Back to the Drawing Board (34 page)

“Are you going to keep holding out on me, or what?” Julia bounced on my bed. Everyone was long asleep, and it was just the two of us.

“Uhhh, that depends on what you are talking about,” I said, lifting my eyebrows at her.

“We watched your siblings open presents. We spent the night hanging out with Hayden and Karrie—whom I love, by the way. We watched your parents open presents. I still can’t believe they got me this infinity bracelet. Give it up, McInytre.”

I indicated myself. “I
am
your present, Gibbons.”

“Let’s play a game,” she said.

“Oh no,” I groaned. “This always ends with me wanting to explode. And you know exactly what way I mean, too. You aren’t going to give me any, so don’t tease me.”

“We never finished our twenty questions. I think we only got to like four.”

“What does this have to do with our Christmas presents?”

“It doesn’t. It’s just for fun.”

I laughed. “Well, okay then. You start.”

“If you could be anyone besides yourself, who would you be and why?”

Julia settled herself next to me, her chin resting on my chest. She’d seriously stumped me. “I have to think? I just want to have sex with you. Please?”

“Uh uh,” she said. “Answer.”

“I’ve never thought about that. I’m okay being me. Especially now.”

Julia sat up. “That’s not an answer. You must be punished.” Before I could ask what kind of punishment she meant, she straddled my lap and began sucking on my neck.

“This is punishment?” I gripped her hips, closing my eyes as she reached my lips. “I like it.”

She climbed off of me and laid back down, leaving my mouth gaping open. “Wha . . . ?”

“Punishment,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “You ask the question now.”

She really
was
a vixen. “You’re
not nice
. I’m going to get you back for that. Okay, what’s a habit you have that’s quirky or different?”

She tapped those fingers against her beautiful lips, and I wanted to drag her out of the house, to the car, and anywhere away from here so she would let me touch her. I was a dying man. “I’m weird about numbers. Everything has to be even.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, when I pump gas, I have to stop it on an even number. It can’t be odd. My apartment had to be an even number. My phone number, too. If I have something and I can control it, it has to be even.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been like that since I was a kid.”

“That’s . . . weird. It’s a good thing I loved you already.”

We both laughed. “I want to give you your present now.”

“We will never get to twenty,” she said. “Okay. Give it.”

I reached over into my suitcase and got out a small package. “Here you go.”

She eyed the small box for a nanosecond before tearing it open. “What is it?”

“Well you have to open it, you silly.”

Julia gasped. “Carter. These are beautiful.” She held up the small diamond earrings I’d gotten her to her ears. “How will they look?”

“I have an idea. You put those on and nothing else and I’ll let you know.”

She giggled. “You’re ridiculous. Wow. I love how beautifully simple these are.”

“They reminded me of you,” I said. “You’re the most precious, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but you’re also so simple. You’re happy just by the little things in life. I love you.”

“I love you, Carter. So much. I love them. Will you help me put them on?”

I knew she didn’t need help, but if she was going to let me touch her, I was all for it. I took the small studs out of the velvet box and placed them in her ears. She tied her hair back and turned back and forth.

“How do they look?” My eyes took in her smooth neck, her flawless face that smile that made me weak in the knees, and finally the earrings.

I reached for her, and she tucked herself into the crook of my arm. “I’ve never been happier in my life, Julia. I look at you, every single time, and can’t believe this is my life now.”

“No making me cry,” she teased. “I have beautiful new earrings. But seriously, I’ve never been happier either. Even though things are all crazy right now, and that would normally send me over the edge, I’m fine. Better than fine. I’m here with you in your parents’ beautiful house, and my future has never looked brighter.”

She got up and took a medium sized box out of her suitcase. “For you, my love.”

“This better be a huge bow I can wrap you up in,” I teased. Julia rolled her eyes. When I got past her expertise wrapping and to the box, I gasped. “Julia.” I ran my fingers along the etched glass.

“I know how much you loved mine, and couldn’t wait for your own. You can keep this until you find your place, but just know that every time you look at that, you can know that you’re the world’s
hottest
and
most talented
architect. Also, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, I love you and believe in you.”

I remembered the first day I’d started at GSJ, running my fingers along the etched glass of Julia’s nameplate outside her door. Apparently she’d either been very observant, or she was
that
good at reading my mind.

Carter Blake McIntyre, Architect
was etched onto a smoked piece of glass, just exactly like hers. I loved how she included my middle name because she knew just how important it was to me. On the back, in small letters where no one would see them but me, were the words
I love you ~ J
.

“It’s perfect, Julia. Thank you so much. I can’t wait to hang this at my first job.”

I turned off the light, holding Julia to my side, my heart full.

“Play me a song,” she whispered in the darkness. I grabbed my phone and found Lifehouse. The lyrics of ‘You and Me’ began. This was one of our favorite things to do; she played a song for me that was usually country, and I played one for her that wasn’t. But no matter the song, it always had meaning behind the lyrics.

I had everything, right here in this house, and I had the feeling the best was still to come.

