Accidental Lovers (The Accidental Series, Book 3) (10 page)

Carter sighed, rubbed his hands over his
face again. He loved her a great deal, but why did love have to be
so difficult? Why couldn’t things work themselves out easily when
people fell in love?

“Shayla, sweetheart, I’ve never been a
jealous man. It’s actually foreign to me to feel the way I do right
now, but the thought of you spending time with another man makes me
sick to my stomach. I
will
not share you with anyone
and—”

“You don’t have to share me, Carter. There
is no one else.”

“Then don’t ever make me feel like there
is,” he said adamantly.

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“I don’t care if it was your intention or
not. I need you to know where I stand on this, ah’ight? I spoke
with Donovan. He was brave enough to tell me he loved you. Now the
only reason he’s still alive is because this exchange happened over
the phone because, trust me, if I was there, I would’ve beat him to
death,” he said, infuriated. “But that’s neither her nor there. I’m
married to
you
. You’re the one I need to get through to, not
him. And I’m asking you these questions, trying to find out what
happened between you and him and you’re being short with me.”

“I’m not—”

“Then tell me what happened!”

“He introduced me to my father Saturday
afternoon. Saturday night, I was trying to say bye to him, but he
grabbed me and kissed me instead…told me he didn’t want me to leave
and I told him to stop,” she said in tears. “I told him I loved
you. And somewhere in there, he confessed that he loved me. We
did not
sleep together. I love you and I would never do that
to you.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“No! I wouldn’t. How can you even think I
would do that to you, Carter?”

“Put yourself in my shoes, then ask yourself
that question.”

Shayla pushed her plate aside and covered
her face with her hands. Wiping her eyes, she looked at him and
said, “I didn’t even think I was good enough for you to start
with…moved away from you because I didn’t feel like you would ever
give someone like me the time of day. And I was so in love with
you, so incredibly heartbroken at the realization I couldn’t have
you that the only way I could get over you was to move to another
state and even that didn’t help me get you out of my heart because
I was already infatuated with you. And now, you’re my husband and
you think I would cheat on you?”

He watched her brush tears away from her
face. His chest rose up and down quickly, his heart rate increased
and he wanted nothing other than to take her upstairs, to their bed
and make love to her.

And as they lay, with clammy skin, racing
heartbeats and the scent of love filling their bedroom, Carter held
her as she rested her head on her favorite part of his chest and
said, “I’m sorry I hurt you last night. I was angry and I’ve never
felt that way before.”

“It’s fine, Carter.”

“No, it’s not. I hurt you and I want you to
know that I’m sorry and it’ll never happen again. I promise you
that, Shayla.”

Shayla lifted her head, kissed his chest and
said, “Okay, baby.”

And with that, she fell asleep, happy, in
love and satisfied, but Carter was worried, because come morning,
he would have to bring up the subject of Jacob. That is why she
left initially, and there was no sense in keeping Jacob ensconced
in both their memories and letting things go as they were. He had
to talk to her about it.

Chapter 16

“Good morning, darling,” Carter said when he
saw her sitting at the kitchen table, a typical morning for them,
sharing coffee and a light breakfast before they started their
day.

“Good morning, Carter,” she replied, all
smiles, thinking about last night.

Carter sat across from her.

“I’ll get you some coffee.” She got up, took
his favorite coffee mug from the cupboard and poured him a cup of
coffee. Then walking over next to him, she said, “Here you go,
babe,” while taking a kiss at the same time.

She walked back around the table and sat in
her chair again.

“We need to talk about Jacob,” Carter told
her.

Shayla shook her head. “No, we don’t…at
least not now when everything is so perfect between us.”

“And that’s why we need to talk.”

Shayla sighed. “Listen, Carter, I love you,
okay. And I’m not angry about Jacob anymore.”

“Then what are you angry about?”

“I’m not angry about anything.”

Carter took a sip of coffee, then wrapped
his hands around the cup. “So you’re telling me you’re over it, you
don’t want to discuss it and everything is okay. I don’t want you
to have any resentment towards me, Shayla.”

