by Tina Martin
Carter pulled his glasses from his face, pinched his eyes shut to keep from releasing tears, but he’d failed because a few small ones burst through. He brushed them away and slid his glasses back on, looking at her. “I haven’t touched another woman since I met you. I haven’t slept with anyone, kissed anyone, dated anyone – I haven’t been with anyone. Do you know why, Shayla?”
Carter looked at her intensely for a moment. He could jump across the table right now, kiss her lips and squeeze her in his arms but first things first. He needed to put her mind at ease because there was no other woman for him and she would know that. Finally.
“I haven’t been with anyone because I love you. I always have, and I always will.”
Shayla took a breath and when she looked up at him, a lonely tear ran down her face. She wiped her eyes and through trembling lips she said, “Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
“I love you, Shayla,” he emphasized. “I dream about you. I think about being with you, making love to you, spending the rest of my life with you because there is no other woman for me. Only you.” Carter pinched his eyes again while he watched tears fall from hers. Then he asked a painful question. “Do you still love me, or am I too late?”
Shayla lost her voice for a moment while trying to process what was happening. She wiped her eyes so she could see him clearly.
“Do you still love me, Shayla?”
She opened her mouth but no words came out. “I…” she managed to say before drops of tears fell from her eyes. “I never stopped loving you, Carter.”
Relieved, Carter closed his eyes briefly and released a breath. “Then can we try to make this work?” Before she could answer, he stood, walked over to her and while standing immediately in front of her as she remained seated, he placed both hands on her face and angled her head up towards him. “Can we?”
Shayla closed her eyes. Boy did his warm hands feel good against her skin. She didn’t realize how much she missed his touch until now. She opened her eyes and while smiling through her tears, she said, “Yes.”
Carter smiled, took her hand to help her stand up in front of him and encased his arms around her, embracing her so tightly, nothing could pry them apart.
“Aw,” Rebecca hummed, along with the guests at the table and a few other people who realized what was going on at surrounding tables.
Carter brushed away her tears with his thumbs. “Let’s go somewhere and talk. Is that okay?”
“Yeah,” Shayla said faintly. She told Rebecca that she would see her later and with her right hand in Carter’s left, they headed for the exit.
Once they stepped outside, Carter seized her in his arms again, feeling the anxiety and loneliness he’d felt for the past few months melt away.
Shayla embraced him tightly. She missed him too. His smell, his voice. His warmth. It was all coming back. He was her weakness. The man who took care of her and now the man who could say those three words she’d been waiting to hear from him for so long.
“I’ve missed you so much, Carter,” she said, squeezing him even tighter, if that was possible.
“You wouldn’t even begin to understand how much I’ve missed you,” he told her. “Let’s go home.”
Shayla smiled. “Okay.”
When they broke apart, Shayla told him she would go and get her car and meet him at the house. And once she reached the car, she sat, took a breath, and flipped the sun visor down to look at her face in the mirror. She took some tissue from her purse and dabbed her eyes and reapplied some gloss to her lips. Then she started the car, beginning the drive to his place.
When she pulled up in the driveway, she noticed Carter was already there, standing next to the driver side door of his truck and watching her drive up and park behind him. He was amazingly handsome and she could take pride in that now. He was hers. All hers.
She stepped out of her rental, walked up to him. “I see the place is still the same.”
“Yeah, especially now that you’re back,” he said, taking her by the hand as if it was necessary. And when they stepped in the house, Shayla followed his lead into the family room and sat on the couch next to him.
For a moment, he stared at her, taking her all in again – her nose, eyes, ears, hands – he looked her up and down. Then a smile grew on his face.
“What?” Shayla said, nervous as she’d ever been. Now that she had the man, what would she do with him? Jacob was her only real relationship. And Carter was on another playing field when it came to men. He wasn’t an ordinary man. He was the man, the master at whatever he did. And she was sure lovemaking fell somewhere in that category, especially with all of his experience.
“I can’t believe I let you leave me. But I’m glad you’re back.” He took off his suit jacket, loosened his necktie, unfastened crystal cuff links from his shirt sleeve and dropped them on the table.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” Shayla inquired. It was a Monday afternoon after all.
“I probably should, but I’m not. Something more important came up, so…” He took her left hand into his right, kissed the backside of it. “I used to sit here and imagine you were sitting next to me. Now you are.”
“Yeah,” she smiled. “I am.”
“I’m sorry how things played out with us. I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know.”
“And I hope you forgive me.”
She strummed his back again. “I forgive you.”
“You do?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t secretly hate me?”
“No.” She smiled.
“Good,” he said. “So I figured we can stay in for the rest of the day, get reacquainted with each other, then…order…take-out… for… dinner,” he said between kisses. “You cool with that?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” Carter wrapped both arms around her, holding her tight. He’d had his woman now and would never let her go again.
