Accidental Lovers (The Accidental Series, Book 3) (11 page)

Shayla nodded.

“I think the problem is, you feel a lower
esteem about yourself and you’re taking it out on him. Am I at
least partially right?” Rebecca inquired.

Shayla nodded again.

“And you have no reason to feel bad about
yourself. You’re smart and beautiful. You’re a good person, Shayla
and you deserve the best. And, sweetie, you have the best.”

“Aw...thanks, Rebecca.”

“You’re welcome. Just remember to appreciate
the love y’all have when difficult times arises, because they will.
It’s important to remember the good times. You do have good times,
right?”

“Yeah. It’s just been rough lately, but
listening to you, I realize that most of that is my fault. And I
don’t want to fight with him. I just want to be happy.”

“Then be happy. Put a smile on that pretty
face of yours, go home and make it work.”

“Yes ma’am!” Shayla quipped. “I don’t even
want to eat now.”

“Girl, we can meet up for dinner another
time. Your marriage is more important than a slice of cheesecake,
now go. Get outta here.”

Shayla happily took her purse from the table
then walked over to give Rebecca a hug.

“Call me later,” Rebecca told her.

“Okay, I will.”

With that, she hurried to the car, not
bothering to open an umbrella in the steady drizzle. The faster she
could get home, the faster she could resume her life with her
husband, the man she was in love with. The man of her dreams. Her
prince charming. Her fairytale.

In the car, she sped towards home, wanting
so desperately to see her husband, when only a few hours ago, she
hadn’t said a word to him. And while she drove, she took a call
from Jack, who said he’d wanted to visit in a couple of weeks. She
told him it would be fine, and that she couldn’t wait to introduce
him to Carter.

Chapter 19

Carter felt a sense of despair the entire
day. He’d told Shayla to leave, and now he wanted to recant those
words he uttered out of anger. That’s why he made it a practice to
keep things to himself and not speak when he wasn’t levelheaded,
but he let his feelings get the best of him, again, and now he
didn’t know if Shayla would come back home. He sat on the bed,
buried his face in his hands, feeling the lower half of his stomach
churn. What would he do if she didn’t come home?

He felt his apprehension ease away when he
heard footsteps coming upstairs. And with each step closer, he
tossed around words in his mind, trying to find the right ones –
the perfect ones to say to her, or maybe he shouldn’t say anything
at all. Maybe he should let her do the talking.

He couldn’t bring himself to look up when
she finally stepped in the room. With his head hanging low, eyes
angled towards the floor he asked, “Are you leaving me?”

Shayla set her purse on the floor, staring
at him as he sat on the bench at the foot of the bed, shirtless,
wearing a pair of black boxer shorts. He was distressed, she could
tell, and she realized she’d put the man through a lot. She wasn’t
the only one who came with baggage. He had some of his own. He had
lost a brother. A mother. He had many unanswered questions that
plagued him. But tonight, losing his wife is what was tormenting
him.

She walked up to him, gently placing her
right hand on the back of his head, feeling his curls against her
fingers and said, “No. I’m not leaving you,” she remarked softly,
then began stroking the dimensions of the muscles bulging out of
his back. And moving her soft hands to his face, she angled his
head up towards her, saw sadness in his eyes and said, “Carter, I
know things haven’t been right between us. And I know some of that
is my fault, but I love you too much to walk away from you…way too
much,” she said in tears now.

“That’s good to know, because I wouldn’t let
you leave me if you tried.”

She smiled, then kissed his lips, feeling
Carter’s hands slither up her blouse.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” she said.

After falling asleep together for a few
hours, they woke up, three o’clock in the morning, making love
again under more rain hammering against the roof. Afterwards, they
lay in the center of the bed together, staring at each other
intensely.

“Shayla.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to fight anymore.”

“Me either.”

“Then let’s not. From this point forward, if
something comes up, let’s talk about it. We need to be open and
honest with each other and talk through things. We seriously need
to learn to do that, baby.”

Shayla nodded.

“I’d rather spend time making love with you
than fighting.”

