by S. J. Bishop
Carter lingered by the doorway.
"Come in," I said, grabbing his hand. It was warm and red and I didn’t even care how dirty we both were. His touch was the only thing keeping me sane right now. Myron was the last person I would have expected an outburst like that from. He had actually hit me!
"I’m sorry," Carter said.
"For what? For saving me from Myron?"
"No," Carter said, shaking his head. "For all those awful things Olivia said to you. She was way out of line."
"Oh, Carter," I said, throwing my hands up. "I don’t think that matters now, do you?"
He looked at me, surprised. "You’re not mad?" he asked.
"Not at you," I said. At Olivia, yes. At Myron, for sure.At myself, absolutely. But I couldn’t think of one reason to be mad at Carter right now. He had defended me to Olivia, and then he had saved me from Myron.
"Do you want to take a shower?" I asked.
His face relaxed. "Yeah, actually, that sounds great. Thanks."
I put out some clean towels and told him to help himself to my body wash and shampoo. "Give me your clothes and I’ll toss them in the wash."
"Thanks," he said, pulling the door behind him and handing me his clothes through a crack in the door. It was cute that even though we’d torn each other’s clothes off just days before, he was now trying to hide his nakedness from me. I tossed his clothes in the machine .
I stood by the machine for a few minutes, running through the past couple of hours. I couldn’t comprehend how my life had turned from a relatively routine existence of being a single mom working two jobs, to having my life threatened only to be saved by the guy I couldn’t get the guts to tell was the father of my child. As soon as I thought of Carter, my mind started picturing him down the hall, naked in my shower. I thought about the streams of water flowing in rivers down his well-formed pecs and before I knew it my clothes were in the wash to and I was walking naked down the hall to the bathroom.
I turned the knob noticed Carter’s cheeks flush red as he looked to the doorway and saw my naked body.
"Ava," he said. "What are you doing?"
"I needed a shower too." I walked into the shower and put my hands around his neck. I stood on my tiptoes, kissing him as the water rained down on us. My heart thumped hard in my chest, not out of nervousness, but out of anticipation.
I spun Carter around and began to lather his hair. It was silky smooth under my hands and he moaned as I massaged his scalp. When I dunked his head under the water I kissed the back of his neck, almost inhaling the water as it streamed over him.
He spun back around and kissed me. His lips were like sweet red wine washing over me. His tongue found its way over my neck and down my chest, pausing at my nipples. He began to circle them with his tongue, making me shiver despite the hot water.
My mind raced. Images of me and Carter merged with images of me and Myron, which merged with images of Carter and Olivia, back to me and Carter. I wanted to wash away all of the confusion and emotional messiness of the past few days. I let my eyes rest on Carter’s broad and muscular shoulders. My mind quieted as my gaze lowered down his chest, to his hips and pelvis.
With the hot water still streaming down on us, Carter pushed his hips against mine, sliding his manhood into my warm, wet cave. My back arched and he wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly so that I wouldn’t fall. My hands came around his neck, sliding along his back as he began to pulse against me.
Carter’s breath blew against my face like a sharp wind that both warmed and cooled me at the same time. I moaned loudly. Without Lily here, I made a conscious decision to let myself go. I dug my fingers into Carter’s back, wrapping one leg behind him as he moved faster and harder against me.
"Don’t stop!" I screamed. I hadn’t realized till just now how much I needed this moment with him. Carter responded to my sexual charge. He took one hand off my back and placed it against the wall, using it for support.
I kept one leg on the shower floor and moved the leg that was wrapped around him to the side of the tub, balancing it on its ledge. I opened myself wider for him, and he responded by pressing his erection deeper into my pussy. My legs began to quiver and my body started shaking.
"Hold on," he whispered. "Not yet." He kissed my mouth once more, feeling the energy surge out of me. My body was like clay and he was the potter molding it to his desires. He kissed my neck, pushing himself deeper into my sex. I closed my eyes in pleasure and he dug his manhood deeper still, sailing past the buoys and beyond the horizon until he was submerged so wholly inside me that he and I were one and the same.
