CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CARLY

I  pull up in front of Travis’s house just in time to see a tall leggy blonde creeping out of the front door. “If you want to dodge the press, the side door is usually how Travis comes and goes.”

“Oh,” she says, casting a judgmental glance over her shoulder. “I wasn’t here to see Travis. Thank you, though.” She rolls her bright blue eyes from underneath ridiculously long fake eyelashes. “I have to run.” Her long stiletto shaped fingernails tap the side of her bag like she’s bored out of her mind with our conversation. I can’t say the feeling isn’t mutual. “I don’t want to miss my flight back to L.A.”

L.A.… I let myself in since the door wasn’t locked and take a deep breath. I am not going to let that derail me. It was stupid to think Adair could actually change. He belongs where the action is, and that is definitely not small-town Oklahoma. That isn’t the life for me, though. And that’s okay. This is a dance we’ve done for a long time. What’s one more day?

“Hey,” Adair calls out from the top of the stairs. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“Clearly,” I sneer. Don’t let him see how upset you are. You’re stronger than that, I tell myself.

His eyes shift from being bright and happy to full of concern in a split-second. “Is everything okay, Carly?”

I nod unable to lie right now. Words would not be my friend.

“Okay, well I’ll be ready in just a few minutes.”

“Sure.” I make my way into the kitchen. I eat my feelings when I’m irritated. Don’t judge me. Unfortunately, having two bachelors in the house hasn’t done much fo the food situation. I push things around in the pantry until I find a blueberry muffin still in its wrapper. It’ll have to do. I pick at it and try to focus on it instead of the growing ache in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I should’ve checked the date on this thing before putting it in my mouth.

“You ready?” Adair asks from the entryway into the kitchen.

“How long have you been standing there?”

He shrugs. “Long enough to see the muffin lose it’s battle.”

“Right.” I toss the wrapper and what’s left of the muffin in the almost overflowing garbage can. “Let’s go.”

He’s bracing himself with his arm outstretched blocking my way out. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” I lie, trying to keep my face as straight as I can. I’ve never had a poker face, but now is not the time to let my emotions get the best of me.

“You’re mad about something.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure, you do.”

Since when does he pay enough attention to me that I can’t get hide anything from him? I’m not sure I’m a fan of this new development. “Then what am I upset about?”

“I don’t know,” he admits. “That’s why I’m asking you.”

“It doesn’t matter.” I push his arm down so I can get through and make my way to the front door. “Let’s go.”

“Well, this is going to be a fun ride to the radio station,” he grumbles, grabbing his leather jacket from the coat rack in the entry way.

I’m a mess. I swallow the lump in my throat and ignore the stinging at the corners of my eyes. “It’s fine.” My keys get stuck on a thread inside my bag. I tug on them trying to pull them free. They refuse to budge. I pull harder until the thread snaps and my arm, still holding on to the keys, flies backwards with full force and smacks him in the face.

“What the—” he yells, cupping his face with both hands. Blood spurts out from between his fingers.

“I’m so sorry,” I scramble trying to find anything that might work to hold to his nose until it stops bleeding. “Just lay down on the sofa. I’ll find something.”

“Good luck with that,” he laughs through a cough choking on the blood running down his throat. “Travis doesn’t have anything in this place that might resemble a responsible adult’s choices.”

He’s right. There is nothing here that would even come close to working. “Fine,” I take my sweater off and hold it to his nose. “It’ll stop soon. I used to clock Stone all the time and they always dried up in like ten minutes.”

“That’s not as comforting as I think you might have expected it to be,” he says, his eyes twinkling with humor again as he peeks over the wad of fabric that used to be my sweater. “I didn’t need to ruin your sweater. I could’ve just waited it out.”

I give him a half grin as I hand him a bottle of water I found in the back of the refrigerator. “Here.”

“Thanks.” He takes a sip and lays his head back down to let the blood finish clotting. “I think it’s almost done. I’ll just give it another minute or two then run up and change clothes.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we were running early.”

Early. If I hadn’t been so early, I wouldn’t have caught Miss Fancy Pants leaving. “Right. Silver linings, huh?” It’s better to know now, without a single doubt, that he doesn’t want anything more with me than what we already have. Otherwise, I’d spend my whole life waiting for no reason at all. It’s okay if Adair Miller doesn’t love me. I still love myself and that’s enough. We’re just two different people who happened to be in the same place for too long. I remember the envelope Ridge left the night he stopped by my apartment. I still haven’t opened it. Maybe I should…