“Were you really done withTrent at this time?” Autumn asked, taking the last gulp of her tea.
“I was. I was so completely in love with Carter; it had just taken me that long to fully realize it.”
“So, the day Trent showed up at the bar, what did he come to say?”
“Well, he was sent by my father to bring me home. He wanted me to go with him, to sit down together and tell our parents that the marriage wasn’t going to happen, but I refused. I had nothing to say to my father.”
“And so he left, just like that.”
“Yes, he too had other plans for his future. He had apparently already met someone else, but what I didn’t know was that my father had other ideas.”
“Want more tea?” She stood up from the floor and grabbed my mug.
“Yes, please.” I got up from the floor and went over to refill the popcorn bowl.
“You said that your dad never liked Carter. What caused that?
“Well, it was all because of a business deal between my father and his. He blamed Carter’s father for the loss of the sale of his company. So really it wasn’t Carter he didn’t like. He just needed to get to know him. Plus, my father ended up finding out that it was really Trent’s father that made the original deal fall through, not Carter’s father. King Enterprises wanted to own my father’s business at any cost. Once my father found out the truth, he started hating Trent.” Autumn and I started to laugh.
The phone rang, startling us both. I glanced at the time; it was almost midnight. I frowned at Autumn, but she shrugged her shoulders. “It might be Hunter. Sometimes he calls this late.” She smiled, grabbing the phone. “I’ll be right back.”
“Hello?”
“Hey, baby, it’s me. I spoke with Carter. He is on the next flight out. He said to keep Hope there. He asked that you don’t tell her.”
“Okay, she’s spending the night. It’s too late and she was too upset for me to let her drive home.”
“How is she doing now?”
“Better. I’ve got her talking.”
“About?”
“I asked her to tell me how they met.”
The line went quiet. “Hunter?”
“Yeah, well, no judging. I wasn’t always how I am now.”
I started to laugh at him; he sounded nervous. “I already guessed that.”
“Great, I’ll see you soon, beautiful.”
“Before you go, how many women have you been with?” I asked seriously and then giggled into the phone.
“One. You’re the only one who matters, so you’re the only one I count.”
I laughed into the phone, and after we said our goodbyes again, I hung up and headed back out to the kitchen. “It was Hunter calling to say good night.”
A look of sadness came over Hope’s face. “That is sweet that he does that. I remember Carter used to do that when the girls were really young. Lately though he hasn’t bothered.”
“All right, none of that. So he bought you a ticket to the Dominican Republic. What happened next?”
We grabbed our mugs of tea and the bowl of popcorn and sat back down on the floor together, and I listened once again.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Carter