Accidental Heartbreak (The Accidental Series, Book 2) (11 page)

“Hi Rebecca,” Carter said. “Good to see
you.”

“You too, Carter. How have you been?” she
asked, but feeling like a disloyal friend to Shayla after she’d
fired off the question. But what was she supposed to do? Ignore the
man? Shayla was doing a good job of that on her own.

“I’ve been better,” he muttered,
interlocking his fingers, answering Rebecca’s question but staring
directly at Shayla, but she wasn’t looking at him. Still, he stared
and thought of everything he’d been through today in order to see
her. He got up early in the morning, took a six o’clock flight out
to Norfolk, only to find out she wasn’t there. He’d met with
Donovan, got updates on her, and took another flight back to
Charlotte. He’d landed two hours ago, drove to his home and changed
clothes. Then he sped to Uptown like a cop on a high speed chase,
found a parking space then walked a couple of blocks to the Omni.
All to see Shayla.

A few more people joined them at the table –
a young, blonde woman, a brown-toned woman with long, black hair
who couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off of Carter and an older
gray-haired lady joined by a man of similar age, probably her
spouse.

“How are you, Shayla?” Carter asked after
the guests were settled.

The guest all looked up at him to see who he
was talking to. They followed the path of his vision straight to
Shayla.

“Fine,” Shayla responded without even
looking up at him. If she had, she would’ve seen Carter’s eyes
locked on her like heat-seeking missiles. His longing eyes…

Moments later, servers were bringing food
by, but Shayla had quickly lost her appetite.

“This looks delicious,” Rebecca said,
staring down at a plate of rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes,
green beans and a salad on the side.

“Too bad I don’t have an appetite,” Shayla
whispered loud enough for only Rebecca to hear.

Rebecca smiled awkwardly, glancing up at
Carter. His eyes never lost contact with Shayla’s face, although
Shayla wasn’t paying him any attention. As far as he was concerned,
she was the only woman in the room. The only person in the room.
His stares were so intense, Rebecca felt uncomfortable for Shayla.
She knew the story between them, knew Shayla was in love with
Carter once upon a time and Carter had supposedly been seeing
someone else. But if he didn’t want her, why’d he come here,
staring at her like she was his next meal instead of the rotisserie
chicken that remained untouched in the plate in front of him?

Shayla was uncomfortable but reached for the
salt shaker in the center of the table. She didn’t care if Carter
was staring. She had moved on with her life so there was no need to
feel like she was still under his spell. With a trembling hand, she
sprinkled salt on her mashed potatoes and tasted them. “These are
pretty good.”

Rebecca confirmed the same.

Shayla glanced around the room, making sure
not to look at, or make eye contact with Carter. She noticed just
about every seat was filled and everyone seemed to be enjoying
themselves, eating and conversing while soft jazz played.

Shayla stuck her fork in the salad, when she
heard his deep voice, that mesmerizing voice say, “I miss you,
Shayla.”

She swallowed hard. For a moment, she
couldn’t find her breath. Did she hear him correctly? Instead of
acknowledging him though, she kept on talking to Rebecca about last
year’s event. Rebecca had mentioned something about learning some
tricks of the trade that made her shop stand out from others in the
area.

“Remember when I would come home from work?”
Carter said to her. “You used to ask me about my day? Do you
remember that?”

Shayla ignored his question and kept talking
to Rebecca.

Carter continued, “Well, I had one chaotic
day today. This morning, I flew to Norfolk because I wanted to see
you, but you weren’t there.”

That caught her attention, but was he
kidding? Had he actually flown to Norfolk just to see her?

“So, I hopped a flight back here, landed
about two hours ago and now I’m sitting here. With you. Because I
wanted nothing more than to see you today.”

Shayla raked food around on her plate,
anything to keep from looking at him.

“Do you know why I wanted to see you?”

I
know you don’t think I’m about
to answer that
. Shayla took a napkin and wiped her mouth. She
whispered to Rebecca that she couldn’t take any more and was
leaving.

