Page 5 of Mistaken Assumptions

I straightened, accidently taking a whiff of the borrowed uniform.

Rhea broke out into a fit of giggles. “That thing reeks.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measure, Pint Size.” I jerked my chin to her phone and added, “Turn that thing on so I can call you and explain what I want to do with you tonight.”

Those powerful dark eyes narrowed, probably catching the double meaning of my words. Blowing her a kiss, I strutted out and kicked closed the door of her private office.

4 Karter

After a hushed phone call, I felt better the rest of the evening. By seven, I was parked in front of Rhea’s condo. She emerged in laid back summer dress, with little yellow roses splattering the white background, paired with strappy white wedge shoes. Nothing about it was revealing or promiscuous, but it my heart leapt at the sight. I swore in the interior of my car as she opened the door to climb inside.

“So…where are you taking me?” Rhea buckled herself into the shotgun seat of my Aston Martin.

Keeping my foot on the brake, I revved the engine. Rhea turned her head to face me and her brows shot up as she gave me an incredulous look.

“I thought we were past all the cold shoulder business.” I let my foot off as I released the clutch and pressed the gas. Driving manual was the only way to roll in my opinion. When Rhea didn’t answer, I sighed. “We are going to a hole-in-the-wall joint that serves the best BBQ you’veeverhad. Then I am taking you on a stroll around a quaint town where no one will know who either of us is.”

Rhea’s shoulders relaxed. I let my fingers rest on the stick in the center console. But she never reached for me. I should have known better than to hope for that. We weren’t that kind of a couple yet.

Hell, are we even a couple?

As I questioned that, I felt a pang in my chest. I knew what I wanted. Just as clearly, however, I knew what was stopping me from going there.

“Look, I really have had some amazing moments now that you are in my life and I don’t want that to stop, Rhea.” I was brutally honest. I kept the sports car weaving in and out of traffic, but the girl next to me never flinched at the way I drove. So I pressed forward, hoping that she craved the excitement that was part of our mutual attraction just as much as I did. “We could do this.”

“Do what, Karter?” Rhea snapped. “What is it exactly that you see happening to us? White picket fence, three dogs, and two-point-five kids?”

“No,” I interrupted her tirade as I navigated the car onto the highway. “I see us having a good time. I see us keeping our work lives separate from our personal relationship…I see you in my bed when I go to sleep, pulled tight against me after I rock your world and put you to sleep. I see your spitfire face over coffee as we chat about mundane things like which Hollywood starlet we accompanied to a salon appointment and encouraged them to dye their hair lime green.” From the corner of my eye, I caught Rhea’s unwilling smirk at that reference to an earlier conversation. “I just want to get to know you even better and spend time with you—without worrying about you fighting me for every fucking inch of traction.”

“And you can swear to me that you aren’t using me?”

“What?” I shouted. “No. Why would you think that?”

“Oh, I don’t know…because it’s a smart tactic. Playboy gets in rival’s panties, manipulates her, and wins the bidding war when she falls apart at his touch.” Rhea was shouting too at this point. “I’m not that girl, Karter. I won’t let you kiss secrets out of me. I won’t choose you over my own goals—”

While she had been going on, I swerved to take the next exit. Slamming on the breaks, I stopped us on the shoulder of the off ramp. “Rhea.”

“I saw you two.” Rhea’s quiet admission filled the intimate space of my prized car.

My mind did a series of mental gymnastics to sort out the meaning of her words. I never took any co-workers out on the town, and I most certainly didn’t have any female friends to hang out with. All I did was work, go to the gym, and eat.

Then it hit me— “Bobbi!” I smacked my palm into my face and groaned. “No…no, no, no.”

“You were all over her,” Rhea’s voice broke a little as she admitted what she had seen earlier this morning. “But it’s okay, Karter, I know there are other women in your life, I wasn’t expecting to take central stage—”

“Bobbi is my Rodger,” I interrupted her horrible spiral. “Whatever you think you saw this morning, un-see it. Because you’re the only woman in my life right now, Pint Size. And I want to make this thing work—despiteeverything.”

Her face was flushed and I could see her rapid breathing by the way her chest heaved. “Fine. Just tell me you aren’t using me as a tactic.”

“I’m not.” The raw feelings poured out in the next words, “I’m disappointed. I would have thought you knew me better by now—the real me.”

Rhea squeezed her eyes closed and whispered, “But our families…”

Silence filled the vehicle, so all we could hear was the purr of my baby’s engine.

“I thought we were past this,” I admitted. “You have the quote from WRX as do I. The way I see it: we will take our turns on the chess board, but we can get up from the table and let the game linger in the background, never revealing the moves.”

“It’s such a dangerous position to be in,” Rhea hedged. When her eyes blinked open, they sparkled with the tears she was holding back.

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