Fall from Love

to me with a sweet smile and I nod my head. “Sure, I’m in.”
    “Sweet!” he shouts. “Carter’s just about ready; he should be down in a minute.”
    Flutters start in my stomach and travel all around my body, knowing I’ll see him soon. The last few times I’d been here, they weren’t the happiest of memories between us. Carter spent most of the time trying to avoid me, and eventually, I just stopped showing up all together. However, tonight I’m here purely as a friend. When the two of us get a minute alone together I want to try and talk to him. See if he will tell me what is going on with him.
    Josh walks past us, towards the kitchen. “C’mon ladies, let’s get this party started.”
    While Jenna and Josh fight over who gets to break, I head back in the house to grab my jacket. I’m thinking ahead, knowing that if we are going to be losing clothes, I want to layer up as much as possible. Luckily, Josh has cranked up the space heater in the garage, otherwise, having to take off clothes in that cold garage is going to be miserable... well, even more miserable.
    As I turn the corner and enter the living room, I jump back a foot when I see Carter coming down the stairs, taking me by surprise.
    “Oh, my gosh, you scared me.” I grab my chest and let out a large breath.
    “Sorry,” he says, “I didn’t mean to.”
    “How are you?” My hand is still over my chest as I take in a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
    He shrugs. “Okay, I guess. How was your Christmas?”
    I shrug, too. “My brother didn’t make it into town, so I got to spend a lot of time with my mom and dad. I actually wasn’t supposed to be back for a couple more days, but I was missing home.” Missing you.
    “Yeah.” He swallows hard and looks towards the ground. “I heard Jenna tell Josh that you weren’t going to be here for New Year’s,” he pauses and then looks at me intently, “but I’m glad you came home early.”
    “Me, too.” I smile, fighting the urge to wrap my arms around him. Jenna wasn’t kidding; Carter doesn’t look like himself at all. I haven’t seen him the past few weeks, but the broken guy standing before me isn’t the same guy I knew for the past few months.
    He takes a couple steps towards me and I gulp loudly when he stops just a few inches from me. My heartbeat that was just beginning to return to a normal rate, starts to go erratic once more.
    “I mean it. I’m glad you’re here. It’s really good to see you. I’m sorry that I’ve been distant over the last few weeks. You have no idea how much I wanted to—to hear your voice, your laugh. I thought about you a lot while you were gone.”
    Whoa, I wasn’t expecting to hear all of this. “You missed me?”
    He closes his eyes and then slowly reopens them. “Yeah, you have no idea.”
    “Me, too.” I can feel myself leaning into him desperately wanting to kiss his lips.
    “Hey, Holly!” I hear Josh shout my name and it breaks my focus. “Better get in here, your girl has already lost both her shoes... her shirt’s next!
    We both shake our heads and laugh.
    “Well, we better get in there,” he says, glancing to my lips and then back up to my eyes.
    “Yeah, we better.”
     
    ❧
     
    One hour and a few beers later, Jenna and I have lost our shoes and our shirts. I know that I will have to sink my next shot or I’m going to give Carter a chance to sink his. I don’t want that to happen because that would mean the loss of either my bra or pants if he makes it. The game has been entertaining, to say the least, and I can’t complain, seeing that both Josh and Carter are both down to their boxer shorts.
    Jenna is amazingly talented when it comes to distracting Josh. He has only made one of his shots the entire game. Carter is mostly the one responsible for the loss of me and Jenna’s clothes.
    “Okay, just hit it softly,” Jenna coaches me. “Hit the ball right in the middle, but a little on the left side, but not too far on the left.”
    I sigh, looking up at her. My nerves are already on edge, I don’t need her adding to them.
    “Sorry,” she says, smiling at me. “You’re gonna do great.”
    Bringing the pool stick back slowly, I push it forward, trying to keep it steady. The ball starts to roll towards the top right pocket and, before it’s even sunk, Jenna is squealing and jumping up and down.
    “Take ‘em off, boys!” Jenna laughs, glancing back and forth between Josh and Carter.
    Josh has no problem