Shayla touched his face affectionately.

“So, right now, while we’re happy and lying
here, I want us to make an agreement with each other. No more
fighting.”

Shayla giggled. “Carter, we’re going to
fight. It’s the thing to do in marriage, right?”

“Not our marriage. Sure, we’ll have
disagreements every now and again, but I never want to get to a
point where you feel like distancing yourself from me is the only
way for you to gain solace. I want to be your sanctuary, your
reason for happiness.”

“You are.” She kissed his nose.

“Good.” He kissed her lips. “And no more
secrets.”

“No more secrets,” she repeated.

“And on that note, I have to tell you
something, darling.”

“Uh oh. What?”

“Um…” He released a heavy sigh. “Jacob had
kept a journal before he died and—”

“How do you know that?” she interrupted.

“His doctor told me.”

“His doctor?”

“Yes. Um…Dr. Westbrook, the therapist I took
you to a while ago...she was Jacob’s therapist, too.”

“What?”

“Yeah, she—”

“How long have you known that?”

“Since the first day I took you there,”
Carter admitted.

Shayla absorbed this and said nothing more
about it. “Can I see it?”

“No.”

“Carter?”

“You can’t see it, sweetheart,” he said,
remembering things Jacob had confessed in the notebook. “I just
wanted you to know that it exists.”

Shayla grew quiet. Why couldn’t she see the
journal and read Jacob’s final words? They could’ve done her some
good, given her closure, but she knew Carter and he would protect
her by any means possible, and maybe that’s why he wouldn’t let her
read it. “Thanks for telling me about it,” she responded, leaning
into kiss him.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

“On another note, my father wants to come
for a visit.”

“Oh yeah?” Carter said, trying to conceal
his resistance against this idea. Why should he be anxious to meet
the man who abandoned her?

“Yep. You think he and the family could stay
with us. I mean, I’m assuming he’s bringing the family too.”

“Family?”

“Yes. He’s married and has two adult
sons.”

Carter sat up in the bed. “You have
brothers?”

“Yeah, well, half brothers.”

Her response made him think of Jacob’s first
journal entry – about them not being brothers. He didn’t know
whether to track down answers for his own satisfaction or just
write the whole thing off.

“I’m going to be honest, Shayla. I’m not too
thrilled at the prospect of meeting him.”

“Why?”

“Because he abandoned you. That’s why. But,
with that being said, I’ll do it for you.”

“I appreciate that, Carter.”

“When we have kids, at least our babies
would have one grandfather.”

“Yeah.” Shayla strummed the curls on his
head with her fingertips.

“I still find it hard to believe that my
parents are deceased. I mean, I don’t talk about it because I don’t
want to burden you with my stress, but they’ll never get to meet
out kids. That’s depressing to think about.”

“I’m sorry, Carter.”

“It’s okay, baby. I’m just expressing my
thoughts out loud. I don’t usually.”

“Well, you can talk to me any time about
your parents, your life, whatever. That’s why I’m here.”

After a few passing moments of running his
fingers through her hair, he said, “The really sad thing is, when
my mother was alive, I didn’t feel like I had a mother.”

“Why?”

“She was always away from us, doing
functions and being a social butterfly.”

“So that’s where you get your social skills
from.”

He grinned. “Guess you could say that.” Then
he said, “When we have kids, I want to actually be there for them.
I don’t want to be a part-time dad. I want to have an active role
in their lives – the slumber parties, feeding them and taking them
to school. I want them to know they are loved because I never want
them to feel the way I felt growing up.”

“They’ll know,” Shayla told him. “Those
lucky little rascals will have the best father in the world, just
like I have the best husband in the world.”

“And I have the best wife a man could ever
ask for,” Carter said, rolling on top of her. “As a matter of fact,
why don’t we practice making a baby right now?”

“Carter,” she said in a mellow breath,
feeling him own her yet again.

Carter couldn’t wait to feel the warmness of
the deepness of her, to see how far he could go into her abyss, how
much it would take to drive her insanely in love with him.

