Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel (8 page)

“I didn’t think this was that kind of shop. Is there something else you could recommend?”

She simply nodded, afraid to speak in case she got another bout of verbal diarrhea.

“I know I look like a humorless bastard, but I’m not.” He briefly touched her shoulder as his deep voice rumbled through her. “I would like it if you would relax.”

She forced herself to and they spent the next twenty minutes looking for gifts. They settled on a set of crystal perfume bottles and a beautiful understated silver bangle. They weren’t the most expensive things in the store and she probably could have gotten him to spend more on a gift certificate, but thoughtful gifts were always better than cash. At least they were in her book.

“Thank you for visiting us today. I hope we see you again,” she said as she handed him his wrapped packages.

“What time do you get off work?”

“Huh?”

He frowned at her for a moment. “If we are going to be seeing each other again, I need to know what time to pick you up for dinner.”

She turned around to see if there was somebody behind her. There wasn’t. “You’re asking me out?”

He nodded.

“Like on a date?”

“Well, asking you to be my sex servant crossed my mind, but I figured I should at least take you to dinner first.”

She blinked at him. “Was that a joke?”

“It was an attempt at one.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t believe this was happening. She couldn’t believe that a man like him would ever want to date a girl like her. She wanted to say no. They would have nothing in common. Nothing to talk about. They were from two different worlds. “Eight o’clock. I’m done here at eight.”

But he was so damn handsome. And there was something about him. Something a little naughty about him. Something that made her a little nervous and a little excited. And she’d rather spend a couple hours tonight with this coldly beautiful man than in her tiny apartment alone.

“Thank you, Belinda.” He took her hand and squeezed softly. “I’ll see you at eight.”

They were married four weeks later.

“Why are you sitting on the floor hugging shoes?” she heard a quiet voice ask, and she snapped out of the past and opened her eyes.

A wild-haired little girl stood in front of her, her chubby face scrunched with curiosity.

Shit.

She got caught being crazy.

“Because I am trying them on,” she lied.

The kid frowned at her. “You don’t look like you’re trying them on. You don’t even have your shoes off.”

She was right. Belinda couldn’t argue with logic.

“Fine. You caught me. I have fallen so in love with these shoes that I had to hug them. I hug everything I really love. I once held a Michael Kors coat for an hour and a half.”

“Oh.” The child didn’t seem to know what to say to that. Belinda hoped she would scamper off back to her mother, but she didn’t—she stepped closer. “Can I see your shoes?”

“I guess.” She opened the box and held them up for the little girl to see.

She stroked one of the straps, her eyes wide in wonder. “I like them very much.”

“I do too, kid.”

“I’m here to buy new shoes, too.” She lifted her tiny chubby leg to show her a red patent-leather ballet flat. “These are too small. My daddy doesn’t know that he’s supposed to buy me new shoes. I have to tell him everything.”

Belinda nodded, trying to ignore how cute the kid was and that annoying little pull she felt in her chest looking at her tiny feet. She didn’t even like kids, she kept telling herself. They were always dirty and sticky, like they had maple syrup for blood or something. And they always needed something. Like shoes. She wanted no part of them. But this one was really frigging cute. “Daddies can be really kind of dumb sometimes.”

The little girl nodded, and Belinda noticed the large angry-looking scar that covered the upper half of her arm.

“You’re looking at my burn.”

“I am. I’m sorry for staring but it looks like it hurt a lot.” Belinda didn’t know what made her do it but she lifted her hand and ran her fingers across the little girl’s arm. But then she realized that she must seem like a crazy lady and that she shouldn’t be touching or talking to other people’s kids.

“Maybe you should go find your mommy now. Or do you need help finding her? I can help you.”

“It don’t hurt no more.”

“What?”

“My scar. I got in an accident when I was a baby so it don’t hurt no more.”

“Oh, I’m glad to hear that.” She started to rise to her feet. “Let’s go find your mommy.”

“I don’t got a mommy,” the little girl said softly. “She died.”

“Oh.” That stopped her in her tracks. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry, kid.”

