Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel

by Sugar Jamison

  Bullshit.

  “Outside, Mother. Now.”

  “Carter. Not now. Please,” Belinda appealed to him.

  “If not now, when? She cannot get away with what she did.”

  “It’s okay, Belinda.” Bernadette squeezed her arm. “He’s right.” She looked at Carter as he led the way.

  He took her outside, to the back of the house far away from the open kitchen windows.

  “This is a lovely little town, Carter,” she said before he could start. “I see why you like it so much here. Your neighborhood is adorable, all these little cottages. I feel like I’m in another era.”

  He stared at his mother, dumbfounded. Nothing was ever good enough. Not his college major, not his choice in friends, or clothes, or wife. And especially not this place, where all the things she hated converged.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you here?”

  “I just wanted to see Ruby.”

  “That’s complete bullshit and you know it!”

  She seemed startled by his profanity but for once he didn’t care. “The last time you spoke to Belinda you told her she wasn’t good enough for me and that our marriage wasn’t going to last. And then you show up here. Where do you get off telling my wife that she’s not good enough for me? How dare you hurt her like that! If you came here to try to interfere or pull us apart, you’ve got another think coming. I’ll cut you out of my life. I won’t let you see Ruby again.”

  “Carter!” She looked horrified.

  “I’m serious. I won’t allow her to be around somebody who can be cruel to somebody she loves. I don’t want her to learn that it’s okay to hurt people just to get your way. She loves Belinda—”

  “I know that! I know she loves her.” Tears flashed in her eyes. “I saw them together today. I came here to warn her away from you, but then I saw how she was with Ruby. They’re—they’re connected. And if I didn’t know that Ruby had come from Bethany I would have mistaken her for Belinda’s daughter. She’s not the same child who left San Francisco. She’s not only happy, she’s loved. I could never interfere with that. I could never hurt Ruby that way. I’m just going to go back and tell your father that I approve, and we should just leave things alone.”

  “Father sent you?” He hadn’t spoken to his father in months, not because they weren’t speaking but simply because they had nothing to say to each other. Most of his life they had spent communicating through Bernadette.

  “Well, yes, but I wanted to see how Ruby was anyway. I missed her terribly. And you, too, Carter. Being with Ruby and Belinda today made me realize that I’ve been so focused on trying to mold you into the perfect Lancaster man that I never really got to know you. We aren’t close, and I don’t want to die and regret not knowing my only child.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that. He wasn’t expecting to hear that from her. “I love her, Mother.”

  “I know, and now I see why you do. She’s vibrant. You need that in your life.”

  “Grandma! Daddy! Belinda said that you two need to stop fighting because she’s hungry and somebody needs to take her out for dinner.”

  “Oh, dear!” Bernadette turned to her granddaughter. “We mustn’t keep her waiting much longer. We don’t want her chewing on the furniture.”

  *

  Belinda watched Carter for a moment as he sat on his couch watching TV. She knew he wasn’t paying attention to what was going on because his mind was elsewhere. Probably on his mother, who had shown up out of nowhere and taken Ruby for the night.

  She went to him, resting her head in his lap so that she could look up at him. He had changed into jeans and a T-shirt. His five o’clock shadow had made an appearance. His eyes were sleepy and thoughtful looking. She could stare up at him like this all night.

  “What are you looking at?” He ran his fingers through her hair, scratching her scalp and causing her to moan.

  “You’re cute. I think I’m going to write about you in my journal when I go home.”

  “You’re pretty cute yourself.” He ran his fingertips over the skin just above her breasts. Tingles ran through her limbs at his touch. “Especially in this little dress. Do you sell this in your store?”

  “Why, you thinking about buying one for yourself?”

  “No. For my other wife. What the hell was going on with you and my mother today?”

  “Nothing. We were getting along. I thought that’s what you wanted.”

  “How could you even attempt to be nice to her after what she did to you?”

  “First of all, I wasn’t nice, thank you very much. And second, she’s your mother and the grandmother of your child, whom she happens to love very much. I can’t hold on to that. It’s not good for Ruby.”

  “No,” he agreed as he dropped a kiss on her lips. “It wouldn’t be good for her, but you are.” He kissed her again, slower this time, and she shut her eyes to savor it. “And you’re very good for me. Thank you for today.”

  “Don’t thank me. I actually had fun with her today. Don’t get me wrong, she’s still a total bitch, but she’s witty as hell and has a wicked sense of style. You should have seen the shoes she picked out today to go with her cocktail dress. Black with a four-inch silver heel.” She moaned again. “Shoe porn. You’d better be glad you weren’t there. I would have jumped your bones right in that store.”

  “Is that all it takes to get you going? Remind me to take you to a shoe store soon.”

  “I’m free tomorrow. How are you feeling, Champ? You missing your baby already?”

  “Get out of my head.” He tweaked her nose.

  “She’ll be fine, you know. It’s just overnight.”

  “I wanted to say no so bad.”

  “That would have killed Ruby.”

  “I know. My father sent her here to handle me. Like our relationship is some kind of dirty work to be disposed of.”

