I shrugged. “I don’t care where we go. I just don’t want to be here.”
He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed it. “Follow me, baby.”
I nodded and before he could close my door, Ace appeared with a big ass Kool-Aid smile on his face, showcasing every gold tooth of his grill.
“Where you going, nigga?” he asked.
“To mind my fucking business,nigga. You worry about yo’ bitch of the week.”
He nodded repeatedly with his lip turned up. “We’ll talk later. I know you deflecting. Plus, my bitch of thedaycarried her ass home.”
I rolled my eyes as he smirked, then slapped Carter’s hand and headed inside. Carter shook his head, then smiled at me and closed my door. After cranking my engine, I checked my rearview mirror to see where he parked. He was much farther down the street. Had I not come straight from the clinic, I wouldn’t have driven here. I only lived three houses down.
As I backed out, I saw Noni standing outside, watching me. I really wanted to burst into tears, but I refused to allow that. She was hurting my soul right now by letting that nigga run her, but maybe, I was hurting myself more by arguing with her. I just hated seeing her changing who she was, despite her saying she wasn’t.
I continued backing out and left without another look in her direction. When my phone started ringing, I glanced at the screen to see Carter was calling. I’d forgotten just that quickly that I was supposed to be following him. Ignoring his call, I kept driving, heading toward Beaumont. My body was trembling from all the motions I was trying to keep subdued. I really needed to be alone. I knew had I gone home, someone would have shown up.
Turning left to make a legal U-turn on Highway 90, I headed back west, passing through Nome heading to Liberty. Carter’s house was like home away from home. I knew no one would bother me there. I could lay in bed and cry myself to sleep.
My phone rang again as Carter passed by me. It was him calling. I decided to answer this time. “Hello?”
“My house?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“A’ight, baby.”
He ended the call, and I followed him until we were parking in his driveway. Carter had a nice barndominium. It looked like a regular shop type of building from the outside. On the inside, it looked like the most modern home you could imagine. His property taxes were low as hell, too. Mine were more than double his were all because of what my house looked like on the outside. Building something like this in Henderson Village would have been an eyesore, though.
As I was about to get out of my car, he appeared in the doorway to assist me. I grabbed his hand, and he pulled me to him, enveloping me in his arms and kissed my head. “Come on, baby.”
He pulled away and grabbed my hand again, leading me to the back door as his phone rang. He silenced it. I knew it was his raggedy ass friend. “You don’t have to ignore him, Carter. He’s the only call you silence around me.”
“You’re more important right now.”
I slowly shook my head as we walked inside his home. I was thoroughly surprised with how laid-back and low-key Carter was. Being that he was a professional bull rider, I thought he would have been more aggressive than he was. He pretty much let me have my way all the time. He only got somewhat forceful with me once. That was because I’d called Red Squared a bitch.He is though.
Asad needed to talk to his lil brother before he and I locked up like some fucking bulls. There had been several occasions that I wanted to unleash on that nigga. Had Carter not intervened, there was no telling what would have happened. Heonly had one more time to talk to my sister crazy in my presence before I lit his ass up.
I went to the couch and flopped down on it. Bringing my hands to my face, I slid them down it. I was pretty sure my face was red. Whenever I was emotional, no matter what the emotion was, my face would redden. Carter sat next to me and held my hand.
Our souls had been tied together for a while. When we were kids and they would come to our house, we always sat next to each other. If we were at the table, he would reach over and grab my hand under the table. No one knew that but the two of us. I wasn’t sure how that even got by Daddy Mayor, but it did. That was why Carter understood me so well. We were friends before anything else.
The first time he said he loved me, we had never had sex. Carter was the only man I’d been with. We fucked around for a while. I didn’t commit to being his until my last year in med school. For him to stick with me despite my stubbornness, bossiness, ego, and attitude, I knew he had to be the one for me. We’d been loving each other for a long time, since before I left for college. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I’d been his from day one.
I’d never even told Noni about us until we were leaving for school. She could see my sadness about leaving for Atlanta. I hated leaving him behind. Unbeknownst to my family, he made several trips to Atlanta to see me. That was when Red expressed an interest in Noni. They had a rodeo out there, and because Carter was wanting to spend time with me, it kind of forced the two of them to have to entertain each other.
“Bali, please let it go, baby.”
I leaned into him, and he put his arm around me. “I can’t. She’s my twin soul. It feels like we’re one. What hurts her hurts me. I can tell that she doesn’t like compromising as much as shedoes. I don’t understand how she even fell in love with him if he was demanding she changed.”
He didn’t respond to me. He only rubbed my back. Noni and I had been arguing and not getting along for damn near four months. We were barely making it through our workdays without fucking each other up. One time she bumped into me by accident, and I jacked her up in the doorway. My anger was so uncontained. I didn’t know how to exert it, other than having sex. Carter wasn’t always available.
He was chasing his dreams. He was one of the best bull riders to grace the PRCA since his dad and Mal. Malachi had already retired, so it was all on Carter. He was number one in not just the PRCA but in the world. My man was a fucking beast. We could barely go anywhere in southeast Texas without someone wanting his autograph.
“Bali, I don’t know what else to say.”
“Then don’t say anything, Carter. When my soul feels like there’s nothing more I can do to try to talk sense into her, then I won’t have a choice but let go. Until that moment comes, there isn’t a thing anybody can say or do to make me stop trying to convince her that she’s making a mistake.”
