“I figured,” Gina said. “That’s why I kicked them all out, but I live here so you’re kind of stuck with me.”
Carly stared at her baby sister. She was still wearing Gina’s dress, which she was sure she had crumpled beyond repair at this point.
“I’m sorry. I think I’ve ruined your dress,” Carly said.
Gina stepped into the room and softly closed the door behind her. She crossed over to the bed and nudged Carly until there was enough room for her to climb up beside her.
“I don’t care about the dress,” Gina said. She reached out and smoothed Carly’s hair down her back. It was the softest of touches, like a mother soothing a child. It made Carly’s throat grow tight again. “I care about you. Are you okay?”
“Not really,” Carly said. She closed her eyes tight. “I was such an idiot.”
“No, you weren’t,” Gina said. “You fell in love—”
“No, I didn’t,” Carly protested.
“Puhleeze.” Gina rolled her eyes. “I know what love looks like in all of its many torturous forms. For what it’s worth, I think James loves you, too.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Carly said. “I was such a moron. His Pops even told me that James is a fixer, a gatherer of wounded animals and people, the friend to the friendless, he fixes them up and then releases them back into the world.”
“Well, I’d say you’re the wild one he didn’t tame,” Gina said. “Judging by that shove you gave him at any rate.”
Carly grunted. She could still feel her hands connecting with his chest. “I feel a little bad about that. He didn’t deserve it.”
“Hmm, the girls and I were listening at the door, and I didn’t catch all of it, but let me sum up, if I may,” Gina said. “The two of you actually met eleven years ago, about the same time you lost your virginity while dating his cousin Preston, on a bet over a pizza, setting in motion your no-relationship lifestyle. How am I doing so far?”
“Pretty good. For complete disclosure, I have to be honest and say that while I thought Preston and I were a couple, he never did, not really,” Carly said. She didn’t look at her sister while she spoke, not wanting to see the pity on her face. “Thus when he ditched me, I did some light stalking and he hit me with an order of protection. Good times.”
Gina blinked at her. The shock in her eyes almost made Carly laugh—almost. It came out as a strangled sob instead. Gina squeezed her hand and shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Okay, if I ever see that rat bastard, I may have to punch him in the junk,” Gina said.
“Already took care of it,” Carly said. A ghost of a smile passed across her lips and Gina high-fived her.
“That’s my girl,” her sister continued. “Now we fast forward eleven years, you move home, run into James, have a torrid one-night stand—”
“It was not all that—”
Gina shook her head, sending her red curls in all directions. “I was down the hall, I heard the whole thing. Torrid is a mild term for the sexual shenanigans I heard that night.”
“Fine.” Carly felt her face heat up so she grabbed a pillow and plopped it onto her face.
“So, after your one-night stand when you give him your standard heave-ho,” Gina continued, reaching over and taking away the pillow, “James pursued you in the guise of friendship, which turned into something more, because why wouldn’t it? I mean look at him, he’s a god and he’s a sweetheart. Then at his grandfather’s birthday bash this weekend, you faced down Preston and also discovered that this new job you’ve been offered at Penmans came about in large part because James’s grandfather is on the board and he used his connections to encourage them to hire you.”
“Yeah, that’s the part that sucks the most,” Carly interrupted. “I thought I got that job on my own, and I needed that, Gina, I really needed that boost to my confidence.”
“How do you know you didn’t?”
“Because Preston all but said that James manipulated the whole thing,” Carly said.
“Preston?” Gina asked. “The jerk who got a pizza by deflowering you?”
“Did you really just say ‘deflower’? What does that even mean?” Carly asked.
“I was trying to be delicate,” Gina said.
Carly rolled her eyes.
“You know what you need to do,” Gina said.
“Quit the job I just accepted a few hours ago,” Carly said. “Yeah, that won’t make me look like a psycho.”
“No,” Gina said. “You need to go in and talk to your new boss and explain that you want the job but that it has to be on your own merits. Give them a chance to tell you exactly why they hired you, and if it turns out that the Sinclair family was the leverage that got you the job, then you can quit. But you owe it to yourself to find out exactly why they offered you the job, don’t you?”
“Maybe,” Carly said. “But then what? Do I take the job and stay?”
“Do you want to?” Gina asked.
“I don’t know,” Carly hedged.
Gina gave her a look like she wasn’t smart enough to use grown-up scissors. “Come on, you know that what you have with James isn’t something to just walk away from.”
“Do I?” Carly countered. “I mean, maybe I’m just a fix-it project to him.”
“I doubt that,” Gina said. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I still think he’s in love with you.”
Carly thought back over her time with James. He never said “I love you” directly to her but he had told her that he’d fallen in love with her on first sight. Had he? Had James been telling the truth?
“No, it’s not possible,” Carly said. “No one falls in love at first sight.”
“Mom and Dad did,” Gina argued.
Carly glared.