“THIS IS BEAUTIFUL,” I SAID,
sticking my toes in the sand. Liane, Blake’s mom sat next to me on her beach chair. I was seriously envious of this woman’s body. She was in her early forties and looked better than most twenty-year-olds. I hoped I was still that hot at her age and after three kids in five years. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

She smiled, and I saw Carter in her face. “Carter was so excited to be able to bring you here. He loves this place.”

“I can see why. Liane, would you mind telling me your story? Carter told me, but I’m just a sucker for a love story.”

Liane looked out at the water, where Blake and Carter were playing on boogie boards, laughing when they wiped out and fell. Liane’s friends were walking the beach, and she said a few other friends would be arriving later. I was still shocked I could be sitting on the beach on New Years Eve, and I was sad we would be heading back to the frozen tundra of Colorado tomorrow. It was home, though. For now. I’d been thinking a lot about asking Carter if he wanted to move back to Florida. His family was here, and it would be a new adventure for me.

“Blake and I met here when we were babies. Our families were friends; they met here at the Beach Club.” Liane shifted so she was facing me and put her sunglasses on her head. “We have pictures of us, sitting right here in the sand, in our diapers. When we were fourteen, Blake kissed me on this beach. I was a scared and stupid little girl, and I ran away. I spent the next four years avoiding seeing him. When we were eighteen, we came back to the beach before going off to college. I’d just broken up with my boyfriend, and it was like the cards all just aligned for us. We spent the best two weeks together . . .” Liane trailed off, her eyes finding Blake again. My heart ached, knowing the next part of the story.

“I was young, but we were so powerful, Blake and I.”

“You lost so much time,” I said.

She nodded. “Yes. We lost a lifetime. There are days when that is almost unbearable to think about, what we went through to get back to each other. But we’ve both decided not to dwell on that and just be happy where we are now. We have four children together, and while life is life and it is hard sometimes, at the end of the day we come home to each other, and that’s all that matters.”

“Your outlook is amazing. Carter held on to a lot of pain, even though he loves both of you, and he’s so happy you got your life together.”

Tears appeared in Liane’s eyes. “I know. The accident was hard for him to cope with. It took him months of rehab to be able to get around again, and he had to rely on Blake and me more than he wanted. He was always sensitive as a boy, and everything that happened multiplied that. He was upset for me, for himself, and at his body. He wanted to go back to school, to run and do sports, and for things to go back the way they were. Plus, he had just found out about Blake and was trying to process all of that. He was so angry. Not at me or Blake, but at Ronan and at life.”

“He was determined not to fall in love,” I told her.

She smiled at me. “I know he was. He’d tell Blake and I all the time that he wasn’t cut out for love like ours. He suffered for so many years with feelings of unworthiness. No matter what we told him or showed him, it just didn’t matter. Honestly, I was afraid for him. He’s such a smart, talented man. I knew he’d do amazing at his career. I just hoped he didn’t become like Ronan, shut off from the world in order to succeed.”

“Once I knew the story, I kind of called him on acting like Ronan. I think I shocked him, but he agreed. It was the turning point for us, I think.”

“He needed a woman like you,” Liane said. “If I could’ve created someone for my son, it would’ve been you. I wasn’t always as strong as I needed to be, and I think I showed Carter some of that. I’ve changed a lot over the last few years, too.”

“What do you think about his relationship with Ronan?”

“It’s been strained. I know Ronan tries, and I’m genuinely happy he’s still showing Carter he loves him. I refuse to intervene, though, and figure it’s up to Carter to decide now how much he’s a part of Ronan’s life. He’s a grown man, and he’s had to deal with the fallout of this in his own way. I’m not sure what their future holds, but I can’t let that worry me. Carter has a dad who adores him and has tried to show him the way he would’ve raised him.”

“He knows the difference. He tells me all the time that he thought the way Ronan was as he was growing up was normal, but he knows now it wasn’t. He even told me he was glad Gretchen and the boys weren’t going to have to grow up that way.”

Liane sniffed, wiping a tear from under her eye.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, Julia. I’m not emotional over what Carter told you. He’s right. They will never know the life that he did. There are many things I wish I would’ve done differently, all the way back to when I found out I was pregnant with Carter. I can’t change it now, though. I’m emotional because Carter has opened up and told you things he would never share with anyone. It’s wonderful.”

I fought tears of my own at her admission. “So tell me what it was like when you saw Blake here again, when Carter was eighteen.”

Liane grinned, her eyes following Blake in the water again. “I was broken, Julia. Lost. I came back to the only place where life ever made sense, and he was here. My husband had just asked for a divorce and left me, and at the time I couldn’t see that it was a blessing. It was the beginning of the unraveling of my life, and Blake was the only bright part of that. The time we’ve spent here, as kids and now as adults, has been nothing short of miraculous. Once we found out about Carter, we both knew we’d found each other again for a reason. He’s my life, Julia. I love that man so much. He never stops making me feel like the most precious thing. Are there stressful times? Of course. But my life is nothing like it used to be. I can’t believe I spent eighteen years in a marriage like the one I had when I now see how marriage should be.”

“Carter makes me feel like that,” I admitted, watching as he went backwards off of his boogie board and laid in the water, his chest rising and falling with laughter.