Gage, Ronna - Send Her To Me (Siren Publishing Classic) (18 page)

“What are you looking at?” Dex asked when he entered the room.

Dex’s jolly attitude grated on Carter’s nerves. He bit back the nasty retort that popped in his head
.
None of your damn business! Go away!
Thinking it best to keep his mouth shut and not hurt Dex’s feelings, he remained quiet and continued to stare at Kelli.
If I don’t answer his question, he will keep pestering me until I do.

He inhaled sharply. “The existence of all the world holds dear.”

“Oh. Kelli.”

Carter felt Dex’s proximity closing in behind him. He turned and glared at his friend, hoping the angry face would warn Dex to keep his distance, but it didn’t. Unaffected by the hostile glare, he looked down at him.

“Wearing your game face?” Dex asked, looking past his shoulder to the view below.

Carter tried to suppress the smile, but before he knew it, he was laughing at Dex’s off-the-wall comment.

“What’s so funny?”

“I don’t know if I should be upset that my warning glare was unsuccessful in thwarting your curiosity or thankful you always make me smile on these bad days.”

Once the laughter died down, he gave Dex a sideways glance. “I sometimes wish I could be more like you.”

“How’s that?”

“Have sex with a woman on different nights of the week and not be bothered with attachments.”

“It’s not hard really. Besides, I can’t have sex with other women anymore. It would piss Tonya off.”

“Congratulations.”

“I’m already bored, but there is something about her keeps me hanging on.”

Carter gave a silent chuckle. “For me, it is difficult. Each time I consider going out with someone else, Kelli’s face flashes in my mind. The next thing I know my heart breaks.”

“Pussy!”

Carter snorted on laughter. “Shut the fuck up!” The two stared in silence at the house across the massive yard. “I thought of something yesterday, hadn’t thought of it in so long it’s like a lifetime ago.”

“Don’t keep me in the dark.” Dex half-assed encouraged.

“Women play games when they think the payoff is worthwhile. Take Denise Koneke for example. They designed their world to fit mine, ate the same things I liked, gave no opinions for themselves, in the end, we were miserable. But not Kelly. She took me for what I am—a jackass, an unthinking mass of crap. I was wrong in keeping her in the dark for so long.”

Sounds like your insecurity toward women cost you the love of your life.”

“It’s okay, as long as she’s still a part of it. I will learn to live with the cursed word…. friends.”

Dex turned away from the window. “This is so boring. Man up already.”

Carter’s attention returned to the townhouse. “No more boxes in the truck,” he murmured aloud what his mind registered. Kelli would be going in, soon. He watched her turn to the driver and sign a piece of paper on his clipboard. Smiling, she waved good-bye as they backed out of her driveway. When the moving van drove away, she checked out the neighborhood, scanning the little street which dead-ended at her new home. To his surprise, she looked across the street in the direction of his bedroom.

He backed away from the window. “Don’t let her see me staring at her,” he prayed.

“Afraid she’ll recognize you?”

“No, at this distance, I’m not worried she will recognize me, but I don’t want to scare her into thinking someone is watching her.”

“Good point.” Dex nodded in animated agreement.

Carter waited a few seconds and eased his way back to the window. He looked out across the yard in time to see her turn and go back inside the house. She closed the door behind her, closing out the world and him when she did. Emptiness built in his world.

“Does she have a clue you live across the street?” Dex asked from behind.

“I don’t think so.”

“Does she know you’re stalking her?” He laughed.

“I’m not stalking her!” Carter defended quickly. “I’m only…keeping an eye out for her.”

Dex laughed harder. “Yes you are. By the way, I wouldn’t use that excuse when she finds out,” he challenged softly.

“She won’t find out. Until I tell her.”

“You have to leave the house sometime.”

Carter knew he would be found out. “If Kelli knew I had anything to do with helping her acquire her house, she’ll leave so fast it would make my head spin.”

“I think it was a stroke of fate that Kelli mentioned to you that she was waiting to hear if she’d received an approval of her home loan application. Good God, listen to me! I sound like a sap, too.”

“Go to hell,” Carter shot back, not really meaning it. “Lucky for me, the bank was one I used on a regular basis.”

“And you knowing the bank manager, you set up a private meeting and successfully slowed the process of her loan approval to get the details of this plan together.”

“I don’t regret it for one minute. I would fund the loan again if I had to.”

“I hope even at your fiftieth anniversary she won’t find out.”

“No way will she find out. There’s no paper trail.”

“I’ve always been curious. How did she get the dead-end lot?”

“I gave the home builder’s sales manager a bonus if Kelli bought that lot.”

“You sneaky little shit. That particular piece of land has benefits—seclusion, low city noise, and…”

“The deciding factor was the access to security personnel to her. Fortunately, she jumped at the offer with that to sweeten the deal.”

“So, she’s all moved in now?”

Carter glanced over his shoulder at his friend who sat on one of the wingback chairs. He only nodded his answer.

Dex looked at him with genuine concern.

“I’ll be all right. I have to make it right between us somehow. Then…” He looked back down into the street. He trailed off, not completing the thought. Suddenly it dawned on him. “How in the hell did you get in anyway?”

With a boyish grin, Dex answered, “Maria let me in.”

Carter rolled his eyes. “Some housekeeper. I’m going to fire that woman.” The older woman babied Dex. She gave him the run of the house as if he was the one paying her salary.

“I don’t think you’ll fire Maria for making a guest feel welcomed.”

Carter chuckled and realized that Dex tried to keep Maria out of trouble. “Don’t count on it.”

“Besides, if you fire her, no one else will put up with your bullshit.”

