Accidental Heartbreak (The Accidental Series, Book 2) (22 page)

Shayla’s eyes lit
up. “That would be nice. That way, I can introduce you to Carter
and—”

“
Um, that’s the
thing…I would prefer to talk to you alone.”

Shayla’s smile
suddenly disappeared. “And you can’t tell me what it’s
about?”

“
No. I’ll tell you
when I see you…oh and it probably won’t be a good idea to tell your
husband you talked to me, but listen, I gotta run. I’ll talk to you
later.”

“
Okay,” Shayla
said, confused. “Bye.” Almost immediately after she hung up the
phone, she got a text from Donovan with a picture of his little boy
with the caption,
Donnie’s first day
. She smiled,
but still wondered what it was that Donovan had to talk to her
about. And why did it have to be in person? Why couldn’t she tell
Carter?

Saturday night, Carter and Terrance were at
Hooters, sitting at the bar, sipping on drinks. Terrance had been
complaining that they haven’t kicked it in a minute, so instead of
going home and spending the night with Shayla as he’d planned,
Carter called her to let her know he was meeting Terrance for
drinks tonight. And while he sat there with him, he tossed the idea
of telling him about his dilemma. But first, he had to tell him
about his marriage.

“I forgot how busy it gets in here on a
Friday afternoon,” Carter said looking around.

“Yeah. That’s because you don’t hang out no
more…thought I would have to send a search party to find you for a
minute there.”

Carter grinned. How do you tell your best
friend he was annoying and that was the reason you’d been avoiding
him? “I’ve been busy with work and all. You know how that goes.
Gotta pay the cost to be the boss, right?”

Terrance stared at him, noticing an
unfamiliar secrecy, a change in character. Carter had a certain
smile, a foundation of happiness spread about his face. His friend
had changed.

As Carter thought about how he would break
the news of his marriage to Terrance, his mind flashed back to
images of Shayla, lying face-up in the center of the bed this
morning. Her curly coils were splashed all over his pillow while
her arms were outstretched. She was beautiful. Peaceful. Her skin
was radiant, her sleep mild and serene. He’d sat down next to her,
touched her hand to see if she would awaken as she did the morning
prior, but she didn’t budge. So he leaned in close, kissed her
cheek then jogged downstairs to prepare breakfast. He smiled, just
now without even realizing it.

“Carter, come on, man…busy with work? When
did that ever stop you from hanging out wit’ ya boy? I know you
better than that…know you ain’t
that
busy.” Terrance said.
“And I think it all have something to do with little Miss
Shayla.”

Carter beamed and shook his head. As always,
Terrance had brought up Shayla’s name yet again, only this time,
Carter couldn’t hide or deny his feelings for her. Love always had
a way of showing its power.

“I knew it. I knew it!” Terrance declared,
slapping the counter with a grin on his face. “You let a broad come
between us, dawg?”

“You can’t use titles like
broad
to
describe my lady.”

“Your lady?” Terrance repeated and snapped
his head back. “Did you just call Shayla your
lady
?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Don’t tell me, the man who told me he would
never
give his heart to a woman has broken his own
rule.”

“Well, I guess it took me a little time to
find the right woman.”

“Seriously, Carter?” Terrance said with
raised eyebrows and a smirk. “I’m trippin’ right now. I never
thought I’d see the day you would fall for someone. Shayla must’ve
done a number on you.”

“Don’t act so surprised, Tee. I told you how
I felt about her.” Carter twirled his wedding band, still waiting
to spring the marriage on Terrance.

“Nah. See, what’s happening is, you’re
getting a lil’ older, feel that biological clock ticking…thinking
about settling down and stuff. But that’s just a phase, man.”

“It’s not a phase. I love her and
we’re…we’re married. Shayla’s my wife.”

“Your what!” Terrance yelled so loud, it
seemed as if for a moment, the music had stopped and the restaurant
was completely quiet. “Bartender, bartender.” Terrance slapped the
counter with his flat palm. “Need two beers
down here stat!” He looked at Carter again. “Are you serious?
You’re not serious. You can’t be serious.”

Carter slid his
wedding band from his finger and placed it on the bar top. “Is that
proof enough for you?”

Terrance’s mouth fell
open. “I do not believe this. How? When?”

Carter grinned but
didn’t respond. He allowed time for his friend to wrap his mind
around this big news.

“
The world must be
coming to an end. What happened to the Carter that was
never
going to settle down?” Terrance picked up the
ring and held it in front of Carter’s face. “What’s this
dawg?”

Carter laughed, took
the ring and slid it back on his finger.

“
You must be playing a
prank on me or something, bruh. This ain’t you.”

“
It’s no prank, man,”
Carter said straight-faced. “Shayla’s my wife. We got married six
weeks ago in Hawaii. This is real.”

“
If it’s
so
real
, why wasn’t I invited
to your wedding?”

“
Because I knew you
would act like this…and I knew you would try and talk me out of it
so I didn’t bother. But I can honestly say now that I do not care
what you think. I’m in love with her and nothing you or anyone else
says will ever change my mind.”

Terrance propped his
arms up on the bar and said, “Man. This is too much for me.” He
rubbed his hands across the shadow of hair on his head. “You’re
married…I never thought I’d see the day.”

“
I didn’t either,”
Carter said, fiddling his band again.

“
Well, she did seem
like a nice girl when I met her, so I guess I should be
congratulating you right now. Congrats, man,” Terrance said,
patting Carter on the back.

