by Toni Aleo
Grady scoffed. “None at all.”
Karson gave a curt nod and then met Lacey’s gaze. Her heart sang for him as her body shook with the need to be near him. He looked like hell, his hair all a mess, he wasn’t shaved, and his clothes were wrinkled, but he was her hell. Her husband.
Before he could say anything, she stood and said the only thing she could think of.
“I love you.”
Karson wasn’t expecting that.
“What?” he asked, confused as his heart continued to pound in his chest. He hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep, and he’d been on edge the whole flight to Chicago. He’d tried to fly out as soon as he got off the phone with his dad, but the earliest they had was first thing this morning. Deciding he couldn’t sleep in the bed he shared with her without knowing if she’d ever sleep there again, he’d left for the airport and hung out there until his flight. So as he looked into her swimming-with-tears green eyes, he wasn’t sure if he’d heard her right or if he was hallucinating.
Clearing his throat, he looked deep into her eyes as she said, “I love you, Karson. I was wrong. You were right. I should have come home. I’m sorry.”
He almost collapsed to the floor, and he was convinced he would have if she hadn’t wrapped her arms around his middle, pressing her lips to his. Melting against her, he wrapped his arms around her as relief flooded through him. He thought this was going to be a fucking train wreck. He thought he would walk in here and she would kick him back out, but that wasn’t the case. Somehow overnight, she had gotten her head out of her ass.
Thank sweet baby Jesus.
Pulling back, he kissed her lips again and then again, before whispering, “I love you too. So much, but please, don’t do shit like this again.”
“I promise,” she whispered against his lips. “I knew I was wrong, but I was so scared, Karson. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Lacey. Nowhere. Not unless you are with me.”
Pressing his forehead to hers, he smiled, and when she smiled back, his heart soared. But then he heard a voice he could have gone without hearing at that moment, or ever, really.
“What the hell? I thought she left him,” Nate’s voice boomed.
“That’s what she said,” Rachel said, and when Karson looked over at her, he saw that her brows were pulled together, completely confused.
“Lacey, what is going on?” Nate asked as Karson’s arms tightened around her.
“What are you doing here?” Lacey asked, her fingers locking together around him. He could feel her heart pounding, and he could understand why. This was about to be ugly, but this time, he hadn’t promised anything and he wasn’t going to hold back.
“I came to check on you, honey. Rachel said you two split up,” Nate said, shutting the door and tucking his hands in his pockets.
“We never split up,” Karson corrected. “We just had a misunderstanding. Everything is fine.”
“Are you sure?” he asked Lacey, completely ignoring Karson.
“Yes. I said everything was fine,” he answered back, and this time Nate’s eyes met his.
“I’m talking to my daughter,” he said, venom lacing his low voice.
“Well, I am talking to you,” Karson said, but Lacey laid her hand on his chest, stopping him.
“I think you had the right idea before, Lacey. I thought you were done,” Rachel said, but Grady came over, sliding his arm around her waist.
“This isn’t our business, Rachel,” he insisted. “I think we should leave.”
“It is my business,” she said, pushing out of his arms. Looking back at Lacey, she said, “Lacey, this is not a good idea. Let him go.”
“Yes, listen to your best friend, your father,” Nate urged, but Lacey shook her head.
“No,” Lacey said sternly. “I’m tired of doing what you tell me. I let you and Rachel put doubt in my mind, but no more. I want my happiness, and that’s Karson.”
“No,” Rachel said, shaking her head. “You are making a mistake, Lacey.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. It won’t work. You two are different people, and he wants kids and you don’t. It won’t work,” Rachel persisted, and Karson decided he really did hate that woman.
“We will work it out,” Karson hissed. “We are still learning. This is new to us, and we can figure it out as long as all of you stay out of it.”
“I told you this is none of your business, and Karson’s right. How do you know what will work between them?” Grady asked Rachel and that surprised Karson. “She is an adult. She can make her own choices. It’s not our life. It’s hers.”