“Okay, well, um there is one thing I want to
know. And yes, I forgive you for not telling me about Jacob. I’ve
accepted it. I do, however, have to ask you something and I need
you to be one-hundred percent forthright and honest with me.”

He sat up tall in his chair. “Okay.”

“You said that when you found me, you didn’t
know who I was…that it wasn’t until I was admitted to the hospital
that you knew, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“And that was because you had found out that
I was your brother’s fiancée and he’d ask you to take care of me,
correct?”

“Yep. Where are you going with this,
Shayla?”

“So if I wasn’t your brother’s fiancée and
he didn’t ask you to take care of me, then you wouldn’t have moved
me into your house. What I’m asking is, if I hadn’t had any ties to
your brother, would you have asked me to move in with you?”

“I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“Just answer the question, Carter. Would you
have moved me in?”

Carter closed his eyes and looked to be in
distress when he replied, “No.”

Tears fell from Shayla’s eyes. Had she ever
cried this much in life? Or was it just in her dealings with men?
Especially this man…

As she felt the wetness slide down her
cheeks, all she could think was,
here we go again
and how
tired she was of the back and forth with Carter. Relationships,
marriages were not supposed to be this way. Granted she wasn’t
naïve enough to believe that once she got married it would be all
cupcakes and roses, and that they would live happily ever after
with no struggles, but she didn’t expect so much heartache.

“Why are you crying, baby?”

“Because that’s exactly what I feared,”
Shayla said.

“What are you talking about?”

“I used to question whether or not I was
right for you…or even good enough for you for that matter.”

“Shayla, there’s no need for you to rehash
the past.”

“Yes there is, because the truth of the
matter is, I wasn’t good enough for you. You just didn’t want to
admit it then.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true! You just said that had I no
connection to Jacob, you wouldn’t have brought me home with you. So
I wasn’t good enough and this bogus marriage we have is nothing but
an accident.”

“No, it’s not. And who cares how we got
together? All that matters is that we did, Shayla. There’s no need
for you to be in tears, crying and thinking I don’t love you.”

“If you loved me, I mean really loved me,
since you first laid eyes on me like you said, why did you answer
no
to my question just now?”

Carter went mute and sat there watching her.
What did she want from him? He was having a hard time trying to
figure it out.

“Oh my gosh,” she wailed when he didn’t
respond. She ran from the kitchen and went upstairs, sobbing on the
bed. Dead center. Face down.

Carter remained sitting at the kitchen
table, still thinking about all she’d said. Seemed this issue
wasn’t resolved after all and Shayla still felt as if she wasn’t
the woman he really wanted. Then again, what woman was? He never
wanted an attachment to a woman to start with, but he found himself
hooked on her. The problem is, Shayla didn’t see it that way. She
felt like he loved her out of pity, like his dream girl was out
there somewhere and if he stumbled upon this woman, he’d be filled
with regrets for marrying some lady he found beside the road.

Chapter 17

For the next full week, Shayla barely said
five words to Carter. The only time she couldn’t avoid him was when
he asked her a direct question, like this morning when he asked if
she had plans for the night. She told him yes, having already made
dinner plans with Rebecca at the Cheesecake Factory. But she didn’t
offer him any of those details. She simply replied with a
yes
and went about her business, and that business entailed
going to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. She was sitting at the
table when she heard the jingling of his keys.

“Shayla, I’m headed to work.”

“Okay,” she said and didn’t offer him a hug,
a kiss or any well wishes for the day. Nothing. She didn’t even
look up at him.

Carter set his briefcase on the floor and
said, “Look, Shayla, I’ve been trying to be patient with you, but
you’re not giving me anything to work with. I can’t go on like
this. We haven’t had a conversation in a week.”

“That’s because I don’t know what to say to
you.”

“So you say nothing? How is that supposed to
fix anything between us? Or do you not want to fix it, Shayla?”