Chapter 12
Shayla woke up in the family room, looking around, reestablishing where she was. The last thing she remembered was talking to Carter. She glanced at her watch and realized she’d been sleep for almost three hours.
“You’re up,” Carter said, walking in wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. No glasses. He’d since put his contacts in. “You hungry?”
Shayla yawned and stretched her arms in the air as far as she could. “Yeah. A little.”
“Okay, I’ve ordered Chinese. You want to come with me to the kitchen?”
“Sure.” She stood up and followed him. Then she removed the items from the take-out bag – lo mein noodles, chicken wings and shrimp-fried rice. She set two plates on the table, putting a sample of each item in them.
“You want to bring the food in the den?” Carter asked, looking at her standing near the countertop. Did she even hear his question? She was less talkative than he remembered and that bothered him. She used to be comfortable enough with him to talk openly, but now she was reserved. He noticed it when they’d talked earlier as well.
“Shayla?”
“Oh…okay, yeah,” she blinked quickly back into the moment. “I’ll bring it. I didn’t know you allowed food in there…never seen you eat in there before.”
“I haven’t, but then again, I find myself doing a lot of things I’ve never done.” He walked over to her, hugging her from behind and sending a peck to her cheek. “Actually, I’ll take the plates if you want to grab some forks.”
“Yep.” She walked over to the utensil drawer. “Got ‘em.” She followed him to the den, got comfortable on the couch, taking the remote from the coffee table and browsing through channels.
“What you looking for?” Carter asked her, taking a bite of chicken.
“A movie or something. Or maybe I should turn it off.”
“Good idea.”
Shayla hit the power button on the remote then placed it on the table. She set her plate in her lap.
“You know that ne
arly killed me.” Carter took a napkin and wiped his mouth. He was so excited to have her back, he didn’t have an appetite.
“What did?”
“When you left. It broke my heart. It really did, Shayla.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I did the same thing to you.”
They shared a silent moment, both looking at each other.
“So...um…I need to go back to Norfolk to get my things and check out of the hotel.” The hotel, Shayla thought, where she had her little bit of freedom and independence. Now she was back, being taken care of, something most women would love but she felt weird about it. Besides, men tend to not respect women who can’t take care of themselves, not saying that’s how Carter would feel about her, but still…she wondered.
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll get your things, hun,” Carter told her.
“But I gotta turn the car back in, too.”
“You can do that here.”
“Even though I got it from Norfolk?”
“Yeah. Whatever rental car company you got it from, find the same one here and turn it in. People do it all the time.”
“Well, I figured I’d turn it in where I got it from. I have to go back anyway to give my boss notice that I won’t be coming back.”
Carter frowned. “You can do that over the phone, or via email, right?”
“No. By notice, I mean I have to give him a two-week notice and work for those two weeks while they look for my replacement.”
Carter frowned. Why did she want to go back to Norfolk so badly? Did she want to see Donovan? He wondered what kind of relationship they had. When he met up with Donovan yesterday, it was clear to him that Donovan had some interest in her. Did she have interest in him? “Well don’t give notice. Just quit.”
“No. I can’t just quit and leave him high and dry. That won’t look good when I go looking for another job.”
“You don’t need a job, Shayla.”
“Why don’t I? What do you expect me to do? Let you take care of me?”
“Why are you saying it like that?”
Shayla set her plate of food on the table with his. She blew a distressing breath and ignoring his question, she asked, “And where am I suppose to live now? Here?”
“Of course. Why?”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Maybe I should move back in with Rebecca. That way we—”
“No.” Carter shook his head. “Why would you want to move in with her when we’re together now?”
“Because I don’t wanna rush and—”
“So that’s why you want to go back to Norfolk and work…why you’ve been so quiet today? You don’t want to be here.”
“Carter, don’t read too much into this. I do wanna come back.”
“Just not in a hurry, huh,” he said, irritated. “I asked you if you still loved me or if I was too late. Apparently you gave me the wrong answer.”
Shayla remembered what it was that she disliked about him – his temper. It didn’t show often, but when it did… “I didn’t give you the wrong answer, Carter. I just don’t want to rush.”
“So you don’t trust me?”
“I do trust you, but we just started speaking again earlier today. We don’t have to move so fast. That’s all I’m saying.”
Carter rubbed his left hand over his head, something he often did when he was agitated.
“Now you’re upset.”
“Why wouldn’t I be? The woman I love doesn’t know if she wants to be with me.” Carter stood, walked out of the room, taking his plate to the kitchen. He stepped out onto the deck, to get some fresh air and think – was he making a big deal out of nothing? Love was driving him insane.
Shayla took her plate to the kitchen and watched him walk in from the deck, looking at her.
“Shayla, I’m sorry if I’m being over-the-top right now, and maybe I am trying to rush things. All I know is that when you were gone, I wasn’t the same and this house was empty without you. I just want you back, baby. Full time. Not part time…not I’m over here and you’re over there. I need you here.”