The comment mentally took Carter back. “This remark, coming from the stud of Fort Worth, and you call my goals bullshit? What about your bullshit, Mr. Love’m and Leave’m? ”

Dex grinned as he walked back to the window. “Well, at least Kelli’s forgiven you for not being up-front with her. And you are the first one she calls when she needs to talk,” Dex pointed out. “Did she go inside?”

Carter turned toward Dex. “It’s real slick how you worm your way back into my good graces with a comment about Kelli.”

“What are you saying?” Dex’s crestfallen face looked upon him.

“Stop changing the subject. Besides, she doesn’t always call me when she needs something. She wants to be friends, but for me that isn’t enough! I still love her.”

Dex patted him on the back. “Good luck! I think groveling will be very helpful at this point. I’m hungry.”

Leave it to Dex to think of his stomach at a time like this. Carter smiled as he watched Dex retreat out the door.

He turned back toward the townhouse across the street and sighed. She wasn’t going to come out again today. Deep in his gut, he knew it. Maybe Dex was onto something. Groveling would be a good start.

Yet, he still couldn’t move from the window. He waited and hoped she would at least come out with some empty boxes and set them by the curb. “I don’t know how I let her go.” Carter sighed. The sound of defeat rang in his ears. He looked at his watch. It was five o’clock. If he had to make a guess of what she would be doing right now. She is settling into her new home—unpacking boxes, putting things where they belong, and maybe she will eat a sandwich so she doesn’t have to clean dishes and stop working.

“I’ve got to stop obsessing over her. It isn’t healthy to pine away for her like I am. Plus, if she finds out that I’ve spied on her, she’d freak out.”

A large cloud covered the sun’s rays. The dreary afternoon reminded him of a cold winter day. At one time, he couldn’t wait for fall and winter. He imagined him and Kelli spending the holidays together. On those cold days, he predicted them laying in bed making love….but reality bit him in the heart, and darkness fell over his soul. That wasn’t their current relationship status. Not anymore. “How do I win you back? Do you still hold back out of fear or is something else keeping away from me?”

“I think you should go over there and make an amends.” Dex answered.

Carter jumped. He turned and glared at Dex who stood in the doorway. Wasn’t he downstairs bothering Maria for a snack?

“What if she won’t see me? Any ideas, cupid?”

“Don’t take no for an answer.” He smiled the candid grin of a playboy. “You’re Carter Banks. Stop moping around this damn huge-ass house feeling sorry for yourself. Get out there and find your spirit. Only you can get her back.”

Carter figured he was grabbing at straws, but at least Dex had some ideas that might help him. Standing back and waiting wasn’t getting him anywhere. “How do I get in to see her?”

“You want to help lift the heavy stuff.” Dex offered offhandedly. “She always did like your, uh, muscles.”

Carter grinned at Dex’s innuendo. He envisioned Kelli stroking “Cocky.” “Maybe, I can give it a shot. She is constantly telling me she’s happy we were able to continue our friendship.” Carter felt a renewed sense of encouragement. He didn’t waste one second guessing his next move. Stripping out of the T-shirt, he headed for the closet. “No time like the present,” he mused as he pulled on a sweater and slipped on sneakers.

Dex, ever the encourager, said, “Now you’re talking,” bolstering Carter’s decision to action.

“I have nothing else to lose.”

“You’ve got this!”

“Maybe, if I make the effort, she will see me as I was before. Someone who really cares for her.”

“That’s the way to think outside the normal broken heart.”

“Thanks, Dex. I can count on you to lift my spirits.”

Dex shrugged. “What are friends for?”

Those were the same words Kelli spoke to him often. It wasn’t until this very second that he knew he hated that phrase. “Don’t fucking ask!”

Chapter Twenty

“Ah, dammit!” Kellie massaged the cramp that moved up her shins at a slow, torturous pace. They ached and burned from her prolonged position on the floor. The task of sorting out tangled wires of her electronic equipment became a job, and by the second, her aggravation mounted. Nothing she picked up seemed to work. The power cord for the printer didn’t make a connection on it or to anything she worked on currently. Looking around at the assorted wires, she almost threw the whole mess down in defeat. “Where do you go?” she asked the inanimate object in her hands. She fisted it in her palms. “This is such a waste of time.” On top of the disappointment, she now had a headache forming at rapid speed. “Why didn’t I keep the wires with their components?” she whined and rubbed her temples.

The doorbell rang, adding more frustration to the task at hand. “Who could that be?” She shook her head and blew out a strong breath, rustling her bangs in the process. “I can’t decide if this is a blessing in disguise or a pain in the ass interruption.”
This is moving day! Don’t people know you don’t visit on such a day
? She looked around at the stacked boxes and groaned. The house isn’t set up for visitors.

She stood up from the tangled web of cords around her feet. The sharp sensation of pins and needles shot down her legs, reacting to the rush of blood back into her shins. “I’ll get back to you in a moment,” she promised the wires and extensions which lay in jangled arrays of loops.

At the door, she peeked through the peephole but didn’t recognize the visitor’s profile. All she could make out was a man who bent his head down, and his coat covered his face. So much for the security personnel. Without thinking, she opened the door and froze in surprise.

Carter! “What are you doing here?”

“You shouldn’t open the door unless you know who it is,” Carter reprimanded.

Kelli upgraded her previous thought. The small interruption is now a major pain in the ass. She was too busy unpacking and fighting cords to listen to lectures on safety from yet another man in her life. She heard enough from her father and brothers on the subject to last a lifetime. Irritation oozed in her voice. “Save it!”

Carter smiled.

Kelli would have sworn it was a smile of victory, but for what? That he’d gotten to me? Doubtful. She wouldn’t put it past him to have planned this interlude all along.

“I ask again. What are you doing here?”

Carter walked past her and entered the house without welcome. “I remembered you saying last week it was moving day, so I thought I would help you set up the heavy stuff.”