A Dash of Christmas Page 6

  Dammit, why had he just shared any of that? The only other person in the world he’d shared that with was his brother Christian.

  Without looking at her, Carter turned and started pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator. Fresh basil and mozzarella, fresh and canned tomatoes, artichokes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and pepperoni. He had no idea what kind of toppings Emery liked on her pizza, but everyone he knew liked pepperoni.

  Placing everything on the counter, he walked over and pulled a deep pan out of the cabinet and set it on the stove. Normally, he enjoyed letting his sauce cook all day, but for tonight they’d have to make do with a quick one. Using canned tomatoes wasn’t his choice but he’d doctor them up, and with all the other toppings, it would taste fantastic.

  And yes, he was definitely tooting his own horn, but he knew it to be true.

  His back was to Emery as he began chopping, dicing, and mincing ingredients. He opened the cans and then the bottle of red wine he had purchased on the way home. No Italian meal—even just pizza—should be eaten without a good bottle of wine. That would be sacrilege.

  Olive oil, garlic, onion…it all began to heat in the pan and the aroma filled the air. Carter inhaled deeply and smiled.

  Behind him, Emery cleared her throat. “I guess I’ll dry my hair and get dressed so I can…you know…go grab something for myself.”

  Carter immediately took the pan off the flame and turned the burner off. He turned toward her in complete confusion. “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why are you going to grab something of your own? I’m making us pizza!” And yeah, okay, he was sounding a bit like a crazy person with the snap in his voice, but did she honestly believe he was going to stand here and make himself a fabulous dinner right in front of her and not offer her any? Did she think he was that big of a jerk?

  Stupid question.

  Her hazel eyes went wide and there was a hint of panic in her expression. “Um… I just thought, you know…” She cleared her throat again. “I told you earlier I don’t expect you to cook for me.”

  Yes, she had told him that and at the time he hadn’t commented. So if blame had to be placed on this misunderstanding, it was on him.

  Not that he was going to admit it.

  “Look, we’re both here, and obviously I enjoy cooking and you…don’t.” He paused to see if she’d take offense to that, but she didn’t. “So if I’m cooking and you’re here, it’s safe to assume I’m cooking for both of us. Okay?”

  And then the strangest thing happened.

  Emery blushed.

  Like, seriously, her cheeks turned pink and she averted her eyes, and it was absolutely adorable.

  “Em?”

  With a quick nod, she said, “Okay.” When she looked up at him again, she fidgeted with the towel on her head. “I still need to go dry my hair and get changed.” She paused. “I’d ask if there was something I could do to help, but I think we both know the answer to that.”

  His quick laugh escaped before he could stop it. “Go. And you don’t have to rush. It’ll easily be an hour before we eat and I’ve got everything under control. So…go.”

  “Thanks.”

  He stood back and watched her walk down the hall toward her bedroom, and once the door was closed, he went back to the stove and put the pan back on the burner and continued to cook. Once things were seasoned and simmering to his liking, he pulled his phone out and did the one thing he had hoped to put off for a few more days.

  He called his mother.

  “Carter! What a surprise! I thought after the way you threw me off the phone last night I wouldn’t hear from you for a while,” his mother said as soon as she answered the phone.

  “I think we both know why I’m calling sooner rather than later,” he said.

  “I did try telling you last night, but you weren’t listening to me.”

  “Mom…”

  “And on top of that, you lied to me about your travel plans!” she cried. “Am I so horrible to be around that you find it necessary to lie to me rather than allowing me to see you when you’re in town?”

  Twenty-three seconds! That had to be a new guilt-trip record.

  “You’re not horrible, Mom, and you know it. I need a couple of days to decompress before dealing with all the new restaurant issues, and yet somehow that didn’t happen. Do you want to guess why?”

  “Let’s not play this game, Carter,” she said stiffly. “I get it. You’re at the condo and so is Emery, but in my defense, she needed a place to go and when you mentioned going to New York to me several weeks ago, I couldn’t be sure if you meant the city or out to Long Island. See, if you were a little more honest with me—”

  “Okay, let’s not play that game either,” he interrupted. “I think it’s very nice how you helped Emery out. But if you had told me, I would have gone straight to Montauk and avoided all of this.”

  “Carter…”

  “Do you have any idea how awkward this is?” he asked softly, not wanting Emery to overhear him. Quietly, he stepped into the hall, heard her blow-dryer running, and breathed a sigh of relief. He made his way back to the living room. “I come home to find a stranger in the house—”

  “Emery’s hardly a stranger.”

  “I thought someone had broken in. Emery was asleep and also thought someone had broken in, and we both scared the crap out of one another and I attacked first and asked questions later!”

  “Oh, Carter! You didn’t hurt her, did you?”

  He decided to omit some details. “No, Mom, I didn’t hurt her, but it certainly freaked us both out!”

  They were getting nowhere. He walked back into the kitchen and stirred the sauce. “Mom, this wasn’t a good time for you to do this. I gave you recipes, photos, and you have my name to put on the book. If there’s anything else you want to add, you can—photos, anecdotes, whatever. You know what you want and you can totally do it. I can’t put any more time into this. I’m leaving for Montauk on Monday and—”

  “So take Emery to Montauk with you,” she stated simply.

