Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love) (24 page)

“The Broadway Tiny and Tall?”

Carrie and Destiny both nodded.

“I’ll have to shower first.”

Carrie and Destiny nodded again.

He chuckled. “Hold on, bobbleheads…or come in and clean
something, if you like. I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”

***

While Destiny cleaned, Carrie called Tiny.

He answered on the first ring. “I’ll kill him if you want.
No one would ever suspect a little person.”

Before Carrie could rep
ly
, the phone crackled and banged
about. Then Tall spoke. “He’s serious, so don’t accept his offer.”

“I won’t. What I wanted to know is—”

Again the phone banged about until Tiny spoke. “Say the
word.”

“The word is no! I don’t want you killing anyone. I wanted
to know if you two would like to come out and celebrate a bright new future
with me.”

“Of course, but Tall is sick and—”

She laughed as the phone thumped about once again then Tall
spoke. “I’m not sick. What’s the plan?”

“To go to Giuseppe’s and celebrate my glorious future.”

“We’d love to. Who else is coming?”

“Dan, Destiny, and my friend Jon Javits.”

“The author?”

“Yes.”

“You have wonderful friends.”

“I do.” His words filled her with pride. She had somehow
acquired a great number of fabulous friends in the last four months.

According to Dan, Giuseppe had reserved the entire balcony
for them when he learned the group included Tiny.

Carrie laughed. “Wise man. I fear Tiny is going to be a
handful tonight.” She grew serious. “He offered to kill Trent,” she whispered.

“Good,” Destiny stated as she re-stacked Jon’s magazines.
“Jon reads cool stuff.”

“Not good,” Carrie scolded. “He meant it. Under no
circumstances should you give him positive reinforcement in this matter.
Otherwise, you could be responsible for the incarceration of one of the most
gifted magicians and comedians in the world. And yes, he’ll no doubt break out
in five seconds, but escaping will make matters worse.”

Destiny grimaced. “Good point. Children don’t process right
from wrong like adults.”

Carrie intended to correct her, revealing Tiny’s age, but
then realized in some ways he’d remained a child. “His abandonment may have
stunted his desire to grow up and be an adult.”

Destiny snorted. “Or his tiny size allows him to get by
with shit and never grow up.”

Dan cleared his throat and glared at his daughter. Her
rounded eyes went from confusion to horror in less than a second. “Oh, Carrie,
I didn’t mean all small people. You behave nothing like Tiny, and you’re much
taller!” Destiny’s distress would have gained Carrie’s forgiveness had she
taken insult, which she hadn’t.

She sat beside the girl and hugged her. “Final
ly
, something I
can thank my parents for. They didn’t allow me to over-linger in childhood.”
She patted Destiny’s back. “However, you could be right with Tiny. Tall lived
off street donations when he took the little guy in and incorporated him into
his act. He may not have ever thought to insist Tiny grow up.”

Destiny burst into tears and hugged Carrie.

“What?” she asked.

“I feel so bad for Tiny and you. I had such a wonderful
childhood.”

Carrie smiled up at Dan, whose brow furrowed,
clearly
confused by
his daughter’s outburst. “I’m glad you had a wonderful childhood.”

Jon scowled as he entered the room looking casual but neatly
dressed. “I thought we planned to celebrate your future, not cry about the
past.”

Destiny wiped her eyes. “We are. I became overwhelmed upon
realizing I seem to be the
only
person with a happy childhood.” She paused. “Did you by
chance have a happy childhood?”

He snorted. “More like a hellish nightmare, but my kids had
a good life, until two months ago. Now I’m guessing their lives are hellish, as
well.”

Destiny ran to him and gave him a hug. He looked at Dan for
help.

“If we are ready, we should go,” Carrie suggested. “Tall
and Tiny are going to meet us there.”

***

When they arrived at Giuseppe’s, a young man waited to lead
them through the restaurant and kitchen to the balcony where they found Tiny ensconced
in Mrs. G’s lap, sleeping like a babe. Tall remained seated, but still had to
lean down to kiss Carrie on both cheeks when she arrived.

Her presence woke Tiny and he covered her face with kisses
and offered once again to kill Trent.

“No! This is a celebratory time, not a plotting-death
dinner.”

