Matchmaker Backfire: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows Who He Wants Book 226)

by Flora Ferrari

  I guess I just wish for a lot of things.

  Hurting my dad, putting Carter on the spot, and not even being out of the bath when it all finally goes down.

  Still. As frightening as it is, I’m kinda glad once I hear my dad and Carter having it out on the landing.

  I know Carter wouldn’t hurt my dad physically, but I’ve never heard my dad so upset.

  I cry myself once I feel my ankle going out from under me as I rush to get out of the bath, but it’s done now.

  Like so many other things.

  He actually asked me to marry him though! Carter Everett asked me to marry him.

  I barely have time to think about it, hurting my ankle again and then scrambling to dry off and get dressed as I hear Carter taking my dad downstairs.

  “Come down here, Greg. Let’s just sit and talk,” he tells him calmly.

  There’s another brief scuffle from my dad and a dry croaking sound, but I know that Carter’s taking dad downstairs to have the talk we’ve been trying to avoid thinking about.

  That’s the kind of man Carter is, even if it hurts. Even when it’s ugly, he’ll meet it head on once he knows what he wants.

  And it’s me he wants now, for good.

  Forever.

  Once I hear them both moving downstairs, and once I’m sure my dad isn’t going to try and hurt Carter or himself in the process, I wrap myself in some towels and make my way to my bedroom, drying off and getting dressed.

  Decent dressed, not just a robe or pajamas.

  I don’t want to upset dad more than he already is.

  My ankle’s killing me but I make the effort to slip on jeans and a sweater, choosing my puffy slippers to match my ankle.

  Each stair feels like a razor on my ankle, but it’s facing my dad that makes me feel worse than ever until I remember what Carter said.

  ‘I love you, Serena. And I want you to be my wife…’

  It’s the one thing that pulls me closer to him again, gravitating down the stairs and not worrying so much now about how upset dad is.

  Carter’s not taking me away, he’s giving me a new life.

  He’s my hero, my best friend.

  But so is my dad… Just in totally different ways.

  I can have both, we can all have each other still.

  Family.

  While Carter and I have our own.

  The thought makes me stop on the stairs, holding my belly for a moment, feeling the magic Carter put inside me, knowing that marrying him is the best thing for all of us.

  It’s the only way for us to move forward now that I’m his.

  Dad’s voice carries up the stairs, jolting me from my reverie as he describes how he dropped everything to fly back once he figured out what was really going on between me and Carter.

  I feel my heart sink, knowing dad would throw away his career if it meant he thought he was protecting me.

  As if Carter was or is any danger to me, except for stealing me away from him.

  I guess dad wanted me to stay a little girl forever, even after college.

  He always said I could stay at home as long as I wanted for free, no strings.

  I just never thought he’d put his own life on the line to keep that happening.

  “I got several calls,” I hear him explaining to Carter as I tiptoe down the stairs slowly, stopping every second step to grind my jaw from the pain in my ankle.

  “The Lodge owners, they called and said you’d left… after they explained what had happened with that woman I tried to set you up with.”

  I hear Carter make a low sound, then feel him listening for me on the stairs.

  It’s hard to explain, but it’s like some sort of ESP between us now.

  We know where each other is at, how the other feels.

  It’s comforting.

  I listen as my dad asks Carter if this is his revenge somehow.

  “Is that what this is? Because I tried to make you happy with a stranger? Or maybe it’s because I actually had a family, is that it…?”

  But Carter’s words cut him off.

  “I’m sorry this hurt you, Greg. You’re like my brother, closer than anyone’s ever been in my whole life. But what happened between Serena and me isn’t anything to do with you. I love her Greg, and I’ve asked her to marry me.”

  I hear a sound escape me, a sound of recognition, hearing Carter explain his love for me.

  “Get in here, Serena,” My dad says, sniffling.

  A lot like Carter, my dad just knows stuff when it’s me. When I’m lurking on the stairs or in the hallway.

