“I thought you didn’t like school.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then why go back? You’ve managed stores for years, now you own Size Me Up with Ellis. What more do you want to learn?”
“I don’t know, maybe I could get a degree in chemistry.”
“But you suck at science.”
“Or archaeology.”
“You’re the last person I can picture digging in the dirt.” She looked down at Belinda’s shoes, one of her favorite pairs: navy-blue patent-leather platform pumps with matching blue bows on top. “I don’t think they let you wear five-inch heels in ancient ruins.”
“You’re not being supportive!”
“I’m sorry.” She smothered a laugh. “But why don’t you start out small. Take a cake decorating class, or photography. You’re so creative. I’ve been asked to teach a beginners’ painting class at the community center. I think I’m going to do it. You can be one of my students.”
“You’re going to teach me how to paint?”
“I taught elementary school art. I think I can manage to teach you a thing or two. What brought on this need to better yourself anyway?”
Suddenly the ball the kids had been tossing around flew in their direction. Without thinking, Belinda shoved Joey at Cherri and caught the ball right before it smacked her in the face.
“Hey, lady. Great catch,” one of the boys said as he trotted up to her to retrieve the softball.
“Great catch? Great catch! How about saying I’m sorry, dingus? I was holding a baby, and you could have seriously hurt him. Or me. You’ve got to be careful around here.”
Belinda stood up and winged the ball over the kid’s head. It landed right in his friend’s glove.
“Wow,” the kid said. “You’re good. You could coach our Little League team.”
He couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve, and suddenly she felt shitty for losing her cool with him. If she couldn’t keep her temper around tweens, then why the hell was her body telling her she wanted a kid of her own?
“I’ll pass. I’m sorry I yelled at you. Go play. Just be careful.”
“You know, you could coach Little League,” Cherri said when Belinda sat back down. “You have amazing reflexes. If that was me I would have been hit.”
Belinda shrugged. “I’m not athletic, but I can catch a ball. I guess that comes with being a pro ballplayer’s daughter.” She looked down at Joey. “Is he okay? I didn’t mean to scare him.”
“He’s a tough boy.” Cherri stroked her son’s cheek. “Now let’s get back to you. What the hell is going on with you today?”
“My date last night. It didn’t end well.”
“Oh, no,” Cherri groaned. “What happened?”
“He told me that if I lost thirty-five pounds, I would be perfect. And then he offered to put me on a diet-and-exercise program. So I lost it on him in one of the most expensive restaurants in Durant. I’m pretty sure I’m banned from there but that’s okay. The food wasn’t that good anyway.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Cherri asked in wonder.
“I’ve been trying to figure that shit out for years.”
“I don’t mean it that way. I’m just trying to figure out why you seem to attract every loser, jackass, and asshole in a twenty-mile radius. You’re gorgeous, Belinda. And you’re smart and you’re funny. Why can’t you find a man?”
“I don’t know. I think going to take a break from dating for a little while. My mother is going to have a shit fit and lament over where she went wrong raising me, but I need a break. I think I need to shake things up a little. I’m feeling restless.”
Cherri nodded. “Just as long as you don’t give up on love. Your guy is out there.”
Belinda said nothing, not so sure that that was true.
“I’ve got some old bread in here.” Cherri pulled a loaf out of her diaper bag. “Let’s go feed the ducks.”
They made their way to the intersecting paths that led to the lake, finding them nearly deserted, like the rest of the park.
The lake was set about two or three feet down from the path. As kids she and Ellis used to take off their shoes and slide down the small incline and play in the water, screaming and splashing at the fish as they tried to nibble at their toes. There was a larger dock on the other side of the lake where her father liked to go fishing for bigger game. She spent so much time here as a kid. It was nice that Cherri took her son here weekly. Belinda thought that if she ever had children of her own, she would do the same thing. She would like to raise them right here in Durant. It was a funky little town, centered around a university. It was filled with coffee shops, hiking trails, and friendly quirky people. She’d spent half of her childhood and some of her adulthood in New York City, then passed some time in San Francisco and a bit in Chicago. But she kept coming back, because Durant was the only place that ever felt like home.
“I don’t see any ducks,” Cherri said, sounding a little disappointed. “I wanted Joey to see them.”
“Maybe they’re a little farther down. I think they like to hang out on the other side of the lake.” They started walking again. “If we can’t find the ducks, maybe we can take him to Moon Panda. They’ve got really good Peking duck, and their rice is to die for. We haven’t been there for ages. Wanna go there for lunch?”
“I wanted to take my baby to feed the ducks. Not feed him duck,” she grumbled. “But yeah, that place is delicious. Only I refuse to eat duck. Chicken, maybe some shrimp, but not duck.”
They grinned at each other for a moment and moved to side of the path as two other park visitors made their way toward them down the path. “I was thinking about taking another trip abroad, but alone this time.” Belinda said.
“Really?” Cherri looked at her. “Where would you go?”
“All over. But Spain mostly. I—”
“Bell?” A man’s voice called. At first she thought she was imagining it.
