Jackson sighed. “If my guess is right, leaving.”
“You didn’t exactly support her.” Derrick’s look... Was that disappointed?
Maybe they didn’t understand. Carter decided to try again. “She knew—”
Spence held up a finger. “Thought she knew.”
That wasn’t the point. Not the one he was trying to make. “She didn’t tell me.”
Jackson frowned. “Since she was still dealing with her sister’s death and just learned that our father played a role in her father’s death, maybe cut her some slack.”
“Look, I’ve been there.” Derrick continued as if he were telling a story. “You fall in love and become vulnerable, then you say and do dumb things.”
They’d all lost their minds. Yes, the news about her father’s death...maybe he wasn’t taking that enough into account. Carter felt a slap of guilt about that. But the rest?
Jackson did his usual humming sound. “He’s not saying no to the love thing.”
Love.
The word sat heavy on Carter’s chest. He’d thought about a life with her, but love still seemed out of reach. “It’s too early.”
Both Spence and Derrick laughed but Derrick was the one who responded. “Right. Because love works that way. It has a time limit.”
Spence took his turn. “You and Hanna have a lot to talk about and work through but, personally, I’m hoping you fix this.”
“And stay.” Derrick shrugged. “There, I said it.”
“Carter has a business proposal for you guys concerning this estate,” Jackson said.
The guy’s world had been turned upside down and he managed to keep up with the conversation and offer insights. Carter had no idea how. He’d been shaken by the news he had more siblings and body slammed by the idea of being in love and spun up with anger about Hanna not talking to him...and now he wondered if his vulnerability on one front might have had something to do with his reaction to the other.
He could not find his footing at all.
“Good. If he fixes things with Hanna, we’ll listen.” Derrick ended the comment with a wink.
Carter was still reeling. But now that he’d had a moment to recover, he realized he’d made a misstep. His behavior hadn’t risen to Eldrick levels, but he hadn’t exactly been subtle or private in his condemnation. And he hadn’t fought to keep Hanna here, with him. He’d made it so easy for her to leave him before he could leave her.
Thinking about all he needed to figure out and put back in order made his chest ache. “It’s not that easy.”
“Oh, it’s not going to be easy.” Derrick laughed at the thought. “But it will be worth it.”
Jackson had gone quiet. He sat in the chair, looking into the distance.
“You okay?” Carter asked.
“No. It’s unlikely I’ll ever be okay again, but go.”
Derrick nodded. “We’ll babysit him.”
Jackson let out what sounded like a groan. “Lucky me.”
But there was one bright spot. Jackson might not see it, but Carter did. “We’re family now.”
The groan only grew louder.
Fifteen
Hanna stood over her duffel bag, knowing it was time. She’d opened it and thrown it on the bed. Next came the packing, and she had to do it. Despite all the flowery words and talk about her sticking around, she’d outstayed her welcome.
That scene at the house...
The information had needed to come out—for Carter, for Jackson, for everyone—but her delivery sucked. This seemed to be her thing. Have information and stumble into getting it to the people who needed it. She could still see their stunned expressions. The looks of shock and pain. And Carter’s anger.
“Put the bag away unless you’re packing to officially move in to the main house, which you need to do.”
At the sound of Carter’s voice, she turned around to find him lounging in the bedroom doorway. She’d seen that so many times over the last few weeks. He fit here. Always looked so comfortable in his skin, so sure.
But he’d told her that underneath it all he wasn’t always so confident. The confession had sent her heart into a tailspin.
Looking at him now, it flipped right over.
That vulnerability and the way he expressed it softened her anger toward him. His words had been genuine. She was sure of that.
But right now, even though she loved him, she wanted to punch him.
“I’m leaving.” She turned back to the bed. Her heartbeat raced and she quietly inhaled, trying to settle it down.
“No.”
He walked around her and grabbed the duffel. “I can have Lynette or someone grab your stuff.”
“What are you talking about?”
He hitched his finger in the direction of the living room. “Get that pretty butt of yours back up to the main house.”
Pretty butt?
The ups and downs of being with him were killing her. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I am done fighting with you, Hanna.”
From the snap in his tone, she doubted that. Sounded like he had lots of fury he still needed to burn off. Well, no thank you.
“That would be nice.”
He held up both hands as he walked across the room to the end of the bed. “My reaction to the bomb you dropped wasn’t great. I’m sorry for that. I’ll do better, but you have to meet me partway.”
His presence filled the room. Everywhere she looked held a memory of him. Now she had the live version staring her down. “Meaning?”
