The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,46

think I’m here?”

She pulled away with accusation in her eyes. “I thought to see me.”

“Of course, sweetheart. But if there’s a home-cooked meal…”

She gave me a playful smack before we sat together at the dining table, the fajitas in the center of the table with warm tortillas. We scooped the sautéed veggies onto our flour tortillas and ate. Carson ate her food quickly like always, and Charlie was a little more graceful about it.

“So, when is this happening?” Charlie asked in between bites.

“When are you going to go for Denise?” Carson countered.

Charlie shifted his gaze to her. “You really want me to fuck your sister, huh?”

“Well, she deserves some good D,” Carson said. “You give good D, right? Based on the noises I hear across the hallway, I’d say so. Plus, what Kat has said… So I want Denise to get her groove on, you know? Women should want other women to get good sex. It’s just classy.”

Everything that came out of her mouth amused me, so I smiled in between bites.

Charlie just looked at her like he had no idea what to say. “I’ll go over there after dinner.”

“To give her some D?” Carson asked in surprise.

“No,” Charlie said quickly. “To see if she wants to start something up. I mean, if she wants to do that, I’m not going to say no, but that’s not what I’m going for.”

“Great.” Carson turned back to her food. “It’ll be nice to have the apartment to ourselves.”

“Or you can just move out and have a whole penthouse to yourself,” Charlie countered.

“Oh shut up.” She balled up her napkin and threw it at him. “You don’t want me to leave. You said on a scale of one to ten, you were going to miss me at a solid five.”

Charlie looked at me and shook his head. “I don’t remember saying that.”

“You’re so full of shit. You totally said it,” Carson countered.

Charlie shrugged and kept it eating.

I believed Carson on this one, because I couldn’t imagine anyone wouldn’t miss her. Her energy was infectious, and she always made everyone around her feel good. I felt lucky that I got to be the one to come home to her every single day.

“Seriously.” Charlie looked at me. “When is she moving?”

I shrugged and turned to Carson. “Whenever she feels like it. I told her she can bring her furniture, but she said she didn’t want to, so…it’s just her clothes and stuff.” They were things she could move in a few hours on a Saturday, but she hadn’t done it yet.

Carson held my gaze while the fajita was in her hand. “It didn’t seem like there was a rush, so I’m taking my time.”

“Why?” Charlie countered. “You’re moving in to a penthouse. Why are you taking your time?”

“Maybe because I want to spend a little more time with you…dumbass.” She kept her eyes on her food as she kept eating.

Charlie watched her for a few seconds before a subtly soft look came over his face, like those words touched him. “I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you stuck around a little bit longer…”

“Getting cold feet?” I lay beside her in her small bed, right up against the window where the city lights came through the blinds. I was used to having a king-size bed all to myself, and now I shared a queen-size with Carson. But less space meant we were pressed closer together, so it wasn’t all bad. I would never make Carson feel self-conscious for what she had, but I was eager for her to move in to my penthouse where it was always quiet, where we were elevated above the city, so bright lights didn’t shine through the windows if we didn’t want them to. There was a lot more room, and I didn’t have to share the space with her roommate.

“No.” She lay beside me with her leg hooked over my hip, her hand against my chest. “I’ve honestly just been so busy lately that the idea of organizing my stuff and making the move seems like too much.”

I’d offer to pay people to do it for her, but I knew her well enough to know that was a bad suggestion.

“And spending another week with Charlie isn’t so terrible. When I got married, I missed spending so much time with him, but I think this time, I won’t miss him so much. Even if we stop working together, I’ll still see him all the time. And