“I would do it.”

“Good for you,” Mrs. G declared and hugged Tiny back to her
chest. “Must have some Italian in you.” She stared at Carrie. “If Giuseppe did
half what this Lancaster did, my father would have…well, let’s just say, he’d
never be seen again.”

Carrie had to stop the woman from encouraging Tiny. “Well,
I’m not Italian and I do not want Trent harmed in any way whatsoever.”

“You still love him,” Tiny growled.

Dan’s head popped up and everyone waited for her response.

Thank God
the balcony had been reserved sole
ly
for them
because she didn’t want to read her response in the papers tomorrow. “No. I no
longer love him. Even stupid people have to come to reason.”

“You aren’t stupid, you’re overly tolerant,” Jon insisted
as he glared at his glass of water. “Can we order mass drinks here? We’re going
to need them.”

“Green tea for my daughter,” Dan said.

“And me,” Carrie added. While she wouldn’t mind a drink,
she didn’t want Destiny to be the only one not drinking.

Dan smiled at her. “I’ll have a green tea as well.”

Tall chuckled. “Bring us three pitchers of green tea. We’ll
celebrate sober for once.” He then leaned across the table, his mournful gaze
meeting Jon’s. “You don’t want to be around a drunk acrobat. It never goes
well.”

Jon smiled. “Well, if we can talk about anything other than
Master—Fucking—Trent, I won’t need a drink.”

Carrie jumped on his offer. “Deal. No mention of MFT
forthwith. Jon, you have before you many avid fans of the SkyRyder series. Can
you give us a hint as to what happens in your current novel?”

Carrie’s favorite appetizers arrived, and they sat in silence,
listening to Jon give not just a hint, but a play-by-play account of the trials
of the men and women who keep the Americas safe in the future world of Jon
Javits.

As the waiter brought their meals, Destiny burst into tears,
and Tiny joined her.

Jon stopped talking. “What?”

“Jon, you broke up the great love of book three,” Carrie
complained.

“Life happens, but Logan is going to fall in love with his
strategist from book two, and the kids will thrive without their mother.”

“Have you talked to a lawyer about getting partial custody
of your sons?” Dan asked.

Destiny dried her eyes. “You should. Sometimes the father
is a better parent.” She smiled at Dan. “Proved true, in my case.”

Carrie smiled when Dan hugged his daughter to his side.
He
is such a good man. Why has it taken me so long to notice?

When dinner arrived, Carrie had an excuse to alter the
seating. She gripped Tall’s and Jon’s arms. “I’m going to join Dan for my
dinner now.”

“But you have a dinner,” Jon stated.

She slide it towards Tall. “Would you like this?”

Tall chuckled. “Sure.”

She kissed them both on their cheeks, grabbed her fork and
glass of tea, and sat down between Dan and Tiny.

She looked up to Dan’s smiling eyes. “Will you share with
me?”

His eyes perused her face before he answered, “Absolute
ly
.”

***

Dan couldn’t remember a more interesting and enjoyable
dinner in his life. After listening to the makings of another great novel by
Jon, Tall and Tiny explained how they made the paper clip jail on the stage.

Tall laughed. “Except we didn’t build it for two.”

Dan grimaced and flipped his hands palm up. “What can I
say? I’m a protective father.”

“Yeah, we don’t normally steal two people together, except
for the lovers,” Tiny admitted and then chuckled. “Can you imagine the hell
that would break out if we asked two strangers to play the lovers?”

Tall frowned and shook his head before glancing at Carrie.

“I
really
am over Trent, and I’m not hurting. The
only
way you are
ever going to believe me is if you understand a bit more about me and my prior
relationships.”

Dan gripped her hand. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I think I do, or you guys will keep thinking I’m fragile,
but I’m not. I may be small, but I can take blows and come back strong.”

“Here, here!” Tiny yelled and held up his glass of green
tea.

Everyone toasted Carrie. Dan had hoped she’d drop the
matter, but she had set her mind to share her painful past.

“First, I had a bad relationship with my parents. I tried
very hard to make them love me, but they
only
loved my physically perfect twin. Thus, when I turned
eighteen, I escaped to New York City and put myself through college. At college,
I met a smart guy in Engineering and gave my heart to him. In retrospect, I realize
he never loved me. My roommate had seen it right off, but I was so love-starved
even a relationship of convenience could blind me. He became my first lover.

