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With steady hands, he sent the recorded video to Phil and his lawyer, just in case they needed that evidence for any future retaliation Sally might try to pull when she finally figured out Carter had no interest in her and never would.
Once the recording was sent, he sat back in his chair, once again thinking about Kaitlyn. She'd been so awful lately, distant and a little bit chilly. He couldn't help but be worried about her. He had no doubt that all the trauma of what they’d faced with the plane crash and what she'd been through personally had an effect on her, but he couldn't understand for the life of him why that made her pull away from him.
Carter couldn't help but wonder if he'd done something to drive her away. Putting his elbows on his knees, he put his head in his hands, trying to figure out what exactly he'd done to push her away or make her feel like she couldn't trust him and lean on him.
And of course, the talk about Fawn hadn't gone well. He hadn't expected the talk to be pleasant and happy, of course, but he hadn't expected it to be so spectacularly bad. She'd almost seemed mad at him, as if he'd done this to her. Still, toward the end of the conversation, she seemed like she might be accepting the truth.
“Hey, who was at the door?”
Carter jerked his head up, wondering if he'd conjured her from pure thought. She stood like a goddess, scrunching her hair in a towel, glancing toward the door with an eyebrow up.
“Sally. Apparently, she withdrew her complaint because she's in love with me. And she thinks that when you and I break up, I might come back to her.”
Kaitlyn stared at him in stunned surprise, and he tried to keep his expression straight.
“You're kidding.” A smile tugged one corner of her lips and Carter put a hand over his heart.
“Ouch. Are you saying no one can love me? Are you saying I'm unlovable?”
Kaitlyn snorted and rolled her eyes while he feigned being wounded by her words.
“I’ll have you know I am not kidding, madam. She is in love with me.” Carter lifted his chin, unable to hold back his smile as Kaitlyn burst into laughter.
“You know it's getting harder to think this is a joke when you get more and more tickled every time I say it.”
Kaitlyn closed the distance between them and pulled him into a hug. With the damp towel slung over one shoulder, she petted her hands through his hair and talked to him gently. “Aww, you’re lovable.”
“Why are you talking to me like I'm a dog?” Carter enjoyed this easy, fun, relaxed exchange. She almost seemed like the Kaitlyn he remembered, instead of the tight, more withdrawn version of herself she'd been since the plane crash. Sure, they'd had a few breakthrough moments where she'd returned to her fun self, but those seemed fewer and further between.
“Oh, who’s a good boy?” she asked, gently tugging his ears as she spoke in a deep voice.
“I don't like this.” He couldn't hold back his laugh and she joined him.
When they quieted down and she relaxed in his arms, he held her in his lap, thinking all was right with the world. “Did she really withdraw her complaint?”
Carter nodded. “According to Phil and to her. Phil gave me a call not long before she showed up. It was kind of weird.”
“Don't jinx it. We need good news.” As soon as she said the words, her expression turned sad and he couldn't help but wonder once more what was bothering her.
Chapter21
Kaitlyn
After her showerand their time together, Kaitlyn asked Carter if she could ride along with his P.I. so she could investigate Fawn. To her complete surprise, he agreed.
Of course, she hadn't expected him to make things difficult for her, but he had offered to let her see what the P.I. had found, to not actually have her ride along with him. So now, sitting side by side with Carter in the back seat of the private investigator's car, the two were headed toward where Fawn apparently was hiding out with her boyfriend.
The private investigator, a nice guy named Douglas, had already passed her the images that he'd caught of Fawn leaving the apartment with her boyfriend by her side. The boyfriend was a guy that Kaitlyn didn't recognize.
Fawn, however, looked strange, like she lost quite a bit of weight. Her cheekbones and eyes were sunken in a little deeper than Kaitlyn remembered.
Douglas's gaze met hers in the rearview mirror as he turned on to a quiet road. “Recorded conversations too, if you'd like to listen to that. But we're almost there, so we can hear firsthand exactly what's going on.”
He'd already discussed with both of them that he had gear that allowed him to hear through walls, the same kind of things that cops would use. She wasn't entirely certain it was completely legal for him to have those tools, but she trusted that he used them for good and not evil. Plus, she had no idea what private investigators were actually allowed to do, so she wasn't going to open her mouth and say anything, especially if this actually shed some light on what was going on.
Kaitlyn silently hoped that they were both wrong about her friend. She hoped that maybe something had just been lost in translation, or misunderstood, and that Fawn hadn't actually been lying to her the whole time she’d claimed to have been kidnapped and held hostage.
They parked across the street from a house and she was thankful for the darkly tinted windows of the P.I.’s car.
