“Thanks, Jackson. You and Carter are friends, I take it?” Did her name sound familiar to him at all?
“He’s probably my best friend in Quinn.”
“You grew up together?”
“We did. I was gone for several years after high school, but I’m back now. Annabelle went to school with us too.”
Lacey smiled at the other woman. “I’d love to hear stories about Carter from high school.”
“I’d love to hear stories about you and Carter,” Jackson said.
Ah, so no her name wasn’t familiar. Huh. Carter had never mentioned her? Not even in regards to how he spent his weekends?
“Jackson,” Annabelle admonished. She smiled at Lacey. “Sorry.”
Lacey shrugged. “What do you want to know?”
“How did you meet?”
Nope, Carter had never mentioned her.
“At a wedding reception.”
“How long ago?”
“Two years.”
Jackson frowned. “You’ve been dating him for two years?”
Lacey shook her head. “We’ve known each other that long. Been friends. We just started dating last night.” She supposed that was true. They hadn’t dated up to that point but now they were more than friends, more than a weekend fling. She intended to keep doing what they were doing. She supposed they could call it dating.
“Last night?” Annabelle said. “That’s why you came to Quinn? To tell him you wanted to be more than friends?” It was clear the other woman thought that was kind of romantic.
Romantic. Exactly. Not a fling. Not a I’m-too-sad-to-be-alone-on-my-birthday hook up. It was romantic that she was here.
“Yes,” Lacey said with a big smile.
“And what did Carter say?” Jackson asked.
“What did I say about what?” Carter set two cups of coffee on the table and slid the other chair out.
Jackson sat back and slipped his arm over the back of Annabelle’s chair, the picture of nonchalance. “About Lacey showing up and claiming to be in love with you?”
Carter sipped his coffee and Lacey was sure she was the only one who noticed the way his opposite hand twitched.
After he’d swallowed, he said, “I told her to take her clothes off.”
Lacey felt a rush of heat and wasn’t sure if it was desire or embarrassment.
But she’d started this.
Annabelle coughed. Jackson shifted on his seat. Lacey gathered her bravado, turned toward Carter and said, “Hence our need for so much coffee this morning.”
Carter’s left eye twitched now.
Perfect.
“Hey guys.”
They were interrupted again. This time by a tall, slender guy who everyone automatically smiled at when they looked up.
“Nolan!” Annabelle stood up and leaned across Jackson to give the man a hug.
“Hey AJ,” he said, clearly fond of the other woman.
He shook Jackson’s hand. “Good to see you, man.”
“You too. What are you doing here?”
Nolan also shook Carter’s hand. “Shaw.”
“Winters,” Carter said, clasping the man’s hand.
Nolan’s gaze settled on Lacey and she felt herself smiling as well. “Hi, Nolan.”
“Lacey. It’s so good to see you.”
His smile was warm and Lacey realized how comforting it was to see him. It hadn’t occurred to her that she might see him in Quinn. Nolan was an award-winning journalist in San Antonio and had joined them for dinner a few times, but he knew Garrett and Carter from high school. He’d come to pay his respects at Garrett’s funeral. His hug had made her cry harder than anyone else’s.
He was blond, his hair longer, a little shaggier than Carter’s, but clean shaven. His green eyes sparkled and it seemed like he couldn’t stop smiling.
“I didn’t know you were in town,” Carter said.
“Just got in this morning. I’m here until the big game. Doing some research for something I’m writing about small-town football.”
“Hey, I know some big star players you could talk to,” Jackson quipped.
Even Lacey knew what he was referring to. Garrett and Carter had been a part of the state championship football team that was the pride and joy of Quinn, Texas. She knew that Nolan had been the brainiac of their class, covering the team for their school paper.
Nolan laughed. “No kidding. I’ll have to get some numbers.” He pulled up a chair from another table and positioned it at the end of the table with Jackson to his left and Lacey to his right.