Nobody had ever called her Bell. Nobody. Except for one man. And it couldn’t be him.
But in the distance she could see a dark-haired man coming toward her.
“Bell, is that you?”
Not him. Not now.
No. No. No. No. No. Shit. No.
She left him three thousand miles away. She left him in a former life. No. Some other woman there must be called Bell.
“Belinda?”
The voice was familiar. Too familiar. It was one that she’d listened to every day for ten weeks in another lifetime.
She looked up to face her mistake, the demon from her past. Her biggest regret. The man she threw it all away for. And as soon as she did, she regretted her decision. The blood rushed out of her head. She felt nauseous and dizzy and confused all at the same time.
It is him.
HIM.
It had been four years since she had seen or spoken to or touched him. Four years, and now he seemed like a ghost.
“Haven’t you received any of my calls?”
His words barely penetrated her ears because she was too busy processing his presence in her world. He was there. In her park. On her side of the world. After four years of silence and hurt and too many thoughts about him.
She forced her eyes upward and locked them on his. They were the same gray eyes that had caused her to melt four years ago. The same jet-black hair. The same patrician features.
The same look of disgust she saw on his face the last time she was with him.
It was him. Carter Lancaster. Her first and only love. But the sight of him proved to be too much, too painful. She tore her eyes away, but not before she caught a glimpse of the female he had with him. The dark-haired little creature whose appearance had marked the end of them. Seeing her more than anything sent her off the deep end.
She took a step back, feeling her heels sink into the soft earth.
“Bell. I…” He came toward her, his hands extended. She took another step back. Her heart was beating too fast. Too hard.
She could feel herself shaking. She had to get away from him. She took yet another step back but it proved one too many. Her heel got caught in the dirt, all five inches of it sinking into the ground. She yanked it hard and her foot came flying from the shoe. She stumbled backward, expecting to hit the ground, but she didn’t. She barely processed Cherri’s scream before she hit the water. She went under but just for a moment; the water wasn’t deep. She landed on her back, and immediately the icy water seeped into her clothes.
“Belinda!” Carter was there in front of her. In the water. In his dark suit. His strong arms lifting her out of the iciness. “Are you okay?”
She was in his arms and leaning against him, her chest pressed to his, and for a moment everything stopped. She looked up into his face. Their eyes met. It must have been for only a second or two, but they met and she could see so much in his. Looking into his eyes she saw hurt and surprise and regret and anger and something softer. It seemed impossible but in that same moment she felt him, too. Felt the strength of his arms as they held her close to him, and the warmth of his body as it penetrated her cold clothes. She felt the pounding of his heart, beating so fast that for a moment she thought it might explode. Maybe that was her heart pounding; she just hadn’t realized it before because she was smashed against him and not sure where he began and she ended.
She shivered and not from the cold.
Four damn years.
Four damn years apart, too many tears and a shitload of hurt and she still reacted to him. Still felt that funny feeling in her stomach and the heat rise in her cheeks, just from being near him.
And she hated herself for that.
She yanked herself away from him, pissed at herself, at her body for betraying her mind. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“You fell in. I thought you were hurt. I was coming after you.”
“You were coming after me? Now?” She dragged her hand through her sodden hair, needing something to do, to distract herself from her shaking hands. “You thought I was hurt? I was hurt four years ago. Why the hell didn’t you come after me then?”
He blinked at her. His face unreadable as it always was. He said nothing. She didn’t know why she was expecting that he would. He never said anything. That was always the problem with them.
“Stay away from me. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
She trudged up the small incline, now completely shoeless. Cherri reached for her hand, helping her back to the path. Belinda took her hand and squeezed, glad her friend was there, glad she hadn’t been alone when she faced him again.
“Are you okay, honey?” Cherri whispered.
“No. But I’ll be fine. I always turn out fine.” They walked away in silence for a few moments, her bare feet feeling each rough piece of gravel as they made their way back to Cherri’s SUV.
“Who is he?” Cherri said once they were in and she had cranked up the heat to warm Belinda. “Who was that man?”
“My husband.”
“You were married?”
“No. Not past tense. He’s still my husband. We’re still married.”
CHAPTER 3
What’ll I do …
Carter lay on the couch with his eyes closed and a throw pillow over his face. His head and heart pounding.
Belinda. Belinda. Belinda.
Seeing her today was a shock to his system. It shouldn’t be.
He knew he would see her again one day. He was planning to see her again. They had things to settle.
Like the fact that she was still his wife.
He just didn’t expect her to be in Durant. She was supposed to be living in Manhattan. The last time he had checked, she was managing some upscale clothing store in the Village. But judging by his half dozen unreturned phone calls, her life wasn’t there anymore.
He had figured she’d moved on to a new city. He’d figured she was halfway across the planet.
He never thought she would be here.
Or maybe, in the back of his mind, he did. Maybe he had hoped he would see her here. In this place that they both were so connected to.
He just wasn’t prepared to see her. Or for the reaction she had when he did.
