Justified Love (The Southern Gentleman Series Book 1) (28 page)

“Carrington Grace Mason,” he began lifting my chin to look into those baby blues.

“I’m not going anywhere. There is not enough distance in the world that could change the way I feel about you. When you are with me, I don’t want you to feel terrified or upset. This look, right here, kills me. I’m completely and totally in love with you too, baby. I would do anything for you. However…”
I think I’m going to vomit. I don’t think I could recover from him not wanting to work out a long distance relationship.

“…I don’t want you to leave.”
Another shocker I didn’t see coming.

“But…” I started.

“Shhh. Come with me.” Taking my hand, he led me down the town street. Stopping in front of a beautiful two-story Victorian house, I stood there just staring at its beauty.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

Confused, I replied, “Colt, it’s beautiful, but why are we here?” I questioned. Pulling out a set of keys he took my hand, and place the keys in my palm.

“To start your own law firm here, in Avery.” Looking shocked and shaking, I took the keys.

“Care Bear, although I would do anything to be with you, including having a long distance relationship, I can’t go a single day and not see this gorgeous face,” he said palming my face and placing the sweetest kiss on my lips.

“There are still a lot of people in this town that need your help, and I know you are the perfect person to do that. You saw how Ms. Tuckett felt, and that’s just one person. This town needs you. I need you,” he said wiping my tears away from my face. “Carr, will you stay?”

Not sure what the hell just happened I looked down at the keychain. I noticed a little yellow Care Bear with a sunshine tattooed on its stomach.

“Colt, there’s four keys on here. I’m not sure I need all these,” I said confused.

“Only two of those are the law firm keys,” he said with a smirk on his face.

“I don’t get it,” I said confused.

“These two…” he said lifted up two keys while placing them in my two fingers.

“Are house keys,” he confessed.

“I want you to move in with me at Ole’ Man Johnson’s farm. I can start up my after school program, and renovate the house at night, and on the weekends while you get your firm started up. Papa left this house to me for a reason, and I have to believe that reason is for us to be together. He knew it even before we did,” he said excited.

“This is a tremendous step. I’m just shocked Colt,” I said slightly freaking out.

“I’m not asking you to marry me Carr, not yet at least, but I would like us to take the next step. We wasted too many years questioning the next move. I’ve never been this happy and this sure of anything in my entire life. I want to share this joy with only you,” he professed.

Listening to this man confess his love for me, made my heart melt. Just hearing Colt say he wanted to marry me someday, made me weak in the knees. Just then, I felt my knees buckle underneath me. Colt leaped to grab me and swept me up in his arms.

“Well, that was embarrassing,” I said lying in his giant biceps.

“Watson, leave it to you to turn a sentimental moment into a circus.”

“I couldn’t help it! My boyfriend, who I’ve had a crush on since I was a child, just threw a lot of information at me at one time. Just the fact that you a.) You bought me a house to start up a law firm, b.) Asked me to move in with you and c.) Said you wanted to marry me one day, is a lot of information to take in all at once,” I confessed.

“Carrington, I want to wake up to this face every day, and curl up to this body every night. I want to renovate and decorate our house together. I want to spend lazy summers pushing you on the tire swing and soaking up sun on the lake. I wanna fix the old barn roof just to break it again. I wanna make love to you on the tailgate of the truck; mine or Bessie…doesn’t matter.  I want us to live where our journey started, and make new memories as well.  I know it’s a lot to take in, but I can’t imagine another day with you not in it with me.”

            Trying to digest all this information was a lot for me, but the funny part - I couldn’t see us not doing it together.

“You know Jim’s going to kill me? I’m sure I’ll get nothing for my apartment either, but I wanna do it. I love you, and I can’t imagine not living here with you. It’s going to be hard, and it’s going to be strenuous, but as a team we can do it.”

Shaking his head in agreement, “You and I have been through years of bullshit to get to where we are now. Now, we can enjoy ourselves as a couple.”

“Oh God, what will the girls say, and what will the boys say? Most importantly what the hell is my Dad going to say to this?” I looked dazed and confused.

“Honey, unlike my family, yours is very supportive. I’m sure they will be excited that you’re moving back. As far as the girls and boys, we’ll handle them, but I don’t think they’ll be a problem,” Colt said encouragingly.