“You weren’t completely honest with me, and I get to be pissed off about that.” He sat on the end of the bed and watched her. “It won’t last long. You’ll probably say something funny in an hour or two and the edge will fade. I predict by tonight, I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll be fine?” She repeated the words but they still didn’t make sense to her.
What is happening?
Here she was, packing and halfway out the door, and he was talking about their usual movie night. It was as if the last hour hadn’t happened.
He stared at her. “You have spent this entire relationship holding things back—”
“I didn’t—”
“And I let you get away with that. I admit, I have to take part of the responsibility here. But enough. When you do stuff like this, I get to be angry. That’s how relationships work.”
This sounded like a lecture. He’d morphed from angry to professor. She refused to find that sexy. The in control thing...okay, that was a bit sexy. But still. “We are not in a relationship.”
He rested his palms on the mattress and leaned back. “Since I’m in love with you, we sure as hell better be.”
“What?” Her brain stopped working.
His words, that sly smile. With every minute, a bit more of the Carter she was used to came back to her.
“Yeah, it stunned me, too.” He sat up straight again. “Do you know how much grief I’m going to take from my brothers after all the jokes I made about them being sad and pathetic? From all three of them. Wow... I am never going to get used to that.”
In the confusion and with the touch of excitement at seeing him walking through the door, she forgot about Jackson. “How is he?”
“Floundering. Horrified to be related to us, which is understandable.”
Giving up on the packing and trying to follow the conversation, she sat down next to him. If this was it, she needed to be clear about one thing. “I really didn’t know.”
He shot her one of those looks. “Don’t engage in verbal gymnastics. You should have told me what you guessed and I think you know that.”
She wanted to argue, but he wasn’t exactly wrong. Not telling had felt safer. Everything had been going well and unloading one more thing on Carter had see
med like too much. “Would you have performed a secret DNA test?”
“Maybe.” Then he reached for her. Snagged her around the waist and settled her on his lap. “This okay?”
She winced as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on. She didn’t want to let go.
Ten minutes ago, she’d felt hollow and empty and thought she’d never have this again, and she wasn’t about to miss it this time. “I didn’t want to hurt him.”
“He knows that. We all know that,” he said as he rubbed a hand up and down her arm.
Okay, enough of that topic for now. “You said something about love?”
He held her a little tighter. “First, you need to know I’m still angry.”
She nodded, but she couldn’t fight the hope building inside her. She’d been slammed from one end of the spectrum to the other, ever since he’d shown up at her door weeks ago. Now her heartbeat kicked up again.
“Got it.”
“But yes. I’m about two steps away from being irretrievably in love with you. Right now I’m mostly irretrievably in love with you.”
She tried to swallow her smile. Tried and failed. “Two steps, huh?”
“If you keep things from me, it’s going to take longer to get there.”
She rolled her eyes at him because...really. “Okay, you made your point.”
“Then get this.” He kissed her cheek, then her chin. “You wind me up and spin me around. I love verbally sparring with you. I love the quiet times. I really love the bedroom stuff.” He stopped and took a long breath. “But, mostly, I love you.”
Her fingers slipped into his hair. She couldn’t get close enough. “That’s ridiculously romantic.”
“I want you to stay here. Build the estate with me and help me win over my brothers.”
That sounded so permanent. So much like a relationship, a commitment. She’d never dared to hope she’d find that with anyone. With Carter she’d been so careful to guard her heart. He’d talked about running in the past, but this sounded very different.
“What about your dad?”
Carter frowned. “We’ll hope he reconciles with Beth and leaves the country.”
“Poor Beth.”
“I have a feeling we’re going to be saying that a lot.” His hand slipped up and under the hem of her shirt. “You make me want to set down roots, to be better.”
“Carter.”
“But there’s one thing.” His smile faded and he grew more serious. “I know there’s a load of baggage between us that neither of us put there. We need to take some time and unpack it. I’m just asking that we do it together.”
The last few minutes had been perfect. He’d opened up, confessed his feelings for her when he wasn’t totally sure he’d intended to stick around. He took a risk; now she could, too.
He was stubborn and exasperating and so hot and as good as it got. So many amazing characteristics rolled into one. “I love you.”
His eyebrow lifted. “You sure? I’ve been told I can be difficult.”
“It doesn’t seem to be something I can stop, no matter how grumpy you get.”
He nodded as his hand continued to skim over her bare skin. “Ditto.”
“What now?” She asked, but the fact that his fingers had started roaming gave her a clue.
“We make up.”
