had sex. Her body was interested in that possibility too, but she took a minute to fully assess how she was feeling.
And now that she’d brought it out into the open, she could see it so easily. She did want to have sex with Carter tonight. But she also wanted a lot more. She wanted to be close to him. She wanted to hear about his business dinner and tell him about her time with Kayla. She wanted him to hold her as they fell asleep.
She wanted more. Too much. It might be natural—given how great Carter was and how lonely she’d been until the past couple of months—but it was also dangerous.
He was dangerous. To her heart.
She needed to start protecting herself a little better if she was going to get out of this fake relationship with her heart basically intact.
So she tapped out on her phone, I’m kinda tired. Might just head home and go to sleep.
You can sleep here. I’ll keep my hands off. Promise.
She gulped. Damn Carter. Always so sweet. Always making it so hard to resist him. Nah, that’s ok. I’m closer to my place.
There was a slightly longer pause before his next text came through. Everything okay?
Yep. All good. Just tired. Talk to you tomorrow.
Okay. Have a good night.
She was shaking as she put down her phone and put the car into reverse to pull out of the driveway. It had just been a normal, simple conversation. There was no reason for her to be so upset about it.
She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her lately. She’d never been emotional like this. But something had definitely happened to her. She cried a little bit on her way home.
Eight
THE NEXT MORNING, RUTH thought about staying home. Last night had been a necessary wake-up call for her, and it might be smarter to extend her time away from Carter to work more on emotional distance.
But Carter texted twice, once to let her know his mother was busy planning brunch so it would be great if she could come over before ten and the second time to confirm she’d gotten the message and was coming since he hadn’t heard back from her. Then Mrs. Wilson called her up to gush about the brunch that was being prepared and how she didn’t want to miss it, so Ruth couldn’t think of any way to justify not showing up.
She arrived at the Wilson place at nine forty-five in a cute red sweater and a casual skirt. Before she’d even gotten out of her car, Carter was coming out of the front door of the house and walking down the front path to meet her.
“Hey,” she said, adjusting her purse on her forearm. “How’s everything going?” She thought—hoped—she sounded natural and friendly.
“Okay.” He’d reached her now and stood directly in front of her, scanning her face with an understated urgency. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes, of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” She let her tone convey just the slightest bit of impatience. She really wished Carter would leave her alone and let her get through this.
“I don’t know. Something feels off. It felt off last night, and now it still does this morning. Did everything go okay with Kayla last night?”
“Yes. We had a really good time.” She tried to head for the house, wanting to end this awkward conversation, but his big body was there. Right there. Getting in her way. “Can we please go on in?”
“As soon as you tell me what’s wrong.” His voice was low and just slightly gravelly. “Did I do something to upset you?”
“Of course you didn’t! It has nothing to do with you. I mean, there’s nothing wrong.”
“I don’t believe you.”
She groaned, feeling panic rising inside her, telling her that pretty soon she’d lose it and the truth would come spilling out. Despite her best efforts, Carter would find out how silly and needy she’d been. “Well, I can’t do anything about what you believe, but I’m telling you flat out that I’m fine and you’re being obnoxious. Not everything has to do with you, you know.”
“I don’t care if it has to do with me. If you’re upset, I want to know why so I can...” He trailed off, stopping himself from completing the sentence.
“So you can fix it?” Her tone was very dry.
With a sheepish smile, he moved so he was no longer crowding her. “That is unfortunately what I was going to say. I know guys aren’t supposed