Unraveled (Holding On Book 3) (13 page)

“A friend with benefits?”
Quinn supplied.

Carly laughed. “Yeah, that.”

“But you love him?” Quinn wondered.

Carly let out a sigh.
“
Maybe
? For such a long time, I thought I loved him. But I also hated him. At the same time, it has always felt so right to be with him. But after all this time, I have to say, I’m having a hard time trusting that this is real. At first, I thought he was joking, just playing me or something.”

“What about now?” Quinn asked.

Carly shrugged. “The more time I spend with him, the easier it is to believe him.” At the same time, she and Nolan had officially been together for well over a year. She had trusted him completely. And just look at what that had gotten her.

Quinn was clearly going to respond to that but Carly just couldn’t take any more talk of Jesse.

“How about you and Luke?” she asked. “How are the two of you doing?”

Quinn let out a little laugh. “We’re exhausted. Either Lydia or
Adela seems to be awake at all times. It’s wonderful but exhausting. I feel like I’m not paying nearly enough attention to Carter. Obviously a new baby is time consuming but
two
of them? I keep telling myself that I’ll get some sleep again eventually.”

“I have an idea. Can I have Carter for the day tomorrow?” Carly wondered.
Quinn did look exhausted. Her face was pale and she had dark crescents under her eyes. Carly wasn’t too worried because her sister looked happy and she knew Quinn was right, eventually the sleepless nights would pass. It was clear to Carly that it bothered Quinn that she thought Carter wasn’t getting enough attention. “I would love it if I could have some one on one time with my favorite nephew. I can bring him over here for the day. We can maybe bake cookies or something.”

She had made cookies with the toddler before.
Somehow, she hadn’t realized how runny the dough was. When the oven started to heat them, the cookies oozed off the edges and over the side of the pan. They had turned into a charred mess on the bottom of the oven. Carly had spent over an hour scraping and scrubbing the oven clean. The acrid stench of scorched cookies had lingered in the air for days. Sadly, she was sure the mishap was all on her. Cooking was not her forte.

“Or I could take him sledding,” she decided.

“If you really want to, he’d love that,” Quinn said. “I feel so guilty that I haven’t been able to give him much one on one time.”

“I’ll be over to get him first thing in the morning,” Carly said with a grin.

The ring of a phone cut through the room. Carly dug into the pocket of the coat she’d tossed onto the arm of the couch.

“Jesse?” Quinn guessed.

Carly shook her head. “Melissa.”

“Go ahead and get it. I need to get home anyway,” she said. She had already bounced up and was making her way across the room. “We’ll talk soon!”

Carly gave her a quick wave with one hand as she answered her phone with the other. “Hey, Mel, what’s up?”

It wasn’t the first time her friend had called. Carly wasn’t sure if Melissa knew about the broken engagement or not. At first, she didn’t want to know. But now, she realized it would probably be best if
she knew ahead of time what everyone was saying.

“It’s about time you answered,” Melissa chastised.

“Sorry, I’ve been busy. My sister had the babies and—”

“I’m going to get
straight to the point,” Melissa interrupted. “Dan heard from Nolan the other day. I heard what that skeezeball did. How are you?”

Carly bit her lip for a second. She knew that some people would be asking that question simply to pump her for information. Others, would ask because they truly cared. She was sure Melissa was one of the rare few who truly cared.

“I’m fine,” she finally said. She knew eventually she’d fill Melissa in on everything that had happened with Jesse. She just didn’t feel like getting into it now, over the phone.

“Such a generic answer.
Then again, that was kind of a redundant question,” Melissa admitted. “So I’ll ask you something else. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Well,” Carly said, “do you happen to know of anyone who is looking for a roommate?”

She was met by a brief moment of silence
as Melissa thought through what Carly was saying. “Oh, right,” she finally said. “That jackass. I don’t know of anyone but I’ll start asking around.”

~*~*~

Carly let out a sound of frustration that was somewhere between a shriek and a growl as she whipped her phone into her pillows. After hanging up with Melissa, she decided it was time to make her daily call to Nolan.

“Jerk!
You jerk
!” she seethed as she glared at her phone. She had been calling Nolan every day this past week. Not because she wanted to talk to him but because Margo was insisting they get their wedding deposit back. Carly couldn’t blame her one bit. The deposit had been quite a hefty sum. She’d left voicemails, not wanting him to think that she was calling him because she missed him. Nothing as crazy or ridiculous as that. She simply wanted to make it perfectly clear that she deserved to get her parent’s money back.

She had been tempted to leave him with a few choice words over his choice of engagement rings. She was proud of herself for holding back. If nothing else, she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how very much it bothered her.

Because she’d been with Jesse every night this week, her mother was demanding she stay home just this once for dinner. She was dreading dinner for multiple reasons. Not seeing Jesse tonight was one of them, knowing her mom was going to bombard her with questions about Nolan was another. Having to tell her mom that he was refusing to take her calls, therefore she had no idea when she’d get her money back, was the worst of them.

When her phone rang, she lunged for it, assuming that it was Nolan, finally calling back.

Fortunately, she took a second to look at the screen. It wasn’t Nolan, it was Jesse. She tried to shake off the anger she was feeling before answering. When he greeted her back with a warm “Hey, Cricket,” the residual anger quickly faded away.

