A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1) (42 page)

“She has a Triumph?” His blue eyes twinkled.

Kat laughed. “And an antique Aston. Come on, Steve,” she teased. “She makes a killer hot chocolate.”

Seated around Nana Boo’s huge wooden table, Kat allowed the warmth of her grandmother’s house, love, and acceptance seep into her, filling up the gaps of shame and uncertainty that had opened over the past few months. Carter, with his free hand always touching her, sat and listened while, before, during, and after their dinner of enchiladas and Oreo cheesecake, Nana Boo told him story after story of Kat and her childhood escapades. Stories detailing Kat falling off horses, climbing trees, and smashing baseballs through windows kept Carter enraptured.

Seeing him so relaxed, hearing him laugh, and having him slowly realize there was nothing to be afraid of was more than Kat could have dreamed. All she wanted from their weekend with Nana Boo was for him to see he fit into her life. She wanted him to see there were people who didn’t care about his past and the mistakes he’d made. It was important for Carter to understand not everybody would hold them against him. They didn’t define him.

She listened when Nana Boo asked him questions about his hobbies, smiling when Carter became shy and modest about his musicality and his love of all things fast and metal. He explained about Kala, and his desire to buy another motorcycle, which led to Nana Boo telling stories about Kat and her father riding up and down the beach for hours, simply to have the sound of the engine in their ears and the wind on their faces.

“She’s not changed,” Carter mused, smiling at Kat, making her cheeks flush.

Nana Boo was amazing, laughing and joking and never asking questions that made Carter uncomfortable. She listened with absolute attentiveness. Gradually, Carter’s shoulders lost their hard edge and his smile began to appear a little more easily. Even his grip on Kat’s hand loosened.

Although he had yet to resolve one particular issue, and she knew it was driving him beyond distraction.

Kat smiled knowingly when she saw him squirm for the thousandth time. “You can have a cigarette, you know.”

Carter glanced apologetically at Nana Boo. “I’m fine.”

“Trevor smokes out on the back porch, dear,” Nana Boo said dismissively while placing a bowl of Doritos and a sour cream dip onto the table. “Please feel free. You’re on your vacation.”

Carter eyes searched Kat’s for permission. “It’s fine,” she assured him, finding his timidity endearing as hell.

“Okay,” he conceded. He tapped his long fingers against the edge of the table, hesitating. “I need to call Max, too. I’ll—I won’t be long.”

He stood up from his seat and strode toward the back door. Reggie, with claws scratching eagerly across the wooden floor, got up from his place under Nana Boo’s seat and followed him. Carter looked at the dog by his side, cocking an eyebrow in question. Reggie sat down and thumped his tail excitedly.

“He’ll follow you,” Nana Boo explained. “He likes you.”

“Okay,” Carter mumbled, keeping his suspicious eyes on the dog before he opened the door and they both stepped out into the cold Chicago night. Kat stared at the door once it closed.

“He’s wonderful.” Nana Boo sipped her red wine. “He adores you, darling.”

“I adore
him
,” Kat confessed. She allowed her finger to trace the stem of her wineglass. “He was so nervous, Nana. He wanted to make a good impression so badly. I just wish he knew he didn’t have to worry. He doesn’t see himself clearly at all.”

“He will in time, Kat. If he hears it enough, he’ll see it.” Nana Boo smiled to herself. “He reminds me so much of …” She shook her head.

Kat rested her chin in her palm. “Who?”

“Your father,” Nana Boo replied. “He’s just like Danny was when your mother first brought him into the house, all jittery and aching for a cigarette.”

“Dad smoked?” Kat coughed into her wineglass.

“He quit when your mother became pregnant with you.”

Kat looked at the table, smiling. “I never knew that.”

“There’s a lot I could tell you about your father.”

“Please,” Kat encouraged.

“Your grandfather never approved of your mother’s choice of husband.” Nana Boo smiled reminiscently. “No one was ever good enough for his Eva.”

Kat exhaled a gust of sardonic breath. “Yeah, it must be a family thing.”

This made Nana Boo chuckle. “Yes, your mother is very much like her father.”

Kat thought for a moment, considering all the ways in which her mother had made her feel so entirely disgraceful for choosing Carter, for choosing Arthur Kill.

“She’s protective because she loves you, Angel,” Nana Boo murmured, seemingly reading Kat’s thoughts. “She’s terrified of losing you.”