  I take a deep breath and walk into the living room where dad’s sitting with his head in his hands and Carter opposite, one leg over the other as he patiently explains the situation.

  Without even looking up my dad asks me if everything he’s heard is true.

  I look over to Carter, who nods in support, willing me to tell my own truth.

  “It is Daddy. I love Carter, I’ve always loved him and now he’s asked me to marry him,” I tell them both, watching Carter's mouth grin with pride before he mouths the words I love you.

  I should go to him, but I sit down next to my dad, putting my arm around his shoulders, lifting his face up to meet mine.

  His tears have stopped, but he looks shattered.

  Beaten.

  “It’s not a contest daddy. Carter can give me a life, a new life with a family… our family,” I remind him.

  Carter flushes with pride again, sensing what we both already know.

  “I won’t have you sleeping with my daughter under my roof,” My dad says to Carter, finally summoning the composure he’s probably wanted all along.

  Carter nods, and I do too. It’s a fair comment. It is his house after all.

  Dad sighs heavily.

  “But I won’t deny my only daughter happiness, love, and the life she deserves either,” he adds, looking from me to Carter.

  “If there is one man I’d trust to have my daughter, to care for her, support her and give her the love and respect she deserves, it would be you, Carter.”

  I watch Carter’s expression change and feel my own doing the same.

  I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

  “Don’t misunderstand me, either of you,” he adds forcefully, “I’m not exactly doing fucking cartwheels over here. But if you’re both sure this is what you want. If you know in your heart that Carter’s the one for you, Serena… What kind of a man… What kind of dad would I be if I tried to come between that?”

  There’s a long silence. And as much as I know dad’s hurting, I know we all feel a lot of relief too that it’s finally out in the open.

  There’s nothing to hide anymore.

  “So, what now?” I ask, choosing to be the first one to speak.

  “What about your work dad? Won’t you get in trouble if you’re-”

  “I’ll go back, sweetie. I just had to come home. To see for myself because I didn’t want it to be true, even though I thought it most probably was,” he tells me, patting his hand over mine before kissing my forehead.

  “We don’t have to stay here,” Carter says, sounding diplomatic and looking to me for agreement.

  “We can go to a ton of places until we find a place,” he offers, making my dad wince.

  “I’d like my daughter to stay at home, Carter. I want you both to give this more time before leaping into anything that’s too hard to undo,” My dad retorts, sounding like he’s going back on what he’s already said, but sighing again, launching himself back in his seat as he shakes his head.

  After taking a minute to collect himself again, he gets up and goes for the front door.

  I follow him, Carter stays put.

  “Just do what’s right for you, honey,” Dad advises me, opening the front door and stepping out.

  I reach for him, but I know him well enough. He’ll walk for a while then he’ll call a car and go back to his job, then he’ll dissolve himself in work until h
e forgets.

  Until he’s forgotten today and how much it hurt.

  Then we can start over as Carter and Serena, not just Serena his daughter.

  “I’ll be alright honey, you call me if you need anything. Alright?” he says, a silver line under one eye as I hug him goodbye, closing the door gently but still feeling more relief than anything.

  Carter holds me once I go back into the lounge, asking me if I’m gonna be alright.

  “We’ll be fine, like you said,” I tell him. “It was never gonna be easy, but at least now he knows. Now we can get on with us?” I ask, looking up.

  So glad to see him smile as one hand moves down to stroke my belly as he leans in to kiss me.

  “All of us, Serena. The whole family,” he whispers.

  EPILOGUE

  SIX MONTHS LATER

  Carter

  “Well. I’d just feel better if you got it looked at,” I tell her, trying and failing to hide my obsessive concern for her.

  It’s been a crazy few months, with her dad being made Vice President of the company he works for, meaning he’s not just out of town, he’s out of the state a lot.

