A Man After Midnight (10 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“What’cha up to this weekend?”  Aldy asked, the smacking of her lips coming through loud and clear on the phone.

Caroline had spent the past ten minutes of their phone call pulling the receiver away from her ear.  “Will you stop eating?  Or at least eat quietly.”
“Oh, sorry.”  After some rustling, Aldy’s voice came in clear.  “I put the chips away.  Better?”

“Much.  My eardrum isn’t vibrating harshly anymore with the sound of your mastication.”
“Masticate on this.” Aldy’s voice dripped with snark through the phone line. 

“Bite me.”

“You wish.”

They laughed. Caroline missed her friend a lot.  She decided she was going to have to fly out and see her soon.

“So,” Aldy said. “Again I ask, whatcha up to this weekend?”

“Going to celebrate Grant’s birthday in NOLA.”

“Grant––your pharmacist?”

“Yes.  Remember?  I went on a date with him last weekend.”

“Ah … yeah.  So, just the two of you?”

“Nah, it’s a party at a place called The Red Room.  It’s a bluesy-jazzy bar in the French Quarter.”

“Cool.  So have you gotten over Wren?”

Caroline hesitated.  She would have given anything to be able to say ‘yes’.  But she couldn’t lie, especially to Aldy.

“No,” she said.  “I have to figure out how to get over Wren before I jump back into dating.”

“All right,” Aldy said.  “I’m here if you need me.”

“I know.  Thanks.”

“We should go on vacation together again.  Maybe we can find a hurricane in the Caribbean to put the knife incident to shame.”

“I was all in favor of a vacation together until you mentioned the knife.”

“Sorry. Too soon?”

“Yep.”

Still love me?”

“For now.”

****

Caroline watched the people around her dancing, laughing, and having a great time as they celebrated Grant’s birthday.  She smiled when she needed to, talked and toasted when someone came over to say hi.  But all the while her heart was heavy amongst the crowd. 

She glanced down at her watch.  Half past midnight.  She wondered if now would be an acceptable time to give her regards and head home.  She had long ago passed the time when this had lost its fun appeal.  She simply wanted to go home and go to bed. 

Stupid Murphy’s Law … she’d run from any type of emotional setting for so long that now when she was open to falling in love again, her heart was already taken.  She wondered how the hell she could get over this damn stupid heartache. 

Caroline made her way over to the dancing Grant and gave him a hug and kiss good-bye.  He glanced at her with surprised eyes but let her go, being too wrapped up in his partying. 

As she made her way to the entrance, a tingling settled over her skin.  All her senses came alive, as if she wiped the fog from her brain.  Her heart started to beat heavily in her chest and she looked around to find the source.

Wren stood in the doorway, staring at her, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, looking more fantastic than he had in a suit.

Caroline blinked, but he didn’t vanish.  She walked up to him on shaky legs. Her heart pounded in her chest, making her a little light headed. Her lips parted in surprise. Wren reached out and wrapped one large hand around her neck to pull her into his body.  His mouth crashed down onto hers with desperation, as if he were a man dying of thirst who just discovered an oasis.  Everything faded around her: the music, the lights, the people … they all just disappeared under the hot pressure of his kiss. 

When he finally lifted his head, the world slowly came back into focus.  She opened her languid eyes and stared at him. 

“
What are you doing here
?”  She breathed, eyes wide.  “How did you know where to find me?”

He gave a one-shoulder shrug, looking both uncomfortable and confident at the same time.  “I got an email from Aldrin Crenshaw letting me know your weekend plans along with a detailed map from the airport to The Red Room. And since I can’t seem to get a blonde-haired pixie out of my head I thought I’d visit the Big Easy.”  He smiled, trying to lighten the mood, but too much emotion hung between them.  “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

He took her hand in his and led her outside, onto Bourbon Street, where the music from all the bars blended together in a cacophony of sound.  People bustled about on the narrow streets as the delicious smells of baked pastry and spicy gumbo floated by.

But Wren Calder walked like a man on a mission.  He weaved them in and out of the tourists and local bar hoppers, past the voodoo shops and palm readers, until they reached Jackson Square.  The night air was thick, as usual for that time of year, and the smell from the white roses surrounding the St. Louis Cathedral tickled Caroline’s nose.

Caroline yanked her hand from his.  “Stop!”

And he did.  His shoulders tensed as he turned to face her. 

“Why are you here, Wren?” 

He didn’t answer her at first, and the busy world around them gradually came to a halt, as if they were encased in a bubble that excluded the outside world.  Caroline’s heart started to beat so wildly she thought it would explode as she waited for his answer. 

“When I got that email from Aldrin,” he said, “I felt sucker-punched.  Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself on a plane back to the States.”

Her hands curled into fists.  She wanted to badly to run and throw them around him, to hug him and never let him go.  But she clamped down on her impulse.

“I hadn’t been very truthful to you about Leslie,” he continued, surprising her in the change of topic.  “She had been there to meet me. I always call her up when I’m in New York––the sex is great, but it’s just sex.”

She flinched at that mental picture.

“But this time, when I looked at her, I felt nothing.  For the first time there wasn’t sadness or hurt feelings, no what-if thoughts.  All I had in my head was you, Caroline.”

Her breath caught in her throat.

“I thought when the weekend was over I would forget you,” he continued.  “But I haven’t been able to, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want you having what we shared with anyone else but me.”

She raised an eyebrow.  “Well, I’ve also come to the conclusion I don’t want to be with anyone else,” she replied.  “And believe me, I’ve tried.”

His lips twisted in a grimace.  “You didn’t need to tell me that.”

“I haven’t been able to get you out of my head, either,” she admitted.  “The scar I had on my finger reflected the one I had on my heart.  And I didn’t want to put myself through any heartbreak again.  But you broke through all my walls.  You cracked my armor.  You woke me up.  And when Gil had my life in his hands, I finally realized just how much I wanted to find love again.”

He reached out and took one of her clenched fists, bringing it up and rubbing it between his palms.  “You gave me your trust in New York, so I’m here to give you mine.  And my heart, if you want it.”

“You mean that?”

Wren put his hands on her hips and pulled her body snug into his before wrapping them around her.  He laid his cheek on top of her head.  “I want to hold you like this always.  Forever.”

She thought those were the best words she’d ever heard.  “Let’s start with going back to my place and making love all night long.”

“How far is your place?”

“An hour.”

“Too long.  I have a room booked at the hotel on Canal Street.”

She leaned back far enough to give him a raised eyebrow look.  “A hotel?  Is this our theme?”

“I kinda like this theme.  We could explore the world, one hotel at a time.”

Caroline’s mouth lifted at one corner.  “Ask me your question again.”

“Who is Caroline?”

“I am love––and I am in love.”

The End

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Other Books by Beth D. Carter:

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