"Now," he whispered, tugging at my ear with his teeth. He gave one final thrust. I met his hips with a thrust of my own, and together we let ourselves go, flying towards the sun that shined down upon us as we melded together, forever a part of each other.
30
Carter
My head was pounding. I opened one eye and looked at Ava, who was still asleep. The pounding sounded again. This time it seemed to come from outside my head.
"Ava," I whispered. "I think someone’s at your door." She looked me with sleepy eyes. It didn’t feel late, but the sun was shining in through her windows. I reached over and looked at my phone. It was six in the morning.
The pounding grew louder now and Ava sat up in bed. "Maybe my parents forgot their key," she said. "Stay here." I guessed she wouldn’t want her mother and father questioning her about my presence.
I watched Ava quickly dress and leave the room. I leaned back against the pillows and closed my eyes. My mind drifted to the events of last night. Ava’s boyfriend, Myron, was a psycho. No doubt about that. I still couldn’t believe the guy had hit her. If I hadn’t been driving by them in my car when it happened, how much worse might he have hurt her?
I never would have pegged Ava for the abused housewife type, but I thought it all made sense now. It certainly explained some of her behavior. She was a little moody, a little sullen, a little erratic whenever she was around me; it was because she was scared of Myron. Of what he might do to her. I wondered if Myron was Lily’s father. A surge of sympathy raced through me for both Lily and Ava. Maybe I could help them.
There were loud voices coming from Ava’s living room now. I heard Ava yelling for whoever it was to get out. Myron, I thought. I jolted out of bed and threw on my clothes, which Ava had washed during the night and left on her bureau. In the living room, I was surprised to see uniformed police officers standing by.
Ava looked at me and said, "I’m sorry." Her eyes were filled with tears as one of the officers approached me.
"Carter Stone," the officer said. "You’re under arrest for assault."
"Assault?" I said, confused, looking at Ava. "Who did I—"
"It’s Myron," Ava cried. Then I understood. Myron was pressing charges. He was getting even with me for taking Ava away from him last night.
"You’ve gotta talk to him, Ava," I said as the police steered me out of her apartment. "Tell him to drop the charges. Or tell the cops what he did to you." She looked after me with wide eyes and I saw the fear in them. She had no intention of telling the police that Myron had beat her, and it pissed me off. Some of the press had gotten wind of my arrest and were already staked outside of Ava’s apartment. They began snapping my picture the moment I came out.
Great, now they’ve got photos of me in handcuffs. This was serious, more so than my other arrests. Myron was dangerous. Who knows what he’d told the cops. If Ava didn’t explain that I had been defending her... But I’d seen too many stories on TV about women like Ava, whose husbands or boyfriends beat them to a pulp, and still the women wouldn’t press charges.
At the jail cell, I was fingerprinted and booked. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been in similar spots before.But somehow, this time, it seemed much worse.
"Make your phone call," a policeman said, leading me to a phone. I thought it over for a moment. I knew word would get back to Hannah and my parents soon e
nough, so there was no pressing need to call them. The one thing that bothered me about all this, aside from Ava’s relationship to Myron, was what Coach might think about all this. Coach had been a sort of second father to me the last few years. I hated the idea of letting him down.
I dialed San Francisco and some woman I didn’t know answered Coach’s phone. She passed it to Coach and it was good to hear his gruff voice.
"Carter?" Coach said.
"Yeah, Coach. I’m kind of in a jam."
"No shit. It’s all over the news."
"Already?" I don’t know why I was surprised to hear that. This was the age of Google after all.
"Listen, Coach, I—"
"No, you listen," Coach said. He sounded angry. "I just got off the phone with the owner. He wants you off the team. For good."