“In his good-bye letter, he informed me, he had remained in
love with a girl back home throughout the years we’d been together. He’d used
me as a stand-in who helped him prepare for tests and provided him with
sufficient relief so he could focus on his studies.”

“Give me his name. I’ll kill him,” Tiny growled.

Dan felt much the same. He’d thought he had discovered all
of her sad past, but he’d been wrong.

“What type of ass writes such a letter?” Jon asked.

“I appreciated it. By the time I finished reading the
letter, I had fallen out of love. I realized I hadn’t experienced the real
thing. So I headed off to my fabulous future, saw a handwritten, very sad note
on the Lancaster Chairs lobby door, wanting to hire an intelligent person who
would
actually
work. I went upstairs and met the owner, who hired me at
once.”

She leaned her head on Dan’s shoulder, which sent an aching
pain through his chest. She could claim she didn’t care, but he knew better.

“To say I lived in hell for the first two months would be
an understatement. Trent became a monster—nothing like the man I had
interviewed with—irrational, intractable, and stubborn. However, his worst
trait, which unfortunately I became immune to, was his egocentric view of the
world.”

Dan and Jon both nodded in agreement.

“Everything is about him.” She shook her head. “I laid most
of his faults on his dead father and the horrible grandmother he always
quoted.”

Jon choked on his drink.

“My impression. I may have done her an injustice.”

“No,” he chuckled. “You nailed her.”

“Doesn’t matter, I put the blame on them so I could forgive
Trent’s bad behavior. Then, for some unknown reason, he turned nice which caused
me to overlook all rational reasons not to fall in love with my boss—a man with
whom I had nothing in common.”

She grimaced and plucked at her cuticles. “I took what he
gave without question. And when he’d backslide and show his horrible self, I’d
forgive him.” She stopped and stared at them all, then placed her hand on
Dan’s. His fingers wrapped around hers, giving her strength to continue.

“I’ve been incredib
ly
blind up until now, but I am happy to say, I believe I got
the truth out of Trent today—as best as he’s able to give from his egocentric
world.” Carrie took a deep breath.

“While I went to San Francisco to learn my new job as a
change specialist, Trent and Coco became sexual
ly
involved, and she got pregnant.”

Dan had not heard a whisper of this, but it did explain why
Trent tossed away a diamond for a vicious piece of coal.

“Evident
ly
, her father is more frightening than she is.”

Both Dan and Jon nodded in agreement.

“Trent claims he seduced twenty-three lovers and made Jon’s
wife his mistress in an attempt to chase Coco off.

Dan looked to Jon to refute Carrie’s claim.

“And that excuses his behavior?” Jon asked.

Carrie shook her head. “Not in any rational world. If Trent
tru
ly
loved anyone,
he couldn’t have hurt you or me. Nor would he deny his brother just because Sam’s
an excellent driver.”

Dan closed his eyes and sent a prayer of thanks upwards.
Carrie had insisted she’d gotten over Trent, but he didn’t see how a person
went from loving to not caring in a mere hour. But now he understood. She had reevaluated
her entire relationship with Trent, not just the bitter ending.

But he feared her inevitable conclusion.

“
Upon reassessing
matters, I realized neither of my relationships had
anything to do with love. In both cases, they
needed
me, and I mistook
their need for something more. I had never known the real emotion, so I couldn’t
tell the difference.”

She smiled at each of them. “Tall, you helped me with my
next revelation because you, more than anyone, value true friends.”

He nodded in agreement.

“When the horrible thought came into my head, that I was
unlovable—”

Everyone at the table objected, which caused Carrie’s eyes
to go glassy as she smiled at them.

“I thought of you guys, and knew it wasn’t true. I’m very
much loved. And I
will
find a soul mate. But the next time, I’ll go
about this logical
ly
. I’m not accepting a person because they will toss a bit a
fake love my way when it suits them. My next love will be my last. I have my criteria
now. I’m searching for a kind man who desires my company, likes to do the things
I enjoy, and takes pleasure in my successes. And, most important, he does not
need
me to fix his business, life, or study habits.