“You’re sticking around until the Homecoming game?” Jackson said. “That’s another three weeks.”
“Yeah, I want to hang out, talk to some people, and I want to cover the game and Coach’s ceremony.”
“Coach Carr is getting an award?” Lacey asked. Garrett and Carter had both talked fondly of their old high school football coach. He was a father figure to many of the boys who had played for him, and both Garrett and Carter had stayed in touch with him. He’d sent a card after Garrett’s death and had made her cry even though she’d never met the man.
“You know Coach Carr?” Jackson asked.
“No, I’ve just heard a lot about him from Garrett and Carter and Nolan,” Lacey said.
And immediately realized that she’d just spilled the secret.
Carter sighed. Jackson sat up straighter. Annabelle frowned and Nolan looked around the table as if trying to figure out what was going on.
“What’s the award for?” she asked Nolan, hoping they could just blow past the whole Garrett thing.
“Garrett Dunn?” Jackson asked. Definitely not blowing past it.
“Yes.”
Lacey glanced at Carter to find Annabelle reaching for his hand, worry in her eyes.
“You okay?” Annabelle asked him.
Lacey frowned. “Why wouldn’t he be okay talking about Garrett?”
“Lace—” Carter said warningly. He didn’t finish the statement but he shook his head.
“Garrett was Carter’s best friend,” Annabelle said. “I assume you know he passed away?”
Lacey stared at her. “Of course I know that.” But clearly Carter had never mentioned spending weekends in San Antonio with Garrett and Lacey. “Carter spent a lot of time with him in San Antonio,” Lacey said, gauging their reactions.
“Yes. Garrett didn’t get home to Quinn much,” Annabelle said.
Lacey thought about that. Annabelle was right and it probably seemed strange that Garrett hadn’t come home more often. Carter always came to San Antonio while Garrett rarely made the trip to Quinn. Occasionally he would come back here for a weekend—like Homecoming—but in the time she’d known him, he’d made maybe three trips to Quinn. His parents had moved to San Antonio after his younger sister graduated from high school. The only things left for him in his hometown were old friends, and the one who mattered most had made the trip to the city on a regular basis.
Lacey had never come along. It had been his chance to catch up with old friends, visit Coach and relive some glory days, so she’d stayed in the city and worked or made it a girls’ weekend. Truthfully, since meeting Garrett and Carter, she’d drifted away from a lot of her girlfriends, finding she’d rather spend time with the two guys in her life. So those weekends were good for long lunches and spa days and shopping with her sister and friends. It had never bothered her to not come to Quinn.
“I know that he didn’t come back here much. He was busy on the weekends in the city,” Lacey said.
Not that they’d dated the entire time he’d been living in San Antonio of course. Garrett and Carter had both lived in San Antonio for years before they’d met Lacey. They’d gotten criminal justice degrees and then joined the police force. They’d been partners for almost six years. Carter had only moved back to Quinn a year and a half ago—about six months into her relationship with Garrett.
It had been hard on Garrett having his closest friend leave and sta
rting over with a new partner. But he’d had Lacey. They’d been almost inseparable after Carter moved back home.
Something about the timing of Carter’s move suddenly seemed strange to Lacey. It was nagging in the back of her mind but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
Then Jackson asked, “How did you know Garrett?” and she lost the train of thought.
She met Jackson’s eyes. “I was engaged to him.”
Everyone was clearly stunned.
Jackson looked at Carter. “What?”
Carter nodded grimly. “This is Lacey Andrews. Garrett’s fiancé.”
Grimly. He most definitely looked grim. And for some reason that pissed her off. She thought they were maybe moving on. Okay, she’d been hoping they were moving on. And yes, they had some things to work through regarding Garrett and their feelings for him. But she wasn’t ashamed of her relationship with Garrett. And while things hadn’t turned out the way any of them had expected, she hated that Carter wasn’t talking about Garrett and hadn’t ever mentioned her name and was now grim about everyone knowing who she was.
