Accidental Lovers (The Accidental Series, Book 3) (5 page)

While standing there in front of him, she
thought about Carter, remembering how his strong hands melted into
her face as love emanated from his longing eyes. Everything Carter
did for her was for her own benefit. Her protection. The man had
saved her life. Stayed days with her at the hospital. Made sure she
was well taken care of and he’d fallen in love. Even after their
fight that resulted in her moving to Norfolk, Carter still had
enough love for her to call Donovan and have him look after her.
She had no doubt in her mind of Carter’s love for her, but all the
secrets had to stop.

“Um, I gotta go,” she said, breathless.

“Shayla, why not stay until its daylight
outside?” Donovan asked.

“No. I gotta now,” she said, noticing her
shoes were near a small trash can close to the dresser where the TV
sat.

“All right, but what about your father? You
want to meet him, right?”

“Yes, of course. Text me the details when
you can.”

Donovan grimaced and let out a frustrated
breath. She didn’t even say call…she only wanted him to text her.
“All right,” he said.

With that, Shayla rushed to her car,
wondering if Terrance would be upset if she showed up at his
apartment four in the morning, ringing the doorbell like a woman
gone mad, desperate to see Carter. Anger, frustration and all the
madness that came with being with a man like Carter Williams, she
was still very much in love with him. Would she still feel this
level of passion when she laid eyes on him? Or would seeing him
face-to-face evoke those same feelings of betrayal and heartache as
when he told her about Jacob? She didn’t know and she realized she
wouldn’t know until she went ahead and faced him, maybe even called
him.

But her sudden desire to see him was put on
hold when she thought about Jacob.
Poor Jacob
, she thought
as she rode down the street, her vision blurred with tears. Jacob
might not have been the man Carter is, but he loved her, as evident
by asking Carter to take care of her via his letter. And the
thought of Carter being in love with her, only because of Jacob’s
request made her angry. She wanted him to love her because he loved
her, not because his brother asked him to take care of her.

Chapter 7

Shayla regretted the fact that she didn’t
call Carter in the wee hours of the morning while she still had the
nerve, while he was on her mind. She went home instead, got
comfortable in her bed and thought about the time she’d spent with
Donovan. No, she didn’t have any sort of romantic feelings for
Donovan, but she still felt guilty about being with him. In a hotel
room…

The more she thought about it, the worse she
felt. And why was Donovan so eager to help her, anyway? To seek out
her father? Was he really
that
generous, or did he have
other things in mind?

She sat in the middle of the bed and rubbed
her eyes, glanced at the clock and noticed it was close to noon.
She stood up, stretched her arms up in the air and yawned, then
took her cell phone from the night stand. Carter had called three
times this morning alone, followed by a text message that read:
Where were you last night?

Shayla frowned.
So he’s watching me
,
she thought. She should not have been surprised about it. If he
took the time to make sure Donovan was watching her when she was
living in Norfolk, surely he would do the job himself in Charlotte.
Besides, they were still married.

After showering, she headed downstairs for
breakfast. And again, she sat at the table alone, with a cup of
strawberries and a serving of plain yogurt, eating and thinking
about her life. When would she ever talk to Carter again? Why had
Jacob written a note specifically to Carter if he disliked him so
much? Why was Donovan being so nice to her?

She bit into a strawberry and her phone
buzzed, vibrating against the table. She picked it up, noticing it
was Donovan.
I thought I told him to text me
…

“Hello.”

“Hey…it’s Donovan. Look, Shayla, I’m sorry
if I did something to upset—”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, butting
in.

“No. I apologize, okay.”

“Okay.” She tossed another strawberry in her
mouth. “So…um…how did you arrange the meet and greet with my
father?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

“Well, he wanted to meet up Saturday
evening.”

“Okay, so…”

“I’m flying back to Virginia Friday night. I
can get you a ticket to come back with me. Then you can meet your
father and fly back to Charlotte first thing Sunday morning. I know
it sounds like a lot but it’ll be worth it. He’s very anxious to
see you.”

