“Thank you so much for staying with Johnnie,” Phyllis said. “I know how much it meant to Ellie.”
“It was my pleasure.” Carly backed out of the room, feeling like an intruder with Johnnie’s family there to care for him.
She closed the door softly, looking at Brett’s cabin. They’d locked the door last night when they left, and she didn’t have a key. She could wait for him, but since he hadn’t called and she hadn’t been able to reach him after calling several times, she had no idea when he intended to come back. She hadn’t taken her overnight bag out of her car last night, so there was no reason she couldn’t head home and connect with him later, assuming he remembered to call her.
***
Brett’s stomach plummeted when he pulled into his driveway that afternoon and found Carly’s car gone. He knew she could have just dashed out to the store, but his instincts told him that wasn’t the case. He’d meant to call and fill her in, but he’d only left Ellie’s side to contact her parents and make the flight arrangements. Now he knew he’d made a huge mistake.
“Carly’s car is gone,” Ellie said, echoing his thoughts. “I hope she hasn’t left. I wanted to thank her for looking after Johnnie.”
“I think I locked the door to my cabin last night,” Brett said, silently cursing himself for being an insensitive jerk. Of course Carly wouldn’t have wanted to intrude on Johnnie’s time with his grandparents, nor would she have wanted to wait in a cold car for hours for a man who didn’t have the decency to call when he said he would. Shit. One step forward, two steps back.
Ellie frowned. “Why wouldn’t she have stayed at my place until we got back? I’m sure my parents would have made her feel welcome.”
“I’m sure they would have too,” Brett said before rounding the car to help Ellie out. He walked her in and exchanged pleasantries with her parents before explaining he had to get back to the city now that he knew Ellie was in good hands.
Ellie walked him to the door and gave him a kiss and a hug. “I hope I didn’t cause any problems between you and Carly. She must have been pretty upset to just leave like that.”
“Don’t worry about anything.” Brett kissed her forehead. “This is all on me. You just concentrate on taking good care of your babies. It may be a few weeks before I can get back up here, but call me if you need anything. Promise?”
“I promise. Thanks again, Brett.”
“No worries.” Except he had a lot to worry about, namely whether or not Carly was still speaking to him.
***
Carly had cleaned her house from top to bottom before she wandered into her home office to work on the High Rollers project. She’d intended to take the weekend off and spend it with Brett at his cabin, but since she was alone, she decided to make good use of her time instead of feeling sorry for herself.
So he hadn’t called. He’d been busy caring for his friend. She should commend his commitment, especially since she’d recently accused him of being a lousy friend, but she couldn’t shake the feeling she hadn’t even crossed his mind while he was at the hospital. He couldn’t even spare five minutes to honor his promise to her?
She was lost in her work when the doorbell pulled her out of it an hour later. She glanced out the front window, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw Brett’s truck parked in her drive. Without hesitation, she made her way to the front door—slowly. She didn’t want him to think she’d been waiting for him, though she had.
“Hey,” he said, reaching for her hand. He looked as though he hadn’t slept. He’d obviously showered and changed clothes, but he had stubble on his chin and sported faint circles under his eyes.
“How’s Ellie?” She withdrew her hand before folding her arms over her body. “Her parents said the baby will be fine. She must be relieved.”
He nodded before sticking his hands in the pockets of his worn jeans. “Yeah, she is.” Bracing a hand on the doorframe, he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t call. I—”
“It’s okay. You don’t owe me anything.” She took a step back.
He advanced until he had her crowded against the wall in the small foyer. “Sweetheart, don’t be like that.” Kicking the door shut, he caught her face in his hands. “I’m sorry, okay? I should have called. I was a thoughtless ass. I should’ve known you’d be worried.”
“I was worried,” she admitted, biting her lip and letting her gaze fall to his chest. He looked genuinely remorseful, but with all the reasons he’d given her not to trust him, his broken promise was difficult to ignore. She had to know, with one hundred percent certainty, that she could trust him if they were going to have a future together.
He tipped her face up to meet his. “Let me make it up to you. We can still spend the weekend together, maybe at—”
“I can’t.” She cleared her throat delicately, trying to ignore the disappointment in his eyes. “I was working on the High Rollers project, and I’m kind of in the zone. I should probably get back to it. Besides, you look like you could use some sleep.” She patted his chest. “Why don’t you go home and rest? We can talk tomorrow.”
“Baby, I want to be here with you, not at home in bed alone.”
The thought of curling up with Brett and making up for a sleepless night was tempting, but she had to sort through some things on her own. Any and every decision she made regarding him felt monumental, and she had to be well-rested and clearheaded before they talked about the future. “Please, I just need a little more time.”
“I gave you time,” he said, sounding exasperated. Letting his hands fall to his sides, he stepped back. “Why the hell do you think I went up to the cabin? To give you time, to let you figure things out. I thought we closed the gap last night. Don’t let one stupid mistake on my part change that.”