“Whose side are you on?” Nate demanded.
“Hers,” Grady asked. “Or his. Whatever. I just want my baby sister to be happy, and if it’s with that guy, then I support it.”
“You’re insane,” Rachel complained. “He is going to hurt her again.”
“Never,” Karson promised at the same time that Lacey said, “He isn’t the one out to hurt me.”
Karson paused, looking down at her along with everyone else. While she was right, he didn’t understand her statement. Letting go of him, she took a step toward her father but not without lacing her fingers with Karson’s, holding their hands behind her back. “You are.”
“What?” Nate said, his bushy eyebrows shooting up. “I want nothing more than for you to be happy.”
“No, if that were the case, then you wouldn’t continually sabotage me.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Lacey Arielle?”
“He has done nothing but love you,” Rachel added, and Lacey cut her a look that could kill.
“Shut up, you don’t know anything,” she snapped, and Rachel made a face as Lacey turned her attention to her father. “How could you?”
“How could I what? I haven’t done anything.”
But Lacey shook her head, her hand squeezing Karson’s. He moved behind her, wrapping his free arm around her waist to give her support as she said, “You’ve tried to ruin my life over and over again, and I’m done, Dad. We are through. You won’t hurt me any longer, nor will I ever talk to you again.”
“What? I would never. I’ve only loved you.”
“I’m not even going to go back as far as when all the cancer stuff happened or even when you ran Karson off. I forgave you for all that, but paying Ethan to marry me and then cheat on me? That is inexcusable.”
“What?” Karson gasped as Nate’s face went white. “He did what?”
“No,” Rachel whispered. “That can’t be true.”
“It is,” Grady and Lacey said together.
“My father paid off my ex-fiancé to date me, and when he realized that Ethan was going to take me away, he paid him off again to break it off with me.”
“You are disgusting,” Karson muttered, shaking his head. Anger flooded him. And while, yes, he was glad that Ethan was long gone, he would never want Lacey to go through hell, to hurt the way she did. To know that all the pain and heartache was caused by her father, it just hurt. How could he do that to his own daughter? His own flesh and blood.
“And I know you set Karson up. I know that you tried to use that to break us up,” she said, her eyes never leaving her father’s. Karson wanted to be satisfied that she had come around and knew the truth, but she was visibly shaking with anger. It didn’t matter how he felt, or that he was glad she knew the truth, because it hurt her, and he didn’t want her to hurt. He was madder than hell at that moment, and he wanted nothing more than to pound Nate Martin’s face in, but this wasn’t his moment, it was Lacey’s. She had to stand up to him.
“No, he didn’t,” Rachel said, and Karson hadn’t noticed that she’d started crying. Looking up at Nate, she asked, “Did you?”
Grady squeezed her shoulder, and Karson didn’t understand the relationship between Rachel and Nate, but it was obvious that her heart was breaking at the realization that he was a complete jackass.
&nb
sp; Sucking in a deep breath, Nate looked away as he said, “Yes. I did all that, but it is because I love you.”
“How can you claim to love her when all you’ve done is hurt her over and over again?” Karson asked, shaking his head. “When you love someone, you lift them up, you support them, not try to wreck them. And you’ve been wrecking Lacey since the beginning!”
“You have no clue what I have done for my daughter, so keep your damn mouth shut,” he sneered, his face turning red with anger. Not a bit of remorse was in his face. Karson didn’t think Nate felt bad at all, and that pissed him the fuck off.
“Don’t talk to Karson like that,” Lacey snapped as the tears rolled down her cheeks, landing on her shirt. “And he’s right. You haven’t done anything but cause me pain, and I’m done.”
“You don’t mean that,” he said, shaking his head. “Yes, I’ve made some mistakes, but I did them with the intention of helping you.”
“How is keeping me all to yourself helping me? You isolated me from the world, completely shattered my confidence, and if it wasn’t for Karson, I would be a freaking mess. I would be nothing.”