“
Thanks.” Carter took
a sip of his drink, thinking about his dilemma with Shayla. He
decided to bite the bullet and go ahead with telling Terrance about
his ordeal. He had to tell somebody and it wouldn’t hurt to get a
man’s point of view on this. So sucking in a distressful breath, he
said, “There is something I need your opinion on,
Tee.”

“
All right.” Terrance
rubbed his hands together, getting prepared because Carter usually
never asked him for any advice.

“
And I’m going to
preface this by saying, I don’t need you to judge me and I don’t
need the joking and kidding around because this is serious. This is
my life and I just need a friend.”

“
I got you,
man.”

Carter took a piece of
folded paper from his right front pocket and handed it to
Terrance.

“
What’s this?”
Terrance asked, unfolding the paper.

“
Just read
it.”

Terrance held the
single piece of paper with both hands and began reading
silently:

If you’re reading
this, I’m probably already dead. So you win again big brother. Mama
always said you would have it all. She said I wouldn’t compare to
you. She was right, wasn’t she? You remember when we were younger?
She always cheered you on when you played basketball, but never
made any of my baseball games. The crazy thing is, I hated
baseball. I just wanted to do something so she could be proud of
me, the same way she was proud of you. But you were the one with
the scholarship. You were smarter, more talented and I couldn’t
hold a candle to you. So in the end, you win. Tell mom she can be
proud of me now. She can be glad that I’m no longer breathing the
same air as her, or you for that matter. I know you don’t owe me
anything and I don’t owe you anything, but all I ask is that you
take care of my sweet Shayla. She loved me, but she deserves a lot
more than what I was able to give her. I can’t even keep a roof
over her head, can’t even be a real man for her. So I’m asking you
to take care of her. She was the only thing in my life that has
ever meant anything to me, my beautiful doll. I owe it to her. I
know you’re under no obligation to do this, but this is my last and
final wish. I’ve never asked you for anything, even in my most dire
straights, but this I ask of you because I want Shayla to be happy.
I want her to have the kind of life that you can give
her
.
Please tell her I’m sorry I left this way. Tell her it’s for
the best and that in some way, I’m doing this for her. Take care of
her for me. She’s innocent in all of this and I want to make sure
that she’s taken care of. I love her, Carter. Make sure she knows
that.
Make her happy. In the end, I’m
sorry it had to be this way.

~ Jacob

- - -

Terrance glanced up at
Carter, speechless.

“
In case you haven’t
figured it out, that’s Jacob’s suicide note…came to me in the mail
the day after he killed himself. I can’t believe it’s been over a
year already.”

“
Dawg, don’t tell me
this means what I think it means,” Terrance said shaking his head,
having reached an epiphany now. “
Your
Shayla was
his
Shayla?”

Carter
nodded.

Terrance’s mouth fell
open. “Are you sure?”

“
Yeah. Shayla told me
all about her relationship with Jacob and—”

“
Oh. Shrew,” Terrance
said, wiping sweat from his forehead. “For a minute there, I
thought you were going to tell me she doesn’t know you’re Jacob’s
brother.”

“
That’s exactly what
I’m going to tell you. She’s doesn’t know, Terrance. She has no
idea I’m Jacob’s brother.”

“
Wow,” Terrance said,
flabbergasted. “Man, you…wow. Wow!”

“
I know.” Carter
frowned. He tossed back his drink and crossed his arms, waiting for
Terrance to calm down a bit.

“
You mean to tell me
that you never slipped up and said anything about Jacob to
her?”

“
No. She didn’t know I
had a brother until after we married. I passively told her I had a
brother who died, and that was that…didn’t mention his name or
nothing.”

“
Ah,
man.”

“
Like I said, she used
to talk to me about Jacob all the time. Said how he was the love of
her life and how she felt he was her soul mate and all that. Of
course all of this was said before she fell in love with me, but
even though we’re together and married now, I still feel like she
wished things would’ve worked out with Jacob. Like if Jacob was
somehow resurrected, she’d leave me in a heartbeat because that’s
how much she loved my brother. Anyway, enough about all that. What
I want to know from you is, should I tell her that Jacob is my
brother?”

“
Are you crazy?”
Terrance spewed, looking at Carter like he’d lost his mind. “You
can’t tell her now.”

“
But I want to be
honest—”

“
Why? Y’all married.
What difference would it make? I don’t even know why you’re
considering it.”

“
I’m considering it
because it’s been eating me up that she doesn’t
know.”

“
Carter, you know how
women do…you tell her this and your marriage is
over.”

“
How you
figure?”

“
Because then, she’ll
think everything you ever did or said was a lie. You lie about one
thing and all of a sudden, you’re a pathological
liar.”

“
But it wasn’t a lie.
I just didn’t tell her.”

With raised eyebrows,
Terrance said, “Ah’ight…go on and tell her. I already see how it’s
gonna go down. You confess, get slapped and she’s out the door with
a suitcase and ‘bout a week’s worth of clothes.”

Carter blew an
upsetting breath and crossed his arms. “I have to tell her. I love
her, man. I don’t want to lose her and if I confess, maybe she’d be
more forgiving than she would if she finds out on her
own.”

“
Okay. I understand
your perspective but I don’t see this ending well. Trust me on
this, Carter.”

Carter propped his
elbows up on the bar top, interlocked his fingers and rested his
chin on his closed hands. “So I shouldn’t tell
her?”

“
No, Sir,” Terrance
said shaking his hand. “You said you wanted my advice and this is
the best advice. Trust me on this one, man.”

“
Ah’ight.”

The men ordered
chicken wings and Carter told Terrance more about Shayla and about
the marriage. And towards the end of their meal, just as the two
paid and was preparing to leave the restaurant, Terrance said, “So
besides your dilemma, how is being married?”