Back to the Drawing Board (19 page)

“Julia!” I called out. Just as I suspected, she jumped, almost dropping the roller on the floor.

“Carter! God, you scared me!” She stepped down from the ladder, put the roller down, and walked to her phone.

“Good song?” I nodded at her phone, which she immediately silenced.

“I love that song,” she said, her cheeks turning red.

“I guess you do,” I teased. “What was it?”

“It’s Carrie Underwood,” she answered, avoiding my eyes.

I thought I’d heard her name before, but I didn’t know anything she sang. “Well, I’d like anyone that made you move like that. I think we should play that song again.”

“Car-ter,” she moaned, smacking me in the arm. “Stop. I’m embarrassed enough.”

I grabbed her arm, pulling her until her body met mine. She stared up at me, her eyes questioning. “Don’t be embarrassed around me. Ever. I want you to be yourself.” I was still holding her arm, my heartbeat pulsing against hers. “Thank you for bringing me here with you. It has been a real eye-opener. I want to do this again if that’s okay with you.”

She nodded, her eyes still staring into mine. I couldn’t stop it if I tried. I lifted my other hand and caressed the side of her face, sighing when she leaned her face into my hand and closed her eyes. The tension in this room could be cut with a knife. Before I could think any further, I bent my head and brushed her lips with mine, feeling that now familiar shooting electricity every time I touched her.

I pulled back, and she opened her eyes. I knew what I’d been saying. I also knew I was full of shit. At this moment, I wanted this girl more than I wanted anything else. Anything. She smiled, and I rubbed my thumb along the seam of her lips. I moved my other hand from holding her arm against me to the back of her head, pulling her to me again. Our faces were centimeters apart, so close I could feel the puffs of her breath against my lips.

All it would take was for me to close the rest of the distance, and I knew this was going to be the most epic kiss we’d had yet.
Do it already
, I thought. I couldn’t think about what I should or shouldn’t do right now. I closed the distance with a small lunge, capturing her lips with mine so forcefully she whimpered. It only fueled me, made me open her mouth up and take what I wanted from her.

We devoured each other, both of us gripping the other while our mouths released the tension we’d been feeling for weeks. Her tongue moved with mine, equal parts fast and then slow, and had my libido firing on all cylinders. I released her head and gripped her backside, pulling her so tightly to me I didn’t know where she ended and I began. Julia was running her hands through my hair, then down my chest and around my back. When she mirrored my action and gripped her hands on my backside, I lost any resolve I had left. I knew where we were, but I just didn’t care.

Our punishing kisses continued, and I needed to touch her. I lifted her shirt cautiously, but she didn’t slow the kiss or move her hand to stop me, so I kept going. The soft skin of her stomach was almost my undoing. My fingers traced her belly button and then moved up, sliding along the seam of her bra. I wanted to see what it looked like, but she was sucking on my tongue, and there was no way in hell I was stopping her. I touched her breast through her bra, and she moaned into my mouth, her own hands moving to slide under my shirt. She touched my waist and then followed the line of my abs and back down, resting on my shorts.
Please
, I begged in my mind. I was throbbing with need that was thrumming through me like the bass of a drum.

“Julia?” I was confused, knowing I didn’t just say her name. But the second she gasped and stepped back, straightening her shirt, I knew. Colby was here. In the house. I had the immediate urge to pick up the paint can on the floor and chuck it against the wall.
Damn it
.

She looked at me, her eyes wild and her lips red from our kissing. She was panting, just as I was. We didn’t look like we’d been painting. “In here, Colby!”

Within seconds, Colby walked into the room. Julia had picked up the roller and was painting again like nothing had happened. I was standing in the middle of the room, my head still spinning.

“It looks great in here. This color is beautiful. I heard there’s a surprise coming for a certain little five-year-old.”

Julia looked over her shoulder at me. “Carter is working on that. We were just getting ready to stop for sandwiches. Want to join us?”

