way we ended up together and I think it’s sweet.”

“What’s sweet?” came another voice, one they both recognized.

“Shit.” Ashley closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Carter stepped up behind her and whispered in her ear, “I could end the call.”

“And delay the inevitable? Might as well rip off the Band-Aid.” She sighed again as Luke came on screen.

“Ashley?” he questioned. “Tell me our sister is exaggerating things.”

“That would be a lie, and you don’t want me to lie to you, do you?”

Carter winced. She just had to go and be sassy about it, didn’t she?

“This is not what you were hired for,” Luke snapped. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I make her let you in her life and you take advantage?”

“Shut up, Luke,” Ashley yelled. “You have a lot of things wrong, and I’ll correct a few. One, I pushed this. Not that he wasn’t willing, but your Boy Scout over here was too concerned with duty to do anything. Two?—”

Luke cut her off. “Do not continue.”

“You knocked up Paisley while you were just supposed to be distracting her from Cade. Do not act all high and mighty with me.” Ashley had her hands on her hips, the epitome of a younger sister who had something to say.

“Hey,” Luke shouted back at her. “This is not the same.”

“You’re right. Carter didn’t have ulterior motives.”

He decided she’d fought enough of the battle alone and threw his own hat in the ring. “Shh, baby. Luke, we don’t mean any disrespect.”

Ashley rolled her eyes.

“Despite the way she’s acting, we don’t. You’ve got her all riled up. I won’t do anything to hurt your sister, and I intend to keep her safe now and after this is over.”

“Oh yeah? What’s the plan there?” Luke sneered, knowing he had them on that.

“We don’t have one yet. This is very new between us, and while I appreciate and understand your concern, and she does too even though she doesn’t act like it, this is something we need to figure out on our own.”

“I trusted you,” Luke snapped. “Fucking fire him.” That must have been directed to Ryker, as Luke left the view of the camera.

Carter winced. This was what he’d expected from her brother. Now, his fate was in Ryker’s hands, and he hadn’t had the chance to send him the proposals to show how serious he really was.

Ryker was grinning when he came back on the screen. “That was better than I thought it would be.”

Between Ashley and him, one of them was bound to snap from the tension coursing through them both.

“Calm down; I’m not going to fire you. Luke will get over it,” Ryker said, still smiling. “I cannot wait to hear what Cade has to say.”

“You’re enjoying this too much,” Carter said.

“Send over the ideas you mentioned earlier when you get a chance, finished or not. I want to take a look. Luke will calm down. Paisley will make sure of it.”

“Thank you. I’ll send everything over,” Carter said, taking a steady breath for the first time in a few minutes.

“Ashley, when this is over, I want to talk to you about a business thing. I know you just graduated, but I think you’ll be a good fit for a new venture of mine.”

“O-okay,” Ashley stammered.

“I’ll do my best to keep Luke here, but I make no promises. Have a good night.” Ryker ended the call, leaving them both stunned.

“That didn’t go well,” Carter said.

“Actually, it went better than it ever has. Once, in high school, he kicked my date out for prom and refused to let me leave. This was calm by comparison.” She shrugged. “He will get over it, and if he doesn’t, I’ll hurt him.”

“I appreciate your defense of me there, but maybe let me talk to him before you fight him?” He was thankful he didn’t have a sister.

“You can try, but then I’m taking him down a peg or two. Do you know he used Paisley? Straight up took advantage of her to make sure Cade was interested in her. They seem happy now, but he wasn’t even there when the baby was born.”

Carter couldn’t hide his shock as she turned to face him.

“Exactly. He is the last one I will be taking relationship advice from.”

“Still,” he tried. “Let me attempt to soothe things a bit if he does show up?”

“There’s no if. It’s only when, and Ryker will be with him, that much I’d bet money on. He’s not the type to miss out on the drama. If Ryker comes, then Catherine will too. I don’t know about Paisley or Cade since they have babies.”

He bit back a curse at what was about to unfold. The last thing he wanted was a bunch of billionaires showing up here, one of them being angry at him and the other holding Carter’s future in his hands.

“Now, tell me what Ryker was talking about. What plans?”

He explained it to her. She offered suggestions and really looked at things from a business standpoint that he hadn’t considered. Even offered ideas on potential tax breaks, but he wasn’t handling that side of things.

She encouraged him to submit the ideas while he debated how he could convince her to stay. He wanted her to be involved in some way that made her want to be here with him and working on this together.

With Ryker telling her he had a job opportunity, he knew he had to do whatever it took to make her want to stay. Whatever Ryker was going to offer her would be in the city near her family, and that was a long way away.

Balance would be hard, but for her, he’d find a way to make it work if she moved there. Maybe she’d like to come out here on the weekends and get away from the chaos of the city. It seemed like something she’d like.

Walking out of the dining room, they were met by Christian and Nate immediately.

“You good?” Christian asked.

“That was stupid, of course not,” Nate answered for them.

“We’re fine. You might get to meet my brother sometime soon, and if he causes a problem, I will air out all his dirty laundry for you guys,” Ashley told them.

Nate grinned wide. “Well, why wait? Big brothers are always going to cause a problem. You can just tell me now and save us the wait.”

“Nope. Giving him the benefit of the doubt first,” Ashley explained. “Though, you’re probably right, so if they show up, you might want to get popcorn.”

“Adding to the grocery list,” Nate sung out as he walked away.

“Whatever happens, we’ve got your back. Even that fool.” Christian slapped Carter on the back.

“Nate, wait up.” Ashley took off after him.

Carter and Christian followed, curious what those two would get up to.

In the kitchen, where Nate was eating, again, Ashley stopped and spoke. “You have older brothers?”

He nodded. “Youngest of five.”

“Any sisters?” she asked.

“No, thank God. One like you would make me seem like a saint.”

Ashley grinned at Carter.

“I was right,” he muttered.

“About what?” Nate’s gaze bounced between them.

“We bet on if you were the youngest or not.” Ashley shrugged like they hadn’t been talking about the man behind his back.

“It shows,” Christian said.

“Well, I thought there might be one more. Maybe middle child syndrome.” Christian added his reasoning.

“No. Definitely the baby because he acts too much like an idiot and thinks he will get away with it,” Carter told him. “This can only be something from a youngest child.”

“What about you?” Ashley asked. “Oldest?”

He frowned. “Yes.”

“Explains a lot actually,” Nate said around the food in his mouth.

The four of them talked and laughed about family antics and things Nate had done for a while as Ashley started dinner. Christian was complaining about Nate, but he found some of the things he’d done hilarious. Ashley laughed the entire time.

“This dynamic makes so much sense.” She leaned into Carter when the conversation lulled.

“It really does. Might just have to ask that on future applications to know what to expect.”

She giggled. “It would certainly give some insight into who you will be working with.”

They later ate dinner and as he’d hoped, Ashley climbed into his bed when all was said and done.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” He held her close.

“I’m just glad you pulled your head out of your butt and realized this would work between us.”

“Maybe don’t get ahead of yourself. There’s still your brother to deal with and, on some level, Ryker.”

“I wonder what kind of job he’s talking about?” She ran her nails through his chest hair as she lay there.

“I’m sure he’ll tell you soon. Are you excited about it?”

“Sure,” she answered, but the word wasn’t convincing.

“You know you don’t have to take whatever he offers, right? It’s just an offer.”

“If I don’t, then where will I be? I need to because I doubt I’ll get a better job just out of college with no real experience.”

He thought of asking her to help him send the information and proposal over to Ryker but didn’t. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle it. He just needed to see if he could do it on his own first. When they wanted more information, if they did, he’d ask Ashley for help, if she decided to stay here.