Taking Chances

“Tease.”

“Oh yes, that’s me…the tease.” I winked and sat up for a chaste kiss.

“And to answer your question,” he began after a few silent minutes, “I was never jealous of Carter. I knew if you were that clueless about his feelings that you didn’t share them.”

My stomach dropped knowing what he must be thinking about. I’d never shared Carter’s feelings, but he’d known all along that there was something between me and Chase. I remembered listening to him telling Liam the morning of our wedding that Brandon knew it was a matter of when, not if. I took a deep breath in, held it for three seconds and then exhaled slowly.

“If you want your friend back Harper, I would never stop you. But if he tries anything again, I won’t stop myself from hitting him this time.”

“Thanks babe, but I’m really not sure if I even want him back in my life. You saw how he was after those few weeks of hanging out, and all those drunken voicemails he left me of the women he was with and stuff like that. That wasn’t my friend, he completely changed when he got to California, and I don’t know if that was a temporary thing or if that’s who he really is now.”

“Well I guess you won’t know if you don’t talk to him.” Brandon offered.

“Do you want me to talk to him?”

He gently grabbed my chin and tilted it up, “I want you to do whatever you want to, I just didn’t want you to think that I would be mad if you were friends again, and I know you miss the way you guys were before you moved.”

I nodded, “Well I can see if he’s still here? We can all talk?”

“If you want me there when you talk, that’s fine.”

“Brandon,” I sighed and took off Liam’s bib, “you’re my husband, of course I want you there. If he has a problem with that, then that tells me all I need to know.”

A flash of relief crossed his face and he smiled warmly at me, “Well then, we’ll be right back.” He stood up and kept Liam facing forward as he strode out the door with him.

I put everything away in the diaper bag, texted Bree back what sandwiches we wanted and sat in my chair just as the guys came back in.

Carter looked at me, then back to Brandon, “Uh, what’s going on?”

“You said you wanted to talk,” I gestured toward another chair, “so let’s talk.”

“I kind of hoped we could talk alone?”

“Anything you say to me, I will tell him, so you might as well just say it in front of both of us.”

He looked uncomfortable, but sat down and wiped the sweat off his face with the bottom of his shirt, “I don’t, um, really know where to start.”

Well I do, “What happened to you? The Carter I knew didn’t go to strip clubs and screw a bunch of girls, he didn’t go and get wasted all the time, and he certainly didn’t marry a base tramp that he had just met.” I turned to look at Brandon, “I’m sorry, but there’s really no other way to describe them.” Looking back at Carter, I continued, “You were the first guy to make fun of those kinds of girls, and then you married one? Even without that though, you turned into such a douche Carter.”

“I know, trust me I know. It wasn’t the best few months of my life.”

“And yet you continued to keep doing all of that, and for whatever reason you felt the need to always tell me what you were doing. I just don’t understand.”

He opened his mouth, eyed Brandon warily and quickly shut it again.

“Just say it.”

“It’s just,” He exhaled loudly and sunk further into his chair, “I had to pull a lot of strings to move here with you, you have no idea how hard it was to do that. I get here, and you’re with someone and my hopes of being with you were completely thrown out the window. I mean, I obviously was wrong, but I’d always thought you knew how I felt about you and thought you felt the same. So you can imagine how pissed off I was when I found out how wrong I was.”

“We were just friends though, I don’t know how many times you and I both said that.”

“No, to you we were just friends. Yes, you were my best friend, but that wasn’t it for me. You don’t realize how much time I spent with your dad talking about you. He knew exactly how I felt, he knew why I wanted to follow you to California, he was the one who helped get my transfer pushed through.”

“Sir did?” I deadpa

“Yep.”

“I thought you said he wouldn’t let you date Harper when you were in his unit, so why would he help you follow her here?” Brandon asked calmly.

“Uh yeah he did, but he was also the one to suggest the transfer.”

“What?” Who was this guy Carter was talking about, and what did he do with my dad?

“I know, shocked me too. I’d already been thinking of a way to move out here when he called me into his office that Monday after you got your acceptance letter. He said something like, ‘You know, Harper’s leaving for California soon, she’ll be near Pendleton. If you were there, you wouldn’t be in my unit anymore.’ And then he gave me that look, you know the one where he expects you to know what he’s thinking? Then he said he’d start the paperwork if I was serious about being with you, and that was that.”

“That just seems…” I trailed off not knowing what word to use.

“So unlike Sir?”

“Yeah.”

“Shocked me too when it happened. So maybe you can understand why I was so miserable, and I guess I wanted you to know how miserable I was. I know how stupid that was, but I just couldn’t stop. And Ashley, well, that was a mistake.”

I shook my head slightly, “I still can’t believe you did that, what were you thinking? Did you not learn how bad of an idea that was from any of the other guys in the unit? Like Ramos? You were there when he found out about his girl! You could have your pick of girls that would love you and would be faithful to you while you’re deployed, instead you went for one of those skanks? They sit around waiting in the parking lots on base for a guy to come hit on them, when their guys go off on a deployment, you know they’re waiting on base the very next weekend for another guy.”

“I know Blaze,” He snapped, “you think I don’t fucking know that?!”

“I would strongly suggest you don’t talk to my wife that way.” Brandon said through clenched teeth.

Carter took a deep breath in to try to calm himself, “Sorry,” he said to both of us, “Harper I know it was stupid, I knew what would most likely happen when I left, but she looked like you and I couldn’t help myself.”

Oh that’s creepy.

Brandon’s face hardened even more and he quickly turned his attention to our son. Thank God he was holding him. From the way the muscles in his arms were flexing, I knew Brandon was itching to hit something and Liam was the perfect thing to calm him down. I flashed a small smile at them before looking back at Carter.

“And now? After all that, what have you been doing this last year since you got back from Afghanistan? You still drinking all the time?”

“No, other than a beer or two with the guys every now and then, I don’t do much of anything. I knew if I wanted any chance of getting you, I had to stop what I was doing. And then of course, I find you again, and you’re married and have a baby.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and dropping his head in his hands, “I can’t believe you have a freakin’ baby.” He whispered.

“I am sorry that you spent all this time, and moved to California, thinking that we would be together. I don’t want to hurt you, but Carter I never saw you as anything more than my friend, and I’m sorry I didn’t make that clear enough back in North Carolina. But I’m not going to be sorry for being with Brandon and having Liam, I can honestly tell you I’ve never been happier than I am now.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to understand that. Congratulations, by the way.” He said grimly, “How old is he anyway?”

“He’ll be a year in two weeks.” Brandon smiled down at him and bounced him up and down on his knee.