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Dawn made a sound in her throat, a little grunt of encouragement.
It was all Paige needed. She let the story pour out, about the silly quiz and how Carter answered all the questions for her and then announced that the quiz proved she was hopelessly in love with him. “I know it’s ridiculous. He was just giving me a hard time the way he loves to do. But all his answers? They were the answers I would have given. And since then, I can’t stop thinking about it. Can’t stop thinking that the stupid quiz was right, that I’m actually in love with him, with Carter of all people. It’s driving me crazy, Dawn.”
Dawn reached over and gently squeezed her arm. “I can see that.”
“So I want you to tell me the truth now. I want you to tell me that of course I’m not in love with Carter, that I’ve just gotten hung up on some meaningless magazine quiz and I need to let it go and move on.”
Dawn made a pained sound and looked away.
Hesitantly, Paige reached out and ran her hand down Dawn’s straight golden-brown hair. It was the same color and texture as their mother’s hair had been. Dawn also had their mother’s warm hazel eyes. “Dawn?”
Dawn looked at her then—and winced. “Really? I mean, seriously?”
Paige tried a laugh. It came out more like a sob. “Ridiculous, right?”
Dawn clapped both hands to her head, as though she was worried her brains might escape. “Ugh.” And then she dropped her hands to the table, slapping her palms flat. “Dude.” She rubbed the tender skin beneath her eyes. “I’m just not gonna lie to you. I think you need to get real, you know? I think it’s better if the two of you just face the truth.”
Paige’s stomach lurched and sweat bloomed on her upper lip. “Um, what truth?”
“You’ve always been in love with him.”
Paige gasped. “What the...? No. Uh-uh. Just no.”
“Oh, come on, Paige. He practically lives here. You work together and you’re best friends and he’d rather be with you than any of those smokin’-hot girlfriends he’s had. Paige, come on. Everybody knows—everybody but you and Carter.”
Paige slumped in her chair. “I don’t believe it. You think I’m in love with him.”
“I don’t just think it, I know it. And he’s in love with you.”
That had Paige scoffing. “Oh, please. Carter doesn’t do love.”
“Carter doesn’t admit love. It’s two different things.”
Paige let her head drop back and groaned at the ceiling, because honestly, how could this be happening to her?
“You actually wanted me to lie about it straight out.” Dawn sounded hurt.
Paige sucked in a fortifying breath and faced her sister. “I’m sorry. Come here.” She reached for Dawn, who resisted at first, but then swayed in her chair and finally let herself lean on Paige. Paige stroked her hair. “You’re incredible.”
“Yeah, right.”
Tenderly, Paige admitted, “Okay, I confess. Sometimes it’s a little scary to have such a brilliant and perceptive baby sister.”
“I wouldn’t have said anything,” Dawn muttered. “I never have. But you asked me straight out.”
Paige rocked Dawn a little, the way she used to do so often during that first terrible year after they lost Mom and Dad. “Please don’t be insulted, but I need to ask you not to tell him.”
“Of course I won’t tell him,” Dawn grumbled. “Have I said a word up till now?”
“No, you haven’t. You’re an angel.”
“Hardly.” She pushed free of Paige’s embrace and said, “You need to tell him.”
Paige only blew out a hard breath and slowly shook her head.
* * *
At 2:10 that afternoon, Carter was in his office off the shop studying engine schematics for Deacon’s Cobra.
Someone tapped on the door.
“It’s open.” Carter glanced up from his laptop as the door swung wide.
Murray Preble, one of Carter’s top auto parts vendors, stuck his head in. “Got a minute?”
“Sit.” Carter gestured at the empty chair across the desk. Murray closed the door before folding his long, thin frame into the offered seat. Carter frowned. Murray never shut the door when he stopped in to say hi. “Is this a secret meeting, Murray?”
Murray, who was usually a pretty cheerful guy, didn’t even crack a smile. “I guess you could say that. I need this to be just between you and me.”
Carter shut his laptop. “Is there a problem?”
Murray scraped his hand down his narrow face and smoothed his thick black hair off his forehead. “Well, Carter, it’s about Sherry.”
Sherry? Murray wanted to talk about Sherry—with the door closed? Cautiously, he asked, “What about her?”
Murray shifted in the chair. And then he straightened up and put it right out there. “I’m in love with her.”
This was news. And maybe good news. If Murray and Sherry got together, she would leave Carter alone. “Well, great. I hope you’ll be very happy.”
“See, that’s just it.” Murray hitched an ankle across the other knee and wrapped his long fingers around his shinbone. “I’ve been patient, I really have. But she just won’t believe that you’re never coming back to her.” Murray’s brow crumpled with his frown. “You’re not, are you?”
“Hell, no. It’s over with Sherry and me.”
Murray didn’t look encouraged. “She won’t give me a chance.”
“Murray. What do you want me to say? It’s over. I’ve told her several times. I don’t know what more to do.”
“She spent last night cryin’ on my shoulder over you.” Murray glowered at him. “I waited long enough, you know? Months. It’s time I got my chance with her. She’s...”
“What?”
“I’m telling you straight, Carter. Telling you more than you got any right to know. She’s a passionate person, as hotheaded as she is beautiful. I love that about her. I want all that fire directed at me.”