  Damn. I walked right into that one, didn’t I?

  He sighed wearily and raked a hand through his hair.

  “It won’t matter. I still don’t have time to put into working with her. This trip is for me to focus on the problems with the restaurant.”

  “But Carter—”

  “Look, clearly you have faith in Emery or you wouldn’t have offered her the position, right?”

  No response.

  “All I’m saying is if she knows what you want and she has all the materials, then she’ll be able to make it work. And honestly, why would you even think choosing Emery to help me was a good idea?” he asked. “She’s been a thorn in my side since we were kids!”

  “Carter,” she said a little more firmly, but he cut her off.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. This is the best I can do.”

  Not knowing what else to do or say, Carter glanced toward the stove and saw steam coming from under the lid of his saucepan. Walking over, he lifted it and gently stirred the sauce, relieved nothing had stuck. It smelled good, but suddenly his appetite was gone.

  Lowering the flame, he replaced the lid and sighed.

  “I really am sorry. The timing is just…”

  “It’s fine, Carter. It was selfish of me to ask so much of you when you’re already overwhelmed with work.” She paused. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m meeting the girls for book club tonight. I’ll talk to you soon.” And before he could respond, she was gone.

  Much like he’d done to her the night before.

  Tossing his phone down on the kitchen island, he braced his hands on the granite and hung his head.

  He cursed himself, not that it did any good.

  It was like he was being punished, though for what he ha
d no idea. For years he’d run a very successful business. His restaurants were world-famous and he had been interviewed and done segments on both daytime and nighttime talk shows, so why was everything going to shit now?

  He poured himself a glass of wine and took a sip, but that wasn’t going to be enough to mellow him out.

  Putting the glass down, Carter stepped back over to the stove and stirred the sauce, looking at the dough sitting on the counter. He had rolled and stretched it, then formed it back into a ball again earlier, for no other reason except he was trying to keep himself busy. Now he had to roll it out again and get it onto the large pizza stone. It was the last thing he felt like doing. He turned off the burner beneath the sauce.

  The walls were closing in on him and there was only one thing to do—leave. He’d take a long, brisk walk, and he could deal with the dough and the rest of it later. Keys in hand, he was halfway to the door when he heard Emery ask, “Going someplace?”

  * * *

  It wasn’t as if she had intentionally eavesdropped on his conversation with Eliza; it just happened to turn out that way.

  After she had finished drying her hair and getting dressed, Emery had heard Carter speaking on the phone. She could hear the frustration in his voice and knew she was a contributing factor to it. And while that had been enough to get her hackles up, it wasn’t until she listened closer that she realized there was more to the story. She didn’t know what, but it wasn’t just her presence that was freaking him out. In the end, she’d heard how tortured he sounded at letting his mother down, and she could only imagine how Eliza must have reacted.

  Dammit, she hated this. Hated how this was a problem and she was in the middle of it.

  This was supposed to be a reprieve for her—a sanctuary with a bit of busy work to keep her mind occupied. What it was now was an awkward situation for the three of them with no means of escape.

  Okay, maybe escape wasn’t the right word, but…she hated how this was Carter’s family home and she was encroaching on his space and his need for solitude. The fact that he was leaving told her so.

  “You shouldn’t be the one to go, Carter,” she said cautiously, not wanting to upset him any further. “I’ll leave.”

  When he turned to face her, she could tell he was wound tightly. His fists were clenched at his side, his expression hard. “What are you talking about?” he said gruffly.

  “I—I heard your conversation with your mom.” She sighed and took a tentative step toward him. “I had no idea my being here or helping with the book was going to cause so many problems.”

  “The book is the problem, Emery, not you,” he corrected, but it didn’t make her feel much better.

  “Still, it seems like I’m just adding to an already difficult time for you, so… I’ll find someplace else to stay until you leave for wherever it is you’re going next.”

  Carter continued to stare at her and Emery wished he’d say something—anything! When it appeared he wouldn’t, she turned to head back to her room to pack up a few things. A couple of nights in a hotel wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, right? There was room service and well, she was sure there would be other perks but they escaped her right now.

  She’d gone all of two feet when Carter called her name. Slowly, she looked over her shoulder at him.

  “Don’t go.”

  His voice was raw and it wasn’t hard to tell there was a battle raging within him. Normally, Emery enjoyed watching Carter squirm and struggle, but for some reason seeing him this emotional after a call with his mother affected her in a way she didn’t expect.

  She felt compassion for him—a need to comfort him and tell him it was going to be all right.

  She made her way toward him. “I think it would be best for everyone if I did. You didn’t deserve to be blindsided like this, and I’m sorry it happened this way. I truly believed you were aware of what was going on and you were coming here specifically to work on the book. I had no idea your trip here had nothing to do with it or that you were so against giving it more attention.”

