Chapter Forty-Nine

Reid

We stop at Cat and Reese’s door and right after I ring the bell, Carrie says, “She’ll believe you if you tell her.”

I don’t have to ask what she means. She’s talking about me reading Cat’s column. She’s talking about me pulling the walls down with Cat the way I am with her. She’s pushing me to forget all the reasons I have lived alone and kept everyone, including Cat, at a distance. “It’s complicated, Carrie. Really fucking complicated.”

“And regret is unforgiving.”

Now she’s talking about my mother and the regret I have for not seeing all there was to see with her and my father, but I’m thinking about the regret I already have with her. The door opens and Carrie whirls around as Gabe appears in the doorway. And damn it, he’s paired his black jeans with a black T-shirt that reads Maxwell, Maxwell, and Maxwell, which drives home the connection between us and our father.

I pull Carrie close, holding on, rejecting regret. Gabe looks at me, narrowing his eyes at me, understanding in their depths that his words don’t match. “Holy hell,” he says. “You came.” He glances at Carrie. “And you came.” He winks, acting like the player he pretends to be, his way of keeping everyone at a distance. He’s a loner, just like me, and no one ever knows the real him any more than they know me. Until Carrie.

He backs up and motions us forward. “This way to the party.”

My hand settles at Carrie’s back and I urge her forward, resisting the urge to leave, and reminding myself that the best way for Carrie to see the disconnect between us and my father is to get to know my family, Cat especially. Of course, Cat hating me doesn’t exactly help my case, but I’ll make it work.

We cut right into another hallway and voices sound ahead and to the right, which is where we travel. Just before we clear the archway leading to the living area where the party is taking place, I lean in close to Carrie and whisper, “Food, drink, cake, my bed.”

She gives me one of her beautiful smiles, and a moment later we’re in a room wrapped in windows with a high ceiling that encases a good twenty people, more no doubt, just beyond the open patio door. Gabe is instantly engaged with some blonde while I scan the crowd filled with familiar faces, but Cat and Reese are nowhere to be found. “Let’s look for my sister,” I say, taking Carrie’s hand and leading her forward, only to have us run smack into Lauren, Royce’s wife, and one of Cat’s closest friends.

“Reid,” she says with obvious shock. “You’re here.”

“I am here,” I say. “And so is Carrie.” I introduce the two women, hoping to talk to Royce as well, with no luck.

“Royce has his hands full at the moment,” Lauren comments. “I doubt he’ll make it tonight.” She gives me a coy look. “Cat will be happy that you came. She and Reese just walked to the kitchen right behind us, if you were trying to find her. They didn’t see you.”

“We’ll go find her there,” I say, giving her a nod, and guiding Carrie in that direction.

We enter the room to find my sister, looking as blonde and beautiful as ever, standing next to Reese behind the granite island, a chocolate cake in front of them. “I say we cut it now,” Cat says. “Don’t you want cake?”

“I’d rather have you,” he says, at the same moment he looks up to find us entering. He clears his throat, alerting Cat to our company. “Reid,” he greets.

“Reid?” Cat asks, blinking as if she can’t believe she really sees me.

I urge Carrie forward again, my hand on her back as we step to the island. I’m across from Cat, and Carrie is across from Reese, who I look at now. “Happy birthday, man.”

“Thanks,” Reese says. “Glad to have you here and with a date.”

“This is—” I begin but Cat cuts me off.

“Carrie West,” she supplies.

“I told them about Carrie,” Gabe says, entering the kitchen and walking to the fridge.

“I’m a huge fan, Cat,” Carrie says. “And Reese. I’m following your case through her column. I missed today’s.”

Cat and Reese look at each other and laugh. “Today was—loaded. I don’t like the DA any more than Reid does.”

“What about the DA?”

Cole walks into the room and joins us at the endcap. “He’s a piece of shit,” I say, and then quickly introduce Carrie. “Cole, meet Carrie West. Carrie, this is Cole Brooks, Reese’s partner. His wife, Lori, works at the firm as well. Cole’s the one—”

“Who sued the DA and gave up the settlement. Congratulations on the settlement.”

“Thanks,” he says. “News conference Monday.”

“And I can’t wait to write about it,” Cat says as Lori, a pretty brunette, joins us.

“Reid,” she says, stepping to Cole’s side. “Thank you for kicking the DA’s ass.”

