Page 29 of Love at First Sighting
“Please, do go on,” he says, motioning with his hand to do so. His bemused expression makes my cheeks flush with heat.
“I’m justsaying.Some people think they look horrifying to scare people into silence, but you’re…” I trail off. The wordgorgeousalmost slips out, because I mean it. Carter’s lips quirk into a smile and there’s a playful twinkle in his eyes that makes him all the more alluring.
“I’m what?” he teases.
I choke on a French fry. “Human, I think.”
Then he takes my hand and places it on top of his, pushing his silver watch up his arm. My index and middle fingers rest along the side of his wrist where his pulse thrums beneath my touch. His skin is so warm and smooth, and there’s something so attractive about a man’s hands. Carter’s hands look effective and practical. There are small blots of black pen ink on the edges of his fingers, and his nails are clearly bitten, but I can tell he knows how to use hand cream.
“See? Human,” he says. “Pulse and all.”
“Yes, pulses are…They are good to have.”
I glance at his jacket and hat hanging on the hook behind him, the dark suspenders clinging to him like I want to. With the backdrop of old black-and-white photos, linoleum floors,and fifties music playing in the background, Carter looks like he belongs here perfectly. All he needs are a crack of lightning and a downpour of rain for him to step right into a black-and-white film.
He bewilders me. How can someone be so many things at once?
I clear my throat. “So, youalwayswanted to be a Man in Black?”
Carter pulls his hand away from mine and bites into his grilled cheese again. “Kind of. As a kid, I thought it was cool that my dad did it, but once he died…I don’t know. I thought maybe if I worked my way up the chain, I’d get answers or feel closer to him. But it’s not yielding much so far. Just more questions.”
“And your mom?” I ask.
“She passed away when I was really little. I don’t even remember a time when she was around. As long as I’ve known, it was just me and my dad,” he says with nostalgic fondness. Then Carter clears his throat. “Did you always want to sell shampoo and yoga pants?”
I laugh and shake my head. “Yes and no. I…”
After all he’s said about his dead parents, he’s not going to care about my grueling teen years as a pageant queen or how I hustled my way to the top with sponsorships.
“I kind of fell into this. I modeled as a kid, then went on to do pageants—”
“LikeToddlers and Tiaras?”
I nod. “Yeah. The makeup, the frilly dresses, Q and A’s. I won a few.”
“It’s not hard to imagine why.” My stomach jolts at his words.
“I guess I do like what I do. I like discovering new things. Ilike taking pictures and going to events. I wish there was something real in my life. Everything feels so fake.”
“This cheese might also be fake,” he says, waving to my barely eaten sandwich.
“Oh, Iknowit’s fake.”
“The heart disease will be real, though.” He waits, watching me as I bite into it again. Fuck, this is good. Smiling, he huffs out an amused breath and reaches for my phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Baby’s first grilled cheese. Gotta commemorate it.” The camera flashes as I take another bite, but I’m midlaugh. It’d make a good candid shot, but I’d have to photoshop the grilled cheese out for a green smoothie or something. For the next picture, I flip him off. Carter laughs and slides the phone back to me. The first picture—which I expect to be horrifying—is actually…cute? I’m giggling into my sandwich, but there’s life in my eyes I haven’t been able to muster in my own photos.
And the flipping-the-bird picture has far more personality than anything I’ve posted in years.Years.But, of course, I can’t post it, because it’s technically offensive and Bex would kill me in my sleep.
“These are really good. Between them and the pictures you took when you were stalking me,” I say, “you’re a great photographer.”
“I dabble.” He shrugs.
“Yeah, well, you dabblewell. Is that what you’d do if you weren’t a Man in Black?”
“I’d travel,” he says without hesitation. “I’d want to see the world. But yeah, I guess there’s a lot to take pictures of if you travel.”