“If these are the things we have to worry about, we are in good shape,” he said picking me up and swinging me around.

“Wanna go check out the house?” Colt offered.

“Absolutely! I want to check out what colors I want to paint the house. What to gut, what to add,” I ramble.

“What did I get myself into?” Colt confessed.

“Only the best roommate on the planet,” I said with a smile pulling him close to me.

“We’ll see about that,” Colt added before dipping me and giving me a kiss.

“I love you, Sherlock.”

“I love you, Watson. Now let’s go home.”

THE END

Are you ready for Skye’s journey…?

“YOU DID WHAT?” Harley yelled.

“I’m moving back to Avery; I’m opening up my own law firm, and Colt and I are moving in together. That’s all,” Carr said as if it was no big deal shrugging her shoulders. This was moving so fast. I hope she knew what she was doing.

“Carr I think it’s great, but aren’t you just a little worried about how quickly this is moving?” I volunteered. The look on her face was of pure joy, and it killed me to even suggest such a thing.

“I’ve never been more happy, Skye,” she said with love in her eyes wrapping her arm around me.

Leave it up to Carr to always throw a curve ball into our lives. Until Carr showed up I thought, I had a reasonable life. I was content with my nursing job at the hospital, enjoyed hanging out with friends and with Wyatt, and had a girl’s night every once in a while. I’ve always been pretty laid back and lived a pretty normal life. Yes, my parents are hippies, so nothing about my childhood was conventional but whose childhood is?

One thing that has never changed is my feelings for Wyatt. I like to give him a hard time being the “rock star” musician he thinks he is, but in reality I crave him. Wyatt brings out my sexual being I can’t ignore. One of these days I know I’ll give in, but until that day, I’ll keep playing the best friend card.

Wyatt and I have such different personalities that I had thought perhaps we wouldn’t work out. In reality, I think that’s what terrifies me the most; putting myself out there and being humiliated. We’ve been friends for so long. I’m not like his groupies where I am willing to throw all my morals and values out the window just to stroke his ego. Perhaps Wyatt and I are too different. The question is, do I value his friendship more?

“Earth to Skye,” Carr said snapping me out of my daze.

“Sorry. I was caught up in my thoughts again,” I confessed.

“I think you were smoking some of the stank stuff your parents have,” Harley said giving me a wink.

That’s one thing I definitely didn’t do. I may have hippie parents, but I wasn’t as inhibited as people were led to believe. I tried pot once, but immediately hated it. Although my parents ran around naked all the time, that wasn’t my bag. I’m not saying I’m not comfortable in my skin, just not for everyone and their mother to see. Sometimes I think Wyatt gets the wrong idea of what my home life is really like. Most people tend to jump to conclusions when they know I have hippie parents. People tend to think we are all about “free love” and getting high all day, but that’s just not me. I want to be in a relationship where I don’t have to impress anyone. Being from a small country town, you wouldn’t think there would be people like my family living there.

My family is very eccentric, but they also know how to live off the land. I think that’s what drew my parents to Avery. They wanted the freeing ability to walk about the house naked without neighbors around, growing organic food in the gardens and raising me in a smaller town away from any “radical city dwellers.” I could understand their reasoning, but I also knew we lived in a modern day society where you can’t shield your child from all of the world’s flaws.

“Naw, you know I don’t do that shit. I’ve tried it a couple times, but I never liked the way it made me feel,” I proclaimed.

“Well, I’m not so sure that Wyatt feels the same way. He’s been known to dabble here and there. Thank God, he isn’t a full blown pot head.” Carr interrupted.

“Sometimes I think he lets his “rock star” personality take over his real personality. He’s not this person he projects on stage in real life. It’s very much like dealing with someone with multiple personalities,” I explained. “I just wish he would let people see the real him more often. He’s quite charming when he isn't a total douche bag.”

“I can vouch for that. I know a thing or two about d-bags,” Harley quipped. “Have you met Chuck before?” we joined in for a good laugh.

I loved my girls more than anything, and now that Carr was staying it was like the three amigos were reunited. This time was different. Carr was getting serious with Colton, which could cut us down to two amigos. If Harley finally gives in the Chuck’s advances, I could be left in the dust. Growing up sucks! I guess things change and people change. It was so much easier when we were younger. The responsibilities were milder, and the drama was tamed, for the most part.