From there, we fall into conversation and Cat and Carrie end up on the opposite side of the island talking while Reese, Cole, and Lori stand with me, talking about the press conference. Somewhere in the process, I grab a whiskey sour from the bar, and Carrie ends up with a glass of champagne. We both munch on some sort of taco a waiter brings us, and while we both chat with other people at a distance, we catch each other’s eyes. I have never been as present with another person in my life.

“What about the cake?” Cat says. “We need to cut the cake.”

Cole is wrangled into carrying it to the living room to a special table that’s set up and everyone gathers around. “Birthday wish!” everyone shouts.

“That Cat gives me her birthday surprise she’s been teasing me with for weeks,” Reese says.

“After the party,” Cat says, linking her arm with his. “When we’re alone.”

“Everyone leave,” Reese calls out. “Party over. No, no, just kidding. Kind of. Everyone eat cake. My wife is going to give me my gift now. Lauren!” He grabs her where she stands next to him and places her in front of the cake. “Give the people cake.” He then scoops up my sister and starts walking.

Carrie laughs. “They seem very much in love.” Her eyes meet mine as they have so many times tonight, but never with the fierce awareness that pulls us together at this very moment.

Love.

Marriage.

Those two words are in the air between us and I cannot say that I have ever had them in the air with anyone else. And I know, I know in that moment that if I don’t stop this now, I’ll fall in love with Carrie. I know all the reasons that’s wrong and can’t work, and yet, I don’t want to stop.

I pull her to me. “Carrie—”

“Cake?”

We look up to have a waiter hand us each a plate. I stroke Carrie’s hair behind her ear. “Later.”

“Later,” she whispers.

We both accept a plate, and neither of us are shy about digging in. “I love Cat,” Carrie says. “And Lori, too, but Cat, just—we connect. Really connect.”

I reach up and wipe chocolate from her lip and lick it from my finger the way I’m going to lick her tonight. She seems to read my thoughts, pink flushing her cheeks in one of her demure moments, which contrast the many bold. I’m hot and hard, and ready to get her out of here when Cat and Reese return and Gabe steps to our side.

“What do you think?” he asks. “Was the gift what we think it was?”

Reese is now standing behind Cat, arm around her hip, hand on her belly. “Look at his hand,” I say. “Yes. She is.”

“Pregnant?” Carrie asks.

We both look at her. “How did you guess that?” Gabe asks.

“A gut feeling,” Carrie says, “But the hand on her belly, on top of the fact that she refused champagne, also makes it a good guess.”

It’s right then that Cat catches our attention and motions us to the kitchen. “We’re about to confirm,” I say.

“Should I stay here?” Carrie asks, tugging my hand as Gabe moves on ahead.

“She’ll ask to see us alone if she wants to see us alone,” I say, turning to face her, “but Cat’s probably more comfortable telling you than me.”

Her hand settles on my chest. “She wants you in her life, Reid. Whatever went wrong, you just have to reach for her.”

“It’s—”

“Complicated. I know. Let’s go hear her news.” She links her arm with mine and my cellphone rings. I snake it from my pocket to find a client, who’s a hundred feet deep in legal issues, calling.

“Go on in,” I tell Carrie. “It’s a client I need to talk to.”

“How important is that call?” she asks. “This is not just some party. It’s your sister in there waiting and this could hold up her announcement.”

She’s right. I stick my phone back in my pocket. “You’re right. I’ll call him back.”

Approval warms her eyes and she pushes to her toes and kisses me. “You might not be the asshole I thought you were after all.”

I mold her close and those perfect curves press to mine, my lips near her ear. “Don’t go weaving fairytales unless they include me spanking you while you’re playing dress-up, preferably in something see-through. And handcuffs.”

“After tonight,” she says, “I might just trust you enough to let you, Reid Maxwell.”

Trust is exactly what I wanted to earn tonight, with the handcuffs as a bonus. “Now you’re just trying to make me drag you into the bathroom and fuck you.”

“That would be bad manners,” she says, tilting those full, kissable lips in my direction, and tempting me ten ways to Sunday.

“And?”

She laughs. “Maybe after another slice of cake.” She twists in my arms and tugs me forward, with me enjoying the view of her perfect ass in those jeans, while hoping like hell that trust is really where we’re headed. The kind of trust that will endure even the most wicked of storms.

I urge her ahead of me to enter the kitchen. Carrie steps to the endcap between Cat and Lori, and I’m just joining her when the unexpected, and unthinkable happens: my father, who never attends family events, walks into the room, inappropriately dressed in a three-piece ten-thousand-dollar suit.

“What’s she doing here?” he demands, claiming the endcap directly across from Carrie and staring her down. “What are you doing here?”