“I wanted to personally thank you for
breaking my heart,” Carter blurted out. If he wanted to get her
full attention, he got it that time.

Shayla looked up at him, their vision fusing
together in one big, frustrated collision. What was he doing? And
whatever it was he was doing, was he really doing it here? In front
of strangers?

“Are you gonna say anything?” Rebecca
whispered behind her hand to Shayla.

Shayla had already decided she would not say
a word. How dare he come here to play more games? To get a rise out
of her? Who did he think he was to track her down and interrupt her
day with his arrogance?
Thank you for breaking my heart
. If
a heart was broken, it certainly wasn’t his – Mr. Playboy himself.
And since when did womanizers have hearts?

“I never knew what this felt like,” he
continued, pushing his glasses tighter onto his face. “Never wanted
to know. And what’s crazy is, I’ve broken a lot of hearts in my
day, even yours, but never had I had mine broken until you left
me.”

Shayla inhaled an angry breath. “What are
you doing?”

“I’m talking to you,” he said with a stern
tone.

“Well, I have no intentions on having this
conversation here. Actually, I don’t intend on having it anywhere
else either.” She took a sip of water and picked up her fork
again.

“You know what it feels like, Shayla? To
have a broken heart?” he asked, completely ignoring everything
she’d said.

Shayla looked up at him and frowned. Of
course she knew what it felt like. She’d had a fiancé who committed
suicide a year ago. Her heart was beyond broken. It was shattered,
and it was almighty Carter himself who helped her put the pieces
back together, only to break it again.

Not getting any response from her, he
continued, “It feels like someone is stabbing me in the chest with
an ice pick only I don’t die…I just continue to feel the pain.
That’s what losing you has done to me.”

Shayla glanced at the people sitting around
the table, watching them pretend they didn’t hear Carter’s words.
They just continued eating as if nothing was going on.

Shayla looked at Carter again, wondering
what the mysterious wetness in his eyes could be. Certainly not
tears. Maybe his eyes were irritated which was probably the reason
he opted to wear his glasses.

“I miss you,” he finally admitted. “I miss
the smell of your hair. I miss your big, beautiful eyes,” he said
and his voice cracked. “I miss your voice. I miss the way you say
my name, the way you touch me. I miss watching TV with you, having
dinner with you, laughing with you. I miss consoling you and taking
care of you. I miss everything about you, Shayla. Everything. And I
know I picked the wrong time to do this, but it’s the only way I
could get your attention. So here I am.”

Carter pulled his glasses from his face,
pinched his eyes shut to keep from releasing tears, but he’d failed
because a few small ones burst through. He brushed them away and
slid his glasses back on, looking at her. “I haven’t touched
another woman since I met you. I haven’t slept with anyone, kissed
anyone, dated anyone – I haven’t been with anyone. Do you know why,
Shayla?”

Carter looked at her intensely for a moment.
He could jump across the table right now, kiss her lips and squeeze
her in his arms but first things first. He needed to put her mind
at ease because there was no other woman for him and she would know
that. Finally.

“I haven’t been with anyone because I love
you. I always have, and I always will.”

Shayla took a breath and when she looked up
at him, a lonely tear ran down her face. She wiped her eyes and
through trembling lips she said, “Don’t say things you don’t
mean.”

“I love you, Shayla,” he emphasized. “I
dream about you. I think about being with you, making love to you,
spending the rest of my life with you because there is no other
woman for me. Only you.” Carter pinched his eyes again while he
watched tears fall from hers. Then he asked a painful question. “Do
you still love me, or am I too late?”

Shayla lost her voice for a moment while
trying to process what was happening. She wiped her eyes so she
could see him clearly.

“Do you still love me, Shayla?”

She opened her mouth but no words came out.
“I…” she managed to say before drops of tears fell from her eyes.
“I never stopped loving you, Carter.”

Relieved, Carter closed his eyes briefly and
released a breath. “Then can we try to make this work?” Before she
could answer, he stood, walked over to her and while standing
immediately in front of her as she remained seated, he placed both
hands on her face and angled her head up towards him. “Can we?”

