“The thought crossed my mind.” He laughed softly, “Are you going to talk to him?”
I leaned back into the chair as I got another scoop of pureed carrots, “I don’t know. If that night at the party wouldn’t have happened, I would in a heartbeat. But he changed things, I don’t think we can go back to being friends you know?” I shook my head, “God I still feel so stupid for not seeing it sooner.”
He smirked at me, “You were the only person who didn’t get it. Even with Bree constantly saying something to you, you were so sure she was wrong.”
“He was my best friend! He treated me like every other guy in Sir’s unit.”
“Oh okay,” he scoffed, “‘my Blaze, my girl, I couldn’t just let you go to California without me’.”
“Brandon Taylor…were you jealous of Carter?”
“Me? Jealous? Of my girl running away from me to throw herself in some random guy’s arms? Not even close.”
“Hmm,” I fed Liam another scoop of nastiness, “I seem to remember yelling at him and telling him to leave before running into your arms and kissing you.”
He smiled wide, “I don’t remember that at all, you may need to remind me how that went.”
His eyes had a wicked gleam in them as I leaned over Liam and stopped less than an inch away from his lips, “Brandon.” I whispered low and sultry.
“Yeah?” He moved closer and I backed up a fraction of an inch.
I smiled when he growled and lightly brushed my mouth over his lips before sitting down, “Well if you don’t remember it, I guess it never happened.” I said cheerfully and went back to feeding our son.
“Tease.”
“Oh yes, that’s me…the tease.” I winked and sat up for a chaste kiss.
“And to answer your question,” he began after a few silent minutes, “I was never jealous of Carter. I knew if you were that clueless about his feelings that you didn’t share them.”
My stomach dropped knowing what he must be thinking about. I’d never shared Carter’s feelings, but he’d known all along that there was something between me and Chase. I remembered listening to him telling Liam the morning of our wedding that Brandon knew it was a matter of when, not if. I took a deep breath in, held it for three seconds and then exhaled slowly.
“If you want your friend back Harper, I would never stop you. But if he tries anything again, I won’t stop myself from hitting him this time.”
“Thanks babe, but I’m really not sure if I even want him back in my life. You saw how he was after those few weeks of hanging out, and all those drunken voicemails he left me of the women he was with and stuff like that. That wasn’t my friend, he completely changed when he got to California, and I don’t know if that was a temporary thing or if that’s who he really is now.”
“Well I guess you won’t know if you don’t talk to him.” Brandon offered.
“Do you want me to talk to him?”
He gently grabbed my chin and tilted it up, “I want you to do whatever you want to, I just didn’t want you to think that I would be mad if you were friends again, and I know you miss the way you guys were before you moved.”
I nodded, “Well I can see if he’s still here? We can all talk?”
“If you want me there when you talk, that’s fine.”
“Brandon,” I sighed and took off Liam’s bib, “you’re my husband, of course I want you there. If he has a problem with that, then that tells me all I need to know.”
A flash of relief crossed his face and he smiled warmly at me, “Well then, we’ll be right back.” He stood up and kept Liam facing forward as he strode out the door with him.
I put everything away in the diaper bag, texted Bree back what sandwiches we wanted and sat in my chair just as the guys came back in.
Carter looked at me, then back to Brandon, “Uh, what’s going on?”
“You said you wanted to talk,” I gestured toward another chair, “so let’s talk.”
“I kind of hoped we could talk alone?”
“Anything you say to me, I will tell him, so you might as well just say it in front of both of us.”
He looked uncomfortable, but sat down and wiped the sweat off his face with the bottom of his shirt, “I don’t, um, really know where to start.”
Well I do, “What happened to you? The Carter I knew didn’t go to strip clubs and screw a bunch of girls, he didn’t go and get wasted all the time, and he certainly didn’t marry a base tramp that he had just met.” I turned to look at Brandon, “I’m sorry, but there’s really no other way to describe them.” Looking back at Carter, I continued, “You were the first guy to make fun of those kinds of girls, and then you married one? Even without that though, you turned into such a douche Carter.”
“I know, trust me I know. It wasn’t the best few months of my life.”
“And yet you continued to keep doing all of that, and for whatever reason you felt the need to always tell me what you were doing. I just don’t understand.”
He opened his mouth, eyed Brandon warily and quickly shut it again.