After thinking it over for a moment, Shayla
said, “All right. It’s now or never, right?”

“Right,” he agreed.

Shayla could sense he was smiling from the
way he answered.

“Well, lunch is over for me,” Donovan said,
“So I’m going to get back to work. I’ll call you tomorrow night to
make sure we’re all set for Friday. Sounds good?”

“Yeah.”

“And I’ll go ahead and order your plane
ticket. Hopefully, they can sit you next to me in first class.”

“Okay.”

“Of course if there aren’t any first class
tickets available, I’ll gladly give you my seat and I’ll take a
coach.”

“You don’t have to do that, Donovan.”

“Well, let’s hope they have more seats
available in first class, then I won’t have to.”

“Either way it goes, I’ll give you the money
for the ticket when I see you on Friday.”

“Consider it a gift.”

Shayla sighed. He loved giving gifts. “Well,
thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Talk to you soon,
okay?”

“All right. Bye.”

Chapter 8

After work, Carter went back to his hotel
and changed into some gym sweats. He had so much pent-up
frustration, that going to the gym and lifting weights was one of
the ways he used to relieve some of it.

When he stepped in the gym, he noticed a
bunch of women on the treadmill were staring at him. And after he
walked on by them, he walked over to a weight bench – saw Terrance
standing there with a towel around his neck.

“Tee, why do you have that towel around your
neck? You haven’t even broken a sweat.”

“I was waiting for you to get here,
man.”

“Oh. I thought you’d be in here trying to
impress those women on the treadmill.”

Terrance chuckled. “You mean those women who
all rubbernecked when you walked in? Yeah, I’m
really
gonna
impress them.”

“Whatever, man.” Carter chuckled. He laid on
the bench face up and began lifting weights while Terrance spotted
him.

“So why did you decide to say at a
hotel?”

“I told you why,” Carter said with a
strained voice as he lifted the weights.

“Oh, I’m too loud? Okay, I am loud, but my
place is free.”

“I’m aware of that, but I needed some time
to think…clear my head and get my life right, Tee. I can’t very
well do that with you having the TV cranked up, drinking beer every
night and watching Family Guy marathons.”

Terrance chuckled. “Well, that’s how
I
relax.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with that. I just
needed more quiet time.”

“So anyway, what’s the latest?” Terrance
asked.

“Um…she’s still not talking to me. She
refuses to answer my calls and text messages. I can’t get through
to her.”

“I don’t know why you playing, dawg. Just go
to the house. I mean, it is
your
house.”

“No. Shayla and I own the home
together.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said lifting up the weights.
“Everything I own, she owns.”

“And just how much does she chip in on the
mortgage?”

“She’s my wife, Terrance. I take care of
her…not the other way around. Besides, the house is paid for.”

“Well, it’s good you take care of her and
such being the case, you would think she would at least have enough
respect to pick up the phone when you call.”

“I hurt her,” Carter said, and lifted the
weights so Terrance would put them back on the rack. Carter wiped
sweat from his forehead. “Let’s not forget that this is all
my
fault.”

“But there has to be some sort of
resolution.”

“And there will be. I just don’t know how
long it’s going to take.”

Terrance sucked his teeth. “You’re a better
man than me. I would be over there right now if she was my
woman.”

“Yeah, Terrance…it’s so easy for you to say
what you would do because it’s not you in this predicament. It’s
me.”

Carter moved over to the elliptical machine,
moving his arms up and down.

Terrance followed and said, “All I know is,
if you don’t stay up out of this gym every day, you’re gonna need
new suits to fit those biceps, Mr. Incredible Hulk. In the
meantime, I can let you borrow some of my suits…”

Carter chuckled. “Terrance, you don’t even
own a suit.”

They both laughed, then Terrance saw a woman
he knew who’d just walked through the doors. He told Carter he had
to run off and left him alone at the machine.

Back at the hotel, Carter took another long,
steaming shower, slid into some boxers and sat on the bed, sipping
on a glass of Merlot, another relaxation technique of his in
addition to exercise. If he hadn’t thought of ways to relax and
calm his nerves, he’d go insane waiting for Shayla to offer him
some sign of forgiveness. And he’d go crazy thinking about what she
might have been thinking. And where was she last night?