No, you don’t want to join us
, Mr. Jealousy roared in my head.

“I just grabbed a sandwich myself. It’s in my truck. As long as you don’t mind, I’d love to be inside for a few minutes.”

“Of course, you’re more than welcome,” Julia said, putting down the roller again. “Right, Carter?”

“Right,” I muttered, flinging open the cooler. Looked like I was having a sandwich instead of Julia for lunch, after all.

Ever since our lunch guest had rudely interrupted our make out, Julia and I had been working in separate rooms again. The quiet time left me to reminisce about those few minutes before we ate. I replayed every second over and over in my mind as I painted little Garrett’s room.

Colby wanted her. I knew it. The way he looked at her and hung on every word she said, he’d probably wanted her for a long time. She was either oblivious or not interested, though who knew how long it would be until he took the chance and asked her out. Maybe he already had. I wanted to know, though.

What did our big make out session mean for us now? I was so confused. I knew we needed to talk about it, but all I wanted to do was continue where we left off. I was sweaty and had more paint on me than on the walls. I was ready to pack it up and take Julia back to my place. My reasoning screamed at me, but I was tired of doing what was right. Or at least what my brain said was right.

I swiped the edge brush in the corners, putting the finishing touches on the paint. The chalkboard paint was on the bottom part of one wall; the track for his cars on another wall. The cling on decals would go on once the paint was dry. It was a race car room suited for a race car enthusiast. I hoped he loved it.

“Wow,” her voice came from behind me. I didn’t jump; my body sensed hers the second she walked into the room. “He’s going to
die
over this room, Carter. This is
amazing
.”

I turned, putting the brush carefully in the paint tray. She looked around the room at the different colors, bright and full of life, just like Garrett.

“He told me his story,” I admitted. I wasn’t sure if Julia knew it or not, but I had the feeling she got to know all of the families she worked with.

Her eyebrows went up, and I had my answer. “Really?”

I nodded. “He’s quite a kid. He has a lot of perspective for a five-year-old.”

“He does. He and his mom have been through a lot, most of which he doesn’t remember.”

“A few of the things he said made me think they were in Witness Protection.”

“Alicia doesn’t talk about it, not that she could, but that wouldn’t surprise me. All I know is they have a sad past, and she’s so deserving of not only this house, but her new life as well.”

“The man that raised me wasn’t my father,” I blurted out. Julia stood, waiting for me to continue. “He said he was, but he was lying. He knew from the time I was four years old for sure, but I think he knew way before that.”

“Was he a good father?”

Had Ronan been a good father to me? I’d thought so, but I hadn’t had anything to compare it to until Blake. “In his own way, yes. As much as he was capable of being.”

“When did you find out?”

“When I was eighteen. It was when I almost died in the car accident. It wasn’t until I needed blood that Ronan admitted to my mom that I wasn’t his. By a miracle of God, my mom had reconnected with my actual father, Blake, and that’s when we all found out.”

Confusion crossed her face. I wasn’t making much sense. It was such a long story to tell.

“It’s a long story,” I laughed.

“I want to hear the entire story when we have more time,” she said. “But let’s get out of here if that’s okay. Tracey invited us to go hang out with a bunch of friends at our favorite beer and wings place. You game?”

I looked down at the paint on my clothes, then at her. “I think we need showers first.”

A look I didn’t want to read into crossed Julia’s face. “I know. I’ll take you home and pick you back up if you want? Or you can meet me there. Or . . .”

“Or what?”

“Nothing. Come on, let’s go. Tell me the story in the car.”

I wanted to know what she was going to say more than I wanted my next breath. Had she been about to invite herself to
my
apartment to shower, or to hers? What would I have said if she had? My body knew what it wanted the answer to be.

I didn’t feel like continuing my story once we got to the car. I wanted to hear about her. What made her sad? What made her happy? Who had broken her heart before? And what was her history with Colby?

“Colby was nice,” I said.

