“I do. And I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you’re happy and have what you need.”
Nolan pulled up behind them and Carter took a deep breath. He knew exactly what he had to do.
“I love you, Lacey,” he said. “I want you to know that.”
“I do.”
Carter opened his door and got out. He rounded the truck and took her hand as she slid to the ground. Nolan came up the driveway behind Carter’s truck.
“Let’s go inside,” Carter said simply. “I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a drink.” He led them into the kitchen.
“I’m going to run upstairs and change my clothes,” Lacey said. “I need to get out of these boots.”
For the first time, Carter really took in her appearance. She was dressed like a Texas girl, that was for sure. She wore cowboy boots, jeans and a black top that sparkled with dots of sequins. All that was missing was the cowboy hat. But he knew, even though she’d been born and raised in Texas, that she rarely did the boots-and-jeans thing.
“You look amazing,” he said. He glanced at Nolan. “Doesn’t she?”
Nolan looked surprised but he turned to look at Lacey. “She does. Of course.”
She gave them both a smile and then headed for the stairs.
Carter moved to the fridge and grabbed two bottles of beer as he waited for Lacey to get out of earshot. But the moment he heard the bedroom door shut, he said, “Do you remember the time I saved your ass from getting beat up after school?”
Nolan took one of the bottles when Carter held it out. “You mean when we were eight?”
“So you do remember.”
Nolan twisted the cap off his beer. “Okay, I remember.”
“So I’m gonna need you to pay it back tonight.”
Nolan sighed and took a drink. “I don’t want to hear this, do I?” he asked after he’d swallowed.
“We’re going to have to make out.”
Nolan scratched his jaw. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
Carter sighed. “Just a little. You owe me.”
“I’ll give you a kidney or something. I’m not kissing you, Carter.”
“Then just feel my ass or something.”
“Fuck no.”
Carter didn’t love any of this either but… “Fine. I’ll feel your ass.” With Garrett, he would have been on the receiving end of things. Garrett would have made the moves. Carter loved being dominant with women but he had no clue what to do with another guy.
“You’ll keep your damned hands to yourself,” Nolan said evenly. He took another drink and narrowed his eyes. “What the hell is going on?”
“It’s for Lacey.”
“For Lacey?”
“I have to show her that I’m willing to do it this time.”
“Feel another guy’s ass?”
“Have a ménage.”
Nolan was quiet for a moment. “You think that’s what Lacey wants?”
Carter drew a breath in through his nose and let it out. “It’s what she needs.”
“She needs to have sex with two guys?”
“No.” Carter scowled at Nolan. “She needs to be loved and taken care of by two guys.”
“Carter,” Nolan said slowly. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I’m not in love with Lacey.”
“You will be,” he said with a frown. “Give it like five minutes. That’s how long it took me,” he added with a mutter.
Nolan smiled at that. “You love her enough for two guys.”
Carter shook his head. “That’s not the point. The point is, she wants to be married and have kids and stuff.”
“Yes, with you.”
“But I am obsessed with her. I need someone to help balance things out. I need someone to keep me from freaking out. I need someone like you.” He couldn’t look at Nolan as he said it.
Nolan didn’t reply for a long minute. Carter took two healthy swigs of his beer and waited. Nolan was the rational one here. He was the reasonable one. He wasn’t in love with Lacey but that was a good thing. He would help Carter stay objective. Nolan cared about her. He had been concerned when she’d been sick for the past several days and he’d been there for her when she’d been upset earlier tonight. That was enough. Carter did love her enough for two men. He just needed someone else to care about her enough to keep him from making her miserable.
“So how would this work exactly?” Nolan finally asked.
Carter’s head came up quickly and he stared at the other man. “You’d consider it?”
Nolan shrugged. “I don’t know. Tell me the logistics.”
“The logistics?”
“Yeah. How it would work. I’d have to commute to San Antonio some of the time for work but I could do some of it remotely. I do travel a lot.”
Carter frowned. “Okay.” What the hell did that have to do with anything?
“So do I get my own bedroom here or do you have enough closet space in your bedroom for all our stuff? And do you guys get to have sex when I’m not here? Because that would mean that Lacey and I could have sex when you’re working a night shift, I guess.”
Carter felt his hand tighten on his beer bottle. “No sex when I’m not here.”
“So no sex when I’m not here,” Nolan said, nodding. “That’s fair I guess.”
“I will have sex with Lacey whenever I want to.”
Nolan frowned. “So, do I still get to date other women?”
“Lacey your first priority.”
“That’s not a no.”
“I…fuck, Nolan, I don’t know.” This was exactly one of the issues he’d had when Garrett had brought it all up. How did this shit work? Was there any way to keep jealousy out of the equation? Because the thought of Lacey and Nolan together alone…or hell, even with Carter there…made him want to punch someone.
No, not someone. Nolan. It made him want to punch Nolan.
Nolan lifted his bottle to his lips. Carter watched him. He seemed pretty casual about this whole thing.
Strangely casual.
“Are you bisexual?” Carter asked.
Nolan choked on his swallow of beer. He coughed for a moment. Then he gave Carter a level look. “No. Not even a little. Sorry.”