  Carter’s shoulders sagged a little. “At any other time…”

  “I know,” she said softly, moving a little closer. “I get it. Hey, there isn’t anything I can do about whatever else you’re dealing with, but on this particular subject, I can. I’ll work with the files you sent your mother and I’ll make it into something closer to what she’s looking for, okay? And in the meantime, I’ll stay out of your way so you can have at least one night’s peace.”

  They stood in silence for a long time, and as much as Emery wanted to pack and get out of his way, she couldn’t seem to make herself move. In all the years they had known one another, they had bickered and poked fun at each other and essentially gone out of their way to make the other miserable. It was what they did. It was comfortable. But right now, she couldn’t think of a single snarky or antagonistic comment.

  And that freaked her out.

  Swallowing hard, she took a step back. And then another. Next thing she knew, she had spun and was walking back to her bedroom, mildly trembling. She went straight to her closet and pulled out her weekender bag. Knowing she wouldn’t be going out or doing anything other than vegging in her hotel room, she walked over to her dresser and pulled out a couple of pairs of yoga pants, a few T-shirts, a pair of pajamas, and a pair of shorts and tossed them in the bag. Next, she opened her lingerie drawer and was pulling out a handful of panties when a large male hand closed over hers. Gasping with surprise, she turned and found herself face-to-face with Carter.

  While they both held her panties.

  Awesome.

  Emery wanted to be outraged—or at the very least annoyed that he had invaded her space when she was clearly trying to be the bigger person here—but for some reason she couldn’t seem to make herself speak or react.

  What was happening to her?

  “This is crazy,” he said, his voice deep and low and borderline hypnotic.

  So he felt it, too? This sudden crazy pull toward one another? The change in the air around them?

  “I already said I didn’t want you to go, Em,” he went on, and that’s when she realized what he was talking about.

  Forcing her gaze away, she carefully pulled her hand and underwear from his. “I think it’s for the best.” Then she moved away, tossing her garments in the weekender bag along with the rest of her clothes. For a few minutes, she busied herself collecting odds and ends—her laptop, her e-reader, her iPod—before going into the bathroom and grabbing her toothbrush, makeup, and brushes. Anything else she needed she’d get from housekeeping. When she walked back out into the bedroom, she found Carter sitting quietly on her bed.

  And her weekender bag emptied.

  Okay, now she was outraged.

  “Seriously, Carter?” she cried. “Why can’t you just let me do this?”

  He shrugged. “I already told you. It’s not necessary.”

  “To me it is! There’s no reason for me to stay here. And might I remind you, I’ve been a thorn in your side since we were kids!”

  It pleased her that he paled a little at having his words thrown back at him.

  “I would think you’d be thankful that I was leaving,” she said, hating the tremor in her voice. “One less thing for you to worry about.”

  The curse that flew out of his mouth followed by a huff of annoyance didn’t really surprise her. This was them. This was the relationship they had. And honestly, she preferred this to the strained silence and whatever it was that she was feeling just minutes ago.

  Carter stood and walked over until they were toe to toe. “What I said to my mother,” he began and then stopped. “What I mean is, that was said in the heat of the moment and really, it couldn’t have been news to you. I’ve been telling you that to your face since we were twelve.”

  “Eleven, but…whatever,�
� she corrected and smirked when he growled with frustration.

  “That! That right there is why I said it! Can’t you just let some things go?”

  “Me?” she cried. “How about you? I was being the bigger person here! I was putting your feelings first, and where did that get me, huh? I should be in a cab on my way to a hotel with room service, but instead I’m here arguing with you again! Why couldn’t you just let me leave?”

  They both instantly fell silent and Emery felt herself holding her breath while she waited for his answer.

  “What’s the matter?” she finally asked. “Is it possible the arrogant Carter Montgomery has nothing to say for himself for the first time in his life?”

  Yeah, she was taunting him, but…she needed to. Needed things to be like they always were. If she didn’t get them back on solid ground—back on the familiar turf of a lifelong rivalry—she wouldn’t know what to do. For years she’d been aware of Carter as a person. She couldn’t deal with suddenly being aware of him as a man.

  When his only response was a slight tick in his jaw, she figured she’d poke the bear a little more. “Did you burn the sauce? Is that why we’re not eating yet? Or maybe you realized all that pretentious crap you bought was no better than grabbing a couple of slices from the pizzeria on the corner.” She noted he seemed to be almost inflating before her eyes—his posture straightened, his shoulders seemed to grow broader…

  Go big or go home, right?

  Leaning in, she said, “I bet you really don’t know how to make homemade pizza. At least not good homemade pizza.” She let out a devious little laugh. “Probably thought I would be too naive to know the difference. You probably could have served up one of my frozen pizzas and I wouldn’t know the difference.”

  He was breaking molars now, no doubt.

  “Not that it matters. I’ve got some microwave popcorn I can have for dinner, along with the last brownie. That’s the kind of stuff I can count on—and will probably be a lot more enjoyable.”

  This time when Emery tried to move away, Carter’s large hand on her arm stopped her.

  She had to hide her smile of satisfaction. “Problem?” she asked innocently.