Accidental Lovers (The Accidental Series, Book 3) (12 page)

When Shayla walked in, Jacqueline shut the
door, then embraced her. “I’m so sorry, Shayla,” she said.

Confused, Shayla said, “Sorry for what?”

“It’s my fault you and Carter split
and—”

Apparently, Jacqueline had no clue they were
back together, so to straighten things out and put her mind at
ease, Shayla said, “But, Jackie, we’re ba—”

“Shayla, please let me say this,” Jacqueline
said, sitting on the couch, then patting the area next to her where
she wanted Shayla to sit.

Shayla, still a bit apprehensive because she
didn’t have the slightest clue as to what was going on, walked over
and sat next to her.

“Shayla, I’ve done some things in the past
that I’m not proud of.”

“We all have.”

“No,” Jacqueline said, shaking her head.
“Not like this.” Tears spilled from her eyes. “Um…I don’t know
where to begin.”

Shayla warmly placed her hand on top of
Jacqueline’s hand. “It’s okay.”

Jacqueline sniffled. “You and Carter belong
together, Shayla, and because of me, you’re not and—”

“Jackie...”

“A long time ago, I was foolish, hanging
with the wrong crowd and ended up getting in trouble. I’m not going
to elaborate on it, because I’ve been spending my entire life
trying to forget it, but long story short, I ended up going to
jail. At the time, I had a child, a baby.”

“A baby? I thought you said you didn’t have
children.”

“I had a son. When I got in trouble, I
begged my sister to keep him…told her I didn’t want him going into
the foster care system. I wanted him to have a chance, you know.
Lenora didn’t want to keep him at first, but I promised her that
after six months, I’d be back to get him. So she finally agreed and
I was so grateful to her for doing this for me. But when I was
released, I came back for him and she didn’t want to let him
go…said she wanted to keep him.” Jacqueline dabbed her eyes. “She
said she’d bonded with him and if I took him away, she would say I
was an unfit mother, exposing my jail record and my son would’ve
ended up in foster care anyway. So I let her keep him and in the
beginning, she would let me visit from time to time, then she got
tired of it.” Jacqueline blew her nose, snatched another Kleenex
and dabbed her eyes. “I say all that to say this to you…don’t be
angry at Carter for confessing to you that Jacob was his brother
because the truth of the matter is, they aren’t really brothers,
Shayla. So go home and save your marriage and be happy. Carter
loves you.”

Shayla frowned. Had Jacqueline known she was
already back with Carter, no doubt she would’ve kept this a secret.
But since she hadn’t known, Shayla took advantage of the situation.
To get more details and try to make sense of what she was hearing,
Shayla asked, “Jackie, why on earth would you keep that a secret
from Carter? Why not just tell him that Jacob was your son. I’m
sure he can handle it and it would unburden you both.”

Jacqueline’s tears just wouldn’t dry up.
With trembling, unsteady hands, she took another Kleenex, looked at
Shayla and said, “Jacob wasn’t my son, Shayla.”

And then it dawned on Shayla, that
Jacqueline had been referring to Carter. Carter was her son? Carter
was her son! “Are you telling me that Carter,
my
Carter is
your son, Jackie?”

Jacqueline trembled.

“Jackie, are you saying that Carter is your
son?”

Jacqueline nodded. “Yes. He’s my boy.”

“Oh my gosh…I can’t breathe,” Shayla said
panicking, standing and pacing the floor in complete shock, holding
her head as she walked. “This can’t be happening,” she said.
“Carter is your son?”

“Yes,” Jacqueline sniffled.

“No, no, no…how could this happen? How could
you do this to him, Jackie?” Shayla said in tears. “Carter thinks
Lenora was his mother. He thinks his mother is dead and you’re his
mother? This cannot be happening right now.”

“Shayla—”

“Why did you do this to him?” Shayla asked
in a stern tone. “Why?”

“Because I didn’t want him to end up in a
foster home.”

“No. I’m not buying that. You could’ve stood
up to Lenora and got him back if you wanted. Why didn’t you?”

Still sitting on the couch, Jacqueline
covered her face with her hands. “I knew Lenora could give him a
better life. I was broke and my boyfriend was broke. We couldn’t
take care of Carter.”

Shayla shook her head. “That’s wrong.”

