Bingo, Mike thought. Carly’s problems weren’t with her father alone. She resented her mother’s behavior as well, and she’d closed them both out of her life. “So that’s how you got started helping teenagers,” Mike said.
She nodded. “I did similar work in college, majored in psychology, and eventually it translated into my column. End of boring story.”
“You never forgave him, did you?” he asked, thinking of the distraught older man he had seen days earlier.
“Not in here.” She placed a hand over her heart.
“Your mother did... or appears to.”
“That’s debatable. Mom’s tough. She believes in handling your private pain in private. I got no support from her because she refused to admit we...” She gestured around the room, the house she’d visited as a child. “We as a family had a problem. I don’t agree with how she chose to live her life, but I can’t fault her for her coping mechanisms.”
Mike disagreed. Carly blamed her mother every bit as much as her father but hadn’t come to terms with her relationship with either one of them. But now wasn’t the time to push her further.
“I’m not as big a person as my mother... you’ve seen that. She stuck by her man. I didn’t stick with Peter. But my parents taught me one important lesson in life.”
“And what’s that?” he asked, sensing this was the key.
“I discovered firsthand what a destructive force passion can be and I’ll never allow it to rule my life,” she said with a vehemence that would have once shocked him.
But after experiencing her extreme reactions to their intense physical attraction, he now understood. She obviously believed she could separate their physical relationship from the emotional and thereby never repeat her father’s mistakes.
He glanced across the table. Carly had begun clearing their half-eaten meal. When he had arrived in the Hamptons, Mike had feared he needed the safety Carly represented and not the woman herself. As he watched her clatter the plates into the sink, he realized how very wrong he had been. And how very much a part of him she had become. The truth frightened him almost as much as it obviously frightened her.
Carly turned from the sink with tears in her eyes.
He held out his arms and she sank into them. Burying his face in her hair, he comforted her the best he could and pushed aside all questions about the future.
NINE
After their emotional discussion, Carly tossed Mike out. Pushing the morning’s events out of her mind, she set about organizing her columns into broad topics. Family, Friendships and Male-Female Relationships seemed like perfect headings, and hours later she had three distinct piles.
Family was a logical starting point but not a topic she was anxious to delve into yet. The same could be said of Male-Female Relationships, she thought, recalling her night with Mike. She set those piles aside. Friendship seemed like a safe place to begin. From there she would progress to Male-Female Relationships and ultimately Family Relations. The last two topics caused a distinct and unwelcome freezing in the region of her heart.
She sighed. How could she give advice when those areas of her own life were so complicated and unsettled? For years she’d walled off her emotions for fear of facing them. Thanks to Mike, she couldn’t put off facing her personal life much longer. But first she had a deadline to meet. As a professional she had learned to separate her personal feelings from her career. Anything less now and she would lose all objectivity.
She stood and stretched, each cramped muscle protesting her prolonged period of sitting in one position. The rumbling sounds of her stomach echoed in the empty room. This morning’s breakfast had filled the garbage disposal more than it had her stomach. A late lunch would help, she decided, and headed for the kitchen.
The light tap on the side door startled her. This exit led not to the main drive but to the beach. She wasn’t expecting company, and Mike wouldn’t be so formal as to knock before announcing his presence. Pulling back the curtains, she found herself face-to- face with her ex-fiancé. He’d given her no warning and she found herself unprepared for any sort of confrontation.
“It was a long drive, Carly. Will you let me in?”
Stunned, she stared through the glass. “Sure.” She opened the door and Peter walked into the kitchen. Dark circles surrounded his eyes and razor stubble covered his normally clean-shaven cheeks. He looked tired, she realized. And a lot more casual than the formality she’d grown accustomed to seeing. She took in his rumpled khaki chinos and a burgundy T-shirt and shook her head. She barely recognized him.
“This was a long drive.” And he could have just used the telephone. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
He ran a hand through his neatly trimmed hair.
“I needed to straighten out a few things.” His gaze traveled the length of her body.
Too late she remembered that she wore nothing but the blue oxford shirt and a pair of satin bikinis. After her shower, the button-down had seemed like the most comfortable item of clothing to work in. And, she grudgingly admitted, after the morning’s painful revelations, she took comfort in something that smelled so much like Mike.
Embarrassed by her lack of clothing, she retreated behind the center island and immediately felt more protected. “Everything already makes sense to me, so you wasted the trip.” She didn’t want to get into a discussion of why he’d felt the need to cheat on her with Regina. She already knew and didn’t need to hear how she’d fallen short with him in the romance department.
Peter cleared his throat. “I think you have the wrong impression.” He shook his head. “No, you probably have the right impression.” He let out a groan.
“Let’s make this easy. I’ve done a lot of thinking since I’ve been here,” Carly said. “We’re both at fault. I certainly shouldn’t have given in at every turn or let you think I was happy when I wasn’t.”
“And I shouldn’t have...” He flushed, a deep red against pale skin.