“Fuck your sorry. I don’t want you, man,” Carter said.
Nolan gave him a grin. “Just making sure we’re on the same page. Buck naked in the bedroom is probably not the time to have these discussions, you know?”
Yeah, he knew. He definitely knew.
“This would be purely about Lacey. Sharing her.” Carter almost choked on the last two words.
“Okay. So how does that work? I mean, exactly?” Nolan asked. “I’m not quite the worldly playboy that you are. Do we take her at the same time—and if so, I’m gonna need a tutorial on that one. I mean I get the basic idea but haven’t been there, you know? Or do we go one after another? And if it’s one after another, do we flip a coin to see who goes first?”
Carter gritted his teeth and squeezed his bottle again.
Part of him really thought Nolan was messing with him, but damn. He just couldn’t get past the urge to rip Nolan’s head off for even talking about all of this. All of this that Carter had brought up.
Further proof that he was completely irrational when it came to Lacey.
“It’ll depend on what Lacey wants,” Carter managed to say. Somehow.
“Do we talk it all out ahead of time or is it a heat-of-the-moment thing?” Nolan asked. “And what if she wants us to touch each other? Then you’re cool with it?”
It hit Carter that he didn’t really know what Lacey might ask for in the heat of the moment. She hadn’t asked for anything between him and Garrett their one night together, but Carter distinctly remember the gut-wrenching need and lust he’d felt, and he knew that if she had asked for that, he would have done it.
Images from that night flashed through his mind. He then tried to put Nolan into the scene, but it just d
idn’t work. He couldn’t imagine any other man with Lacey besides Garrett. And, if he was being completely honest, even that had been hell.
“You know I’m talking about more than sex, right?” Carter asked. That was the key here. Nolan had to pick up the emotional stuff Carter was going to screw up. “I want you to be her friend, to support her, to help her understand that I love her even when I don’t do a good job of showing it. Make her laugh, be romantic, be fun.”
Nolan seemed to think all of that over. “And what do you do then?”
“I…” Love her more than anyone else ever would. “Do everything else.”
Thank God Lacey made her reappearance just then. She was dressed in light cotton capris and a top with spaghetti straps that hugged her body. She’d brushed her hair out and had washed her makeup off. She gave them a big smile and crossed to the fridge, where she grabbed a beer. She turned to face them as she twisted the top off and sighed. “The party was fun but I’d always rather relax at home.”
“You look absolutely beautiful,” Nolan told her, crossing the tile floor to where she stood.
Carter felt his whole body tighten and grow cold. But he forced himself to stay where he was.
“Uh.” Lacey’s gaze flickered to Carter, then back to Nolan. “Thanks.”
Nolan moved in front of her, blocking her from Carter.
And delivered on the favor Carter had just asked of him.
Chapter Eleven
“Trust me,” Nolan whispered.
Then he cupped the back of her head and pulled her in for a kiss.
A kiss.
With Carter standing across the kitchen.
Any other woman might have protested, out of shock or confusion. But Lacey wasn’t shocked or confused at all. At least not after the first three seconds. Because she knew the man she loved very well.
Carter thought they needed Nolan.
Dammit.
If it wasn’t for the “trust me” from Nolan, she would have pushed him back and demanded to know what was going on. But after those first three seconds, she thought what the hell and decided to kiss him back.
He wasn’t Carter. He would never be Carter. But he was a good kisser. And no doubt all of this was Carter’s idea.
She let him lead her into a deeper kiss. He urged her mouth open and slid his tongue over her bottom lip then along her tongue. She met the erotic slide with her own for a few strokes.
When he let her lips go, he trailed his mouth along her jaw to her ear. “He has to be the one to stop it,” he said quietly.
She took a breath. Then tipped her head to the side, giving him more access to her neck.
Nolan kissed along her collarbone and she had to fight to keep her gaze from finding Carter. She closed her eyes instead.
Carter thought he couldn’t give her everything she needed. He was probably thinking he was bringing Nolan into their relationship for her. But the truth was, it was for him. He could hide behind Nolan. If there was someone else to take up the slack, he wouldn’t have to try as hard. He’d been living with her for three weeks, he’d thought he was going to be stuck with her because of a baby, and he’d realized that there were parts to a relationship that he wasn’t prepared for. The parts that Garrett had always done. Carter didn’t even know about some of the hard parts of a relationship. When had he ever been in a serious relationship? Never. Except with her and Garrett, and honestly, Garrett had done a lot of the heavy lifting. Now he thought could do the parts he liked and let Nolan do the rest.
Well, that was bullshit.
With that thought, she wrapped her arms around Nolan’s neck, arched against him and took his mouth in a full-on hot, wet kiss.
She felt the strap of her shirt slide off her shoulder and Nolan’s hand on her breast.
Then she felt Nolan being jerked away from her.
Carter stood between them, scowling. Nolan caught her eye and then ran his thumb over his bottom lip. She sighed and pulled her strap back up.
“Fuck, I can’t do it.”
Nolan nodded at Carter’s words. “You lasted three minutes longer than I thought you would.”
