I nodded. “We do.”
Grey gestured with his head. “We can talk more while watching the game.”
“Yeah, you know I’m a Cowboys fan anyway.” I held my hand out, and he pulled me up. “But I’ll humor you and watch. Got to head back in a little while. Everyone is already at the house. Mama is at home cooking up a storm, and Brooklyn is supposed to be coming over, too.”
His hazel eyes sparkled green in the sunlight. “If she’s meeting the fam, think you’ve already decided to believe her.”
As I followed him inside, I realized that my desire to believe her was stronger than if I actually did believe her. Brooklyn and I hadn’t talked much in the last week. I still picked her up from work at night, and we slept at her place since my mother was at mine. We hadn’t had sex as if we’d verbally agreed that sex was off the table for now. She would stubbornly place her arm and leg across me and go to sleep. I didn’t make a move, and neither did she. We were waiting for something, and that something I didn’t know. We hadn’t even confirmed tonight. I just assumed at one point she would call and tell me when I needed to pick her up.
I plopped down on the sofa in front of his TV, grabbed the bottle opener off his coffee table as he lightly tossed me a bottle of beer. “Want to order some wings?”
Grey’s lips curved into a smile. “I know this place that’ll deliver. Best wings and fries.”
“Lemon Pepper.” I pulled off the top and passed him the opener as he sat down next to me and pulled out his phone. “Darren is going to be proud of us.”
“She’s always said that we could be friends if we tried.” He gave me a side glance. “Let’s not tell her yet. I hate when she’s right.”
Tapping my beer to his, I wryly replied, “Me, too. Happy New Year.”
On the drive home, the unease I’d been feeling lifted. This morning, my gut told me to reach out to Grey, needing to deal with my own past to move forward. And I’d been glad we did. The awkwardness of our unfamiliarity with being in the same space without the children or Darren faded the longer we enjoyed the game and talked. Maybe her ex was like Grey and couldn’t man up when he needed to, or maybe he did have another woman. After all was said and done, it didn’t matter what her ex wanted; it only mattered what Brooklyn truly wanted. And I didn’t know what I expected to happen or what I wanted from Brooklyn to make everything return to the way it had been before her ex walked boldly back into her life.
Brooklyn’s name flashed across my dashboard, and my heart fluttered.
Apparently, I wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“Hey. What time am I picking you up?” I asked.
“They called me in, and I can’t get off.” Her tone, a mix of sadness, irritation, and disappointment, angered me for some reason. “Trying to at least get off before midnight.”
“If you wanted to get off, you could,” I snapped.
“Carter, only one of the doctors showed up, and no one else answered their phones,” she reasoned.
“Why would they? They know Dr. Kelley wants to be the hero every single time.”
“That’s not fair.” She paused. “I promise, I’ll come over as soon as I get off.”
“On New Year’s Eve night? The streets are crazy, especially coming from downtown. I hate you driving alone at night, and definitely not tonight. Don’t worry about coming over.” I turned onto my street, aggravation burning through my veins that her job kept interfering with us.Was it a sign that I shouldn’t ignore?
“I’ll be there first thing in the morning, okay?” She soothed.
“Don’t worry about coming over,” I repeated. My frustration with her inability to see that she was going over and beyond her call of duty guided my tongue more than my heart.
“Carter, all week you’ve been distant. Now, you’re done with us. Can we talk about what’s really bothering you?”
“Nothing to talk about.”
“I thought you were transparent.” She ribbed.
“Fine. I don’t trust you.”
Brooklyn gasped.
“Look, I can accept responsibility for us moving too fast. If we’d taken our time, you wouldn’t have been mine, and your ex showing up wouldn’t have fucked with me as it did,” I relented.
“I thought you were different. Putting it all out there from that very first day, and when it matters the most, you go cold on me. Tell me you don’t trust me as if I lied to you. I stopped loving Bishop a long time ago. I was surprised and pissed that he showed up like he had the right.” She paused. “What can I do to show you that the only man I want and love is you?”
Though her declaration caressed my heart, I didn’t want to yield. “I’ve been trying to put into words all week what’s been bothering me, and I finally figured it out. I love that you’re a doctor and that we can talk medicine together. I accept that there will be times that plans will change because of your job, but I need a woman who knows when to make us a priority and when not to. All week, you could’ve done anything, and I do mean anything, to reassure me that we were good. Instead, you worked even more and didn’t bring up shit. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to be with you. My children and mother are at my home waiting for me to return, believing that they will meet the woman in my life.”