Nothing was going right for Belinda today. First her fight with Ellis, then spotting the husband she wished would go away, and now she was faced with a cute lost kid with a dead mother. She should have stayed in bed.

“It’s okay. I don’t remember her. She died when I was a baby.” She shrugged. “You’re not supposed to say the S word. You got to put money in the cuss jar if you do.”

“You take credit cards?”

“Nope.” She grinned again, showing off those damn cute missing teeth.

“Ruby! Ruby!” a man’s voice called.

“I’m over here, Daddy.”

Carter appeared.

Shit. Shit. Shit. The little girl couldn’t be his. But she was. Belinda could tell by the way he looked at her. Relief and love and anger. It fascinated her to see Carter like that. That one look contained more emotion than she had seen from him their entire short marriage.

She was so wrapped up in staring at him that she didn’t notice that he didn’t notice her sitting on the floor. He was too focused on his daughter, and for a split second she wondered if she could get up and sneak away. But she couldn’t force herself to move. She hadn’t seen him for four years and more than she wanted to run away, she wanted to take him in.

He was thirty-five now. There were fine lines around his eyes. The jaw she used to spend hours kissing seemed a little more chiseled. He was still coldly beautiful. Still an enigma to her. Still a stranger. Looking at him even now, four years later, she still felt jittery, but she could see that he hadn’t changed very much. Except that he was a father now and he was looking at his daughter with a mix of frustration and worry and love that made her ache all over.

She should have suspected that the kid was Carter’s, but she’d honestly had no idea. The last time Belinda saw her she didn’t look at her closely. She couldn’t before. Even now looking at Ruby, knowing she was Carter’s kid almost hurt. Sometimes she couldn’t help but to think that if she hadn’t come along they might still be married, but it seemed wholly unfair to blame a baby for the breakup of her marriage. It never had a shot in hell in the first place. There were just too many things against them.

“Ruby, what have I told you about walking away from me?”

“Not to do it,” she said matter-of-factly. “But I didn’t go far.”

“I don’t care,” he said firmly. “You know the rules. Don’t ever walk away from me. You could have gotten lost.”

“But I wasn’t lost, Daddy. I was with your wife.”

“What?” His eyes hardened when they finally settled on her. His body grew tight. He hated her. There was no mistaking it. “Hello, Belinda.”

“Hello, Carter.” She willed her voice to stay steady as her heart raced. She didn’t want him to know how much he affected her. “Long time, no see.”

His hard gray eyes took her in. “I see you’ve met Ruby. Ruby, this is Belinda.”

“I know,” Ruby said softly. “I was talking to her.”

Carter froze. “You were talking to her?”

She nodded. “Are you mad at me?”

“Of course he isn’t.” Belinda raised her hand to Ruby’s face and touched her chubby cheek. “I’m very glad we met today, Ruby,” she said, feeling the strange need to reassure the child. “You’re probably one of the most hideously ugly kids I have ever seen.”

“Belinda!” Carter snapped.

“She’s just joking, Daddy,” Ruby said softly.

Belinda
was
joking. Ruby looked just like her daddy. Curly jet-black hair and steel-colored eyes, strong brows. It might have been a lot on a little girl but Ruby had a small round button nose and a light dusting of freckles that made her look almost delicate.

“Yeah, Daddy. Take the stick out of your butt. I was joking.” She winked at Ruby. “You’re smarter than him already, aren’t you, gorgeous?” She ran the backs of her fingers down the girl’s soft cheek, unable to take them away, unable to stop studying the child who came from the man she had loved.

She nodded. “A little.”

“Make him buy you at least three pairs of shoes,” Belinda said, taking her hand away. “One pair of sneakers so you can play outside, one pair of sandals, and one pair of dressy shoes. Okay? And they need to be half a size bigger than what you need. And make him come back in September before school starts and buy you some more.”

Ruby nodded as Belinda got to her feet. “And new clothes, too. I don’t wear uniforms to school no more.”

“Yeah, and new clothes, too. I have to go now. It was nice meeting you, Ruby.”

She turned to go but Carter grabbed her wrist. Feeling his warm touch on her skin did something to her. It sent tingles along her already frayed nerves. Four years had gone by. Four long years, and his touch still had the power to affect her. “Bell.”

