CHAPTER 21
Across the parking lot in his truck with the lights turned off, Trey watched Jack kiss Carly then lead her up the stairs to what he assumed was her apartment above the bar.
The fact he was basically stalking them made him realize he was a sick, sick man, both mentally and now physically too. He watched the light go on first in what looked like a living room and then in her bedroom, before she closed the blinds.
He closed his eyes and banged his head against the steering wheel. What the hell was he going to do? Jack and Carly were up there together doing who knew what.
Actually, that wasn’t true. Trey knew what.
They were doing what he should be doing with her. What they’d done together in Kosovo. What they could be doing together right now if he hadn’t acted like a stubborn ass and pretended their time together meant nothing more to him than a mission.
After a few more bangs of his forehead, he left his head resting there against the truck’s steering wheel.
Feeling miserable and exhausted, he must have dozed off in the darkness.
He awoke with a start to the sound of someone knocking on his truck window.
Groaning, he saw it was Jack staring at him through the glass. He was so busted. How was he going to explain this?
Trey lowered the window with what he was sure was a very guilty look on his face. “Hi.”
Jack shook his head and laughed. “You two stubborn fools are just incredible.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You and Carly, that’s what. You’re in love with her and either too stupid to realize it or too stubborn to admit it.”
Trey sat there, chastised, and let Jack call him both stupid and stubborn. What could he say? It was true. He glanced at the clock. They’d been in her apartment for nearly two hours. What did it matter? Even if he did admit his feelings, to himself and to her, it was too late now.
Folding his arms, Jack twisted his lips into a grimace. “Well? At least admit I’m right.”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I really am happy for you two. I know you care about her and you’ll be good to her. She deserves a nice guy like you.”
Jack shook his head. “Get out of the truck.”
Obviously Jack was going to hit him again. That was all right. He deserved it. Getting out, Trey braced himself for the blow.
“Get up those stairs, you fool.” Holding the truck door open for him, Jack pointed toward the entrance to Carly’s.
Trey shook his head. “I don’t . . . Why?”
“Because she doesn’t want me, Einstein. She wants you. She always has.”
Trey swallowed hard and saw a ray of hope for the first time since Jack had told him about his date with Carly. “You and she . . . You didn’t . . .”
“No. Even if she hadn’t been bawling her eyes out over you, I still wasn’t going to sleep with her tonight. It was our first date, plus it’s only two nights after she’d been with you. That’s not how I roll, Trey. You know that.”
Still in shock, he managed a nod. “I know.”
Jack continued, “Besides, when she was kissing me, I knew she was thinking about kissing you. I’m not willing to be anyone’s second choice.”
God, Jack really was a nice guy. “But you said you were falling in love with her. You were talking about marriage.”
He shrugged. “Hey, I’m a lover. What can I say? I fell in love with every girl on the pep squad in high school too. I’ll get over her, but you better treat her right or so help me God—”
“You’ll punch me again?” Trey gingerly touched his bruised chin.
“Yeah, only this time maybe I’ll actually knock you down.” Jack laughed and then got serious again. “You deserve her more than I do, you know.”
Trey shook his head. “I doubt it. Why would you say that?”
“She told me how that day, when I didn’t know the color of her eyes, you knew. I guess I was always too busy looking at other things.”
To be perfectly honest, Trey had looked at those other things too.
Jack grabbed him in a hug and then shoved him toward Carly’s door. “Now hurry before she falls asleep. Poor thing’s all tuckered out from crying over you.”
“Thanks, Jack.” Slamming the driver’s side door, Trey realized he’d left the key in the ignition and the truck unlocked. Not caring, he ran across the parking lot.
After sprinting up the stairs two at a time, he was faced with Carly’s door. Steeling his nerves, he knocked.
“Did you forget some—” she spoke as she pulled open the door, until she saw him standing there rather than Jack. Then her eyes widened. “Trey.”
She looked just as Jack had described her—tuckered out with eyes red from crying over him. And he had never been so happy to see her.
“Hi.”
“Um, hi.”
Suddenly Trey felt like a shy schoolboy who didn’t know what to say to a girl. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” Carly backed up enough for him to step through the doorway.
Once inside, he couldn’t wait anymore. He just spilled it all in one big whoosh. “Jack says you’re in love with me. Is it true?” She looked horrified, so he rushed on. “Because I really hope it is true. Carly, I’m so in love with you it hurts to breathe.”
Her eyes filled with tears as she flung herself against him. Wrapping his arms around her, he buried his face in her hair.
“Is this a yes?” He mentally crossed his fingers, hoping, until she nodded against his chest.
Relieved beyond all comprehension, Trey pulled far enough away to capture her mouth with his in a crushing kiss filled with all the possessiveness he had tried and failed to fight.
She returned his kiss with the intensity of a drowning woman looking for oxygen.
When he finally had to stop for air, she let out a teary, breathy laugh. “That’s what a kiss is supposed to feel like.”
Confused, Trey frowned. “I agree with you. Why? Was there ever any question about that?”
Carly shook her head. Raising her hands she touched his face as her gaze locked onto his. “No, not really.”