Unexpected Ride (12 page)

Incapable of speaking, she stared as he stepped out of the shower and walked over to where she stood.  Unable to handle the heat shining in his eyes she instead looked at his perfect mouth.  He stopped in front of her and bent until he was able to again capture her gaze with his own.  Handing her the towel he then guided her hand and the towel to his chest.

“How about a compromise then?  You can look all you want but I get to feel you… even if it is through a towel,” he whispered.

Every nerve in her body was awake now and reaching out toward him.  Forcing her hands to move, she wiped the towel down his beautiful chest while he dipped his head lower.  He ran his delicious mouth along the column of her neck and across the skin of her shoulder that was exposed around the strap of her nightgown. 

The sensation streaked down her body and settled between her legs causing her head to fall back on her shoulders and a guttural noise to escape her lips. 

“You mentioned last night that you were the one who needed help.  I think you need a lot more than just
help
, Carla.  I think you need a man’s touch…
my touch
.  You watch my lips because you know they can help make your body come alive again… like your touch does mine,” he whispered against her shoulder before scraping his teeth along the bone and sucking on her skin.

Through the fog from his hot shower and the haze in her brain she heard Ben’s voice upstairs.  Greg must of heard it too because he lifted his head.  Moving his mouth to hers, he placed a kiss on her lips while staring her in the eye.

“Shower is all yours.  I’ll finish up breakfast while you get ready,” he said against her mouth.  Then he pulled the towel back out of her hand and left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

How long she stood there unable to move from enjoying the tingly sensation that was now pooled between her legs, she was unable and certainly unwilling to admit.  She listened as he got dressed in her bedroom and then eventually left that room as well. 

She managed to shower and was nearly dressed before catching sight of a painting Chuck had made of Doug for her.  This time instead of the normal sadness she saw shining in Doug’s eyes, which the painting captured so well, she could see a smile there instead… as though he accepted what was happening between her and Greg.  Instead of jealousy or disappointment that she would have expected to see, the painting instead reflected…
relief
.

“Merry Christmas, Doug.  This year I will do better at making sure that the kids… that
I
… enjoy the holidays.  I promise,” she whispered. 

She could swear she saw approval in Doug’s eyes that stared at her from the canvas.  Smiling at the painting, she headed across the room to her bedroom door before realizing that the feelings Greg brought out in her weren’t
replacing
the love she had for Doug… they were
enhancing
it.  Allowing her to remember what it felt like to live again… to love again…
for them both
.  Glancing back over her shoulder she smiled again at the painting. 
An unspoken goodbye.

She barely made it down the hall from her room when Chuck and the two boys came barreling around the corner and stopped short in front of her.

“Maybe we should open gifts first, before breakfast… I mean as good as it smells we should let them cool down some first,” Chuck suggested.

Matt shook his head in agreement of Chuck’s suggestion and Ben looked as though his whole body was full of excited approval.

“Sorry, mom… I tried to stop him but he’s worse than the boys,” Meredith called from the kitchen.

Looking at the three of them she couldn’t stop the excitement that settled in her stomach… the joy on their faces was contagious.  Sighing heavily she said, “How about one gift each before breakfast?”

As quickly as they had appeared they disappeared back into the living room and she could hear them sifting through gifts under the tree.  Meredith’s laughter rang through the house as it had before Doug’s death.  A feeling of contentment settled around her shoulders like a cloak of comfort as she followed behind them a little slower.  Greg had been right… this is what Doug would have wanted for them all. 
Especially for her.

Watching them inspecting their gifts and trying to decide on which one to open before breakfast, she felt Greg approach her and leaning in he said, “You still seem pretty perfect to me.”

He
had
heard her confession…
all of it
… and much like with Doug, it hadn’t mattered… hadn’t changed his opinion of her one bit.  Doug had loved her unconditionally… regardless of her past… was it possible that a police officer could as well?  Just as she was about to ask if he wanted the gift she’d got for him, he pulled his left arm from behind his back and held out a gift bag on the end of his fingers.

“Open mine first?” he asked as though reading her thoughts.

The kids all stopped, even Chuck, and stared at her.  Taking the large gift bag over to the loveseat she sat down and pulled out a beautifully wrapped present from within it. 

After carefully un-wrapping the box she opened it to find a teddy bear dressed as a nurse.  Around the bear’s neck was a lovely gold chain with a pendant of the Red Cross indicating the nursing profession.  The stuffed animal also held a clipboard which had a note attached asking her out for dinner sometime before her classes started and a gift certificate to an office supply store.    

Between his looks and
this
… how he managed to still be single at his age was a complete mystery to Carla.  The boys quickly lost interest in the heartfelt gift she sat holding and went back to looking under the tree at their own gifts.  Seeing they were distracted Carla met Greg’s warm smile and sensual gaze. 

Leaning over she kissed him full on the mouth.  The passion between them that always lay just beneath the surface was still there, but this time she felt more than the incredible sensation of physical attraction.  An unexpected connection to him she had thought she would never again share with another person…
another man
… sprang to life.

The rest of the morning simply flew by and she felt so lighthearted watching the boys and Meredith enjoying the holidays again after such a dark and painful period in their lives.  Chuck’s reaction to the holiday was refreshing and brought home the charitable idea behind this time of year. 

It felt like the sunshine had finally broken through the clouds and was warming her… much like Greg’s mouth against her skin.

The following week the New Year was celebrated while trying to both prepare for the trip to New York for the premiere of Chuck’s art at the gallery and have everything in place so that she could start school as soon as they returned from the trip. 