Shayla hesitated to bring up the movie theater incident, but nothing good would come out of suppressing her true feelings. Plus, he needed to know why she was leery about moving in with him. “You told me to get my things and get out of your house when we got into that argument at the theater.”
“No I didn’t. Why do you keep saying that?”
“Because you said it, Carter.”
“No…let me tell you what I said. We were arguing…you stormed off and was going to leave right then and there…don’t you remember me chasing after you and telling you to get back in the car? I didn’t want to leave you like that but since you wanted to go, I figured I should at least give you the opportunity to get your things. So my thought pattern was, if you wanted to go, at least you could get your stuff first. I didn’t want you to leave with nothing. I never once said, get out of my house. I would never say that to you, Shayla.”
“You could, though, because let’s be real here. This is your house. Everything belongs to you.”
“Wow. I can’t believe this.” Carter interlocked his fingers over his head. “You don’t trust me after everything we’ve been through.”
“I do trust you.”
“Then why is this an issue, Shayla?” he asked irate, “Because it’ll be all yours once we get married, so why are you making a big deal out of it now?”
Married? Shayla thought. Did he really just drop the ‘M’ word? Was he that serious about their relationship that he was thinking about tying the knot?
Carter wrapped his arms around her. “I want you. And I want you here with me. Okay? No Rebecca, no hotel, you belong here with me. Okay?” His hands moved from her waist and up to her face. He tilted her head up so that she was looking at him. “Okay?” he asked again.
Shayla hadn’t heard anything he said after the word marriage. Did he really say that?
He kissed her lips to get her attention. “Okay, baby?”
Shayla smiled. “Okay.”
He smiled, too, because he’d gotten what he wanted. But he had plenty more to overcome when it came to Shayla. But all in due time.
“I want to take a shower,” Shayla said, releasing him, “But I don’t have any clothes or anything here.”
“That’s not a problem. You can wear one of my shirts to bed.”
“Okay. I’m heading up then.”
“Okay.”
Chapter 13
A few days later, her clothes were delivered in two large brown paper boxes. Shayla didn’t ask Carter how he was able to get her things, but he did. He meant business, and she was his business. He also gave her the house keys, the keys to the Lexus, her bank card and the silver diamond-studded, heart-shaped pendant necklace he’d bought for her.
This afternoon, Shayla took a shower then jogged downstairs and grabbed a ceramic bowl from the cupboard, along with a box of Raisin Bran. Carter was at work, but called shortly after she sat at the kitchen table.
“Hey you,” she answered, pouring milk over her cereal.
“You okay, sweetheart?” he asked, clicking his favorite retractable pen open and closed. He would’ve liked nothing more than to be home with her right now, but things were already tense at work and he didn’t want to cause any further issues.
“Yeah. I’m fine…eating breakfast.”
“You miss me?” he asked.
Shayla blushed as if he was sitting right there in front of her. “You know I do.”
“I miss you, too.” Carter sat back in his chair. He smiled, thinking about how he could never see himself as the type of man to settle down or to have phone calls like this with a woman. He was the player, the heartbreaker, but to even think of breaking Shayla’s heart again gave him unsettling chills.
“So what are you doing?” Shayla asked then shoveled another spoon full of cereal in her mouth.
“Nothing…just thin
king about you. What are you doing besides smacking in my ear?”
Shayla laughed. “Not much. I fell asleep again after you left this morning. I got out of bed about an hour ago.”
“Good, then you should be well rested for dinner tonight.”
“Dinner here?”
“No. I wanna take you to this place called Bentley’s. Well it’s actually called Bentley’s On 27.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s in Uptown, not far from my building. Why don’t you meet me here, then we can head over there together.”
“Okay.” Shayla yawned. “Do I have to dress up? I suppose so since you’re already dressed to kill, huh?”
“I’m not dressed to kill, baby. This is everyday attire for me. You know how I do.”
“Yeah. I know how you do,” she quipped. “Anyway, I’ll try to dress up a little…need to make sure I look the part.”
“Make sure you look the part?” Carter frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Never mind,” Shayla said. “So how has your morning been so far?”
“It’s been good, but I haven’t been able to really concentrate on work, ‘cause I keep looking at the clock, thinking about how much longer it’s gonna be before I can get to see your beautiful face again,” Carter said amidst hearing a beep in the line.
“You’re too much,” Shayla told him. She took her phone from her ear when she heard it beep and noticed it was Donovan returning her call.
“Was that you or me?” Carter asked her.
“It’s me. My boss, well, ex-boss is calling me.”
Carter frowned. “Why?”
“Probably because I left a voicemail yesterday to let him know I was quitting. I’ll call him back in a few.”
“Why? You don’t have to explain anything to him.”
“I know, but it’s the courteous thing to do so I’ma call him. I think I owe him that much.”
Carter rubbed his right hand across his thin mustache and mouth. He was worried about what Donovan might say to her.