Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel (31 page)

“That kid isn’t still bothering her, is he?”

“No.” He smoothed his hand over her cheek, trying to wipe away the worry on her face. “I got a phone call from Elroy’s father that night apologizing for his son’s actions. And the next day Ruby came home with an apology letter and a brand-new box of colored pencils.”

“What?” She scrunched her head in confusion. “Did you call the school after dinner?”

“No. I was going to email her teacher but I got Elroy Senior’s phone call first.”

“How did all that happen so quickly? If you didn’t call…”

“Your father. Apparently Elroy’s father works at Durant U as the assistant volleyball coach. I guess your father had a talk with him.”

“He probably threatened to crush his bones.”

“I’m sure he did. Why do you think he did that?”

She shut her eyes and leaned against him. “I’m sorry he interfered. I’m not sure why he did that. He barely knows Ruby.”

“He doesn’t. But what he did doesn’t bother me. It’s nice to know that there is somebody else here to look out for my kid. I’ve been alone at it for a long time. Of course, he took the steam out of my pissed-off father righteous anger, but in the end as long as Ruby got what she needed I’ll be fine.”

“My dad doesn’t deal with emotional girls. He just wants to make whatever is bothering them stop.”

“All fathers are like that.” He pulled Belinda closer, closing the tiny gap between them. “I miss you.” He feathered kisses along her neck. “Come to my house today. Stay over.”

She thought about saying no, but she couldn’t. She missed him, too. The past two days she thought about him and Ruby and how empty she felt when she was home alone that night. “What time does Ruby go to bed?”

“Between eight and eight thirty.”

“I’ll be over at nine.”

“What?” He pulled away from her and looked into her eyes. “Why then?”

“Because you obviously can’t sneak out and leave your kid alone to play at my house.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t asking you to come over to have sex. I was asking you to come over to be with us.”

She shook her head. “But what would Ruby think about me sleeping over? I don’t want to give her the wrong idea.”

“What wrong idea?” He frowned at her. “That I’m crazy about you and am tired of being without you. Damn it, Bell. I want you back in my life.”

“I’m here. But I just don’t think we should be rushing into anything. We might not work out and I don’t want Ruby getting hurt. The last thing she needs is to have another woman leave her.”

“I agree with that, but you aren’t going to leave her. We are going to make this work.”

“It’s not that easy. You just can’t expect us to get back together and act like a married couple again. There’s too much shit between us for that.”

He looked weary at that moment. His eyes searched her face, and she couldn’t help but note the sadness in them. “What do you suggest we do then?”

“Date.” She pressed her lips to his cheek. “We’ll have lunch together a few times a week and go to the movies and make out and make love in the backseat of a car like horny teenagers.”

“And we’ll keep it—us a secret from my daughter.”

She looked up at the stony tone of his voice. He wasn’t happy with her, but this was the way it had to be for her. She couldn’t jump into this blindly again. She couldn’t fail at this love a second time.

“Carter…”

“I don’t want to sneak around.”

“We won’t be.”

“Then what would you call it?”

“Dating! I can’t be the first person you went out with and didn’t tell Ruby about?”

“There has been no one, Belinda. Not a single woman. Not one date.”

“Why not? Why haven’t you had dinner with another woman in four years?”

“Because I’m married to you!”

“But you’re not. Not really. We were husband and wife for six weeks. We’ve been apart for four years. You should have gone out with other women. You should have seen what’s out there. You were right when you said we were stuck. We are. If you really want this to work we can’t be like we always were. We have to try something new. You should try something new. Somebody new.”

“Today is Molly’s last day.” Steven walked into Carter’s office holding a card, seeming oblivious to the tension between Belinda and Carter. “My mother mailed this card to me, because she thought I would forget to buy one for her. I’m thirty-five years old. You think she could trust me enough to buy a card for my own damn intern.”

“You forgot to buy a card, didn’t you?” Carter said, taking his eyes off her and looking to his best friend.

“I’m a man. We don’t buy cards unless it’s our woman’s birthday or anniversary. And even then I don’t understand the point of them. They’re just expensive pieces of paper that you look at once and then throw away.”