  “I just don’t understand why he hates me so much. The way he looked at me when you first introduced us … He didn’t even have to say anything, I just knew I wasn’t good enough.”

  “It’s not you. It’s me. When things fell apart with Bethany, both of our parents were extremely upset and embarrassed. Bethany’s father said it was my fault, that I chased her away and he threatened to back out of the deal, because he thought my family couldn’t be trusted. To this day I’m not sure what my father did to make the merger go through. But he was mad that I strained things almost irrevocably with the Spencers. Even after that I think he thought he could shape me into his clone. And then a year later I come home with you, whom he hadn’t met and vetted and approved of. He was mad because for the first time in my life I made a decision without any kind of input from him.”

  “But you became an architect. You didn’t go to his alma mater.”

  “I really wanted to be an artist and I went to a school he approved of.”

  “Who could be disappointed in an Ivy League graduate?” Belinda nodded. “I didn’t know you wanted to be an artist.”

  “I did. I liked to draw, but thankfully it was just a phase. I love what I do, especially now. I get to see people enjoy the places I create.”

  “I learn something new about you every day.”

  “I learn something about you, too. You need to call your mother.”

  “I should, but I don’t wanna.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m just not ready. My relationship with my parents is so weird, they went from never being there to always being there and smothering me. I don’t know how to handle them. But at least my father kind of gets me. My mother never did. She’s mad that I keep stuff from her, but I just never knew how to talk to her.”

  “In her defense I don’t get you, either, but here I am.”

  “Shut up.”

  “It’s true. So what she doesn’t get you? So what she calls you Pudge? She loves you. That’s clear. You two have a hell of a lot better relationship than my mother and I.”

  “I thin
k she wants to fix it. I saw the way she looked at you tonight. She does love you.”

  “Don’t change the subject. Call your mother.”

  “I will, if you forgive yours.”

  “I’ll work on it. I love you,” he said. “You know that, don’t you?”

  “I do,” she told him. He told her often but for some reason each time she heard it, it was like a little shock to her system. After all those I love yous she had said to him when they were first together, after all that time wondering if he ever loved her, he was now saying it freely. She believed him, but just like the first time together she wondered if this was all too good to be true. Something might happen that let him slip through her fingers.

  “Are you going to stay over tonight?”

  She took her hand in both of his and kissed his fingers. “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.”

  “I want you to stay more during the week.”

  She knew that. She knew he hated it every time she walked out the door, but she wasn’t ready to stay with them all the time yet. It just seemed so soon. “What about if I promise to stay over on the weekends?”

  “I didn’t want to disrupt Ruby’s routine, but we can come over and stay at your place if you don’t like sleeping here.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I like it here. I like your little house. It could use some better furniture and a couple of paintings on the walls, but it’s so cozy here.”

  “Then what is it?”

  She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, afraid to tell him what she was really feeling. “If it doesn’t work this time, if you break my heart again, I won’t be able to survive it.”

  “Well, shit.” He smiled. “I thought you were going to tell me something big.”

  “Carter! It’s not funny.”

  “I know,” he said softly. “I want to be married to you. I want to build a life with you, a home. I want to have babies with you. I want us to be us. What is it that you want?”

  “I want the same things. Ruby asked me what French kissing was last week. And she wanted to know how people do sex! And today she asked me when I was going to become her mommy. I had answers for none of those, Carter. None! Except the French kissing. I told her what that was, but my point is, I’m not sure I’m ready for all of this. It’s happening so fast.”

  “I know, Bell, but that’s just the way it is with us. I wish I knew what I could say to make you feel better about us. I wish I could tell that I’ll take it as slow as you like and wait until you’re ready but I’m going to be thirty-six soon. I found the love of my life and now I want to build a life with her. What’s the holdup?”

  “I don’t know,” she lied.

  I don’t trust you not to break my heart.

  “I’m going to try,” she said, meaning it. She had to let go of the past, of that hurt that still clouded her heart from time to time.

  “Thank you.” He cupped her face in his hands and gave her a long kiss. “I love you so much.”

  “Kiss me again,” she ordered and he obeyed.

  “Do you want to do something tonight?”

  “No. I want to stay in this house with you and only put clothes on when the pizza delivery man shows up.”

  “That sounds like a better plan,” he said into her mouth. “Shut the blinds. I don’t want to neighbors to see us.”

  CHAPTER 23

  My girl …

  Carter watched as the black Mercedes his mother had rented for her trip pulled up in front of the house. He had missed Ruby. She had only been gone for twenty-four hours but he missed her a lot. The house almost felt different without her. Belinda had been there and he loved having her all to himself for a few hours, but that didn’t stop the constant thoughts about Ruby. The worry he always got when she wasn’t around.

  The car pulled to a stop and Ruby jumped out, running at full speed toward him. “There’s my kid!” He caught her and kissed her curls, relieved to have her back in his presence.

  “Daddy! Grandma took me to the toy store and she said I could get whatever I wanted but I didn’t want no dolls because I don’t like playing with dolls because they don’t do nothing. Grandma got me a scooter instead! But it came in a box and Grandma didn’t know how to put it together, she said she never put anything together in her life, so she gave a man fifty dollars to do it. But she said I couldn’t ride it until I got home. Can I ride it? Please?”