He wasn’t the only one who was frustrated. She hated that she even had to explain why she was so upset. “It’s about keeping promises, Brett. You have to prove to me that I can count on you to do what you say you will, that I can count on you to be there when you say you will.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” He took his baseball cap off and ran his hand over his dark hair before replacing it. “I was trying to be the kind of man you could be proud of. I was trying to be the man you want me to be. But more importantly, I was being a man I could be proud of.” He slapped his hand against his chest. “I admit I have been a self-centered jerk for a lot of years, but I want to change. I want to be someone you can count on, and I’m trying. I’m really trying. I just need you to cut me a little slack. I’m not perfect. I’m going to make mistakes. I need to know that you’ll still love me when I do.”
Carly felt a stab of guilt as he walked backward out the door. “Brett, wait. Can I at least fix you something to eat before you go?”
“Nah, I ate on the road. Please just think about what I said. I love you, Carly, but you have to decide if you can love me in spite of my flaws. ‘Cause if you can’t…” He threw up his hands before turning toward his truck.
Carly watched him back out of her driveway without a backward glance. He was asking her to trust that he would always be there for her, and that meant the ultimate act of surrender on her part. Was she brave enough or crazy enough to give her heart to the only man who’d ever had the power to break it?
Chapter Seventeen
After a long, restless weekend without a word from Carly, Brett showed up on his sister’s doorstep on Sunday night, hoping she could give him some advice.
“You look like hell,” Sophie said, grinning. “I thought you’d come back from your vacation looking well-rested, ready to take on the world. What happened?”
“Carly came to see me at the cabin.”
Brett wandered into his sister’s apartment, and his eyes fell on a picture of Carly and Sophie on the console table. He picked up the silver frame and noted the look of wild abandon on Carly’s face as she threw her head back, laughing. The picture had been taken last year, right before their first bungee-jump. He could
n’t remember the last time he’d made her laugh like that. It seemed he only brought misery to her life, and he didn’t know how to break the cycle. Every time he tried, he only screwed things up more.
“That’s my favorite picture,” Sophie said. “You know it’s not like Carly to do anything reckless. She likes to walk on the safe side of the street.”
Safe. Sophie was right, which explained why it was so hard for Carly to believe in him. He’d always been the antithesis of safe. He was the player mothers warned their daughters to stay away from. If Carly’s mother had cared enough, she would have done the same to protect her daughter’s fragile heart.
“How do I get through to her?” Brett asked, staring at the photo. “How do I make her see that I’ve changed, that she can count on me?”
Sophie sank onto the sofa, gesturing for Brett to take the chair. “Have you tried talking to her?”
“Yeah, but I feel like every time we make progress, I say or do something to screw things up. You know me. I’m not good at this whole relationship thing, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to try for Carly’s sake.”
“For Carly’s sake?” Sophie raised an eyebrow. “She doesn’t need you to do her any favors. You need to do this because it’s what you want.”
Brett dropped his head into his heads. If he couldn’t even communicate his feelings to his sister, he didn’t have a prayer of convincing Carly. “You think I’d be making myself crazy if I wasn’t all in?”
“No, I guess not,” Sophie said, tucking her legs under her. “Okay, why don’t you tell me what you did so I can try to think of a way to bail your sorry ass out?”
That’s what Brett loved about his sister. She was steadfast and loyal whether he deserved it or not. “Carly came up to the cabin, and we had a good talk. We really connected.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Don’t think I don’t know that’s code for great sex.”
“Yeah, we had that too.” Brett smirked when Sophie shuddered. “My friend Ellie is pregnant. She was having some problems and needed to go to the hospital, so I took her.”
“I can’t imagine Carly had a problem with that.” Sophie’s cell phone rang, and she snapped it up before Brett could see the screen. She pressed the ignore button before returning her attention to her brother.
He frowned. It wasn’t like Sophie to be secretive. “What was that about? You trying to keep something from me?”
A blush crept up her neck before staining her cheeks as she clenched the phone tighter. “Don’t be ridiculous. Back to you and Carly. What did you do to piss her off?”
Sophie was obviously hiding something, but he had enough problems without borrowing hers. When he had his head on straight again, he’d find out what was going on with her. “I forgot to call from the hospital. I gave her no choice but to leave, and when I showed up on her doorstep, she wasn’t exactly thrilled to see me.”
“Imagine that.”
“I know I screwed up, but my heart really was in the right place. I was trying to help a friend. I thought Carly would be happy that I was putting someone else first for once.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Sophie asked. “Carly’s whole life, no one has ever put her first. Do you remember what it was like when she first came to stay with us?” When Brett shook his head, Sophie said, “Of course you don’t. You had your own thing going on. You barely even noticed Carly was there.”
“Is there a point to this?” he asked through clenched teeth. “Aside from making me feel like shit?”
“She was always on her best behavior, always acting like the perfect guest. She’d help Mama with dinner, do her own laundry, make her bed before the rest of us were even awake. Hell, she’d even feed and walk the dog. She was trying to give Mama and Daddy reasons to want to keep her around.”
“That’s crazy,” Brett said. “They loved her. They wanted her there.”