Chapter 20

The next morning Carter sat behind his desk,
up-to-date on meetings, some internal work and emails. And with a
smile on his face, his fingers interlocked and placed on his head,
he could truly say that life was good.

He was on good terms with his woman again,
and after making love to her multiple times yesterday, that’s all
he could think about today. Even if today was a bad day for him,
all he had to do was think about her and last night – the way they
made love. He smiled to himself thinking about Shayla and her
petite frame. With his ripped abs and bulky biceps, he looked so
much bigger than her.

Deciding to pay her a visit during his lunch
break, he locked his computer, walked out of his office and after
watching Julie hang up the phone, he said, “Julie, I’ll be back in
about two hours.”

“Okay, Sir.”

“If anything urgent comes up, call my
cell.”

“All right, Sir. Enjoy your lunch.”

With a smile on his face, he said, “I will,”
knowing what he had in mind for lunch.

Once in his car, he took his cell from his
shirt pocket and called Shayla. After three rings, he heard her
say, “Hi handsome.”

“Hey, beautiful. What are you doing?”

“I’m actually making a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich.”

Carter switched lanes.

“Hello. You still there?” Shayla asked after
a few seconds of silence.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“So how have your day been so far?”

“Good. How’s you day so far, Shayla?”

“Good. I slept in, took a long shower and
threw on your robe, because I couldn’t find mine.”

Something about her wearing his robe made
him want to get home faster.

“Did you have lunch yet?” she asked him.

“No. Not yet.”

“What are you in the mood for?”

“You.”

Shayla blushed, dropped the butter knife she
was using to spread peanut butter on a slice of wheat bread,
feeling something tickle her insides. “Carter…stop it before your
coworkers hear you.”

“They’re not around,” he said with a sneaky
grin on his face.

“Where’s Julie?”

“At her desk, I suppose.”

“Then stop it before she hears you.”

“She can’t hear me. I’m pulling up in the
driveway as we speak.”

“What?”

He walked up to the front door, unlocked it
and sauntered to the kitchen while loosening his necktie. He held
his cell phone out in front of him, hanging it up so she could see
him do it.

Shayla was frozen, surprised and nervous
while watching the hard look on his face as he approached her.

Carter didn’t give her time to say a word.
He swooped up on her, like an eagle going after its prey, kissing
her.

“Your tongue tastes like peanut butter,” he
told her.

She grinned while he carried her
upstairs.

Carter stood up, picked up his clothes from
the floor and said, “Got a meeting at two. Can’t miss it.”

“Aww…”

“No worries, darling. You know daddy’s
coming home to ya as soon as I’m done. What do you have planned
this afternoon?” he asked her.

“Um…oh, your aunt called and said it’s been
a while since she’s seen me, so I’m going to go over there for a
while.”

Carter pulled up his pants, tucked his shirt
in and threaded the leather belt through the loops. “It’s the
weirdest thing, but I saw her having lunch with Chip Fargus one day
last week.”

“Who’s that?”

“His real name is Christopher Fargus…he’s
the C.E.O. of the bank.”

“They must be old friends.”

“I guess so.” Carter said, fixing his
clothes. “All right baby. I gotta run. Call me later.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you too, hun.” He gave her a peck on
the cheek and then was out the door.

Chapter 21

Before heading over to Jacqueline’s, Shayla
took a quick shower, slid into a pair of blue, skinny jeans and a
black turtle neck. She looked at her watch. The time was 2:18 p.m.
so she went ahead and grabbed her purse from the bed, jogged
downstairs and drove to Jacqueline’s place.

She rung the doorbell once and waited, but
the house seemed extremely quiet. She pressed the doorbell again,
and this time she heard the floor creaking from footsteps. Watching
as the door slowly opened, she was taken aback when she saw
Jacqueline’s face. Her eyes were a reddish color and puffy. Her
nose was a shade of red and she had a Kleenex balled up in her
right hand.

“Jackie, what’s wrong?”

She dabbed her nose and said, “Come on in,
hun.”