Shayla closed her eyes. Boy did his warm
hands feel good against her skin. She didn’t realize how much she
missed his touch until now. She opened her eyes and while smiling
through her tears, she said, “Yes.”

Carter smiled, took her hand to help her
stand up in front of him and encased his arms around her, embracing
her so tightly, nothing could pry them apart.

“Aw,” Rebecca hummed, along with the guests
at the table and a few other people who realized what was going on
at surrounding tables.

Carter brushed away her tears with his
thumbs. “Let’s go somewhere and talk. Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” Shayla said faintly. She told
Rebecca that she would see her later and with her right hand in
Carter’s left, they headed for the exit.

Once they stepped outside, Carter seized her
in his arms again, feeling the anxiety and loneliness he’d felt for
the past few months melt away.

Shayla embraced him tightly. She missed him
too. His smell, his voice. His warmth. It was all coming back. He
was her weakness. The man who took care of her and now the man who
could say those three words she’d been waiting to hear from him for
so long.

“I’ve missed you so much, Carter,” she said,
squeezing him even tighter, if that was possible.

“You wouldn’t even begin to understand how
much I’ve missed you,” he told her. “Let’s go home.”

Shayla smiled. “Okay.”

When they broke apart, Shayla told him she
would go and get her car and meet him at the house. And once she
reached the car, she sat, took a breath, and flipped the sun visor
down to look at her face in the mirror. She took some tissue from
her purse and dabbed her eyes and reapplied some gloss to her lips.
Then she started the car, beginning the drive to his place.

When she pulled up in the driveway, she
noticed Carter was already there, standing next to the driver side
door of his truck and watching her drive up and park behind him. He
was amazingly handsome and she could take pride in that now. He was
hers. All hers.

She stepped out of her rental, walked up to
him. “I see the place is still the same.”

“Yeah, especially now that you’re back,” he
said, taking her by the hand as if it was necessary. And when they
stepped in the house, Shayla followed his lead into the family room
and sat on the couch next to him.

For a moment, he stared at her, taking her
all in again – her nose, eyes, ears, hands – he looked her up and
down. Then a smile grew on his face.

“What?” Shayla said, nervous as she’d ever
been. Now that she had the man, what would she do with him? Jacob
was her only real relationship. And Carter was on another playing
field when it came to men. He wasn’t an ordinary man. He was
the
man, the master at whatever he did. And she was sure
lovemaking fell somewhere in that category, especially with all of
his experience.

“I can’t believe I let you leave me. But I’m
glad you’re back.” He took off his suit jacket, loosened his
necktie, unfastened crystal cuff links from his shirt sleeve and
dropped them on the table.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” Shayla
inquired. It was a Monday afternoon after all.

“I probably should, but I’m not. Something
more important came up, so…” He took her left hand into his right,
kissed the backside of it. “I used to sit here and imagine you were
sitting next to me. Now you are.”

“Yeah,” she smiled. “I am.”

“I’m sorry how things played out with us. I
never meant to hurt you.”

“I know.”

“And I hope you forgive me.”

She strummed his back again. “I forgive
you.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t secretly hate me?”

“No.” She smiled.

“Good,” he said. “So I figured we can stay
in for the rest of the day, get reacquainted with each other,
then…order…take-out… for… dinner,” he said between kisses. “You
cool with that?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Carter wrapped both arms around her,
holding her tight. He’d had his woman now and would never let her
go again.

Shayla woke up in the family room, looking
around, reestablishing where she was. The last thing she remembered
was talking to Carter. She glanced at her watch and realized she’d
been sleep for almost three hours.

“You’re up,” Carter said, walking in wearing
a black shirt and blue jeans. No glasses. He’d since put his
contacts in. “You hungry?”

Shayla yawned and stretched her arms in the
air as far as she could. “Yeah. A little.”

“Okay, I’ve ordered Chinese. You want to
come with me to the kitchen?”