“You know that and I know that, but in Carly’s mind, she was an intruder. She was the kid no one wanted, and if Mama and Daddy had asked her to leave, she would have ended up in the system.”
“Our folks would’ve never let that happen.”
“Of course not, but Carly thought one misstep and she’d be out the door.”
Brett tried to see the situation from Carly’s perspective, but it wasn’t easy. He knew his parents and how much they loved the girl they often referred to as their second daughter. “Did you try talking to her about it? Explain to her that their love wasn’t conditional?”
“She figured it out eventually. She learned to trust them, but it took a long time. She had to work through some of her issues first.”
“You think it’s the same with me? I need to give her time and patience?” he asked, leaning back as he laced his fingers behind his head. He couldn’t pretend patience was his strong suit.
“No, I think a bold approach is in your best interest. If you love Carly as much as I think you do, you need to prove it to her in a way that doesn’t just calm her fears, it obliterates them.”
Brett leaned forward. “I like where this is going. How do you suggest I do that?”
“That depends.” Sophie glanced at her phone, quashing a smile before dragging her eyes back to Brett. “Are you in this for the long haul, or do you want to take it slow and see how it plays out?”
Sophie’s question was legitimate, but Brett couldn’t suppress his irritation. “I’ve known her my whole goddamn life. Why would I want to take it slow? To get to know her? Sometimes I think I know her better than I know myself!”
“Take it easy,” Sophie said, lowering her hands in a placating gesture. “You don’t have to bite my head off. It was just a question.”
“I know.” He threaded his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired of this waiting game. I love her. I know she loves me. She’s mine, and she has been for years. I just want to make it official.”
Sophie scowled, folding her arms. “Don’t be so cocky, big brother. Carly is her own woman. She’s not a trophy you can—”
“That’s not what I meant.” He sighed when Sophie shot him a skeptical look. “But she is mine. I can’t let anyone else have her, Soph. It’d kill me.”
Sophie leaned forward to grip his knee. “She wants the same thing you do, Brett—to know that you’re her man and no woman on this planet could take you away from her.”
Brett never thought he’d see the day he would so willingly give himself to another, but that day was there. The little voice in his head asked what the hell had taken him so long. “I want to put her mind at ease. So how do I do that? A ring?”
“For starters.” Sophie rubbed her hands together. “Tell me something, that house of yours, do you love it?”
“No. Why?”
She stood, pulling Brett to his feet. “Come on. We need to do a little shopping to put this plan in motion.”
***
Carly was sitting at her desk, trying to choke down a tuna sandwich after a sleepless and lonely night, when her phone rang. She’d told her assistant to hold her calls, so she couldn’t imagine why she was being bothered. Glaring at the offending object, she tossed her half-eaten sandwich down and swore softly before reaching for the phone. “Carly speaking.”
“Carly, I’m so glad I caught you, dear. It’s Mrs. Morrison. You know, we own that old house on Morrow? The white one with the—”
“Yes, Mrs. Morrison.” My dream house. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, my husband and I were thinking it might be time to update the old house a little. We were hoping you could come by this afternoon and chat with us about our plans.”
Carly couldn’t afford to take on another project with the High Rollers job commanding so much of her time and attention, but she was curious about the house she’d always admired. “I’d love to help you, but I’m awfully busy right now. I have a few colleagues I could suggest—”
“Oh please, dear,” Mrs. Morrison said, the disappointment evident in he
r tone. “I know how busy you must be, but this means so much to us. You’ve always stopped to admire the house and chat with us about it when you walked by. I know you appreciate it and would be mindful of the history when making improvements. That’s so important to us, maintaining the integrity of the house while modernizing it.”
Carly was torn. Before the High Rollers project, she would have jumped at the opportunity to work on her favorite house, but she was determined to do a good job for Brett and his partners. “Maybe I could come by today, just to have a look around and discuss the scope of the project. I can’t make any promises—”
“I’m not asking you to. Thank you, dear. I’ll see you soon.”
Carly drove to the Morrison house on auto-pilot. Her mind wandered between work and Brett. As she jumped out of the car on Morrow, she took a moment to collect herself. Tipping her head back to enjoy the early afternoon sun, she inhaled deeply, appreciating the silence. In that part of town, trees were mature, lots were bigger, and the only sound that could be heard was a dog barking at a passer-by on the sidewalk.
She thought back to when she’d been a little girl and walked by that very house on her way to school, wondering what it would be like to live there. The Morrisons’ children were teenagers then, and she’d always see them running in and out of the house with their friends, laughing and talking as though they didn’t have a care in the world. She wanted to be them, fun and carefree instead of sad and lonely. That was what the house represented to her. Happiness. Family. Security. She was silly to be so attached to a house she’d never even set foot in, but those memories tied her to the house. Memories of a childhood she wished could have been different.
Carly stood on the porch and turned her back to the door after she rang the bell. There was a toddler on the lawn across the street, rolling a ball to a puppy as her mother looked on with a smile.
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