Stacking the Deck (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 2)(41)

There was a time they’d hung out together. Cruising around town. Sharing a few beers at the old quarry. It seemed a lifetime ago now.

“So, you, ah, doing okay?” Carter asked after a bit. “You were in rough shape last night.”

John took a long drag and toed the ground in front of him. “I’ve been better.”

“Surprised the crap out of your sister.”

John grimaced. “Sorry about that. I got some bad news is all. Shook me up.”

He took a long drag and exhaled slowly through his teeth.

Carter rolled the mint around on his tongue. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to know a guy named Rick Mercer, would you?”

John frowned and took another drag. “Why?”

“Just thought you might have run into him. He hangs out at Lucky’s sometimes, heard he had quite the party a week or so ago.” He hadn’t heard a thing, but he had a sense it was true.

“What kind of party?”

“You know. Just like old times.” Carter bit into his mint with a crack and flashed a grin.

John frowned, crushing his cigarette under his heel. “Kind of got the impression you weren’t into that anymore.”

Carter shrugged and swallowed the mint. It tasted sharp on his tongue. “I enjoy a good time now and again.”

It was eerie how easily it came back, the friendly banter, the unspoken exchanges. It shocked him how quickly he fell into the rhythm of it, how natural it still felt after so many years. He could be seventeen again, standing in the rain behind a beat up Chevette and bumming a cigarette and a beer off Beth’s older brother.

By the time John was on his way, Carter had all he’d hoped for right in his back pocket. There was someone he needed to talk to. Someone who needed to realize he was being given a second chance before it was too late for him, too.





CHAPTER NINETEEN

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“YOU ARE AWARE THERE is a grocery store in town, right?”

Carter’s cousin, Jim, frowned as Carter pulled a container of cole slaw out of the refrigerator and set it next to the sandwich makings already there. Yes, Carter knew there was a grocery store, but, truth be told, it was boring sitting at home eating by himself. And Jim’s wife, Kate, had fallen into the habit of inviting him over for dinner on the days she did admin tasks for the landscaping business at Carter’s home office.

“I’m helping Kate with dinner. Plus she invited me.”

“You do realize she only asks you over out of pity. She sees how you live.”

“And you only allow it because it gives you an ego boost to show off your beautiful wife and family. Admit it. You think you’re hot shit.”

Jim reached over Carter for a soda, popped it open and relaxed into a chair at the kitchen table. “There is that. Where is my lovely bride anyway?”

“Upstairs giving Lily a bath. I think Liam is helping.”

Jim eyed the ceiling warily. “She hasn’t called for reinforcements?”

Carter tore open a bag of sub rolls. “Not yet.”

Jim sipped from the can and set it down, lord o’ the manor style, on the table. “So, what about you? Got the itch to get yourself a wife and family of your own?” He swept his arm to encompass the dishes in the sink, the toy cars on the floor and the burpie cloths stacked on the placemat in front of him. “Just think, all this grandeur could be yours.”

A loud thump! rattled the ceiling above them, and Liam, the three year-old squealed something about Noah and floods.

Carter nodded toward the doorway. “You want to check that out?”

Jim bit his lip. “No. I’m good. I have every confidence in my wife. Plus, that upstairs bath is too small for all of us at once. I can’t believe we’re a family of four sharing a single bathroom.”

“Ah, way to sell the grandeur of it all.”

Jim laughed, an easy chuckle, and Carter felt a momentary stab of… something. It seemed like everyone was getting married, starting families, growing up. Jim’s sister, Rachel, had her first baby just after the new year, and Lily had been born barely a month ago.

The grandmothers, of course, were ecstatic.

Carter was close enough to Jim and Kate to know the road hadn’t always been easy for them, and day-to-day life wasn’t necessarily smooth or flood-free, but he knew they were happy in a way few people were.

Maybe that kind of happy was only for some people. Jim was different. He was the responsible guy everyone turned to when they needed to get out of trouble. Carter was the guy they called when they wanted to have fun.

Or he had been that guy.

He thought about Liz and her brother and realized it had been quite some time since he’d been that guy, either. And yet, when the crap hit the fan down at the fire department, he’d been the first one Ted had turned to when he started pointing fingers. It didn’t matter what Carter was now. It only mattered he had the reputation of being that guy…

Another thump! followed by a door slamming, the sound of running feet and more doors slamming came from upstairs.

“There’s no room for the towels in the bath,” Jim explained. “That was probably Liam getting one from our closet.”

Carter shook his head. “I know you love this place, but you should build a bigger house.”