“She already has.”

“You don’t mean that, Kat,” Nana Boo chided, making Kat feel instantly remorseful. She swirled the wine in her glass. “So, you have an interview for a new job,” Nana Boo stated, seamlessly changing the subject.

“For a juvenile detention facility in Brooklyn,” Kat confirmed. “It’s to start in the new year.”

The job had been one of the first that she’d come across in Beth’s folder and, although Kat hated to admit it, the job sounded perfect. They’d accepted her application immediately. Despite the parts of her that were sad about leaving Kill, Kat was excited.

“And this is what you want?” Nana Boo asked.

“I want Carter.”

Nana Boo’s eyes sparkled with the romance of it all. “As long as you’re happy. That’s all that I care about. Your mother’ll come around.” There was so much conviction in Nana Boo’s voice, Kat almost believed it.

Despite her hurtful words, and the animosity still between them, Kat would have given anything for her mother to be sitting at the table, having a glass of wine, being understanding and happy. Weeks had passed and still the two of them were at loggerheads. For Kat anger had given way to sadness and acceptance. Things between them would never be the same.

She dipped a Dorito into the sour cream with a weary hand, needing a distraction. “So, tell me more about why Grandpa didn’t like Dad.”

Nana Boo chuckled. “Danny had a few skeletons in his closet, just like your Carter.” She eyed Kat carefully. “He’d done things before he met your mom that he wasn’t exactly proud of, and your grandfather always had a bee in his bonnet about it. I have some things upstairs you can look at. I think it would be easier to explain that way.”

“It’s nothing bad, is it?”

“No. It’s nothing bad.” Nana Boo hesitated. “Unlike your mother, who thinks it unnecessary, I believe it’s time you learned more about what they went through to be together.” She placed her hand on top of Kat’s. “I assure you it’s nothing scary, and it’ll make sense when you see what I have.” She glanced toward the back door. “Just know that Carter and your father are very alike in many ways.”

Before Kat could ask any more, the back door reopened and Carter hurried back in with lumps of snow covering his dark hair, followed by a very cold-looking Reggie.

“Jesus Christ, it’s fucking freezing out there,” Carter grumbled. He rubbed at his scalp, splattering water onto the floor. “I can’t feel my damned fingers!” He stopped abruptly, clearly realizing what he’d said and in whose company. “Shit.” He blinked. “Dammit, I mean, sorry.”

Nana Boo snorted loudly and cupped her hands to her mouth to stifle her giggles. “It’s quite all right,” she managed through her fingers. “I’ve heard a lot worse. I was married to Kat’s grandfather for nearly forty years.”

Kat’s shoulders shook from holding in her own giggles. Carter exhaled and shuffled back to his seat, where he took an enormous gulp from his bottle of beer.

“Don’t you worry any.” Nana Boo snickered, patting his knee. “You just be yourself. You’re perfect as you are.”

* * *

“Are you sure it’s okay?” Carter watched Kat roll her small weekend suitcase into their room, the room they were sharing under her grandmother’s roof, with her grandmother down the hall.

“You know,” Kat singsonged from her spot across the room, “for a convicted felon, you sure have prudish ideas about our relationship.”

He rolled his eyes. She skipped into the en suite, pulling her sweater off. Prudish? Sure, that’s why he had a semi on just from seeing her naked back.

“I’m not being a prude,” he griped. “I— It’s Nana Boo’s house.” He dropped his ass down onto the edge of the huge bed, ripping off his boots and socks.

He was rubbing the tiredness from his face when Kat reemerged from the bathroom, leaning against the doorjamb with a peculiar expression on her face.

“You called her Nana Boo,” Kat whispered, fingering the hem of the Harley T-shirt she’d changed into. His T-shirt. The edge of it skimmed her creamy thighs, while the V-neck dipped between her breasts.

“Yeah,” Carter replied. His eyes devoured her.

Kat walked toward him. She nudged his knees apart with her own, and placed her hands on his shoulders while he placed his on her hips.

She bent down and rubbed her nose against the side of his. “I love that you call her that.”

Carter hummed when their lips met, gentle and warm.

“Are you feeling better?” She placed a knee on either side of his thighs on the bed.

Carter smiled against her throat. “I do feel better.” He sat back a little, focusing on the way Kat’s hair curled at the tips. “I feel good.” He tilted his chin toward the door. “She’s amazing.” He shook his head in wonder. “She’s just so— I mean, the woman made me an Oreo cheesecake! How cool is that?” He kissed her jaw.