I felt the blood drain from my face. "Listen, Coach, can’t you talk to him? This whole thing is a huge mistake. I wasn’t even drunk." I couldn’t help the anger bubbling up in me. If Ava would just tell the police about Myron, I might get out of this. After all, this wasn’t just another drunken barroom brawl; I had been defending Ava. If I hadn’t been there, she might be in the ICU now, or worse.
Coach sighed and I knew it was no good. "Carter, talk to your manager. Good luck. Maybe one day if you get yourself cleaned up..." But Coach couldn’t even finish his thought. He hung up and left me listening to a dial tone.
I went back to my cell, dejected, waiting for Hannah or my parents. Hannah would know to call my lawyer. I had a contract after all. The owner couldn’t just get rid of me. I wondered if Ava would come to see me. If she did, maybe I could talk her into telling the police what had really happened. They would believe her; I was sure of it.
"Visitor," the guard shouted and my head snapped up. I’d been staring at the ceiling.
"Oh Carter, baby," Olivia squeaked, running to the bars of my cell. She tried to place her lips through the opening and the guard forced her back.
"Olivia." I was surprised to see her, and not exactly thrilled by it.
"Oh honey, I heard you were in here. That Ava person is such a cow. This all her fault."
I wanted to disagree with her but couldn’t. I was too busy blaming Ava for his predicament. If I hadn’t stopped to help her... but then how could I not have stopped? What kind of person would that have made me?
"It looks like I’m off the team." She was possibly the only person who might understand how I felt right now, aside from my teammates. She knew how important the game was to me.
"I know," she said. "It’s all over the internet."
I sighed. I hated technology.
"Listen," she said, stepping towards me. The guard looked ready to stop her if she got too close but said nothing just yet. "I’ve talked to my father. You know my uncle is friends with the owner of the 49ers."
I had completely forgotten that. I’d only met Olivia’s uncle once or twice in the last three years. "I’m pretty sure he’ll talk to the owner for me, if I ask him too."
My heart soared. "Would he really? You think so?"
Olivia nodded. Her eyes were soft and her lips downturned. "Of course, he’d need a good reason to do it. I mean, I’m not sure that helping out my boyfriend is a good enough reason for him. But he takes family very seriously."
My head was spinning. "What are you saying? You think I should beg him?"
"Oh no," Olivia cried, her eyes wide. "I wouldn’t want that. I only mean that it’s one thing to help your niece’s boyfriend... it’s another to help her husband."
I finally caught on. "You want me to marry you? Are you serious?"
"We can fly down to Vegas after Hannah’s wedding. We’ll be married by next week. I know my uncle will help you then. He’ll have to. What do you say?" She fluttered her eyes at me and my head began to pound.
Marry Olivia? Could I really do that? At least she was trying to help me, unlike Ava. But was this really help? Wasn’t it more like blackmail or extortion? My mind reeled. I had to make a decision, fast.
I licked my lips. I already knew what that decision had to be.There was no other choice. No matter what I decided, someone was gonna get hurt. I had to do what would ultimately be best for myself. With that in mind, it was an easy choice.
Part IV
31
Carter
I woke up with a headache and on top of it my mind was still reeling. I couldn’t believe I’d spent the night in jail. My lawyer had always been able to get me out almost immediately. This was a first, and that worried me.
"Wake up, ding-a-ling," the guard said, knocking on the bars with his baton. "You’ve made bail."
I sat up in bed and watched the guard unlock the door. I was almost afraid the guard was playing a cruel joke on me. Other than Olivia, no one had come by to see me, not even Ava. Of course, it was Ava’s boyfriend who had landed me in jail in the first place.
I’d spent the night thinking about the situation that had put me here and decided that it wasn’t Ava’s fault. Well, not entirely. I was still mad at her, but I felt bad for her too. What must it be like to be in an abusive relationship with a psycho like Myron? I kept thinking about poor Lily. She wasn’t safe around Myron. I wondered if he’d ever hit Lily like he had Ava, and my blood boiled.