  “I don’t know.” He looked at the pink scooter Belinda was helping his mother take out of the car. “You’ve never ridden a scooter before. I think we need to get you a new helmet and knee pads first.”

  “But I just want to try it. Can I?”

  “Oh, come on, Carter,” Belinda urged. “Just let her take it up the block once before we leave for dinner. We can pick up the pads after.”

  He sighed, uneasiness creeping up inside him. It was the same uneasiness he felt when she rode a bike, roller-skated, and walked for the first time. “Okay. Just up the block and then we need to head out to dinner with Grandma.”

  He set her down, watching her as she jumped on the scooter and pushed off. “Slow down, Ruby!”

  “Relax, son.” His mother came up beside him. “She’s just having a little fun.”

  “You shouldn’t have bought her that without asking me first. Ruby!” he called after her when she had whizzed past her fourth house. “That’s far enough. Come back!”

  She obeyed and turned around and came back toward them, going faster than before.

  “She’s amazing on that thing,” he heard Belinda say.

  “She’s going to break her neck.” As soon as he said the words, the scooter started to wobble, Ruby quickly losing control. He watched her fall, her little arms flailing as she went down.

  “Ruby!” He went after her. She wasn’t moving. Her eyes were closed and her body still when he reached her. “Ruby,” he choked out as he knelt beside her. His heart was pounding so hard he could barely breathe. “Open your eyes.”

  “Ow.” Her eyes popped open and she stared up at him. “I hurt my butt.”

  “Baby doll,” Belinda said, bending down to pick Ruby up. “You wiped out. You have to slow down. Okay?” She kissed Ruby’s forehead.

  “You shouldn’t move her,” Carter warned. “She could be really hurt. She could have broken something.”

  “I’m fine, Daddy,” Ruby said. “It doesn’t hurt no more.”

  “She didn’t break anything.” Belinda waved off his warning and set Ruby on her feet. “You’re okay. Right?” She lifted Ruby’s shirt to check her back. “You might have a sore bottom tomorrow, but you’ll be fine.”

  How could she be so calm about this? “She could have hit her head, or damaged her organs.”

  “Didn’t you ever fall off a bike or out of a tree when you were a kid?”

  “I think we should take her to the hospital just in case.”

  “No, I don’t think we should. She’s fine, Carter. It was just a fall. You need to calm down before you scare her.”

  “I don’t really care what you think,” he snapped. “She’s my child, not yours. I didn’t ask for your opinion. I’ll do what I think is best.”

  Belinda paused, shock, then hurt, then anger crossing her face. “You’re right. She’s not my kid. She’s the baby you had with the wife I didn’t know about.” She shook her head and then bent down to kiss Ruby. “There’s an ice pack in the freezer if you need it. I’m going home. Call me if you need me. I’ll see you later.” She walked away from him. He knew he had gone too far.

  “Carter,” his mother scolded softly. “You shouldn’t have said that.”

  “I know. Okay. I know. Bell, wait.” He caught up with her just inside the house, grabbing her hand.

  She snatched herself away from him. “I really don’t want to talk to you right now.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you? Because you pulled that she’s-not-your-kid card pretty damn quick.”

  “So you’re
just going to run away.”

  “Yeah, I’m pissed right now and don’t want to have an argument fifty feet away from your kid and mother. How the hell can you tell me last night that you want to be a family with me and then when it comes time for me to actually do some mothering treat me like my opinions don’t matter? If this is going to work you are going to have to share her with me. Fully. Not just when you need someone to babysit.”

  “Wow.” He took a step away from her. “If this is going to work? You’re doubting us already.”

  “How could I not? Everything was always your way or no way the first time we got together.”

  “I never made you do anything you didn’t want to do.”

  “No? We got married when you wanted, where you wanted, and how you wanted. We moved into your place. Hung out with your friends. We lived your life. You never once asked me what I wanted.”

  “You never said anything!”

  “You never asked. You never bothered to even ask what I wanted. And I never said anything because I wanted you to be happy. But now I’m telling you that if this is going to work I have to be allowed to have some input in her life. I don’t just want to be your wife. You’ve got to let me be her mother or this is not going to work.”

  He was quiet for a moment as her words sank in. She was right, he knew she was, but it had always just been him and Ruby. He had almost lost her once and every day since then he had been terrified of really losing her. He had lost Belinda before and that was nearly unbearable, too. He couldn’t risk her walking out. She made him happy. This had to work.

  “I’m sorry. Please don’t go.” He cupped her face, softly kissing her lips. “I’m not used to having someone here. It’s been me and her for so long, but you’re right. I’m going to try. You’ve got to try, too. You can’t walk away every time I piss you off. Because I’m pretty sure I’m going to be pissing you off a lot.”

  He felt her relax. “I know. I need to stop walking away from you.”

  “Oh, good. You’ve made up,” Bernadette sighed as she walked in with Ruby. “I’m not up for going out tonight. Come along, Belinda. I feel like Chinese, you like to eat. I’m sure you know where to get the best takeout from.”