Greg didn’t say anything more to her about her confession where Jarrod was concerned but she knew he was still working on the case.  She had even overheard him talking on the phone a couple of times.  The only difference now was that whenever he was working on it he would cut phone calls short if she was around as though keeping it all a secret from her, which she didn’t appreciate. 

Doug had done similar things during their marriage as though she wasn’t capable of making those kinds of decisions and so shouldn’t be bothered with the particulars of the situation.  Instead of being frustrated over the issue, she instead focused on packing up the boys’ things so they could stay with their grandfather since school would be starting back up for them while she was in New York with Meredith and Chuck. 

She had somehow become the event coordinator for the whole group and did the best she could to book hotel rooms and dinner reservations with the account information from the gallery that Becca gave her.  The gallery was hosting and paying for up to ten family members or friends of Chuck as part of the premiere.  He and Meredith were too excited to think about hotel accommodations for the group or how to get around the big city or even food. 

Apparently she could make sound decisions for ten people about where to stay in a huge city in a whole other state but couldn’t be trusted with information about skeletons from her own closet. 

Having made it to her father’s house to drop off the boys in record time thanks to a lead foot filled with annoyance over Greg shutting her out on his investigation into the website, Carla helped the boys carry their things in the house.  She had finally broke down and told her father what was going on and had been surprised at his change of heart from the first time they’d had to discuss Jarrod Tompkins. 

Back then he’d been angry and had tried and been successful at sweeping the whole thing under the rug.  Twenty five years later he sounded guilty for giving Jarrod money and a free ride out of town and trouble.

“I’ve often wondered when that judgment call would come back to haunt me.  I can’t say I’m any more ready for it now than I would be in another ten or twenty years, but I’m ready to end this thing for good this time,” he’d said.

The funny thing was back then she’d been ready to take her lashes for her part in the whole fiasco and her father had been the one insisting they make it go away quickly and quietly.  Now it sounded like he was in agreement with Greg about finally dealing with it while she was the one wanting to sweep it back under the rug. 

Maybe this time
she
would be the one to stand on the rug in hopes of keeping it all neatly tucked beneath.  Entering the kitchen she watched her father abruptly end his phone call and brace himself for Ben’s over eager hug. 

The boys dragged their bags down the hallway and into the bedroom they shared when spending time with their grandfather.  A few minutes later she could hear the sounds of one of their favorite video games starting up. 

She made herself a glass of tea and refilled her father’s glass then sat down at the small table that set between his kitchen and the living room.  He took a drink and stared at her over the rim of his glass.

“Just got off the phone with Detective Sanders… seems they were able to shut down the website and have in fact tied it back to one Jarrod Tompkins,” he said.  “Somehow I doubt that son of a bitch will go away quietly this time even if we paid him off again, Carla.  Chuck’s an opportunity Jarrod can’t pass up… his biggest score yet.  Have you considered just telling Meredith the truth?”

“It would devastate her… with the accident and everything.  I should have listened to my gut and told her about Jarrod back then when Doug and I first discussed whether or not we should.  Doug was her
daddy
… I know that and that’s not why I even brought it up,” she sighed.  “This right here… right now… is why I thought we should have told her the truth.  Their bond was thicker than blood… she was his
world
and I don’t think that would have changed if she had known about Jarrod.  With the accident, I’m afraid it would crush her.  She says she no longer blames herself but it would seem like rubbing salt in an open wound to tell her now.”

“That girl is like your mother was… delicate and fragile to the naked eye but tougher than nails when it really counts.  You cut her short by believing otherwise.  Think about it like this… it may not even be an option much longer.  Besides staring at you like a lovesick fool… hunting down criminals and locking them up is the
second
thing Greg Sanders does better than anyone else I know.  Better for Meredith to be gently introduced to the idea than to be smacked in the face with it,” her father said.

She was exhausted.  After kissing the boys goodbye she drove home to try and get some sleep before the caravan to New York left in the morning.  Instead, she lay there thinking about the conversation between herself and her father.  In most things she trusted her father’s judgment but always she felt it was Doug’s decision to tell Meredith because he had loved her so much.  With him gone that decision now rested squarely on her shoulders and it felt like a betrayal to Doug to tell her now that he was gone.  It was an even bigger betrayal than looking at, kissing or thinking about Greg Sanders
naked
.

The following morning she picked up Dickie and Becca on her way to the beach house to get Greg.  The happy couple was only a few years older than her but watching them together made Carla a little jealous.  She’d had that kind of relationship with a man once, the only difference being that Doug had been the head of their household while in this case it seemed like Becca was in charge.  The petite woman often seemed to pick up and take over where Bobby’s grandmother, Edna, left off and Dickie was content to allow it.  Dickie pampered Becca almost as much as he teased and flirted with her.  They were cute and sexy and immediately made Carla think of Greg Sanders and her growing feelings for him. 

“Why don’t I take the first shift driving,” Dickie offered when they pulled up in front of the house. 

Becca headed up the walk and returned a few minutes later with Greg following behind her.  Once they were all situated in the car with the men up front and her and Becca riding in the backseat, they hit the highway. 

The rest of the group would be meeting up with them at a hotel halfway between Florida and New York that Carla had reserved rooms at.  The others were all riding together in a van that Tommy had surprised Dana with for Christmas.  The trip was long and only made longer by the tension that continued to build between her and Greg. 
Always building and never releasing.

A simple look from him felt just like his mouth on the skin of her shoulder and it was slowly making her crazy.  At the same time he seemed to have put some distance between them.  Perhaps his sanctimonious need to always error on the side of the law had him rethinking his attraction to her after all.  She might not have ever been convicted of a crime but she had in fact committed one…
unknowingly
… but she had.  Well that was fine because, honestly, she had enough on her plate with this trip and school starting in a couple of weeks to have to worry about him anyway.