“You don’t need him,” Nate demanded. “You need me.”
“No, I need my husband.”
“And that’s me,” Karson added just in case anyone forgot, but he didn’t think anyone was really listening to him.
“The thing is, if you would have apologized at least once, I may have been able to forgive you, but you’ve never once apologized for these mistakes, Dad. There have been no consequences for breaking my heart. I just brushed it under the rug and let it go, but I won’t do that anymore. I have to do what is best for me, for my husband, and that’s to let you go. It hurts,” she said as her voice broke, and it killed him to hear her crack like this. “It hurts so damn bad, but I can’t allow you to hurt me anymore.”
“Lacey,” Nate said, but she turned, her eyes meeting Karson’s. They said to get rid of him, and lucky for her, Karson had no problem doing that.
“No, you need to go,” he said, pushing her behind him. “She’s said what she needed to say, and you need to respect that.”
Nate’s eyes blazed with anger as he took a step toward him. “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but you aren’t going to keep me from my daughter.”
“I will if that’s what she wants. She’s my wife, and I have to protect her from people like you.”
Oh, that pissed him off. His face went red, his breathing labored, and a vein popped out of his forehead as he spat, “You son of a bitch.” He then went to swing at Karson, but before his fist could connect with his jaw, Karson blocked his arm and then plowed his fist into Nate’s face, knocking him on his ass.
“Oh my God,” Rachel cried, covering her mouth, and he heard Lacey’s gasp, but he didn’t turn. His eyes were trained on Nate’s as he wiped the blood from his mouth.
“Get the fuck out,” Karson demanded. “You aren’t welcome here or even at our home in Nashville,” he said, shaking out his hand. Dude’s face was hard at hell.
“I will ruin you,” Nate promised but Karson laughed.
“Bring it, asshole, because you’ll never win. Never.”
Looking past him, Nate tried to look at Lacey but Karson blocked him. Ignoring Karson, he said, “Lacey, please, give me another chance. Let’s talk this over.”
But Lacey shook her head.
“Not a snowball’s chance in hell. I won’t allow you to hurt her any longer. I have to eliminate the bad, and you are the bad. So, goodbye,” Karson said, slowly backing him out the door.
“Shut up, you piece of junk. I’m talking to my daughter!”
“He’s right,” Lacey cried behind him. “You are my father and I love you, but you don’t know how to love me. I’m better without you.”
“You don’t mean that,” Nate said, his eyes filling with tears. “I did it for you.”
“No, you did it for you. They’ve asked you to go. Just go, Dad,” Grady said, stopping him from advancing on Karson.
“You are nothing to me now, Grady. How dare you tell her?” he hissed, glaring at his son.
“I am fine with that. I have my sister, my wife, and my children. I’ll make it without you,” Grady said and then he looked back at Lacey. “We both will.”
She nodded as she squeezed Karson’s hand and turned into his chest as Grady escorted Nate out, Rachel following behind. Looking deep into Lacey’s eyes, he saw how much pain was in them and he wanted to erase it all, but he knew that Grady’s words rang true. She would make it without her father.
He’d make sure of it.
Holding Karson’s hand in hers, she held the ice along his knuckles as she cried softly. The last twenty-four hours had been hell. Between breaking it off with Karson, to realizing she was an idiot, to being willing to beg him to take her back, she also had accepted that she had just completely cut ties with her father. She still couldn’t believe what he had done, and the fact that he just stared at her instead of apologizing… She knew she had no choice but to let him go. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen between her and Rachel, but she’d spent about an hour apologizing to Lacey. At that moment though, she was mad. But soon she hoped she could forgive Rachel. It was easy to say that her father was using her to get to Lacey, and while he’d succeeded, it wasn’t Rachel’s fault for wanting a father figure. The girl had it bad growing up, and Nate had always been there for her. It was sad but it was the truth, and Lacey knew she would never fully trust Rachel again, but she would never stop loving her. She was sure they would figure it out. They had to work together, and she was family. But the main thing Lacey had to remember was that Grady was right; she had to do what made her happy.