She couldn’t help but tease him since he looked so determined. “Didn’t we just do that?”
“Formally.”
“Oh, I see.” She turned in his lap until she straddled his thighs. “This involves the bed, I presume.”
He shrugged. “Those are the rules.”
But one more thing.
When he leaned in to kiss her, she put her fingers over his lips. She wanted to be clear one last time. “I am sorry for not sharing more. I promise I’ll work on it.”
“We’ll take our time.”
“But you still want me to move in to the main house?” She’d live in a shoe, if he wanted to, but the main house was pretty spectacular. She still couldn’t walk into a room without wanting to dust it, but she was pretty sure that sensation would go away at some point.
“Right after we formally make up.”
There was that phrase again. She was a fan of the idea. “I like your priorities.”
He shot her a sexy smile. “Well, I am the same guy you had a crush on as a teenager.”
With a groan she dropped her forehead on his shoulder. “Am I ever going to live that down?”
“I plan to tease you for the next forty years.”
Through the joking and the touching and all the talking, she heard the promise in his voice. With other men that might not mean much. With Carter, it meant everything.
She kissed him instead of answering. Let him feel her love and her commitment before lifting her head again. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Forever.”
Yeah, forever.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Playing Mr. Right by Kat Cantrell.
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Playing Mr. Right
by Kat Cantrell
One
The building housing LeBlanc Charities felt the same as every other time Xavier had set foot in it—like he’d been banished. Despite sharing a last name with the founder, this was the last place he’d choose to be, which was too bad considering he’d been forced to walk through the door nearly every day for the last three months.
And would continue to do so for the next three months until this hell of an inheritance test drew to its conclusion. Xavier’s father had devised a diabolical way to ensure his sons danced to his tune long after he’d died: Xavier and his brother, Val, had been required to switch places in order to receive their inheritances.
So the ten years Xavier had spent learning the ins and outs of LeBlanc Jewelers, plus the five years since he’d taken over the CEO chair and broken his back to please his father...none of that mattered. In order to get the five hundred million dollars he’d have sworn he’d already earned, Xavier had to pass one final test. But instead of being required to do something that made sense, the will stipulated that Xavier would become a fundraiser in Val’s place at LeBlanc Charities and his brother would assume the reins of LeBlanc Jewelers.
Even three months after the fact, Xavier still foamed at the mouth if he let himself dwell on how unfair and impossible t
he terms were. His father had betrayed him, bottom line. While Xavier had been putting enormous energy into connecting with his dad and basking in the glow of being the favored son in blissful ignorance, Edward had been plotting to posthumously show his sons how much he really hated both of them.
In that, Xavier and Val were alike. It had been a surprisingly effective bonding experience for the brothers who shared similar faces and not much else. Though twins, they’d never been close, even choosing completely different paths as adults. Val had followed their mother into LeBlanc Charities and thrived. Xavier had gladly shucked off anything remotely resembling charity work in favor of the powerful CEO’s office at one of the world’s largest and most profitable diamond companies.
All for nothing.
The terms of the will had sliced off a huge piece of Xavier’s soul and he’d yet to recover it.
Bitter did not begin to describe his feelings toward his father. But he used that bitterness as fuel. He would not fail at this test. Success was the best revenge, after all.
Xavier had swept into his new role at LBC with gusto...and despite his fierce need to ace his task, he still hadn’t gotten his feet under him. It was like his father had stacked the deck against him, somehow. The problem was that the will stipulated Xavier had to raise ten million dollars in donations while doing Val’s job. No easy feat. But he hadn’t given up yet, nor would he.
Even at 6:00 a.m., LeBlanc Charities teemed with life. The food pantry operated seven days a week, fifteen hours a day. It was ludicrous. A huge waste of capital. Oftentimes, the volunteers reported that no guests had darkened the door of LBC during the early morning hours, yet they always kept the light on.
Changing the operational hours of the food pantry had been one of the first of many executive orders Xavier had come to regret. He’d changed them back, but Marjorie Lewis, the tiny general of a woman who had been a surprisingly effective services manager, had still quit. Sure, she’d told Val—her real boss, as she’d informed Xavier—that her mother had fallen ill with a long-term condition. But Xavier knew the truth.
She hated him.
Nearly everyone at LBC did, so that was at least consistent. The staff who reported to him at LeBlanc Jewelers—his real job, as he’d informed Marjorie—respected him. Did they like him? Who knew? And Xavier didn’t care as long as they increased profits month over month.
The Reluctant Heir Page 17