“Hey, yourself,” she said
.

“I know I’ll be seeing you
tomorrow night, but I’m just leaving work and I wanted to hear your voice,” he said softly.

She was glad he couldn’t see the color she felt rising to her cheeks. She bit back a smile for just a moment before saying, “Jesse, Jesse, Jesse. What am I going to do with you?”

She was sure she could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Keep me, I hope.”

11

“What a lucky guess,” Carly teased. “This bouquet is gorgeous.” She stood back from her dresser, where she’d placed them. Fuchsia
and pale pink peonies, half a dozen of each, flowed from the top of a sapphire blue vase. The bouquet was truly one of the most beautiful things that Carly had ever seen. She leaned forward, letting her senses become overtaken by their delightfully exquisite scent.

He gave her a little nudge. “It wasn’t a guess and you know it. I clearly
recall, when we went for a walk at Quinn and Jake’s wedding, that you said you want peonies if you ever get married. You said they were your favorite flower.”

She didn’t bother to try to hide her smile. She had said that. It was mindboggling to her that he remembered.
Quinn and Jake’s wedding seemed like forever ago.

“I didn’t think you were serious,” Carly admitted with a smile.
“When you talked about dates and flowers and whatnot. I really never expected any of this from you. It’s not necessary, you know.”

“Sure it is,” he said as he pulled her to him.
“I told you. I have a lot of years to make up for. So that’s what I’m going to do. I also meant when I said that I’d like you to come with to boring family get-togethers. So if you can, I’d love it if we could spend some time together over the holidays. Christmas dinner will be at my sister’s this year. I have one of those awful holiday parties coming up,” he said with a smirk. “I’d like you to be my date. Then we have New Year’s Eve.” He leaned in and began to nuzzle her neck. “I have every intention of spending that with you,” he said between kisses.

Carly’s knees nearly gave out on her. She sighed as she clung to him. Who would’ve guessed all those tiny kisses could have such a big effect?

“Good,” she murmured, “because I plan on spending the new year with you too.”

He leaned in for another kiss but Carly ducked out of his way.

“We should probably get going. My parents will be home soon.”

As she grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door he said, “I don’t suppose you’ve told them about us yet?”

She made an apologetic face as they walked down the stairs. “No. It’s just that—”

“I get it,” he said, not making her say it. “It’s so soon after your broken engagement. And now you’re with me. Someone you’ve had a completely rocky history with. I’m sure Margo is going to be kind of pissed when she finds that out.”

Carly gave him a sheepish look because he was right. Margo was not going to be happy. Then again… “Don’t take it personally. Sometimes I think she thrives on being unhappy.”

Jesse didn’t bother to comment. Carly knew that
he
knew she was right. He’d known Margo for a long time, in one capacity or another. He knew Margo through Carly and also through Jake and Luke because of Quinn.

Carly skillfully twisted the subject away from her mom as they drove to the restaurant. She did such a good job distracting Jesse with small talk that she’d actually distracted herself as well. She hadn’t realized where they were going until they pulled into the parking lot of Bella’s.

She turned to him with a smile on her face. “Are you serious?”

Bella’s was unquestionably the most expensive restaurant in town. She’d been there a few times with her parents. But no one had ever bothered to take her there on a date before. Of course, she
realized, that probably had a whole lot to say about the kind of guys she’d been dating over the years.

“Of course I am,” he said with a laugh.

She felt that she should maybe protest. It would be the polite thing to do. She refrained from protesting, deciding to graciously accept instead.

“I love it here,” she told him
as they made their way across the ice-dappled lot. Jesse had his arm looped through hers. Such a simple gesture and she simply loved the feel of it.

“Have you been here a lot?”

She shook her head. “No. And then, it was only with my family.”

A small smile formed on his lips.

“Have
you
been here a lot?” she wondered.

He shook his head. “Not too often.” He didn’t elaborate and Carly didn’t ask him to.

Once they were inside and seated, a case of jitters hit her. They had spent most evenings the past week together. It had been relaxing and they’d had fun. As promised, Jesse always stopped things before they went too far. Carly would never admit to him that while she appreciated what he was trying to do, she found it disappointing.

Being with him at his house was familiar and comfortable. Being out with him, at a nice restaurant after receiving an amazing bouquet of flowers was new and exciting.
She glanced around the cozy booth they were in. The cushions were plush. A candle flickered in the center of the table. Jesse had ordered them a bottle of merlot, her favorite, to sip on while they perused the menu.

Her stomach was fluttering in a way it never had before when she was with him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She glanced up at him in question.

“You just have this look on your face,” he said softly.

She gave him a soft smile. “I’m just trying to wrap my head around all of this.”

“It shouldn’t be that hard Carly. I mean, why is it so impossible for you to believe that I want to be with you?” he asked.

She glanced around. She wanted
to be sure no one could overhear their private moment. “I guess because I never believed you’d want to.”

“Well, Miss Johnson,” he said in a teasing tone, “you’ll just have
wrap your head around the fact that you’re wrong sometimes.”

This brought another smile to her face. “I’m so glad you showed up at the bar the other night.”