Page 36 of No One Else Can Have Her

“You’re going to tell me how I feel now?” Carly asked.

Dalton shrugged. “I mean, I’m not trying to tell you how to feel, but if you think about it, it does make sense.” His brows went up, and she shook her head.

“None of this makes sense.”

“Nate’s crazy about you, and he didn’t want to ruin your friendship. You guys were young, now you’re not, and he cannot stand to see you with other men. It makes a lot of sense to me, and also he was building this shit up. He was making a name for himself, and until he was strong enough, he couldn’t run the risk of you getting hurt. It’s all kind of romantic, if you put a different perspective on it. You can hate us, Carly, but I know you, and you know our situations, none of us are going to turn down money, even when we don’t need it to do things for the people we love. Regardless of what you say, we do love you.”

Dalton picked up his beer and took a sip. He opened his wallet and took out a couple of bills, including plenty of money for the tip.

“If you think about it, we all take care of each other because that is what family does.” He winked at her, and then got to his feet. “And I just want to say that no point of me coming to see you was forced or paid for. I love you, Carly.”

She watched him go, and now she felt tears spring to her eyes for a whole different reason. Dalton had never told her he loved her. She knew it wasn’t love in the way she felt for Nate, but it was that of family, of a sibling. And she loved him as well.

****

Three Days Later

Carly heard the door opening as she stirred the tomato soup she had cooking for herself. There were not a lot of groceries left in the fridge, and she’d used them all up in her soup. She loved doing this, as she hated food waste of any kind.

Sarah had finally returned home. She had no doubt she’d irritated Mitch to the point that he had finally dropped off the other woman.

She didn’t know if she was ready to see her friend, but she heard her footsteps as she padded into the kitchen.

“I can totally understand if you don’t want me home,” Sarah said. “I can find another place to stay. Maybe rent a place until you can forgive me. Mitch can’t stand me. I apparently spray too much perfume, I don’t clean up after myself, and I’m a lousy cook. He also claims that I fart while I sleep, which I take great offense to.”

Carly finally took a deep breath and turned to look at Sarah. She expected to feel anger, maybe even hurt or hatred, but instead she looked at her friend and it felt good to see her.

“Do you want some of my leftover tomato soup?”

“Hell, yeah, you do a fridge raid?” Sarah asked, already pulling out a chair at their small table in the kitchen.

Carly nodded.

“Wait, you didn’t put fish in there again, did you?”

This time, she couldn’t help but laugh. She was once convinced that the best way to use up leftovers was to put them all into a soup. She did this with some leftover fish, tuna from a can, and some shrimp, and yeah, it was the nastiest soup Carly had ever made. She and Sarah did try to eat it, but in the end, they ordered pizza to make up for it.

“No, no fish. I don’t make the same mistake twice.” She served them some soup and placed it in front of Sarah. Carly served herself a bowl and took the seat opposite her.

She looked across the kitchen counter at Sarah, and it was good to see her friend. Although, she could tell Sarah did look a little worse for wear.

“Rough couple of days?” Carly asked.

“The worst. Mitch has a horrible mattress and it has made me feel like I was being stabbed repeatedly. I probably deserved it.” Sarah took a few sips. “This is pretty good.”

Carly smiled.

Silence fell between them.

It wasn’t a bad soup. The vegetables added a new dimension of flavor, and the herbs really rounded out the taste. She loved it.

“Okay, fine, I can’t do this. I love the soup, but I … I was trying to bring you and Nate together. That’s what I tried to do, and it backfired, big time. I didn’t want there to be any more secrets and I thought if you knew the truth, you would fall in love with him.”

“You thought that?” Carly asked.

“The guy is crazy about you. Like, super crazy. He loves you and would do anything for you.” Sarah licked her lips. “I thought if you knew everything he had done, from making sure the guys don’t treat you like crap, to taking care of you with this apartment, even your job, you’d see what kind of guy he was.” She stopped and sighed. “I … I never wanted you to storm out and be hurt. That’s the last thing I wanted.”

“You didn’t think it would hurt me to know I’ve been lied to?”

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