His gaze remained on her, searching, waiting. But Macy held back. Though her recent episodes had been all over entertainment news when she’d walked out on two separate productions, trying to explain them to a stranger would be awkward. Thankfully, her lawsuits related to those incidents, weren’t public knowledge yet.
She didn’t answer the question in Carter’s eyes.
“So, why the auction?” he asked. “Your mother was…”
“Broke. She wasn’t good with money and she loved beautiful things.”
His eyes widened, as if she’d told a telling tale. “You want a drink? All I have is champagne.”
The bottle of Dom was sitting in a sterling-silver bucket in the center back of the town car. He picked it up along with two crystal flutes and poured them each a glass. She accepted one and glanced out the window again, noting the city lights fading, fast becoming a distant memory.
“By the way,” she whispered, taking a sip of the bubbly. “Where are you taking me?”
Wind blew her hair off her shoulders. The cool breeze refreshed her mind and rejuvenated her body. She stood on the deck of a private yacht watching the glorious Manhattan skyline. To think, if Avery hadn’t canceled their dinner date right before she’d arrived at the restaurant, and if Macy hadn’t gotten out of her cab to walk the two blocks to her favorite sushi place, her evening would have been a lonely night of salmon sashimi and wasabi.
The term too good to be true was overrated, except when it came to Carter McCay. He’d been a perfect gentleman, offering to take her back to her hotel.
“What’s my other option?” she’d asked.
And now, she was sailing the Hudson River with her handsome cowboy. She’d had a million questions for him while in the limo, but she’d refrained from asking. She wanted to pretend for a little while longer that all was right with the world while trying to forget the mob scene that would have taken her wits if Carter hadn’t rescued her.
She was being reckless for a change, driven by her coping mechanisms not to overanalyze everything. She was going with the flow. As her mother used to do.
Carter leaned his elbows against the railing next to her. She smiled at him. The “flow” was pretty darn great from her stance. His presence made her stomach flutter, but at the same time, she felt safe with him. She trusted him. And for a girl who’d grown up with the Hollywood scene, trust didn’t come easy.
“This is nice, Carter. It’s so peaceful out on the water.”
He inhaled deep and nodded. “That was the plan.”
“But the plan wasn’t for me, of course.”
“True. Did you notice what I bought at your mother’s auction yesterday?”
“I noticed. You bought one of her diamond rings.”
“Yeah, and like a fool, I thought a Tarlington diamond would seal the deal. I proposed to my girl tonight.”
“Tonight?” Uh-oh.
He looked out to the water, focusing away from the city lights to the darkness. “Yeah. Right before I met you. She turned me down flat and pretty much made a fool out of me. Seems she was using me to get the attention of my…Of someone else.”
Was that woman nuts? “Oh wow. That’s pretty crappy.”
“Nothing pretty about it.”
“It’s so wrong.”
“Wrong,” he repeated with a nod.
“Why, it’s dreadful and appalling. Depraved.”
“Hold on,” he said, putting up a hand. A soft chuckle rose from his throat. “You’re not making me feel any better.”
Macy grinned. “But I made you smile.”
He chuckled again. “Yeah, you did.”
His gaze flowed over her, his eyes sparkling with appreciation. “Thanks.”
Carter wasn’t someone to toss away like yesterday’s garbage. Macy realized that just from being with him for this short span of time.
That damn curse. She wished she’d stopped him from bidding on the ring. She wished he hadn’t gotten hurt by the rejection. If she hadn’t needed the money for attorney fees and to pay off her mother’s debts, she would have held on to the rings so no one else would have to endure the pain and suffering those diamonds brought on. And it became obvious to her that the limousine and the private yacht, stocked with champagne and aphrodisiacs, were meant for the newly engaged couple. She should have realized it from the beginning, but being with Carter made her fuzzy-brained.
“Seriously, I’m really sorry, Carter.”
He nodded and stared into her eyes. “You wanna know something? Meeting you tonight was just the dose of reality I needed. You helped me forget how gawd awful I felt walking out of that restaurant. You may have helped me just as much as I helped you.”
“I doubt that, but it’s nice of you to say.”
“It’s true, darlin’.” Carter faced the water again and blew out a deep breath. “Man, I’m ready to get on home to Wild River. It’s no secret I don’t like the city.”
“This city in particular?”
“New York especially, but I don’t like any place where skyscrapers block the sunsets. Where you can’t walk down a street without being crammed and bumped. I like wide open spaces. And we have a lot of that in Wild River. It’s peaceful there. A man can think.”
Macy closed her eyes. “Mmm. Sounds like heaven.”
“Pretty close. What about you? Are you a big-city girl?”
“I kind of had to be. My mother and father were both actors. I grew up around glamour and glitz. But with that also came petty jealousy, vanity and overindulgence. So, no. I don’t like big cities. For me, when I go back to Los Angeles, I’ll be facing the same kind of scrutiny. Different reporters hounding me, but with the same agenda. I won’t have a moment of real privacy. I dread it already.”
“There’s no place you can go to hide out?”
Macy shook her head. She’d authorized the money from the auction to pay off her mother’s debts and to pay attorney fees to settle her lawsuits. She didn’t have the money or the means to take off to an exotic port where she wouldn’t be recognized. “Not really.”
Carter was quiet for a few minutes as the yacht rocked gently, cruising by Ellis Island. Beams of light from the Statue of Liberty glistened along the water’s surface. Carter’s musky scent traveled on the breeze. Standing so close to him, Macy felt immeasurably safe and protected. The feeling wouldn’t last. Soon, she’d have to face reality.
She sighed and let the wind whip at her face.
When she opened