“I need to go.” She shoved her chair back and got to her feet. She stumbled past Nolan’s big feet, her heart pounding. She went two steps then pivoted back to the table, stomped back, grabbed her coffee and then again turned and headed for the door.
Carter caught her before she even made it across the street.
“Lacey, stop.”
She swung back to him. “I am Garrett’s ex-fiance,” she said, jamming her finger into his chest. “He died. So I can’t really be his fiancé anymore, can I? I’m moving on and trying to be happy. Garrett is gone. And I’m okay talking about that and I’m also okay with being okay. I miss him. I get sad sometimes. But I’m not going to avoid talking about him and I’m not going to curl up into a little ball every time his name comes up. I’m not going to tiptoe around it and I’m not going to feel bad for wanting to be with you now. I don’t care what your friends think. I am in love with you and—”
Carter kissed her.
Right in the middle of her rant, he grabbed her upper arms, pulled her to him and sealed his mouth over hers.
As soon as she sagged against him, he lifted a hand and ran it over her hair. He pulled back. “Shh, it’s okay. Lace, it’s all okay.”
She gripped the front of his shirt. “I don’t want to be sad anymore.”
“I know. It’s okay. I’m here.”
“I want you, Carter”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes.”
She pulled back a little. “Are you just saying that to calm me down so I don’t make a scene?”
He looked around. They were in the middle of Main Street, on a busy Sunday morning. “Too late.” He gave her a smile. “I’m saying it because it’s true. It’s all okay.”
“We’ll be together?”
“Yes. Anything you want.”
“Really?” She felt her heart start thumping. She hadn’t really thought that Carter would fight her. Not too hard anyway. But he was stubborn and sure of himself. She’d known it would be a battle.
“I love that you think I can make you happy,” he said gruffly.
She frowned a little at those words. They weren’t quite what she wanted. She wanted him to know that he could make her happy. Not just that she thought so.
“Carter, I…” But she trailed off. “You said I could stay for a while. So, date me, okay? Just you and me. Let’s try it.”
He pulled in a long breath but nodded. “I’ll try.”
“You will?”
“I want you to be happy, Lace. That’s the main thing.”
That was something. She still needed him to see that he would make her happy. That he was what she needed. But that would come with time.
She hoped.
“Okay. That’s…good.”
“Lacey?”
They both turned to find Annabelle coming toward them with a smile.
“I’m sorry about all of that,” she said, waving toward the coffee shop. “You’re completely right about all of it. We were just surprised.”
Lacey let Carter go and stepped back. “And you’re worried about Carter.”
Annabelle smiled at him. “Sure, we are. He’s our friend. But that doesn’t mean we’re worried about you being with Carter.”
“Jackson is,” Carter said. He gave a heavy sigh. “But he doesn’t know the whole story.”
Annabelle looked completely serious when she said, “Then go tell him. He cares about you, Carter. Fill him in.”
Carter nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
“And you and I,” Annabelle said, looping her arm through Lacey’s and turning her in the other direction. “Are going to go to my place and have mimosas and I’ll tell you Carter and Garrett high school stories.”
Lacey looked at Carter. He looked torn between worried and relieved.
It was a good sign he wanted his friends to like her, right? And she did want to hear high school stories. “I love mimosas,” she told Annabelle.
“And if I don’t have stuff for those, we’ll figure something out. Daiquiris have fruit in them and fruit is a late-Sunday-morning kind of thing, right?”
Oh, she and Annabelle could definitely be friends.
Chapter Seven
“So Lacey is the reason you haven’t had any serious relationships here?” Jackson asked as soon as Carter sat back down at the table.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to have this conversation but he wasn’t sure that he didn’t. He wasn’t sure that Jackson would let him get away with not having it anyway.
What he was sure of was that he needed more coffee.
“You knew there was a woman keeping him out of serious relationships here?” Nolan asked.
