“You call me whenever. Any time of the day or night, all right?”
“All right, love you.”
The line goes dead, and I toss my phone to the side on the mattress.
“What the hell is going on? The wedding’s off?” Carter’s face is full of confusion, his phone already in his hand, probably ready to call Doug.
I burst into tears, concern for my sister covering me like a blanket. Carter pulls me into his arms and rubs my back, soothing me. Or doing his best to at least.
When I finally compose myself, I pull back and explain the situation to him. He frowns while he listens, forehead wrinkled.
Once I’m done, he blows out a long breath and pushes a hand through his dark hair. “I’m gonna have to call Doug and see how he’s doing. I can’t believe this.”
I nod. “I feel so bad for my sister. You dream of your wedding your whole life and now everything she wanted is ruined.”
“What can I do to help?”
More tears track down my cheeks. “I’m too upset to call everyone. I’ll probably cry and babble, and no one would understand me. Would you be able to do it if I got you a list with all the names and numbers for the guests? There’s not that many since it wasn’t a huge wedding to begin with.”
“Of course. Whatever you need, I’m here for you. You can count on me.”
The words have no sooner left his lips than his phone rings. He fishes it out of his jeans and looks at the screen, appearing annoyed.
“Who is it?” I ask.
“My boss.” He lets out a heavy sigh. “I have to answer this.” Carter cringes a little and picks up the phone. “Hey.”
I listen, crying silent tears as Carter deals with his boss. It’s obvious something has gone wrong at work and that he’s been tapped in to fix it.
A few minutes after the call begins, Carter says, “Yes, Ralph. I’ll make sure it’s handled right away.”
I’m looking at my hand curled on my lap, but when I hear Carter’s comment to his boss, my head whips in his direction.
As he hangs up, he gives me a pleading look. “I’m sorry, I have to take care of this.”
This, on top of everything, seems to be the thing that upsets me the most. “You just finished telling me that I can count on you.” My despair morphs to anger in my veins.
“You can. I just have to take care of this first. Our biggest client has an issue with the server on their site, and it’s right before Christmas. Every minute lost is tens of thousands of dollars for them in lost revenue.”
My arms fly up in front of me, almost of their own volition. “By all means then, don’t let my personal crisis prevent you from saving the billionaires and the shareholders of the world.”
His jaw flexes. “It’s not like that. I can’t just tell my boss no. As soon as I’m done dealing with this, I’ll make those phone calls for you.”
“Don’t bother. They can’t wait.” I stand, ready to go down to my office and get the list off my computer.
I move to walk past Carter, but he holds my wrist and stops me from passing him. “Ash, don’t be like this. Don’t let your temper get the best of you. I’m sorry, okay?”
“This isn’t about my temper.” I yank my hand from his grip. “I get it. I do. But do you want to know what hurts so much? You’re setting me aside for a job you don’t even like. One you’re not even sure you still want to be doing.”
“Regardless, it’s still my job currently.”
“Aren’t you technically on vacation? How am I supposed to feel when you’re moving me to the bottom of the list of priorities for something you don’t even care that much about? What does that say about how you feel for me?”
He swallows hard. “What? This has nothing to do with how I feel about you.”
“Maybe not to you, but to me it does. How are we ever going to make long distance work when you can’t even put me first when we’re in the same place? How many missed FaceTime calls and canceled trips to see me should I be expecting, Carter? Because this really isn’t giving me much confidence, I have to be honest.”
He presses his lips together. “You’re overreacting.”