“I know it was wrong, and I regret that now.
I do. But Carter turned out well.”

“He did?” Shayla questioned. “You know how
much pain he carries around thinking his Mother is dead…thinking
he’s partially responsible for her death and here you are sitting
here alive and well! How dare you do this to him! How dare you,
Jackie!”

“I’m sorry,” Jacqueline cried. “I’m sorry.”
She wiped her eyes yet again. “The only reason I’m telling you this
is so you can get back together with him.”

“We’re already back together, Jackie.”
Jacqueline hung her head even lower. If she had only known…

“So had Carter and I never broke up, you
would’ve taken this to your grave, huh?”

“I don’t know, Shayla.”

Shayla grew even more incensed. “What about
his father? Is he still alive?”

Jacqueline wiped her eyes again, stood up
and walked off into the kitchen.

Shayla followed her, and standing a few feet
away, she asked, “Jackie, is Carter’s father still alive?”

“Yes.”

Shayla caught her balance by holding on to a
kitchen chair, having felt lightheaded at her response.

“He is?”

“Yes. He lives in Ballantyne.”

“Are you still in contact with him?”

“Yes. We had lunch one day last week.”

Shayla thought for a moment and remembered
that Carter said he saw her having lunch last week with the C.E.O.
of the bank. It couldn’t be…

“Chip Fargus is Carter’s father?”

A look of shock overtook Jacqueline’s face
when Shayla uttered his name. “How’d you know that?”

“Because Carter told me he saw you having
lunch with the C.E.O. of the bank last week, Jackie! Oh my God!”
Shayla said, touching her stomach and feeling sick. “This is so
wrong. This is so wrong on many levels.”

“I know it is, Shayla, but it’s for his own
good.”

“How? How are all these secrets supposed to
help my husband, Jackie?”

“The less he knows, the better off he’ll
be.”

“He thinks both of his parents are dead, and
you actually think I’m going to keep this a secret from him?”

“Shayla, some things in life need to be kept
quiet.”

“Well, not this thing. This is my husband
we’re talking about here…your son! You cannot do this to him.”

“I can, and I will. He’s already grieved his
mother.”

“But Lenora wasn’t his mother!”

“As far as he’s concerned she was.” Shayla
shook her head.

“Shayla, please let this be. Please.” Shayla
stood there quietly, recalling her conversation with Carter about
their future kids not having grandparents. He was emotional about
it, she could gather, but tried to keep his cool demeanor. And then
she thought about how far she and Carter had come in their
relationship, their promise of open communication and no secrets.
How could she keep this from the man she loved? The man who’s
always questioned his childhood, his relationship with his brother
and Lenora.

Turning her attention to Jacqueline, she
said, “I’m sorry, but I cannot keep this from him. I can’t.”

“Shayla, please.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry, Jackie.”

“Then let me be the one to tell him,”
Jacqueline countered.

“When? When are you going to tell him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay, well I’m giving you one week.”

“Shayla—”

“It’s bad enough I have to go home and
pretend I’m okay and lie to my husband when he asks me if something
is wrong. As it is, I can’t hide things from Carter so the way I
see it, a week is a generous amount of time for you to tell him and
if you don’t, I will.”

“Shayla,” Jacqueline cried. “You just don’t
understand.”

“No, I
do
understand. I understand
you and your sister had a screwed-up relationship that filtered
down to Jacob and Carter. That’s why their relationship was like it
was. They were just like you and Lenora, only Lenora molded Carter
to be like her, to be a good speaker and be social and she couldn’t
stand her own son because he had your personality. That’s why she
treated Jacob so badly…because he reminded her of you.” Shayla took
a breath. “One week!” she said, then stormed out of the kitchen,
took her purse from the coffee table in the living room and shot
out the door like a swift breeze. She sat in the car and cried,
thinking up ways to explain her puffy eyes to Carter.

Chapter 22

Shayla was expecting her father at any
moment now. He’d flown in from Norfolk alone and had just gotten a
rental car ten minutes ago. Originally, he’d planned on bringing
the boys and his wife, but they ended up out of town, visiting some
of Gail’s family in Maryland, so he came solo. And he hadn’t flown
in on Saturday as he originally told Shayla he would. Today was
Sunday, and he’d be leaving very early on Monday, something that
pissed Carter off more than it did her. The man was missing her
whole life and couldn’t spend a full weekend? With his only
daughter?