*
They had met and married within four weeks of laying eyes on each other. It was fast. The whole world told him it was too fast. That they were too wrong for each other. That they were going to fail. But he ignored them. Foolishly ignored them. Because when he was with her, he felt this rush, a kind of high that was not describable. She excited him. She made him want to do things that he’d never thought he was capable of. She distracted him from his otherwise painfully boring life. And when he was with her he began to feel those stirrings of happiness that had always eluded him.
Then she walked out on him, without a word, without giving them a chance. She proved the world right, proved his parents right. She showed them she was just another mistake that Carter Lancaster had made.
He kept telling himself that it was better they had crashed and burned so early in their marriage. If six short weeks with her could affect him so greatly, he could only imagine how he would be after a lifetime with her.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?” Ruby crawled on top of him, placing her knee right in the center of his gut. “Oomph. Watch that knee, Rube, you’re going to kill Daddy.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled. Pulling the pillow off his face, she stared down at him.
She resembled a street urchin. Mrs. Marsh had helped him with Ruby’s everyday care, but now that he was raising her without any help he let Ruby dress herself. Her hair was a tangled mess. Her clothes were stained from the ice cream he had bought her after lunch. She didn’t have on a thing that matched, but he still got the indescribable ache in his chest every time he looked at her.
The love didn’t happen immediately. At first he’d been so shocked to learn she existed that he could only see her as a crying, pooping, vomit machine. And frankly, she scared the shit out of him. Fatherhood, at that time in his life, seemed so far away. He thought he would have time to prepare. He thought he would have the chance to plan for it with the woman he loved, and when Ruby came along he was almost angry with her at first. Angry at a baby. Because when Ruby showed up Belinda went away. His life as he knew it disappeared. His plans for the future. His bright spot.
But all the anger, all the resentment, all of his extreme selfishness, melted away and the love came all at once when she was six months old. It happened when he walked into her room and her face lit up in recognition. And it grew tenfold the day he almost lost her.
“What can I do for you, babe?”
“You owe money to the cuss jar.”
“Do I?”
“Yeah.” She traced the pattern in his shirt with her chubby little finger. “You said a lot of bad words when we got into the car.”
Cursing had been Carter’s biggest bad habit. It was something only people without good breeding did, or so his mother always said. He had picked it up in boarding school, where those with good breeding sent their children, and he had been doing it ever since. But when Ruby came along he made an effort to stop. And that’s how the cuss jar was formed. Ruby got to keep any money that was put in there. At this rate she’d be able to buy a new car before she hit ten. “How much money do you think I should put in there?”
“About twenty dollars,” she said gravely. She reminded him of Bethany, her mother, in that moment.
Bethany was another one of Carter’s mistakes, or so the world thought, but he couldn’t regret the way things had gone for them. Bethany was his childhood friend. His first wife, if wife was the proper term for what she was to him. They had only been a married a total of sixty-four hours before their marriage was annulled. And in that sixty-four hours they had made Ruby. It was too bad a tragic accident had robbed her of the chance to see her baby grow up.
“Do you like living here?” he asked his daughter, trying to push his past to the back of his mind.
He had moved them to the beautiful, funky college town of Durant. Belinda’s hometown. He had loved this place long before he loved her. His old friend Steven was from here. They had become friends in college and on breaks, instead of returning to his stuffy house in one of San Francisco’s wealthiest areas, he came here. When he was fresh out of college and doing his externship in the city, he used to escape to Durant just so he could breathe. He had always felt connected to this place.
There was just something about it.
So when Steven called him out of the blue and told him he was looking for a partner in his architecture design firm, he jumped at the chance. He did it for Ruby, because he thought she would be happier here. He did it for himself because he needed to spend more time with his daughter.
But Belinda was here and even though he knew there was a slim possibility he could run into her again, actually seeing her knocked him on his ass.
He had their divorce all planned out. She would agree to a small but generous settlement. He would file no-fault papers with the court. There would be no long, drawn-out battle. No splitting of assets. Neither one of them would care enough to put up a fight over anything. She hadn’t cared enough to even say good-bye.
Deep down he knew that wasn’t true. She had been shocked to see him. He could see it on her face. The way the blood drained out. The way she stared at him as if he weren’t real. The way she backed away. She was still hurt. He felt the pain, too. And that surprised him. But what surprised him most was his physical reaction to her. When she tumbled into that water she scared him, but when he pulled her out and he felt her cold, curvy body pressed against him, that rush of heady feelings returned, the attraction, the racing of his heart.
Damn.
He’d made it a point to put her out of his mind so many years ago. He’d thought, after so long, that he had—that he wouldn’t feel a thing for her when he saw her again.
He was wrong.
“I like it here a lot,” Ruby said, once again pulling him from his painful thoughts. “You stay with me more.”
He had found a little three-bedroom bungalow in a quiet neighborhood near the center of town. It was very different from San Francisco. There was no opera house, no high society. None of the things he had grown up with. But there was green space everywhere, and a cool little downtown area with funky shops and kids who felt safe enough to ride their bikes around the neighborhood. It was perfect for Ruby. She seemed more content here than in San Francisco.
Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel Page 3