“I think it’s the thought that’s supposed to count, Steven. Not the actual card itself.”

“Yeah and I think this whole greeting card thing is a racket by some big corporations to get your money. Like if you don’t buy this five-dollar piece of paper you don’t care. It’s bull if you ask me. But sign the damn thing anyway.” He dropped the card on Carter’s desk. “I need to give it to her before she walks out of here in five minutes.”

Carter frowned at him. “Who shit in your cereal this morning?”

Steven shook his head. “I ran into Felicia Daniels this morning. Well, ‘ran into’ is the wrong expression. She ambushed me.”

“Felicia? That’s the girl you always had a secret thing for?”

“What?” Steven said sharply. “Are you crazy? That woman had been a huge pain in my ass since middle school. The only thing I have for her is loathing. Can you believe that she wants me to design her house? She’s moving back here! I thought I would only have to dodge her around the holidays when she’s here to visit her family but now she wants me to work for her.”

“What happened between you two? I’ve never seen you have such a strong reaction to a woman.”

“Woman?” He shook his head. “She’s a pain-in-the-ass, manipulative she-devil.” He motioned his head toward the card. “Will you sign the damn thing already?”

Carter quickly wrote good luck and signed his name so he could hand Steven back the card. “Are you going to take the job? We could always use the work. And if she’s asking you to design her house she must have money. You don’t do average family homes.”

“She’s got the money,” he said through gritted teeth. “She’s a writer.” He stalked out of the room without answering his question.

“Whoa,” Belinda said, staring after him. “He’s a moody one.”

“He’s got woman problems. But don’t we all.” He rested his hands on her hips. “Now back to you and this crazy idea of yours.”

“It’s not crazy!”

“You’re right.” He dropped his hands from her body and folded his arms across his chest. “It’s nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense.”

“Carter, I—”

“Hey, Carter!” Molly walked in this time. She was smiling and also oblivious to the tense situation she had walked into until she spotted Belinda and stopped short. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were busy.”

“I’m not.” Carter flicked a gaze at Belinda before he focused on Molly. She had the pink card in her hand that Steven had just asked him to sign. “I was just having a little chat with my
friend
. What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to say thank you for the card and gift certificate. It was very generous of you and Steven.” She looked at Belinda for a brief moment as if she was expecting her to leave the room. “I also wanted to know if you’d like to have dinner with me on Saturday. I’m done with my internship as of ten minutes ago. I know you were too professional to agree to go out with me before, but since I don’t work for Steven anymore, there is nothing to stop us from spending a little time together.”

Carter looked at Belinda for a long moment before he looked back at Molly. She knew he was annoyed with her, but he looked hurt. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him. She just wanted to protect herself, her heart. She had to. “I’m single. I guess there’s no reason we can’t see each other. Is there?” He paused for a moment as if waiting for Belinda to stop him, to say something. But she couldn’t. “I can have dinner with you, Molly.”

“I can babysit!” Belinda said with false cheerfulness. Her stomach ached. Her heart hurt. It shouldn’t. This was her doing. She was keeping him at arm’s length. She had told him he should have dated while they were apart. She encouraged him. But why then did it bug the hell out of her that he had agreed to go out with another woman?

“Really?” Molly grinned at her, genuinely smiling at her for the first time since they had met. “That would be awesome. Thanks.” She looked back at Carter. “I’ll cook for us.”

Belinda took a step back. A step away from them. She wanted to slap both of them, but she couldn’t. She had asked for this. “I’ll let you two make plans. I’ll see you later, Carter.”

Carter locked eyes with her, looking regretful, looking almost miserable, and that left Belinda wondering if she had just made a colossal mistake.

*   *   *

“I miss coffee,” Ellis said taking a sip of the decaf tea Belinda had made her. “I never thought I would miss it so much.”

“You can’t have any during your pregnancy?” Belinda asked her from across her dining room table.