Gina ignored her and said, “You know it’s true. We have to hear the story every April twenty-fourth on the anniversary of the day Dad first saw Mom. She was waitressing at the ice cream parlor, and he saw her through the window and thought he was having a heart attack because his heart stopped at the sight of her.” She paused and the sisters shared a smile and finished the story together. “So he went inside and sat in her station and ate four hot fudge sundaes in a row, until he was stomach sick but had finally worked up the courage to ask her out.”
“Dad is a freak,” Carly said.
“Well, yeah, but—”
“No, I can’t talk about it anymore.”
She couldn’t bear to hear Gina argue with her conclusion, as she was sure her chest might actually explode from the pain she was feeling. Because while James would say that what he had done came from his feelings for her, and while Gina and the others might believe it, Carly couldn’t.
Because the one thing she had learned from Preston, the most valuable lesson she had learned from his cruelty, was that true love didn’t manipulate. True love was honest, it didn’t maneuver or coerce an outcome. Simply put, James had played her to make himself feel better. She had thought that what they had was the real deal. She’d been wrong, so very wrong.
• • •
“When I told her to make you chase her, I didn’t mean across town,” Pops said.
“And I didn’t think she’d steal my Hellcat,” Tom said. “Tell her that’s my new nickname for her, would you?”
“Yeah, if she ever speaks to me again, which isn’t likely,” James said.
He studied the contents of his coffee mug. He wasn’t usually one to get depressed, but the look on Carly’s face when she had shoved him away had been so devastated it had broken his heart wide open. He had hurt her. The one thing he had never wanted to do. He was the guy who fixed things; how could this have happened?
“She’ll speak to you again,” Pops said. James studied the face so like his own. He couldn’t quite tell if Pops was bullshitting him or not. He was pr
etty sure he was.
“Did you really not tell her that you had Pops put in a good word for her?” Tom asked. “As a businessperson myself, I’ve got to say that would piss me off.”
“Very high-handed of you,” Pops said.
“I know, I’m an idiot,” James said. He hadn’t told them the worst of the situation about Preston and Carly and their past. It may have been too little too late, but he figured he could spare her that indignity.
“Can’t argue that,” Pops said. “Although, I might have called you thick instead.”
James sent him a dark look and Pops shrugged.
“So, what’s the plan?” Tom asked.
“I have no plan,” James said. “I asked for five minutes. She gave me five minutes and tossed me out. She clearly hates me, so, yeah, I’m pretty sure I am without a plan.”
“Well, that disappoints,” Pops said.
He poured the last of the coffee from the pot into his mug and topped it off with three teaspoons of sugar and a less than healthy dollop of half-and-half.
“So sorry,” James said. “Got any bright ideas?”
He was pretty sure his sarcasm could have curdled the cream. Pops raised one gray eyebrow at him but said nothing.
“Really?” James asked. “You’ve got nothing? You had to chase Gram for fifty-plus years.” He could hear the desperation in his own voice and he didn’t even care. “Surely, you have something to offer me: advice, counsel, commiseration, something?”
“Nope,” Pops said.
James exchanged an incredulous look with Tom.
“Fear not,” Tom said. “I hear a but in there—of course, it could be just a butt.”
“Don’t be fresh,” Pops said but his voice lacked heat as he tried to hide his smile. “First of all, you blew it. Bad.”
“I got that,” James said.
“Do you?” Pops asked. He sipped his coffee and then gave James a steady look. “What do you think you did wrong?”
“I should have told her the truth about you being on the board at Penmans,” James said. “None of this would have happened if I’d been straight with her.”
“Maybe,” Pops said.
“What do you mean maybe?” James asked.
“Yeah, I’m lost,” Tom added. “I thought lying was the issue.”
“The problem isn’t totally that you didn’t tell her the truth about the job,” Pops said.
Now James was confused. Of course it was. He wondered if turning eighty had caused Pops to start getting dotty.
“The problem is that you see her as someone who needs to be fixed and you, quite arrogantly, figure you’re the man for the job,” Pops said. “No woman wants to be with a man who thinks she is less than.”
“But I don’t,” James protested. “I think she’s amazing. She’s everything I ever wanted in a woman and more.”
“Yes, but she’s not going to think you feel that way when you manipulate her life for her. She’s not your client,” Pops said. “You know, you’re really not helping my theory that brains skip a generation; even your dad has never made this much of a boneheaded maneuver.”
James dropped his head into his hands. Pops was right. It wasn’t just that he’d hurt Carly by not telling her the truth, he had made her feel like he found her lacking. His stomach twisted into a knot. He felt queasy.
“Buck up, buttercup,” Tom said. “You’ll figure it out. You always do.”
“Not if he doesn’t get his head out of his rear,” Pops said.
James glanced up at the man who’d had his back his entire life. Pops was quitting on him. That stung.
“Thanks for the support,” he said.
Pops held up an age-spotted hand. “Wait for it.”
Tom gave James a concerned look. “He’s talking like a hipster. Do you think he’s had a stroke?”
“Nah, his face isn’t sagging and he still has control of his fine motor skills,” James said.
“Ha ha, very funny, I’ll show you my fine motor skills when I flip you off,” Pops snapped. “Now do you want my advice or don’t you?”
“Hit me,” James said.