“Yeah?” She knew that she wasn’t going to be able to escape so easily this time.

“I’ve been trying to get in contact with you.”

It was hard but she forced herself around to face him again. She even managed to look into his eyes. They heated for a moment. Anger. He was pissed at her but it only showed for a moment. The cool mask returned, that coldness that always lurked just beneath the surface. “I swear to you, Carter, I never got your calls.”

He nodded stiffly. “I take it you don’t live in the city anymore?”

“Not for three years now. Are you here just for a visit?” she asked hopefully.

“No.” He shook his head. “I moved here. I’m a partner in Steven’s firm.”

“Oh.” She lost the ability to form words. It was too much. Of course he’d moved to Durant. To her hometown. When she left California he was supposed to stay behind along with all the memories of him. He wasn’t supposed to leave and make a bigger mess of her life than it already was. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“You know damn well what I’m asking,” she snapped. “Why here? Why did you have to move here?”

He looked down at his daughter. “I did it for her and honestly, it’s the last place I thought you would be.”

“How could you think—”

He held up his hand, cutting her off. “We will not have this discussion in front of my child. It’s time we settled some things. We need to sit down and talk.”

“I think you’re right.” It was past time. “Call me.” She freed her wrist to pull a business card out of her wallet. “I promise I’ll pick up when you do.”

CHAPTER 5

Do that to me one more time …

For two days after his run-in with Belinda he stared at her business card.

Belinda Gordon. Manager of Size Me Up.

How many times had he and Ruby walked past that store in the near month they had been there? Durant wasn’t a huge town. He was surprised he hadn’t run into her sooner. He would probably run into her a thousand times now that they were both living in Durant, and the next time he did, he wanted things to be settled between them.

He wasn’t sure that was possible. He wasn’t sure he would ever be able to look at her and feel settled. He wasn’t sure if he could ever look at her and feel nothing.

After two days of staring at her card, after two days of trying to think of what he would say to her, he picked up his phone and dialed her number. He held his breath as the phone rang and couldn’t help but wonder how she had spent the last four years, if she dated, if she was seeing anybody now.

It didn’t matter anyway. They were over.

Keep telling yourself that.

Part of the reason he hadn’t sent the divorce papers before was because he was waiting for her to end it first. She had left him. She should be the one to take the steps to dissolve their marriage. If it was up to him they would still have been together. They would have still been happy.

His call went to voice mail, her slightly husky voice telling him to leave a message. For some reason he was relieved he didn’t have to speak to her. It was ironic. He had always been a quiet man, a man who liked to keep to himself, but he always liked to hear Belinda speak. She could talk about everything and nothing. She could go on for hours, but instead of her chattiness annoying him, it used to make him feel not so empty.

Ruby filled up his life these days and he couldn’t fathom his existence without her, but there was still that emptiness, that hole that never felt filled after Belinda had gone.

“Hello, Belinda.” He paused for a moment, his voice not sounding as steady as he wanted. “It’s Carter. I think it’s time we talked. Please call me back at this number when you get the chance.”

He disconnected and walked down the hallway to Ruby’s room, needing a distraction from his thoughts. She was sound asleep, curled up on side, her chubby hand resting on her cheek. It was the same way she had slept when she was a baby. Unwillingly his mind flashed back to two days ago in the department store. He kept seeing Belinda reach up to touch Ruby’s face. He kept seeing how Ruby leaned in to Belinda’s hand, how she responded to a woman she barely knew, how Ruby had talked to Belinda, like she was comfortable, like she wasn’t afraid. Nobody but him could understand how huge that was for his child. His child who barely spoke in school, who grew terribly embarrassed around strangers, had walked away from him to talk to Belinda. He would have expected Belinda to be cruel to her, to shoo her away to make her feel unwanted. But she was the opposite of that. She was kind to her.

Why the hell was Belinda kind to her? She was sweet. She reminded him of that woman he had fallen crazy in love with.
Crazy
was the right way to describe it, because he had never felt sane again after the moment he laid eyes on her.