Shayla remained quiet.

Carter grimaced. The sound of nothing was
driving him mad. And then he remembered what Donovan had told him –
that Shayla wasn’t happy and he couldn’t make her happy. That had
been on his mind all week and now he was starting to wonder if
there were any truth behind those words. Did Shayla tell Donovan
she wasn’t happy? Why would he make that statement? So sucking in a
worrisome, heavy breath, Carter said, “Well, if you’re not happy,
and obviously you’re not, just…” He took a moment to collect
himself before he said what he knew he was about to say. “If you’re
not happy, just leave.” He closed his eyes tight, then looked at
her again. “All I wanted was for you to be happy, and you’re not
happy with me and I am tired of fighting with you…tired of seeing
you cry. So please, go find someone to make you happy,” he said
with trembling lips, “Because apparently, that person is not
me.”

With sad eyes, he took his briefcase from
the floor and walked out of the kitchen on to the foyer and out the
front door. Standing on the front steps, he hung his head low,
wishing he could recant what he’d just said, because by the time he
got off work in the evening, he realized that she may have taken
his advice and left.

Chapter 18

“Hey, Rebecca,” Shayla said, folding up her
umbrella pretending to be happy. She was happy to see her friend,
but not happy to be in yet another dispute with Carter. And he
really told her to leave...

“So how have you been?”

“I’ve been doing okay…didn’t know it was
supposed to storm tonight.”

“Yeah, and I forgot my umbrella as you
probably guessed by my flat hair. But it’s cool…I didn’t want to
cancel our plans because we haven’t had dinner in a while.”

“Yeah, plus I needed to get out of the house
for a while.”

“Uh oh…what’s going on at home?”

“It’s nothing.”

“You sure? I know that Carter Williams is a
handful.”

Shayla smirked. “This morning, before he
left for work, he told me to leave if I wasn’t happy.”

“What?”

“He told me to leave,” she repeated, forcing
tears back successfully and proud of herself for doing so. “He said
I should go find someone who makes me happy…”

“Why would he say that?”

“More drama over Jacob. I know we’ve talked
about this before, but I still feel like Jacob is the only reason
Carter and I are together. And I don’t want to feel like he’s with
me because of any outside forces. I want him to love me for
me.”

Shayla saw a smile grow on Rebecca’s face
that turned into a chuckle.

“Why are you laughing?” she asked her.

“Because Carter is so in love with you, it’s
unbelievable. I remember, before he met you, he used to order
flowers for all these different women he was seeing at the time and
I would joke with him and tell him that one day, he would fall in
love and be completely enamored with
one
woman. He stood me
down, tooth and nail, told me it was impossible. Said he would
never find a woman who would make him change, rethink his life and
definitely not marry. Then you come along and the man has done a
complete three-sixty. Did you know that when you were working at
the shop with me, before y’all got married, he called me on the
days you worked just to see how you were?”

“No, I didn’t know that.”

“And when you moved away, he was
heartbroken…just as heartbroken as you were. The point I’m trying
to make is, he
does
love you, Shayla.”

Shayla closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
“I know he loves me. But
why
does he love me?”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because I feel inadequate, Rebecca. I feel
like I’m not really the woman he wants, but instead, the woman he
settled for.”

“You really don’t know who you’re married
to, do you?” Rebecca grinned. “Carter doesn’t settle for
anything.”

Shayla released a soft chuckle.

“I remember a few years ago, Carter came to
the shop to buy some flowers. I was joking around with him and told
him that he was going to make some lady’s day and that’s when he
informed me that the flowers were for his home. Now he could’ve
settled
for some grocery store flowers, but no, he came to
my shop to get the real deal. Carter is a man who knows and gets
what he wants and trust me…if he didn’t want you, he would not be
with you. He would not have crashed our flower convention to tell
you how he felt about you in front of strangers, and he definitely
would not have put that massive rock on your finger. The man is in
love with you, Shayla. It’s that simple.”