“Don’t tempt me,” Pops returned.
Tom snorted and they both gave him a dark look.
“Carly is angry because she believes that you were trying to fix her, correct?” Pops asked.
James nodded.
“Okay, so the first order of business is to make sure you don’t do anything that makes you look like you’re trying to change her in any way,” Pops said. “If you love her, you have to love all of her, even the quirks.”
“I do,” James said. “It’s just the commitment phobia, no-relationship thing that’s working against me here.”
“Well, get over that because if you want her, you’re going to have to prove to her that she doesn’t have to change for you,” Pops said.
James’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline and he was pretty sure he was about to have a stroke.
“You do know what commitment phobia is right, Pops?”
“Sure.” His grandfather shrugged. “She’s afraid to settle down with just one guy, she doesn’t want to be vulnerable, she doesn’t want to have to compromise her life for some loser, makes perfect sense to me.”
Tom clapped one hand to his cheek and stared at their grandfather as if he’d never met him before.
“So, what?” James asked. “I’m just supposed to be okay with her shacking up with different guys all of the time? News flash! That. Is. Not. Okay. With. Me.”
“Of course it isn’t. So you’ll just have to run interference with any guys she hooks up with and be the better option,” Pops said. He winked at James and said, “It’s called romancing her, dummy, and you need to go big here. Believe me, it worked for your Gram and me. Ha! You should have seen me when I had to win her over during her cowboy phase. I had to wear a Stetson and I had a pair of assless chaps—”
“Stop!” James and Tom shouted together.
“I’m just saying, keeping a lady happy can be more fun than you’d think,” he said.
James stared at Pops as if he had sprouted horns. He glanced at his cousin and noted that Tom was doing the same thing. Oblivious, Pops finished his coffee and rose from his seat to rinse his mug out.
Tom elbowed James hard in the side. “That was information I did not need to know about our grandparents. Tell the Hellcat she owes me a few therapy sessions now, too.”
“Let’s roll out,” Pops called from the doorway. “I want to get back home in time for lunch. I hear lobster bisque is on the menu at the café.”
Tom rose from his seat and followed their grandfather out the door. Dazed and a bit bewildered, James trudged after them, turning over and over in his mind what Pops had said.
By the time they reached the bright green car, he understood what Pops was telling him; not only that, he had a plan. Before Pops could climb into the car, James hugged him close.
“I take it you’re getting up to speed now?” Pops asked. He leveled James with a pointed look. “Be the man she needs you to be, go all in on loving her and she’ll be yours.”
“I think I’m catching on,” James said. He rubbed his hands together and added, “Good thing you have all those smarts, so you don’t have to get by on your looks.”
Pops barked out a laugh. He pointed to James and then himself, and said, “Acorn, meet oak.”
“Pot meet kettle, yada yada,” Tom said. “Jamie, don’t screw this up. I don’t want to have to drive back here with him. It’s Frank Sinatra the whole way, and he sings.”
James laughed. “No worries. I got this.”
Chapter 34
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t punch you in the mouth,” Zach said.
They were standing in the restaurant portion of the Bluff Point brewery.
The place was empty, save for Carly’s friends and her sister Gina, all of whom had agreed to meet James after hours without Carly. So far it hadn’t gone as well as James had hoped.
Gina had barely acknowledged him, Jillian looked disappointed in him, and Zach was glowering at him, looking like he was going to punch him in the mouth no matter what he said. James figured it was time, as Pops said, to go all in.
“Because I’m in love with Carly, and I want her back,” he said. He was relieved that he didn’t sound as pathetic as he felt.
“Aw,” Mac and Emma said together. Jillian looked concerned while Gina said nothing as she continued studying her manicure as if unaware of James’s existence. The girl had an advanced degree in giving the cold shoulder.
“Assuming we believe you, and that’s a big assumption,” Sam said. “Why should we help you?”
“Because Carly is in love with me, too,” James said. “She just won’t admit it.”
The Maine crew was quiet, glancing at James and then at one another as if trying to decide whether going behind Carly’s back to help him win her back was a betrayal of their friendship or not. James said nothing. He had pleaded his case; now it was up to them to decide whether they were in or out.
He figured it would be easier if they helped, but he was really just doing this as a courtesy. He had a plan and he was going to put it in motion and win Carly back with or without them.
“I believe him,” Gavin said. “I think Carly is in love with him, and I think we should help him.”
James turned a surprised glance at the veterinarian. He hadn’t expected Gavin to be the first one to speak up.
“I’ve seen how you are with Hot Wheels.” Gavin shrugged. “Carly could do a lot worse.”
“Thanks, I think,” James said.
“I agree,” Mac said. “I think we should help. Sometimes a relationship needs a kick in the pants from the outside.”
She slid into Gavin’s side and he pulled her close and kissed her. James had a feeling there was a story there but now was not the time to ask.
“Shall we vote on it?” Brad asked. Emma’s husband was the most pragmatic of the group; well, he was the most skilled at adulting at any rate. James had noticed the few times their paths had crossed that he was the one who mediated the group’s shenanigans.
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