"You comin’ or what?" the guard asked. I stood up and walked out of the cell. My hair felt greasy and my eyes were dry. They hadn’t exactly given me the five-star treatment.
It hadn’t taken long for me to wear out my welcome here in Dover Chase. I had been greeted warmly but my hometown-boy-made-good charm had quickly worn off. I’d been arrested one too many times, gotten into one too many fights. I could tell people thought I wasn’t that small town boy they’d all grown up with. They saw me as a rich snob who thought he was better than everyone who still lived here. They weren’t entirely wrong about that either.
"Hannah." I’d assumed it was my parents who’d bailed me out and was preparing to be lectured on the ride home. It was a relief to see my sister. She hugged me before slapping the back of my head.
"What is the matter with you?" she asked as I waited for my release papers. "My wedding is tonight. Can’t you stay out of jail for one day? They’re gonna kick you off the team." Her eyes flashed with anger but there was also concern behind them.
"It seems they already did." I said.
Hannah turned back to me; I could see her anger was replaced for the moment with worry. "Are you serious?"
I nodded. "The thing is, it’s not my fault."
Hannah threw her hands in the air. "Not your fault, not your fault. You’re a broken record, Carter. It’s never your fault."
"Yeah, but this time it really isn’t."
"You were mad at Olivia and so you took it out on someone else. Or maybe you were just jealous of Ava’s boyfriend and so you beat him up. You broke his nose, Carter!"
"Good."
Hannah stared at me as if I was a total stranger, and I began to worry. If she felt like she couldn’t tell who I was anymore then it was doubtful that the rest of the world would believe me.
"Wait till we get outside, alright? Let me explain."
Hannah drew her lips together but said nothing more for the time being. When we were finally seated in Hannah’s car, she started it up and sat there with it running.
"Are we going?" I asked, anxious to get away from the police station.
"Not until you tell me what’s going on. You said you’d tell me everything when we got outside."
I took a deep breath. I really didn’t want to talk to my sister about my sex life, but I was starting to feel like I had nowhere else to turn. Ava probably didn’t want to talk to me right now. My parents were undoubtedly pissed at me. The whole town seemed against me. Hannah was the only one who might understand.
"You were right. Ava and I, we’ve been..."
Hannah’s eyes widened and a gigantic grin sprung up on her face. "I knew it! How long has this been going on? Oh boy, you two are in s
uch trouble. When I talk to Ava later—"
"No, don’t," I said. "It might get her in trouble."
"With who? Myron? Why should you care? You guys obviously aren’t friends."
"Yeah, but I think maybe he and Ava... I saw him hit her after your rehearsal dinner. That’s why we started fighting."
Hannah stared at me, shocked. "He hit Ava?"
I nodded. "Yeah, and I think he might have kept hitting her if I hadn’t come along."
"Oh no," Hannah said. "I can’t believe Ava would date someone like that." Her head snapped towards me, her eyes flashing. "You defended her!" She hugged me tight for a few seconds and then drew away. "Is Myron Lily’s father?"
"I’m not sure. That would be my guess. It seems to me like he and Ava must have been going out for a while. It probably wasn’t the first time he’s hit her."
"Poor Ava. No wonder she’s been so weird lately."
"Yeah, except it kind of pisses me off, you know? Here I was, trying to do the right thing, and she hasn’t said one thing to the cops to help me. If she just told them that Myron was beating her, this would all go away."
"Abused women never want to reveal the abuse though. Remember that made-for-TV movie I did? I played an abused housewife. I know what it’s like."
I snorted. "Yeah, you know firsthand what an abusive relationship is like because of the fake abusive relationship you were in for a movie. Hannah, you realize how pretentious that sounds, right?"
Hannah looked irritated but she said nothing. "Well just stay away from Myron. He sounds dangerous."
"Will do. And listen, I don’t want you worrying about all this today of all days, alright? It’s your freaking wedding day. You should be relaxing and enjoying it."
Hannah’s face turned red.
"What?" I asked.
"It’s just... I’ve been thinking..."