“No.” Jackson looked a little put out at that. “He hasn’t said a damned word about it. Her. Any of it. But I assume she’s the reason?”
“It’s…” Carter started. But how the hell did he explain all of this? “Complicated.”
“Yeah, considering she was actually Big G’s girl, I can see why that would be complicated,” Jackson said dryly.
“She was…”
“What?” Nolan asked when Carter failed to go on.
Carter blew out a breath. “She was both of ours.”
Nolan’s eyebrows went up. “You were both sleeping with her? I never caught on to that the times I saw you guys all together. Did G know?”
“Of course he…no, we weren’t…just the one…” Carter raked a hand through his hair. “It was…”
“Complicated?” Nolan supplied with a grin.
“Explain it,” Jackson said simply. “Nolan and I are pretty sharp guys.”
“Okay, fine. Fuck it. Garrett and I met her on the same night. The three of us hung out for over a year. A lot. I probably fell in love with her about the same time G did. But he was the one who was the official boyfriend. They both lived in the city and Garrett was…the better guy for her.”
Jackson was watching him with more understanding in his eyes than Carter had ever seen. Jackson had been a wild ass in high school. But he’d left Quinn for about twelve years and had truly changed. He had spent the years since high school counseling at-risk teens. The idea that Jackson could see past whatever Carter was saying on the surface shouldn’t surprise him, he supposed.
“So you had a perfect relationship,” Jackson said. “You got to go down for the weekends, fuck and have fun, and then come home and let G deal with the real day-to-day stuff.”
“Except that Garrett was the fun one who got to fuck her,” Carter said, knowing he sounded stupid.
“I thought you were just going down to hang out once in a while,” Nolan said. “I didn’t realize you were there so much.”
“Probably too much,” Carter muttered.
“So you were going to see them for…what?” Nolan asked.
“To hang out. Be with them.”
“But you weren’t with the
m?” Jackson asked.
“Just one night.”
Jackson seemed to be considering that.
“So what did you get out of it?” Nolan asked.
Carter shrugged. “Sounds stupid.”
“Oh, say it anyway,” Nolan said, with a grin.
“Fuck you, Winters,” Carter muttered.
“Hey, seeing the big tough I-know-everything Carter Shaw sounding stupid like the rest of us is kind of nice,” Nolan said. “Come on. Tell us something stupid.”
“Okay, fine. I wasn’t getting laid down there, I knew my best friend was sleeping with the woman of my dreams, and I still didn’t want to be anywhere but with them.”
Nolan thought about that and then slowly shook his head. “Nope. Sorry, man. That doesn’t sound stupid at all.”
“No?” Carter asked crossly. “Because it feels stupid as shit.”
“I agree with Nolan,” Jackson said.
“You do?” Carter was definitely surprised.
“Yeah. I guess. I mean, I haven’t felt that way about anyone but Annabelle…ever. Not to mention two people at the same time. Not to mention a dude. But I guess I can see how it could happen.”
“I didn’t really feel that way about a dude,” Carter felt the need to insert.
“Yeah. You know what I mean. Or, I know what you mean…or whatever.”
Jackson sometimes surprised Carter with how articulate he’d become. And sometimes he didn’t.
But all of that was pretty damned enlightened for Jackson. Carter had to admit that twelve years of growing up and then falling in love had done his friend some good.
“So you were in love with her and Garrett knew it but it was all okay. You went down, hung out, because you liked being with them. Because that was where you belonged. And now she’s here, in love with you, wanting to be with you, and you’re upset about that for some reason,” Nolan summarized. “That is the stupid part.”
“Yeah, well, you forgot about the part where Garrett is dead,” Carter said bluntly.
“Yeah,” Nolan said soberly. “I know, man. I’m sorry.”
“You’re feeling guilty,” Jackson guessed. “For being with the woman Garrett loved now that he’s dead.”
Illegal Motion: Boys of Fall Page 10