AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s more than that, and I wish I could explain.”
Shaking my head, I flagged a server over, who promptly stepped up to the table. “Can I have a glass of your house red, please? And pronto.”
“Sure thing, and you, sir?”
“Water’s fine.” Carter folded the edges of his placemat, creasing the lines firmly with the tip of his fingernail.
Like a knife through the silence, my wine arrived, and I took a decent-sized taste. It was disgusting and dry, but all my fault for not having asked about it to begin with.
Carter matched me sip for sip until we had both finished half our drinks.
I’d been on many awkward first dates, but this was worse, likely because I knew Carter, or at least had once upon a time. We’d known the other inside out and backward, but here we were years later, and in this moment, we were all strange and uncomfortable. Had I held my emotions in check, we could’ve been enjoying this togetherness, instead of him polishing up his origami skills while I drank my wine fast enough to give me a healthy buzz.
I set my empty glass down and let the words fall out. “This is an amazing view. You were right, it is breathtaking up here.”
“It is. The spring and fall are the best times as the sun sets at a decent hour. Since we’re facing east, we don’t get to see a gorgeous sunset, but it’s neat to see the shadows stretch out across the town. It’s quite the sight.”
“Yeah, it’s nice.”
Oh geez, we’d been reduced to small talk, and that bothered me as it was similar to work conversations. No one bothered to get to know another person so if the talk wasn’t work-related and there were no discussions about who was doing what on which file, it was conversations revolving around the weather. Pathetic. I was better than that, and so was Carter.
Had my kiss spoiled everything building between us? Dang.
Shifting the topic into one I knew he’d enjoy, I took a sip of my water, and then dunked the tip of my finger in so I could run it over the top of my glass.
“How’s your family? What have they been up to lately?”
My questions broke his concentration, and he looked up from deepening the creases on his placemat. He was creating a frog. “They’re good. Darcy has a daughter and is married to Stark—”
“Stark?” I raised a brow.
“Legally, it’s Starkland, but he goes by Stark.”
“That’s… well, that’s highly unusual. What did they call their daughter?”
“You’ll love this.” A weak smile teased his lips, and I waited on bated breath. “Starcy.”
I covered my mouth and fake coughed to cover the laugh. There was no way he was serious, except he was.
He shook his head. “She’ll be teased all her life. We all begged Darcy to give it some thought but she believes it’s the perfect mashup of her and her husband’s name. I call her my little star, so that helps.”
“That’s sweet.”
Darcy was barely a year younger than Carter and was flighty, impulsive, and a true wild child; the kind who threw caution to the wind and hoped for the best. Lady luck had often been on her side as everything ended up working in her favour.
“And what’s she doing now?”
“Starkland inherited something in the ballpark of a bazillion dollars, and they are overseas somewhere blowing it faster than humanly possible.” There was a strong hint of anger and disgust in his tone, and he huffed on the last word.
Being a mother wasn’t a word I’d associate with Darcy, but his description sounded like the sister I remembered. “And Alison and Beatrice?” The older two sisters were already in university when Carter and I started dating. “What are they up to?”
“Alison is living her best life. She’s running a pre-loved bookstore in the heart of downtown Calgary. Single and childless with plans on staying that way forever. Was married for eleven months but had the most awful of divorces.”
“Oh, that bites.”
Alison had always been the nicer of the two older sisters. She was warm and comforting, the quintessential big sister who doted on me and treated me like I was blood family, and not her brother’s girlfriend. We had fun together. However, when Carter and I went our separate ways, we’d fallen away as well – loyalty to her brother and all that.
The oldest sister was tough as nails and told me many times if I ever hurt Carter, she’d make it so my body would never be discovered. She scared me. A lot.