Rushing to get dinner ready, Shayla pulled a
plain yellow cake from the oven, then sat it on top of the stove to
cool. Cake would be a good dessert after the garlic sautéed shrimp,
barbecue chicken wings, broccoli and brown rice for dinner.

“Smells good in here, baby,” Carter said,
embracing her, kissing her neck.

“I’m almost done with everything.”

“Good. I’m ready to dive in.” Carter let her
go, then said, “I called Jackie and asked her to come.”

“You did?” she asked, quickly removing the
frown from her forehead before he saw it.

“Yeah. Is that cool?”

“Ah…yeah,” Shayla said reluctantly.

She hadn’t spoken to Jacqueline in a week
and she wondered if she’d told Carter that she was his mother. “So
you talked to her?”

Carter smirked. “Of course I talked to her
baby.”

“Oh,” Shayla said, analyzing him. “What did
you talk about?”

“I just called her to see if she wanted to
join us for dinner. That’s all. Why?”

Shayla shook her head in disappointment.
“Nothing.”

“Plus, I’ve noticed that since you visited
her last week, you seemed to be a little upset, so—”

“What do you mean?”

“You were upset the day you came home from
her house. I noticed it, but didn’t say any thing at the time. And
we haven’t made love not once this week. Under normal
circumstances, you’re all over me, but last week, every time I came
on to you, you gave me the cold shoulder. So…what happened?”

“Nothing.”

“You know you’re not a good liar,
Shayla.”

“Carter, it’s nothing,” she said, kissing
his lips. “I just want to enjoy dinner with my dad and have a
really good time, tonight.”

“Okay. I still feel like I should not have
invited her.”

“Sweetheart…it’s cool. Jack is going to be
here any minute, so let me go ahead and get the rest of the food
together, babe.”

“All right,” Carter replied, taking a shrimp
from the pan with his fingers.

Shayla slapped his butt. “Get outta here,”
she said then laughed.

Just as he was leaving the kitchen, the door
bell chimed. “Looks like he’s here, Shay.”

Shayla rushed to the sink, washed her hands
and dried them with a paper towel. Then she rushed to the door to
find Jack, standing there with a small duffle bag.

“Hi, Jack,” she said cheerfully, embracing
him. “Hey, Shayla.”

Carter stood nearby, watching them hug. He
had so many questions for Jack, he didn’t know where to begin.

“Come on in,” Shayla told Jack.

He stepped in, looked around and immediately
saw Carter standing near a sofa in the living room his arms crossed
over his chest.

Uncrossing his arms and trying hard to
supportive for Shayla, he extended his right hand and said, “Hi,
I’m Carter. Shayla’s husband.”

“Nice to meet you, Carter.”

Wish I could say the same,
was his
initial thought and if Shayla wasn’t there, he would’ve said it out
loud.

“Jack, I just finished cooking. Follow me
this way to the dining room. Carter will take your bag up to the
guest bedroom.”

Once Shayla showed Jack where to sit, she
gave him a glass of ice water and told him she’d be back. Then
jogging upstairs, she met Carter in the hallway as he was leaving
the guest bedroom where Jack would be sleeping.

“Sweetie,” she said, staring into her man’s
eyes. “Please be on your best behavior.”

“I will be, but I’m going to ask the man
hard questions, Shayla.”

“Carter…”

“I’m not going to let him waltz in here and
think he can walk back into your life so easily like you didn’t
need him all those years he wasn’t there. I won’t do it.”

Shayla knew he meant business when she saw
the look of determination on his face. She kissed his lips and
flashed a half smile. “Just remember he’s my father.”

He gave her a wicked smile then followed her
downstairs.

Slamming his hands together to a clap, he
asked, “So, Jack, how was your flight?”

Shayla felt a nervous twinge in her gut.

“It was good. Today was the perfect day for
flying.”

Carter pulled out his chair and sat down at
the table. “I thought you were going to be in town yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah. Initially I was, but something
came up.”

“Oh,” Carter said, then mumbling some
unpleasantries under his breath. But skip mumbling…this was his
house, his woman and he was free to speak his mind. So looking up
at Jack, he said, “Haven’t been in her life for the last twenty-six
years…what’s one more day?”