And Karson made her happy.
“Are you okay?” he asked, cupping her jaw before catching her tears with his thumb and wiping them away.
She looked up at him and managed a small smile. “I will be once we are home.”
“Our flight leaves soon,” he said softly, running his thumb along her cheek. “I’m sorry your dad is a dick.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, maybe one day I’ll be able to look at him and he’ll be the father I need, but until that day, I don’t ever want to look at him again.”
“That’s fine with me, sweetheart,” he answered. “But I still can’t believe what he has done.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s over. He broke me, and I won’t allow him to keep doing it. And talking about it reopens the wounds.”
“Then no more talking about it,” Karson decided, taking the ice off his hand and throwing it in the sink. Looking down at her, he cupped her face and said, “You know I love you. More than anything.”
She nodded. “I love you more than that.”
He smirked before dropping his lips to hers, kissing her long and slow, sending crazy jolts through her body. As he drew slow, mind-blowing kisses from her, she knew that she had been mentally insane to think that she could let this man go. As he held her in close to him, his mouth moving ever so slowly against hers, she knew that she was going to love him until her dying day.
All she had to do was look into his eyes to know he felt the same way. It was so like him to charge up here and demand she go home with him. He wasn’t one to give up, and he wasn’t going to let her go. There was no other option. She was supposed to love Karson for the rest of her life.
“I’m sorry, Karson, for not believing you about my dad,” she whispered against his jaw. “I was an idiot, grasping at straws, trying to salvage a relationship with him because he was the closest thing to my mom.”
Karson nodded, kissing below her ear. “He’s your dad, Lacey. I understood. Yeah, it hurt and burned like a bitch, but I got it.”
“Still, I was wrong to do that. I should have believed you. You’ve never done me wrong.”
He was quiet for a moment, but then he shook his head. “No, I did. I should have stood up to him all those years ago. I didn’t
fight the way I should, and I’ll always be sorry for that, but I promise I’ll make up for those nine years for the next hundred.”
She smiled, pulling back to look at him. “I should have done the same. Swallowed my pride and found you, but I listened to him and lost out on those years. So I have to do the same thing. I’m not going to lie; I’m excited about it.”
He grinned, kissing the side of her mouth. “I didn’t get to say my long, thought-out speech I had come up with on the way here,” he whispered against her lips.
She smirked, moving her fingers along his jaw. “You didn’t need a speech. I knew that I had messed up the moment I hung up the phone. I just didn’t want to accept it, though. I wanted you to believe that if I let you go, you’d be with someone who could make you happy and give you everything you needed.”
“There is no one but you,” he said softly, his eyes searching hers. “I don’t know why you would think that there could be someone other than you. For years, I knew that there would never be another Lacey Martin, and I accepted that. I never wanted to marry anyone but you. I never wanted children with anyone but you. I don’t want to grow old with anyone but you. You’re it, sweetheart, so don’t ever think that again. It’s you or no one.”
She nodded slowly. “I won’t,” she promised. “I’m so sorry, Karson.”
“Haven’t I told you before that we are going to make mistakes? We are going to mess up, but the one thing we have to remember is that we love each other and our love will conquer all.”
“I just want to make you happy,” she whispered against his lips.
“Okay, wanna know how?” he asked, leaning back so he could see her whole face. Holding up one finger, he said, “Smile.” And then with each finger he named off something else. “Don’t hold anything back. When you’re mad, tell me. If I’m messy, tell me so I can fix it. Suck me off, I like that,” he said with a grin, causing her to grin back earnestly. He was so silly and all hers. Holding up another finger, he said, “But really, all I want is for you to be happy. As long as you are satisfied with our marriage, with me, there is nothing more I can ask for.”