“So when are we going to get started on renovating this house of yours?” Harley asked leery. “I’m just letting you know that I’m a horrible painter and even worse decorator.”

“If you have two arms and legs, I think we will be ok,” I said nudging Harley.

“We’ll see about that. As soon as you witness my horrific painting skills you won’t be saying that for long,” Harley added. “Some of us can’t all be world class artists.”

“It would be nice if I could sell anything, but it’s nearly impossible for anyone to see my artwork when we live in bumfuck.” I confessed.

“Well, I for one will be buying some of your work for our house,” Carr said. “I love it!”

“Thank you, Care Bear. I appreciate your vote of confidence, and you can hang them in your attic. It won’t offend me,” I said sympathetically.

“Non-sense. They’ll go in our bathroom,” Carr joked.

“I love you too, bitch,” I said with love.

Just then, my cell phone texts went off.

Mom
: Hey sweetie. I hope I’m not bothering you, but I was wondering if you could come home for a second.

Skye
: Is everything alright? Do you need more wheat grass or something?

Mom
: No sweetie. Everything is fine. I just need you to come home for a second. Your dad and I need to talk to you about something.

Skye
: Oh, ok. I’ll be there in a couple. I just need to say goodbye to Carr and Harley.

Mom
: Sounds good. Bye sweetie.

“I gotta jet. Mom and Dad want to have a little “talk” with me at home. They probably think I took their pot or something. Sometimes I don’t believe they realize how much they smoke. Mom probably forgot she put a stash in her shoe box back in the closet again. Whenever I show her where she put her stash she looks at me like, I am the lost saint she’s been searching for. I worry about them sometimes,” I confided.

“Aight, we’re still meeting up at Ralph’s tonight, right?” Carr asked.

“Hell yeah. Mama needs to get her drink on. Thanks to you bitches, I’ve been stuck dealing with Chuck’s rambling mouth the last couple of days. I need a get away,” Harley added.

“Somehow I don’t think you mind all too much,” I said looking sideways in Harley’s direction. For all, I knew she was banging Chuck on the down low and playing it off. Harley was pretty good at hiding her true emotions. She was a brick wall when she needed to be. She guarded her heart and used her sense of humor as a defense mechanism. She thinks we don’t know, but it’s completely obvious. People might think she’s a bitch on the outside, but we know the real Harley. I’m not saying she couldn’t be a bitch, but that wasn’t her true nature. Under those chocolate bangs was a softy just waiting to break free. I think Chuck is the answer to that, but she won’t let him break through. She is so stubborn sometimes.

●

Pulling up to the house, I couldn’t help but be a little nervous. I was playing it off with my story about Mom’s pot incident. Mom has never outright told me to come home for anything. For her, that was being aggressive. I loved her but sometimes she can be so flighty, while Dad was aloof. Sometimes I wonder how I turned out the way I did.

“MOM! I’M HOME!” I yelled across the house.

“We’re in the living room, sweetie,” Mom said calmly. Responding a little too calmly, if you ask me. Why did I have a feeling my world was about to change, and not for the better? Hearing the echoes of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go your own way” floating from the living room while inhaling the aroma of incense was a clear indication I was home. Removing my shoes before walking through the foyer, I let the soft carpet runner pad my footsteps.

Entering the living room, I looked around for signs of life. Mom and Dad didn’t believe in furniture, so the only means of seating were beanbags on plush rugs and pillows. It always felt like you were from Aladdin living in my own house sometimes the way the taffeta curtains trapped across the ceilings made you feel like you were trapped inside of a genie bottle. Our house was nothing but comfortable.

Immediately I noticed an unfamiliar face across the room. Concerned and confused I slowly approached as if I would scare it. She sat with her back facing me, and had long blonde hair; just like mine. Her frame was even similar to my own. What the hell? I felt like I was having an outer body experience. What was going on here? I immediately felt the sudden need to flee the situation. Turning to run, Mom called me back.

“Skye, there you are. Come. Have a seat. I want you to meet someone.” She coaxed.

Hesitating I walked slowly across the room. That’s when she turned around. HOLY SHIT! It was like looking into a fucking mirror. She was a complete replica of me.

“Skye Breeze, your Dad and I want you to meet, Summer Rose. Your sister.”

WHAT. THE. FUCK!