He took Jacob’s notebook from his briefcase
to read the final passage Jacob had written. It was a bit longer
than the other two entries and Carter was immediately struck by the
first sentence:

I wish I was dead. Sometimes I feel that
way, other times, when I look at Shayla, I don’t. A part of me
wants to be here for her and love her and treat her the way a woman
is supposed to be treated. The other part of me regrets cheating on
her and she’s so busy making wedding plans, she hasn’t suspected a
thing.

* ~ *

Carter dropped the notebook and rubbed his
hands across his head. He was so disturbed by Jacob’s confession,
he stood up and paced the floor. Shayla was smitten with Jacob and
he’d cheated on her? Carter had every intention on letting Shayla
read these notes, but not after this. She could never know
this.

He sat down again and resumed reading:

I don’t even know why I did it. I love
Shayla, but deep down, I know I don’t deserve her. She deserves
someone better than me. Still, that doesn’t justify what I’ve done.
I was wrong and though I know I should tell her about it, I can’t.
It would break her heart and I’d rather die than break her
heart.

Today, my aunt Jackie came to see me.

* ~ *

Carter scratched his head again. Jacqueline
went to see Jacob, when she claimed to not have had any contact
with him? What exactly was she hiding?

She said she was worried about me. Said she
hadn’t seen me in a while and asked me if I was still taking my
pills. I told her I was, but I’d stopped taking those things a long
time ago. Then she asked me about Carter. Said she wanted to see
him. Said she saw him a month ago at some swanky Uptown restaurant,
having dinner with a group of folks. She went on and on and on,
talking about Carter and I just sat there and looked at her like
she was crazy. She knew my issues with Carter, so I’m not sure why
she was so eager to talk about him. Anyway, as I listened to her
ramble on and on about him, all I could think about was our messed
up family – a family that forced you to believe that some woman is
your mother when really some other woman is your mother but no one
wants to tell you the truth. Maybe that’s why I’m so screwed up in
the head…why nothing seems to go my way…why I can’t get a job…why I
cheat on my fiancée…why my life is one disaster after another.

But I’m a grown man now. At some point, a
man, whether screwed up or not, has to take responsibility for his
own actions. I cannot blame my Mother for my current state of
affairs and I cannot blame Carter. Even though we are first
cousins, we were raised like brothers and I love him, as much as I
hate to admit that.

* ~ *

And there it was again. What did Jacob mean
by that? Raised like brothers? First cousins? Carter scratched his
head.

I love him and I looked up to him like a
brother but Lenora made me hate him. She put him on a pedestal and
always asked me why I couldn’t be more like him. Why I didn’t dress
like him and talk all sophisticated like him. Be charismatic and
charming like him. She made me dislike him, and now I’m all alone
in this world, well besides my Shayla. And just what kind of man
would I be for her in my current state? She doesn’t even know the
doctor prescribed pills for me. She doesn’t know I wait until she’s
sleeping to go outside, sit in my car and cry. She doesn’t know
that for the last few days, I’d been thinking up ways to kill
myself and she doesn’t know I’ve already written a suicide note to
Carter. She doesn’t even know Carter exists. But she soon will
because as much as I have grown to dislike him over the years, I
know that there isn’t another man on this earth I would entrust her
to.

* ~ *

Carter turned up the glass of wine to his
mouth, finishing it. What on earth did he just read? There was no
doubt about it. Jacob was screwed up in the head. One minute he
loved his family, the next he couldn’t stand them. And he cheated
on Shayla? If she was
everything
to him, why would he cheat
on her?

Carter glanced at the clock, wanting to call
Jacqueline. It was twenty minutes after ten. It was late…well for a
fifty-something-year-old it was, but he had to call her now. It
couldn’t wait until the morning. He took his cell from the
nightstand and found her name in his recent call history. She’d
been illusive the last time they’d spoken, but now that he had a
little more information to go off of, maybe he could get some truth
out of her this time.