Carter put up both hands. “More power to you, buddy. I’m not standing in your way.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you are.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Carter. You are. You’re standing between me and my future happiness.”
“I don’t know what to say to you. Sherry and I broke up a long time ago. It’s as over as it gets. I don’t see how I can make it any more clear to her.”
“Move on, Carter.”
“I have moved on.”
“Choose someone new. As long as you stay unattached, Sherry can tell herself that you’re coming back to her and I don’t have a prayer of showing her that I’m the man she needs.”
Carter shook his head. “I’m sorry, Murray. I can’t help you with this. I hope you get through to her. But there’s no way I’m up for trying again with someone new anytime soon. As long as we’re putting it right out there, Murray, the truth is, I always make a mess of it with women somehow. I’m losing heart, you know? I’m about done.”
Murray jumped up. He turned to the side wall and stared at the Prime Sports and Fitness calendar hanging there. November had an image of a gorgeous woman’s back and shapely arms as she executed a lat pull on a Universal machine. “Well, how about Paige?” Murray asked without taking his eyes off the calendar.
It took Carter a moment to make sense of Murray’s question—and even then, he didn’t really understand it. “What do you mean, how about Paige?”
Murray faced him then. “I mean, why the hell don’t you just settle down with Paige? Everyone in town can see that you two are meant for each other. And come on, you practically live together already. You sure you’re not already with Paige and just keeping it a secret for some reason known only to the two of you?”
“Already with Paige? Have you lost your mind, Murray?”
“No, I have not. What I’ve lost is my heart. To Sherry. I want her to get over you and love me back.”
“And I sympathize with that. I would love for her to forget about me and be all about you. I’ve told her it’s over more times than I can count. I don’t take her calls or answer her texts or her emails. If she drops in on me, I send her away. I’ve done everything I can to—”
“No. No, you haven’t, Carter. You haven’t shown it’s over by moving on. And if you think about it a little, you’ll see I’m right. You and Paige are a great match. And frankly, if you choose Paige, Sherry will definitely wake up and smell the coffee. She’s always gone on about Paige, always believed that you’re secretly in love with Paige.”
Carter made a strangled sound. “Are you crazy? Of course I’m not secretly in love with Paige.”
Murray grunted. “Sherry would never admit it, but we both know she sees Paige as the rival she couldn’t beat.”
“Uh, we do?”
A firm nod from Murray. “You bet we do. So if you and Paige finally get together, finally couple up and admit what’s really going on between you, Sherry will have to accept that she’s never getting you back.”
Carter cleared his throat. “Murray.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, Murray, but no. Just...no.”
Murray glared at him. “I’m only asking you to think about it.”
“There’s nothing to think about.”
“What is the matter with you?” Murray practically shouted. “Why can’t you see?”
“Murray, whoa. Chill.”
But Murray did not chill. “Open your mind, Carter!” He turned and flung the door open. “Open your mind and see the light.” Murray left, slamming the door good and hard behind him.
Carter stared at that door for several very long seconds. And then he shrugged and opened his laptop again and put Murray Preble out of his mind.
Or tried to.
Unfortunately, Murray’s weird visit stuck with him, made the Cobra engine schematics blur in front of him, made it so all he could think about was Paige.
“Open your mind!” Murray had yelled at him just before he slammed the office door.
Carter kept thinking about that. About his mind opening.
Opening like a door, a door that hadn’t really been there before. He looked through that new open door and saw everything he wanted: marriage and a family.
To a sane and even-tempered woman.
A woman like Paige.
Because Murray was right. Paige was perfect for Carter.
No. Of course, he wasn’t in love with Paige. He wasn’t in love with anybody. Carter had no intention of going to the stupid place, thank you very much. But now that he’d opened that door, he could clearly see that Paige was just about as good as it got for a man like him.
How come he’d never realized it before?
Paige was smart and fun, and he loved being with her. She was completely reasonable, no drama, not ever. He worked with her and he hung with her and her little sister was family to him. Even their dogs were best friends.
He couldn’t imagine his life without Paige. And to marry her and have kids with her...
Hot damn. That could work out. That could be good.
Carter got up from his desk and stared at the fine back and arms of Miss Superfit November as he worked out the kinks in the plan he was formulating.
Kinks like the fact that to have kids together, he and Paige would have to have sex with each other.
That could be weird. He’d never considered sex and Paige in the same sentence before—or wait. Scratch that. He had been attracted to Paige way back at the beginning. But then they’d decided to be friends without benefits and he’d accepted that.
So the idea of having sex with her didn’t gross him out or leave him cold. It had just always seemed like a bad idea to go there, to take the chance of messing up a great friendship—not to mention a successful business partnership.
However, now that he’d let himself consider the concept of Paige as a bed partner, well, it didn’t strike him as awful. He could get into it. He was sure that he could. And sex didn’t necessarily have to screw up what they had. If they got married, that would only make their friendship and business partnership stronger.
Oh, yeah. The door was open, all right, open wide and showing him everything. It all fell into place.
He didn’t have to be alone. He could get married and have a family, after all.
A family with his best friend.
A family with Paige...
Talk about huge.
Carter left BCC at a quarter after five that night. He’d planned to go home and shower, then take Sally and head over to Paige’s.
