Wrong to Love You: Strong Brothers Book 3

by Ajme Williams

  "Carter!"

  I jerked out of my reverie at my grandmother's sharp tone. "What?"

  Her eyes narrowed as she studied me. "Where have you been?"

  I looked from her to Andi and then back to Gran again, not sure what she's asking. "Well, I just got in from Thailand —"

  "No, not your travels, son, I mean just now. You weren't paying attention to a word I was saying."

  Still not completely present, I said, "I met the woman I'm going to marry."

  My grandmother's gray brows shot up to her hairline. Andi let out a gasp. It was only then I realized what I'd said.

  "Who is this woman that you're marrying?" My grandmother asked.

  I shook my head and then for good measure scraped my hands over my face so that I could be completely present. "Sorry. It's not like that, at least at this point. I don't know, there's just something about her. I can't get rid of the feeling that she's the one."

  "Well, tell us who she is," Andi said impatiently.

  "I'm not sure I should." I didn't want to get Jess in any trouble, considering she was so concerned about working for my father. On the other hand, I wasn't a man who kept his thoughts and feelings under wrap. It always seemed to me to be a waste of time to hide when letting out thoughts and feelings was a much quicker way to get things done. I believed that now more than ever since the one time I did keep my thoughts and feelings to myself, I lost Jess.

  "It's dad's physical therapist, Jess."

  Gran and Andi looked at each other for a moment and then back at me, their expressions confused.

  "I didn't even know you'd met her," Andi said. “Noah always said you weren't around when she was there. Was a bone of contention for him for a while." She looked in thought as if she was remembering something. "Although recently he did withdraw that."

  It was probably because he’d noticed my reaction to her. "This isn't the first time I've met her. Four years ago, just before I came on board here actually, I took an adventure cruise through Mexico, and I met her there. It was a shipboard romance that, to be honest, I've always regretted letting her get away from me. But at the time we were caught up in the romance of it all that we kept so much of ourselves to ourselves. By the time I realized that I cared for her, the ship docked and she was gone and I had no way to find her again."

  Andi sighed. "That's so romantic. So, was she surprised to see you again? Are the two of you back together?"

  I shook my head. “No, we’re not together. She's concerned because she works for dad and doesn't want to do anything improper. But I'll admit, I want to find out if we still have something."

  My grandmother's expression was a mixture of happiness, yet concern. "I'm glad to see you thinking like this Carter, because to be honest, I was little concerned your wanderlust might keep you from enjoying the fruits of having a family or take your focus off the business. I do want to give you a word of advice, if I may."

  I nodded. "Of course," I said, never the one to pass up words of wisdom from my brilliant grandmother.

  "Sometimes things aren't always as they seem. Our memories often have a way of deceiving us into thinking of the past as perfection, whereas out in the real world, it may not be. Now that doesn't mean that I'm saying this situation with you and your father's physical therapist shouldn't be pursued, but I am saying that you have to be careful that you don't let memories or a fantasy get in the way of what's real. And you have to remember that reality is often so much better than a fantasy, although sometimes it may not feel that way."

  I wasn't quite sure what she was getting at, except to say that Jess and my relationship before wasn't set in reality, and that real life might show us that we were not compatible after all. That had been one of the reasons that we had kept her personal details to herself, because we had wanted a fantasy.

  Even so, I knew my feelings were real then and now, and I figured I had a month to try and find out if I could rekindle and then build on what had started four years ago. To do that I'd have to defy Jess’s wishes to not pursue her because of my father. But I was an adventurer, and never let obstacles get in my way. Yes, of course I would always respect her, but if there was a way that I could alleviate her concern about my father being her boss, I was going to do it. And then I was going to pursue her hard and fast.

  8

  Jess

  Alex and I were returning from a short walk along the road. When we reached his driveway, I saw a little sports car sitting in the driveway. The door opened, and Carter stepped out. He was in a suit again and my mouth watered at how gorgeous he looked. Next to me, Alex beamed, and Carter trotted over to give his father a hug.

  "You're back again," Alex said to Carter.

  "I'm back to make sure that Jess gave you the cookies I left and didn't steal them and hoard them to herself," Carter said, giving me a wink.

  I smirked at him.

  "Of course, she gave them to me, and then I hoarded them all to myself," Alex replied. Of course, that wasn't true, and Alex had shared his cookies and he was right, they were probably the most delicious cookies in all of San Diego.

  Alex pointed to Carter's car. "Is that new?"

  Carter looked over his shoulder, glancing at the car, and then shook his head as he turned his attention back to us. "No, that's an old one. I did buy a new car though dad. It was just delivered, and I will be back around soon to give you a ride. This one actually I'm taking to donate to charity."

  We all started walking toward the house, when Carter pointed to my car. "Is that bucket of bolts yours?" he asked.

  I gaped at him. "Yes, and I'll have you know that the car gets me from point A to point B back to point A without any problems."

  Carter gives me one of his sexy smirks. "But does it get to points C, D all the way to Z? It looks like it's held together with rust."

  "Now Carter, stop pestering my physical therapist."