“He’s great.” She allowed the conversation switch, and I was grateful.

“Were you two friends in high school?”
Did he date you? Did he want to date you? Does he still want to date you?

“I didn’t know him at all until we started volunteering together. We’ve never been close, but he’s a super sweet guy. He comes out and hangs out with our group sometimes.”

“Will he be there tonight?”

“He didn’t say he would.” She looked over at me while she was stopped at a light. “Why all the questions about Colby? I thought we were talking about your story.”

“I was just curious.”

She smirked, turning back to the road as the light turned green. “Are you going to finish telling me?”

“Okay,” I sighed. “When my mom was a kid, she spent two weeks every summer on Sanibel Island in Florida. Her mom and my dad’s mom, my grandmothers, were friends, and would meet there every year with their kids. My parents were friends from the time they were babies. When they graduated from high school, they realized they were more than friends.”

Julia made a noise, and I looked over at her. She had her hand over her heart. “Oh my gosh. That’s like something from a fairy tale.”

I nodded. “My other dad, the one that isn’t really my dad . . . oh my gosh. This is too confusing. Ronan is the guy that said he was my dad. My real dad’s name is Blake. I’ll use their names from now on, okay?”

“Got it. Ronan, not baby daddy. Blake, yes baby daddy.” We both laughed.

“Yeah. Okay. So Ronan and my mom had been boyfriend and girlfriend right up until the time she left for Sanibel, but he broke up with her rather than try to date when they went to different colleges. When she saw Blake, they finally admitted they had feelings for each other. So they spent the two weeks at Sanibel not being friends anymore. They loved each other. Then my mom went home, and Ronan wanted her back. He was jealous of Blake and just wanted to win. My mom refused, and she went away to college. Except not long after, she found out she was pregnant.”

“With you,” Julia said. “Wow.”

“Yeah. So the doctor told her when I was due and she did the math and figured out that Ronan was my father. So she got back together with him.”

“But it wasn’t true,” she said.

“No. It was the 90’s. Things weren’t as accurate. And Ronan did a bunch of stuff to keep my parents apart. They got married and had me and were married for eighteen years. When my mom took me to college, Ronan decided he wanted a divorce.”

“Wow,” Julia said again.

“My mom went to Sanibel to get away for a while.”

“And she saw Blake,” Julia said, stopping at another traffic light. “I want to cry, and I don’t even know them. They fell in love again, right?”

I nodded. “They hadn’t seen each other in so long, and there was so much they didn’t know that Ronan had done. They figured out most of it while they were there together, but then they found out the ultimate thing.”

“That Ronan wasn’t your father,” she said.

“Yes. I wasn’t supposed to be alive, Julia. When Blake and my mom came over to the hospital, Ronan came. It was then that he finally told them everything. So when I finally woke up, I had to find out my whole life had been a lie. Not only that, but my real dad, Blake, had been shortchanged by the man who said he loved both my mother and me. While I was still in a coma, Blake beat up Ronan so badly that he was arrested. The only good thing Ronan ever did was drop the charges so Blake could be there for my mom and me.”

“Not the
only
good thing, right? I mean, he did provide for you your entire life.”

“Yes, but it was all a lie. Everything he did. He wanted my mom so badly that he manipulated everything and everyone in order to get her. He knew she loved Blake, and he knew I wasn’t his. He could’ve told the truth and let my mom go long before he did.”

“But at least you know now, right? And your mom and dad are happy? You said you have three siblings.”

“They are deliriously happy. Beyond what I can ever hope for myself.”

Julia pulled to the curb in front of my apartment complex. “Why do you say that?”

“I’ve never quite gotten over all of that,” I admitted. “I love my parents. Blake is the best dad, and my mom has always been my rock. I love being with them and seeing that they didn’t let the time they spent apart keep them from being happy now. I look at my little sister and brothers and am so thankful they won’t ever have to find out something so terrible about their family.”