  We’ve stayed in her old place with Greg’s final blessing once he saw the ring and the wedding date. Our own place should be finished being built by the time we get back from our honeymoon.

  But it’s Serena’s ankle that’s worrying me.

  Since that tumble she took in Vermont she’s always favoring the other and I know she’s in pain when she tells me she’s not.

  But today’s the limit and we have nothing else to do.

  “I’ll get the doctor to take a look next time I go,” she says, rolling her eyes and teasing me for worrying so much.

  “That’s perfect. Because I made an appointment for this morning,” I tell her, pulling her close and holding her tight.

  She fake punches me in the chest, calling me a meanie, which sees me grabbing her ass and squeezing it the way I know makes her squeal.

  There’s more of her to love these days, and she tells me off for teasing her by squeezing her all the time.

  “I just can’t get enough of you baby,” I growl, kissing her while I let my hands gravitate towards her thick chest.

  “Keep this up and we won’t be going anywhere,” she warns me, softly biting my lip as she disentangles herself from me, straightening her dress and hair while trying to catch her breath.

  “We’ve got an hour before we have to be there,” I tell her, raising my brow in suggestion, but not this morning.

  I think for once, Serena actually appreciates me taking the lead in getting her ankle seen too.

  All the way there she tries to get out of it, but I’m firm.

  My doctor is the best in town and he’s scheduled a thorough scan and tests for Serena’s ankle.

  Whatever’s wrong, he’s gonna fix it. I already told him so.

  Doctor Goldstein has scheduled an MRI of Serena’s ankle and foot, as well as the usual barrage of health check tests.

  He really is the best and is doing us a special favor by seeing us personally.

  Like I said because I told him that’s what was gonna happen.

  As to the results? Unfortunately, that’s one thing I can’t control, and Serena seems particularly nervous before and during the whole process.

  It’s about an hour before we’re in the doc’s office to discuss results.

  I sit waiting with Serena, holding her hand as she fidgets anxiously. I’ve never seen her so wound up, not since the night her dad came home and surprised us.

  The doctor finally arrives and greets us both but insists Serena stays sitting while I get up and shake his hand over the huge oak desk.

  “Good to see you, Carter. Sorry to have kept you waiting I just wanted to go over some results one more time,” he says gravely as he takes his own seat opposite.

  “Give it to us straight up, doc,” I tell him. If it’s something bad, we need to know now. Not have it sugar-coated for my benefit.

  “Well, Serena? I want you to stay off the ankle as much as possible. You have a micro tear in your Achilles tendon that seems to keep healing and then becoming re-injured,” he says, looking over his glasses to drive the point home, without even needing to show me proof I believe him.

  “And with junior on the way, you’re going to be carrying extra weight for some time yet. Not to mention once he’s out and about, you’ll be swept off your feet. Now, we can arrange a minor procedure, laser surgery… but I’d really like to-”

  I hold my hand up, waving it to stop him from continuing.

  “What did you just say?” I ask him, leaning forward in my seat.

  “It’s laser surgery, Carter. A day stay procedure-”

  Once we both hear Serena’s gasp, her cry of disbelief we both look at her.

  And the Doctor has his first surprise of the day too.

  “You mean?” she asks, “I’m gonna be a mommy?”

  Goldstein frowns before he glances at me, looking like maybe he wishes he’d done an IQ test on us both as well.

  “You didn’t know?” he asks us both, his brow creasing in time with his frown before he beams a huge smile.

  “Well, in that case, congratulations! Yes, you and Carter are going to be the proud parents of a healthy baby.” But my hands are up again.

  I don’t want him to ask us if we want to know the gender. Leaving one little surprise extra for when the baby comes, boy or girl, we’ll both love our baby like nothing on earth.

  We both sit stunned, overjoyed but stunned.

  “I’d say, based on your physical, Serena you’d be about six months pregnant,” he adds, shaking his head to himself as he smiles again.