  "I'm sorry," Carter said. Then he held out his hand, holding the keys of his little used convertible to me. I looked down on them confused as to what he was doing.

  "I was going to donate it to charity anyway, but I might as well give it to you. I'll take your car and donate it to charity, or to a scrapheap, whatever will take it."

  This time when I gaped, it wasn't an offense, it was in shock. Was Carter really just handing over the keys to his car to me?

  "I’ll sign the title over to you for one dollar, so we can try and avoid those pesky taxes,” he finished.

  I turned and looked at the little red sports car, and the young woman in me wanted to accept his offer. I could already feel the wind blowing through my hair as I drove Highway One along the coast.

  There was only one big glaring problem; it was a two-seater. There was no backseat. There was no place for a car seat for Tanner.

  Sure, I was a little disappointed, but I had already accepted that my carefree life was gone the minute I found out Tanner was coming. And I didn't regret one minute of it, because what Tanner gave me was so much more than what a little shiny red car could give me.

  "Carter, that's really kind and sweet, but I can't take that from you."

  He maintained his smile, but I saw the disappointment in his eyes.

  "In my line of work I have a lot of equipment I have to carry, and it just won't be practical," I said, hoping to soften the blow.

  He nodded as if he did take it and then turned to his father. "I hear there's a new restaurant in the Gaslamp that I think we should all go try out."

  Alex arched his brow. "Your treat?"

  Carter laughed. "My treat. For the both of you."

  Me too? I didn’t go out for dinner as it wasn’t practical or affordable for me. But I’d often wanted to go to the Gaslamp district, the beautiful historic area of San Diego.

  Alex and Carter look at me expectantly. Once again, I had that yearning for something I'd had to give up when Tanner was born, but I worked to push it away, because one of my goals was always to be home for dinner with Tanner.
>
  "Come on, Jess," Carter said. "Have dinner with my dad and me. My other brothers have had all sorts of time to get to know you. I'm just looking to have the same opportunity."

  I arched a brow at him because he knew me very well. He knew way more about me than his brothers did. He knew how to make me sigh, and make me moan, — I shook my head of the naughty thoughts I was having.

  "Yes, please come with us, Jess. You work so hard. I'd love the opportunity to pay you back."

  Carter looked at his father. "Except I'm paying, so I'm paying her back."

  Alex grinned. "Yes, right, of course."

  No, was on the tip of my tongue. "Yes, of course, that would be lovely." I was shocked at myself, but what was done was done. "I'm going to go set up for a little post-walk massage for you Alex. You can meet me out on the terrace,” I said as I hurried away from them and into the house to catch my breath.

  As I got the equipment I needed, and carried it out to the terrace, my head was a whirl with what just happened. Carter just tried to give me a car. And it wasn't some little cheap junker like my little heap. It was an expensive little sports car. It probably still had a lot of miles to go on it. I wondered what it would be like to have that kind of money to just give away a car.

  I chastised myself for not accepting the gift, because I probably could have taken it and traded it in for something that would work better for me and Tanner. Of course, then I have to explain why I'd turned in his kind gift for a more boring sedan.

  Ultimately, it was better that I had refused the gift. Besides, I wasn’t sure it would've been appropriate for me to take a car from a man that I wasn't in a relationship with. During our trip to Mexico, he tried to give me a few gifts, but I refused those as well, mostly because I only wanted to take my memories of him, and not have some trinket to ruminate over.

  Except for Carter, the most a boyfriend had ever given me had been a “gold" necklace that had turned my skin green. The gesture was sincere, but it was nothing like what Carter had just offered. A car! I couldn’t even wrap my head around it.

  As I waited for Alex to join me on the terrace, I made a quick call to Reggie. "Alex and one of his sons have invited me to dinner. I can still say no, but they are insisting it's a treat for me. Would it be a hassle to ask you to watch Tanner tonight for a little while longer?"

  "You know it's no hassle," Reggie said, with an exasperated tone that suggested she didn't like that I felt like I was putting her out by asking for her help. "Little Tanner and I will have dinner and then he and I are going to go get some ice cream."

  In the background Tanner yelled, "Ice cream. Yay! Can I have chocolate chip?"

  "Of course, you can little man," Reggie said.

  "I appreciate this Reggie. And I'll be sure to be home in time to give Tanner his bedtime kiss."

  Once I was off the call, I began to feel guilty. I told Reggie that I was going to dinner with Alex and Carter, because it was a gift they wanted to give me, but I knew deep down that I wanted to go on this dinner for me. I wanted to spend time with Carter and rediscover the man he was or had become since I'd known him four years ago. I wanted him to look at me the way he had just before he kissed me and the other day and when he saw me in my swimsuit.

  It was so dangerous to want all that because it would only lead to frustration since I couldn't go beyond the yearning. And yet I couldn't stop myself from wanting to have just that little sample. It was selfish. Selfish because while it seemed like Carter was willing to rekindle our past, I wasn't going to go there and so it wasn't fair to him. But it was also selfish because I had a little boy at home, and my priority needed to be him, not in satisfying an emptiness I’d been feeling inside me since the day Carter and I parted four years ago.