Carter trailed his hands down her sides and tickled the back of her thighs. “For the first time, in a long time,” he murmured, “I don’t feel like I’m missing anything.” He placed his lips at the side of her mouth. “I feel like I belong.”

“You do belong,” Kat soothed. “You belong with me.”

Her words made Carter’s body soft and malleable. He held Kat nearer and kissed her. He jumped back, however, as though caught doing something unforgivable when there was a light knock on the door. Kat crawled off him after kissing the tip of his nose, and walked to open it.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, dear,” Nana Boo said from the other side. “But I wanted to give you this before you went to sleep. It’s the details about your father.”

Carter craned his neck to see around Kat, but could only make out a large, brown, crumpled envelope clasped in Kat’s hand.

“Thanks, Nana,” Kat said before kissing her grandmother’s cheek.

“Good night, Angel,” she hummed. “Good night, Carter,” she called, with a smile lacing her words.

“G’night,” he called back. She reminded him so much of his own grandmother it was, at times, a little overwhelming. Even her smell made him feel nostalgic, all sweet and floral, with large green eyes he saw every time he looked at his Peaches.

He whipped his sweater over his head and pushed his jeans down. Kat closed the door and tapped the envelope against her knuckles.

“What’s up?” He pushed the covers of the bed back and slipped in between them.

“Nothing.” She lifted the envelope. “It’s just some stuff about my dad. Nana Boo wanted me to look at it.”

“What stuff?”

“I don’t know.” She held it in both hands.

Carter sat forward and lowered his voice. “You, um, you want to look at it together?”

A look of intense love and gratitude lightened her face.

Carter pushed the duvet aside, patting the mattress. “Get over here.”

Kat skipped over to the bed and got in next to him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, kissed her hair, and watched her open the envelope. He rubbed the top of her arm, watching her pull out a shitload of newspaper clippings and lay them carefully across her lap. She fanned them out, stopping at a few that detailed her father’s death, his funeral, and the subsequent memorials and remembrance events that had taken place.

Carter squeezed Kat to his side when he saw a picture of her, taken the night of the murder. She was wide-eyed, clearly terrified, wrapped in a police-issue blanket that drowned her tiny frame.

“You were so damned small,” he whispered, trailing his finger over her black-and-white face. He tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “But so strong.”

They spent a few minutes looking over the clippings before Kat suddenly gasped and cursed.

“What?” he asked with a smile. Her dirty mouth was all sorts of hot. He liked that he was rubbing off on her.

“Look at this.” She handed him the paper, ignoring his lascivious glances.

The picture on the article was of Kat’s mother and father, dressed to impress and looking like every other political couple Carter had ever seen. However, the headline caught Carter’s attention: Senator Lane Served Time for Misdemeanors.

Holy shit.

His eyes flicked up to Kat’s before he stared back at the clipping and began to read. The misdemeanors ranged from graffiti, being drunk and disorderly, dope possession, and, most impressively, car boosting. The penalties he’d been given were tame, due to the senator’s age when the offenses were committed, and it was clear from the tone of the article that the senator’s past had only been brought up in an attempt to blacken his name, but still, Carter didn’t know whether to be exceptionally smug or stunned.

Either way, he was definitely intrigued.

“I can’t believe Mom didn’t fucking tell me,” Kat fumed at his side. “After everything.” Kat dropped back against the pillows. Her voice climbed in pitch. “After everything she said about my job, about you.”

Carter picked up all the clippings and carefully placed them on the side table.

“How can she be such a hypocrite?” she asked through her teeth. “How could she say such awful things about my choices, when she made exactly the same ones?”

“They’re not exactly the same,” Carter countered.

Kat cocked an eyebrow.

Carter shifted. “Look, I’m not defending the fact she didn’t tell you. That shit’s not fair, but your dad boosted a couple of cars and sprayed a few walls with paint.” He shrugged. “Compared to me, he’s as clean as they come.”

Kat’s eyes darkened. “That’s not the point, Carter. She omitted that information and made me feel like crap because I wanted to be with you and I wanted to do a job that would help me overcome my fears and make me stronger. She’s done nothing but belittle me, you, and the decisions I’ve made, and all the while, she knew my father had a criminal record.”