“I can go pick up some sandwiches from down the street and bring them back?” Bree volunteered.
Brandon’s gaze flickered to something behind us, then to Konrad, and his face tightened again, “I’ll go grab my card, Harper can you come wi–”
“Blaze.”
The familiar voice had my body tensing and Brandon exhaled a curse. Turning slowly, I kept my eyes on Brandon’s piercing hazel ones until I knew I needed to look ahead. Carter. My heart clenched and tears pricked my eyes. Why was I crying? Oh wait, that’s right.
“Oh Blaze, no. Don’t cry.” He stepped forward and brought his hands up, probably to wipe the tears, but I slapped his hands away.
“Don’t touch me.”
A flash of hurt crossed his face before it slipped into his signature stone face. “Can we talk?”
“Why are you here Jason?”
“He’s one of the eleven from this morning.” Brandon’s deep voice made its way through my body and helped calm me.
I leaned my back against Brandon’s stomach, and he wrapped the arm that wasn’t holding Liam around me again. “Why? Why would you drive all the way over here to come to this gym? I know for a fact you have all this on the base.”
“I’ve been out for a month Blaze, my time there ended and I decided not to re-up.”
“Then why are you still here?” I knew I was being rude, but seeing him again brought back the ache from losing his friendship, and the reason why it was lost.
“A good chunk of us were all getting out within a few months of each other. We’re renting out a few houses in San Diego.”
“What about your wife?”
He snorted and shook his head, “She drained my bank account when I was in Afghanistan, when I got back she was gone and there were papers for me to sign for the divorce on the table.”
“I could have told you something like that would’ve happened. You really thought you could marry a base whore and she’d stay with you?”
“Harper.” Brandon warned.
I looked up at his face and felt like a scolded child, “I’m sorry Cart– Jason, that was rude. And I’m sorry that’s what you had to come back to, she didn’t deserve you anyway.”
Brandon flexed his grip on my hip to let me know that was better. He couldn’t stand Jason Carter for obvious reasons, but of course he was still as polite as could be to him, just as he’d been with Chase.
“Carter,” I sighed when a grin crossed his face from me using his last name, “why are you here though?” I made a loose circle with my finger, indicating the gym. There were tons of fighting gyms around San Diego, it was too much of a coincidence for him to choose this one.
“I uh – one of the guys that got out before us was already a member here before I moved, he told me the owner’s name and I figured I could come here and talk to Brandon, see if he knew how you were. I didn’t know if you guys were still together, or if you even spoke anymore. But you’re my best friend Blaze, I needed to see you and this was my best shot. I was waiting for him to be done training that guy,” he nodded his head toward the wall of punching bags, “and then you were here.”
“That right there, what you just said, is a perfect example of how little of friends we actually are. We haven’t spoken in over a year and a half, and even though you kind of lost the right to know anything about my life, if we were friends at all, you would have known that if you found Brandon, I wouldn’t be far behind. You don’t know anything about me anymore, and I don’t know anything about you. So much has happened in the last year and a half with me, and you’re clueless to all of it. That’s saying something.”
Carter glanced down to Brandon’s hand on my hip and sighed, “Well it’s obvious you are still together. And you’re right, I don’t know anything about your life now. But that doesn’t change anything, you’ll always be my best friend.” He said softly.
Liam started getting fussy, so I turned and took him from Brandon. When I turned back around, Carter’s eyes were wide and his jaw was dropped. He hadn’t even realized Liam was there until then.
“You have a baby?”
The corners of my mouth curved up slightly, “Yes, and Brandon and I are married.”
He looked at me quickly, then to Brandon and Liam and back to me. “Holy shit.”
I rolled my eyes at him and hitched Liam higher up on my hip, “It was nice to see you Carter, but I have to go feed him.” Bree handed me the diaper bag and I turned to go to Brandon’s office.
“Blaze wait, can we talk sometime? I – I’ve missed you. We need to catch up. I know you’re mad at me for what I did, but I hate not having you in my life somehow.”
“Is your number still the same?”
“Yes.” There was so much hope in that one word it was almost sad, but at the same time, I understood. If he had never crossed the line at that party, I would have craved our friendship too.
“I’ll think about it Carter, and I’ll let you know.” Without another glance in his direction, I grabbed Brandon’s hand and walked to his office.
“Are you okay Harper?” Brandon asked as soon as his door was shut.
“Yes, I just don’t understand why he’d do this, and after not talking for so long. He could have just tried to call.”
Brandon took Liam and sat down in his chair, sitting Liam on his lap so he was facing me while I got the food out of the bag. “But he knows you would have ignored the call. You’ve got to hand it to him, the guy has balls for coming to my gym to ask about you.”