  9

  Carter

  I watched as Jess scurried inside, like she was uncomfortable being with me. I hated that. Even if we weren't as young and carefree as we were four years ago, why was it that she was so skittish with me?

  "It's one thing to tease my physical therapist, it's another thing to look at her like a sexual object, Carter," my father said, his tone, one of displeasure, which was unusual for him. "It's not like you to openly ogle a woman."

  Perhaps it was time to tell my dad the truth. "This is not the first time I've met Jess."

  My father's expression was confused. "I know you met her the other day."

  I shook my head. "No, I mean I met her before. Four years ago, on that cruise I took to Mexico."

  Similar to my grandmother, my father's brows shot up. "Really? Because the two of you don’t really acting like —"

  "She's worried because you're her boss." That wasn't completely true. The reasoning for her avoiding me now was that she worked for my father, but I don't believe it was the reason why she acted like she didn't know me. There was something more going on here, and more and more I was worried that it involved whoever this Reggie person was. I'd been hoping that he was just a friend or roommate, but I had to consider that he was more than that to her. That would explain why she wouldn't take the car. Or why she wouldn’t go out to dinner with me alone.

  "What does that have to do with anything?" my father asked.

  “She's afraid she might get fired. I guess it must be inappropriate to be involved with the boss’s son."

  My father's eyes studied me. "Involved. Do you mean you had dated?"

  I was an open book, and I loved my father, but I wasn’t not so sure I wanted to share the intimate details of my relationship with Jess four years ago.

  I decided I'd explain it like I did for my grandmother and Andi. "It was basically a shipboard romance, but I'd always regretted letting her go. There'd been something about her, but we had agreed that we wouldn’t share personal information. Instead, we just had a great adventure through Mexico."

  "You’ve had a great many adventures, Carter. I like Jess, and I would hate for you to have another adventure with her and then hurting her."

  "It's not like that, dad." I wasn’t quite sure how everybody got the reputation that I had a woman in every port where I traveled. That wasn't to say that I never did hook up with women during my adventures, but I was nowhere near the horndog that Noah was or Hunter had been.

  "The truth is, if I succeed in getting to know her again, I'm probably the one that's going to end up hurt."

  My father frowned. "Why would you say that?"

  "Because the woman I met four years ago was perfect for me. Even today I still feel like maybe she's the one, like mom was for you."

  Once again, my father's brows lifted, and his eyes rounded.

  "But Jess, she seems skittish around me and I don't know why. Do you know if she's seeing anyone?"

  My father shook his head. "Jess and I have lots of interesting conversations, but we don't get into personal details because it wouldn’t be appropriate since I’m her boss."

  I nodded. "That's why she's telling me she won't go to dinner with me."

  "Well, far be it for me to keep my son away from the woman who might be the one. If she hurts you, I won’t fire her, but I won't like it."

  "You need to hurry up and get better then, so whatever happens, won't impact you."

  My father put his hand on my shoulder. "Whether she is still working with me or not, if she were to hurt you, Carter, I wouldn’t like it."

  I smiled, because even as a grown ass adult, it was nice to feel a parent’s love.

  While he went off to have his massage, I told them I'd be back later to pick them up for dinner, and then I left to run a few errands. Once I was done with my errands, I went home to clean up, and switched out my cars opting for the SUV since I would have two passengers.

  I showed up back at my dad's house, parking in front of the door so he wouldn't have to walk very far to get in. I entered the house, calling out for my dad, letting him know I was there.

  A door opened down the hall and I waited in the living area for him to come out to greet me, wondering where
Jess had gone. Her car was here, which was a good sign. I had a thought that she might have bugged out on us.

  I turned toward the sound behind me, and my mouth went dry. Jess stood there in a lovely soft pink dress that looked vaguely familiar. It hugged her lovely curves and I had to shove my hands in my pockets because I was about ready to rush over and touch her luscious skin. Her thick red locks, that she normally wore up, were down hanging loose around her face and shoulders.

  I swallowed hard. "Hi."

  "Hi." Her smile was tentative, but that didn't stop it from melting me from the inside out. “Your father said I could wear this.”

  At that point I remembered it as one of my mother’s dresses. My father had donated much of her clothes, but had kept a few. I’m not sure what was special about this dress, unless the cosmos knew Jess would be here and needed a perfect dress to wear.

  “It’s…” I wasn’t sure what to say. I wanted to tell her she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever met, but considering how she was so resistant to me, I felt like that might be over the top. “Lovely. You’re lovely.”

  "Are we ready to go?" my father said as he appeared from the hallway.

  I shook myself from the fugue state I often got into where Jess was concerned, and said, "Yep. Your chariot is parked right outside."

  I drove us to the new upscale Mexican restaurant that I'd heard about. I'd selected it because I hoped that it would remind Jess of the fun we had in Mexico. Granted, having my father there as a chaperone, wasn't going to allow me and Jess to delve into some of the more erotic or romantic details of our time in Mexico, but still I needed her to remember how it had been between us then.