Carter looked pissed, but she wasn’t so sure that he was pissed at Nolan. Or her. The anger seemed very self-directed.
“What the hell were you thinking?” she asked Carter. “Seriously.”
Carter shoved Nolan back farther and then turned to face her, firmly between the two of them. “I was thinking that I would do anything to make a relationship with you work. But I can’t.”
“You can’t let another guy fuck me? Well, that’s great, Carter. We’ve really come a long way,” she said. Yes, she was angry. Because Carter was trying to take the easy way out.
Again.
She was worth more than that. She was worth some freaking emotion. He’d let Garrett handle all of that stuff. She and Carter had always had fantastic conversations. They’d laughed. They’d had hot, amazing, consuming sex. They had a lot of similar interests. But she’d never cried on his shoulder. She’d never ranted about anything to him. They’d never fought.
“A year ago I was sharing you,” he said with a scowl. “I’d say this is different.”
“You were sharing me because you were too afraid to actually try having a relationship with me the very first night we met.”
“Because I knew I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“At least your father tries.”
There was a long horrible moment of silence. Nobody moved. Lacey was sure she didn’t even breathe.
Carter backed up a step. “What does that mean?”
“Your dad sucks at relationships,” Lacey said. “But he keeps trying. He knows they might leave. Statistically, it’s practically a given. But he keeps going after what he wants.”
“My dad doesn’t know what he’s doing!” Carter shoved a hand through his hair and then scrubbed the back of his neck, clearly agitated.
“But he does,” Lacey said. She took a breath and pushed her shoulders back and met his gaze. “He knows how to love someone. He’s always loved you. And you know how to love—you’ve got Coach and Nolan and Jackson and the other guys. And you had Garrett. You know all about love. You’re just scared.”
“Of hurting you, yes,” he said.
“That’s funny, because the only times you’ve hurt me have been the times when you haven’t tried to love me.”
Carter stared at her for several heartbeats and Lacey made herself stand straight and still until he made a decision.
“You should go.”
His words were soft, but they were firm and his gaze met hers directly as he said them.
Lacey felt as if he’d slapped her, but she fought not to show it.
“Carter—” Nolan started.
“No.” Carter kept his eyes on Lacey. “You have to go.”
She pressed her lips together. So he wasn’t going to try. He wasn’t even going to give her a good fight. He was just going to give up because things got a little tough.
She took a deep breath and then made herself walk past him. “I’ll get my stuff.”
She had no idea where she was going to go. She supposed that she could crash on Nolan’s couch. Or there was a bed-and-breakfast in town. Or maybe Annabelle and Jackson had a spare room.
But she wasn’t leaving Quinn.
Because as she walked past Carter and caught his scent and everything in her clenched with need and love, she realized that he did need her to go.
He needed to know that he would give her a choice. He needed to know he could let her go.
He needed to know he wasn’t his father.
That was fine.
But he was also going to find out that she wasn’t like his stepmothers. She wasn’t going to leave just because he was being a jackass.
Ten minutes later, her suitcase was in the back of Nolan’s car and they were headed for the B&B.
“You can stay with me,” Nolan said for the fourth time. “He’s going to c
ome around.”
“It’s going to take a while,” she said, resigned to waiting the stubborn ass out. “And I don’t think staying with you is the best choice.”
“Well, it would be staying with my mom and dad,” Nolan said with a smile. “Like I am. There’s a guest room and my mom is an excellent cook.”
Lacey felt some of the dark mood lift. “You know, you really are a good guy to have around.”
Nolan gave her a look. “Yeah, it’s called friendship, and I’m not going anywhere either. I mean, I’m going back to San Antonio eventually, but I’ll always be there for you. For both of you.”
In that moment, Lacey decided that she was going to find a Quinn girl for Nolan. She’d love to have him around more.
“So you realize that he’s got to learn that not everyone leaves too?” Lacey said.
“He does. And he needs to realize that he doesn’t want to give you a ménage relationship—he wants to give you a ménage relationship with Garrett. He thinks it’s because of the things Garrett gave you, but it’s also about what Garrett gave him. He misses him.”
Nolan’s words rocked through her. He was right. Completely right.
Right on the heels of that realization, however, came the sharp sting of sadness. “But we’ll never get that back.”
“No. But you have each other. And just like Carter has to step into Garrett’s shoes for you…you have to do the same for him.”
She sat up in the seat. That had never occurred to her. “You’re right. He’s missing his best friend.”
Nolan smiled and reached over to squeeze her knee. “No, she’s right here. But her feelings are hurt because her best friend is being kind of a dumbass.”
She couldn’t believe it, but she laughed at that.
Maybe it wasn’t love that Carter needed to learn about, but unconditional friendship.
Lacey sat back in the seat with a smile and wrapped her arms around herself. She felt lighter. Carter had a ways to go, but he’d get there. Garrett had loved Carter through a lot of dumbass moments, she was sure. She could do the same.
“Well, you look like hell.”
Carter gave Sadie, the bartender at Pitchers, a bland look. “Your flirting could use some work.”
Illegal Motion: Boys of Fall Page 16