Page 25 of Loving Carter
We eat our lunch quickly, and when I’m finished, I lean back and pat my tummy. “I know I ate too much, but that was really good.”
“Yeah, it’s best we don’t have food trucks, but I will say, the food is great.”
“True.” I gather the wrappers from the burgers and the fries and start to get up when Carter stops me.
“You’ve got ketchup on your face,” he says.
I start to dig my napkin out of the pile of papers I’m holding when he says, “I’ll get it.”
He stands up and circles the table. Then he sits next to me, and slowly with his napkin, wipes the corner of my mouth.
“Did you get it?” I ask. “Are we all set?”
For a long moment, he simply looks at me, his gaze intense. After a few moments, he says, “Yes.”
As we’re walking back to his truck, I keep thinking about how he said yes. It sounded odd, very deep and strained. Once again, I can’t help thinking he’s mad at me. Maybe he’s just not telling me. But then I think about his gaze. He wasn’t looking at me like he was mad.
My head starts to hurt, and I idly rub my right temple. I’d ask him once again if he’s mad, but come on. I can’t keep asking him that. He’s going to have to tell me if he’s mad and more importantlywhyhe’s mad. I’m not going to hover over him.
Like I said before, sometimes my best friend is really annoying.
Chapter Four
Carter
I’m sitting at my desk, not doing my work. I should be. The accounts for the ranch need to be updated, and I need to finish the bills for the current group of visitors. But instead, I’m staring at my computer. Yesterday, Skylar and I went to see the food trucks. The visit was awkward, but not as bad as I’d feared.
Until the whole ketchup on her face problem. When I wiped the ketchup off the side of her mouth, I felt the same intense attraction I’d felt before, the kind of attraction that sucks the air right out of your lungs and makes your IQ drop like a rock. Just like last time, this staggering attraction was sudden. Overwhelming.
All I could think about was kissing her. When the feeling hit me, I moved us to leave as quickly as possible. I couldn’t have been weirder if I’d put on flippers and called myself a dolphin.
What was going on? I thought if I gave it some time, if I avoided her for a few days, my sanity would return, and this would stop. In fact, when I first picked her up yesterday, everything had been fine. The whole drive to the celebration had been normal. Even walking around, talking about the food trucks, and later eating lunch had gone well.
But you’d think a man in his thirties would know better than to wipe the ketchup off a woman’s face since that naturally would force him to focus on her lips.
Critical error.