  “Now, Carter. You do know where babies come from don’t you?” he asks, sounding as serious as ever but obviously having to ask just in case I don’t.

  “Oh, we both do Doctor,” Serena blushes, gripping my hand tighter, sharing the glance that tells him we know all about how babies are made, even if we hadn’t figured out that’s what was about to happen.

  “That first time…” Serena says on the way home in the car. “You felt it then too didn’t you?” she asks me.

  And I have to admit I did. I just hadn’t thought about it a whole lot since asking her to marry me.

  Everything got so busy so quick, with her dad’s promotion and looking over plans, finding the right lot, and setting to work in arranging to build our own house I guess six months goes by pretty fast.

  Plus, we’ve done so much baby making every day, and each time feels so much better than the last I guess we both kinda got lost in each other.

  “Well, that settles it,” I proclaim. “No more running around. I want you on your back with your feet in the air until further notice.”

  “Promise?” she grins, leaning over and squeezing my crotch until I groan.

  “Oh, doctor’s orders,” I promise, kissing her right back as her lips meet mine at the traffic lights until someone behind us honks me back to reality.

  EXTENDED EPILOGUE

  TWO YEARS LATER

  Serena

  “Why would you need to wear it again?” Carter asks, making me growl as I toss the veil from my wedding dress at him as he sits up on one elbow, seeming to enjoy my despair.

  The storm outside lights up his features and a few seconds later a huge rumble of thunder makes the windows shake.

  “For when we re-take our vows, silly,” I almost yell, one of the few things that gets me genuinely mad is not fitting into clothes anymore.

  It’s the most precious memory I have next to the birth of our son Kyle and his sister, Reese.

  “Oh… I knew that,” Carter mumbles, sniffing the veil before laying back in bed as he traces it over his naked chest.

  “I keep telling you Serena, the more of you there is, the more there is for me to grab hold of, and the more there is to love,” he tells me for the millionth time.

  And when Carter tells me stuff li
ke that he’s not just saying it, I’ve seen the effect me looking at myself in front of the mirror has on him.

  It’s maybe why I keep doing it, I dunno.

  I’m never happy with what I see, but by the time Carter’s shown me how much he appreciates it, sometimes an hour or two later, I’m too spaced out from coming so hard on his cock I really forget all about it.

  “It’s not fair though,” I whine, noticing he’s not looking anymore, but I can see his tent pole under the sheets.

  “What’s not fair baby,” he murmurs, pretending to go back to sleep.

  “Your body’s so perfect, you can eat whatever you want and you look better than you did the day I first remember meeting you.”

  He makes a contented sound, enjoying the compliment before his eyes snap open, making me shiver once they scan my nearly naked body standing in front of our bed.

  His eyes move past mine, following my curves down my back to my ass in the mirror, as though he has an extra set of hands somewhere in those dark, brooding pools of mystery I could stare into all day.

  “Get over here,” he commands casually, lifting back the sheet and making me gasp as I feel myself quiver internally at the thought of all of him inside me for the second time today.

  I crawl onto the bed on all fours, making sure Carter has an excellent view of my chest as my breast sway in front of him under my negligee.

  His low growl matches my own sounds as I reach out for his manhood, so hard it seems to get bigger and harder every time I feel lucky enough to hold it.

  But before I can grip his heat, we both hear a familiar sound.

  Carter stifles a sigh and I reach over, pulling the sheet over his hard on trying and failing to cover it.

  “I’ll go,” he says, moving to get up and go to our crying babies.

  “Oh no,” I insist. “You’re not walking around the house with that!” I exclaim, pointing to what I know will have to wait. “You’ll knock something over. Plus not in front of the children, remember?” I remind us both, slipping on my satin robe as I pass the door, gently comforting the little ones with my voice before I even reach their room, which is right next door.

  The storm’s woken the kids, making them a little upset but it’s probably time for at least one of them, our youngest Reese, to have her bottle anyway.