She shook her head. “The doctor said that I could have one small cup a day and for a while I tried it, but eight ounces of coffee doesn’t work for me. Once I had a little sip I would crave more, and knowing I couldn’t have more made it worse. If I don’t have at least two cups of my Sea Salt Caramel Mocha coffee I turn into a raging bitch. My poor husband. I’m cheating on him in my mind. I’m having really graphic dirty dreams about coffee. Vivid dreams. I’m fantasizing about it. He thinks that when I space out that I’m just tired. I’m not tired. I’m daydreaming about coffee.”

Belinda grinned at Ellis, who’d stopped by on her way to the grocery store that morning. They had promoted Maggie to assistant manager. She had only been there a few months but the girl knew her stuff and had past experience. They were slowly giving her more responsibility at Size Me Up, including allowing her to open the store on Saturday. Mike was going to be there for a couple of hours just in case, but they wanted to see what Maggie was capable of on her own. Ellis was going to take some time off when she had her baby and Belinda … She wasn’t sure where her life was going to take her, but it was nice to be able to trust somebody else with the store.

“You’re cute. You know that, Ellie?”

“Yes, thank you, I do,” Ellis said with a raised eyebrow. “What’s up with you the past couple of days? You’re being sweet to me.” She touched Belinda’s forehead. “Are you feeling okay?”

“No,” she said honestly. “I told Carter that I wasn’t ready to get back together yet and that he should try dating other people.”

“Why the hell did you do that?” Ellis reached over and smacked her arm. “You’re in love with him.”

“I don’t know why I said it. Maybe because I thought he wouldn’t actually go out and ask a woman out. But five minutes after I told him that, Steven’s intern comes waltzing in there and asks him out.”

“You should have slapped her.”

“I offered to babysit.”

Ellis cradled her forehead in her hands. “I used to think you were so smart. I used to look up to you, but now I’m seriously doubting my devotion to you because that is just about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You looked up to
me
?”

“Yes! You taught me how to be sexy and how to feel good in my skin. You made me realize that it was okay for me not to be a lawyer. You made it okay for me to follow my dreams because you weren’t afraid to search for yours. You told me it was okay to let myself fall in love with Mike even when it was the last thing I thought I should do. Not to mention you run the store so well I’m not even sure you need me at all. You’ve done so much for me, now it’s time for me to do something for you.” She smacked the back of Belinda’s head. “Take your head out of your ass and get your man. He moved all the way here for you. He loves you.”

“He lied to me!”

“So what? He failed to reveal a three-day marriage he had the year before he met you. That was four years ago. You’ve got to get over that.”

“There’s also the little fact that his parents hate me so much they tried to pay me to leave him.”

“So, nobody’s relationship with their in-laws is perfect. You’ve got to forgive him, because if you can’t you’re going to spend the rest of your life alone and stuck on him.”

“Ellis…”

She stood up. “You can’t move on from him. All these years. And you can’t blame him for something you did yourself. You kept this marriage from me for years. You kept it from your family and sometimes when I think about it I get pissed off, but I love you. I could spend the rest of my life being mad at you, but what good would that do me? I’d rather spend the rest of my life with you as my best friend.”

She was right. She was right and that scared the crap out of Belinda. She was afraid of a future with Carter but she was terrified about what her life would be like without him. “Sure, it’s easy to be rational and sensible when you’re happily married and have a baby on the way.”

“You’re more stubborn than a jar with a stuck lid.” Ellis kissed her cheek. “I’ve got to go grocery shopping before my husband divorces me for starvation. But I love you, you big pain in the ass. Stop making that man suffer. Everybody will be happier for it.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said as she walked her friend to the door. Carter was all she had been thinking about since he showed up nearly two months ago. Letting go of the past was so hard, but she needed to forgive. She needed to live in the present.

Ellis opened the door. “Yes, do. Come shopping with me next week? I need new shoes. My husband has gone all-controlling man on me and won’t let me wear pointy high heels anymore.”

“He won’t let you?” That surprised the hell out of Belinda. Ellis wasn’t one to be controlled.

She smiled brightly. “Let me rephrase that. My feet are starting to swell and I can’t spend all day in heels anymore.”

“Ew. Mom shoes. Of course I’ll be there to help you pick out your first pair.”