With that thought, I looked away from Chase and from the past, from the what ifs and what could have beens, I left the park, and Chase, behind.
For good.
Chapter 24
Chase
What in the hell was CJ doing, sitting on my blanket uninvited? She’d helped herself to my picnic basket, and she kept sliding across the blanket to get closer to me. Why on earth was my assistant doing everything in her power to ruin my night? Didn’t the woman know she was interfering with what could be my last chance to get Carlotta to remain in my life?
I kept my gaze focused on the rom-com playing out on the giant projector in the middle of the park, determined to ignore whatever it was CJ thought she might accomplish tonight.
Carlotta had done her best to ignore me since I showed up, telling me what I already knew about her feelings. She was done with me, and it was my own damn fault. In hindsight I could see how terrible the date had truly been, and it had nothing to do with the well-meaning citizens of Carson Creek and their nosy ways. It was me. All me.
I was the one who misbehaved, who took normal small town conversation as suggestion or demands. People in Carson Creek, especially the older folks, were marriage minded. They were planning weddings and babies for every new couple who appeared in public. I knew that, and still I let it get to me. I ruined my chance to show Carlotta that I was a good man, one who would do whatever it took to please his woman.
Instead, I’d driven her away.
But tonight was meant to be my shot at redemption. I’d brought some Lynchburg Lemonade because she mentioned how much she enjoyed sipping it with her mama during the oppressively hot summers in Mississippi. And now CJ sipped it straight from the bottle, effectively throwing a wrench in my peace offering, dammit. I knew I would have to have a talk to CJ—soon—about her flirtatious and presumptuous behavior, but tonight was about Carlotta. About us.
When Pippa stood with a regretful look, I sat up a little taller, knowing my chance to talk with Carlotta was close. But that moment was slowly slipping away as she started to pack up the picnic basket and the blanket, and then all of Pippa and Ryanna’s stuff.
It’s now or it’s never, Chase.
Carlotta stood and her gaze swept over the spot where the blanket had been, and for one brief moment, our gazes locked. She was so damn beautiful it hurt to look at her knowing I’d lost her. Not just lost, but I’d pushed her away. But when she looked away, I realized something important. She was hurt because she cared. She was angry because it mattered to her, I mattered to her. She wasn’t ambivalent about me, and that was something I could work with.
“Carlotta, wait up.” I jumped to me feet, determined to go after her.
She stopped and turned to me just as CJ reached out to grab my hand. “Where are you going Chase?”
I frowned down at CJ and her overly familiar behavior before I extricated my fingers from hers. “What are you doing?” I looked back at Carlotta and found that she’d already gone. Dammit. “Well?” I growled at CJ, angry that she’d stood in my way once again when it came to Carlotta.
CJ sat a little taller and pushed her chest out, giving me a view straight down her tiny sundress. “I wanted to invite you over to my place once the movie is over and you’ve finished your mayoral duties for the night.” She purred the words, the suggestion clear in them, but I needed her intentions to be clear before I said anything.
“What for CJ?”
She smiled up at me and then licked her lips. “So we can continue our date, of course. I have wine chilling in the fridge and your favorite, chocolate cake.”
Chocolate cake?
“And I have a new negligee that matches your eyes perfectly.” She batted her eyelashes in what was meant to be a flirty gesture, but though she was beautiful, CJ was a child.
“CJ,” I started off kind and gentle, because she was young and mostly a good assistant. “This isn’t a date.”
She frowned. “But we’re here together. You and me. We shared the basket you made and everything.” Her words were almost a whine, but still, she didn’t deserve my anger.
“You sat down uninvited CJ. You’re a great woman, and a wonderful assistant, but I don’t date my employees.” There, that was clean and painless.
“Fine. I quit.”
Dammit, I should have expected that. “CJ, I don’t want you to quit. You’re my best assistant to date.”
“But,” she began again as tears welled in her eyes. “We get along so well. You’re hot and I’m hot, we could be really hot together.”
Her tears made this impossibly difficult, but it had to be done. “We do get along well CJ, but I’m afraid my heart already belongs to someone else.” As I said the words, I knew they were true.
“But you didn’t even bring her as your date,” she spat out the words and pointed to the now empty spot previously occupied by Carlotta.
“A stupid mistake on my part, which I was trying to correct until you showed up. Now,” I straightened to standing and sighed. “If you’ll excuse me, there’s somewhere else I should be.” I walked off in the direction Carlotta had gone, hoping she hadn’t already disappeared.