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She chewed the corner of her bottom lip. “I’ll be alone?”
He smirked and nodded. “Yeah, but you’re safe up here. No one has access that we don’t want having access. You need anything?”
“No.”
He nodded again and turned to leave but she thought of something. “Hey, wait. Can I ask you a question?”
Brooks stopped and turned to face McKenna. “What’s up?”
“Has he been watching me this entire time?” She paused and glanced over her shoulder. “Like before he called a few days ago?”
“No.”
“Did you?” He frowned and she added, “You brought me the money the day he left. You left the phone the one time I talked to him. You do favors for Carter. Maybe one of those was to look after me.”
Brooks wouldn’t correct her and admit Carter had lied about who left the phone, so he just stared, not saying anything for a minute, which only annoyed McKenna.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about Carter asking him to keep an eye on her but she also realized it could be a possibility. If Brooks had been keeping up with McKenna, then he would have surely given Carter details about her life. She wasn’t happy with Tevin. It wouldn’t take much to see she wasn’t. If Carter knew and didn’t come for her, refusing to be a part of McKenna’s life, then she felt conflicted.
“If you’re asking if I knew the doctor wasn’t who you needed to be with then yeah, I knew.”
She frowned. “And you didn’t tell Carter.”
“I told him when it was necessary. That’s why he called you that day. In some complicated way, he thought if you heard his voice you would know how he felt, even if he couldn’t be with you.”
“That’s stupid.”
Brooks walked closer. “It wasn’t my business.”
“But he asked you to watch me. He said if I wasn’t happy he would know.”
“All he asked was that I make sure you were good when he wasn’t around. Not to get involved in what you had going on.”
“Both of you barged into my life. He stayed. He made me care about him then he left.”
“Like I said, it wasn’t my business and it wasn’t my decision to report to him about your life, McKenna. Carter isn’t like most people. He lives by rules, codes…”
“I know that.”
“No, you don’t, or you wouldn’t be questioning me right now. You don’t know shit about him or how he thinks. Carter did what was best for you. Whether you understand his decision or like it, he stayed away for you. He had a lot of shit to deal with and he couldn’t do that if you were a distraction. He made a decision, one he regrets, but still one he stood by. He didn’t want the details about your life, only wanted to know you were good. I made him a promise, which I kept. The rest is between the two of you.”
“None of that was fair to me.”
“Maybe not, but he wouldn’t have respected me if I did the exact thing he asked me not to do,break my word, and that’s far more important to me than what you think I should have done.”
Brooks left and McKenna closed and locked the door, leaning against it for a minute before she headed back to the bedroom. After climbing into the bed in Carter’s guest room, she felt unsettled and decided she didn’t want to be alone.
McKenna found herself down the hall, opening the door to Carter’s room. She peeked inside, half expecting to see him, but she knew he wasn’t home. The space smelled like him. The familiar earthy, citrusy scent lingered in the air, calming her anxieties. McKenna pulled the covers back and slipped in between the cool sheets, smiling as her head sank into the pillow. Sleep wrapped its arms around her and she was drifting again, but this time she didn’t feel so alone.
A few hours later McKenna was coaxed awake by the sound of movement in the bedroom. It was quiet but enough to let her know someone was there. She felt him.
She lifted her head from the pillow and watched Carter’s back as he removed a watch from his wrist, then keys and a phone from his pocket. Each item he placed on the dresser.
“You changed clothes.”
Carter stilled for a minute then removed something else from his pocket and placed it on the dresser. “I did.”
“Should I ask why?”
