Love Me One More Time by Laura Burton
Chapter 16
When I come round again, I’m surrounded by voices.
“This is all your fault!”
“Me? I didn’t tell her to go swimming with sharks. I think if we’re pointing fingers here it should be at the woman who raised her.”
“Can you two please keep the noise down? Zoe’s waking up.”
I open my eyes and blink into the harsh lights hovering over my face. There’s a dull ache in my arm. I try to sit up and my shoulder stings again. Redford’s concerned face comes into view. “I’ve reset your shoulder, but it’s going to be very sore for a few days. you should get an x-ray as soon as you get back home.”
The room sways when I nod. I’m not really following Redford’s words.
My mom joins me on the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Foolish,” I say with a grin. Normal people would have waited for an appropriate time to speak to Carter. I find him on my other side, his hands cradling mine. “I’m sorry about your bachelor party,” I say, my cheeks burning at the memory of the crazy scenario I put everyone through.
Carter just holds my gaze.
His eyes are bloodshot and there are a few new worry lines between his brows.
“Well, that’s it, the wedding is off. I’ll tell Ivy…”
Everyone looks at Carter’s mom with surprise but she frowns back at us all. “You’re not honestly thinking there can be a wedding tonight?”
“Jade is right, Zoe and Carter just lived through a shark attack,” my mom says. The shock of the two of them actually agreeing on something throws my head into a spin.
“It’s all right, I’m sure Grandma will understand,” Carter says, lifting my good hand and kissing it. But then the doors to the medical room open and Grandma appears in her wheelchair, her eyes flooded with tears.
“Oh my goodness, this is all my fault!” she exclaims, holding her hands over her heart. “Zoe, Carter, are you both all right?”
I open my mouth to reply, but before I can say anything, she scoffs. “What a ludicrous question. Don’t answer that. Of course you’re not all right. You just had a brush with death, and if anything happened, I would have never forgiven myself.”
Carter and I exchange looks. “Grandma,” Carter begins in a careful voice. “Why do you think this is all your fault?”
Carter’s grandma looks warily around the room. “Do you all mind if I speak to the lovebirds alone for a moment?”
After a moment of hesitation, everyone files out of the room… Including the nurse who had rolled her in. When the door clicks shut, Carter’s grandma pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh.
“I’ve been a terrible fool.”
The statement may as well be Greek for all I know, because my mind cannot fathom what she’s talking about. But then I remembered her condition. Perhaps she’s just getting muddled.
“No, it’s fine. You’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” I try to reassure her, sitting up in the bed. Carter slips a protective arm behind my back to secure me in position and stop me from falling back.
His grandma watches us for a moment. Her expression softens but she scowls again. “I owe you both an apology.”
When Carter and I try to argue, she holds up a hand for us to stop. “I’ve been lying to you.” She takes a handkerchief out of her purse and dabs her eyes. “You have to understand, I was desperate. And people do desperate things when they are… well, desperate.”
“What are you talking about?” Carter asks, clearly no wiser than I am to what the lie might be.
“I haven’t got dementia. There’s nothing wrong with my memory, but I will admit I made a poor judgement call.”
Carter and I freeze. He’s holding my hand a little too tight but I’m too shocked to complain. “But you kept asking about Zoe,” he exclaims. “And when I told you we broke up, you cried real tears. Every time!”
“Of course I did,” she snaps. “Ever since you two broke up, Carter, you’ve been a shadow of yourself. I’ve seen you walk through life, just going through the motions, locking everything down. It’s like you’re a robot.”
When I look at Carter, he avoids my gaze and stares at the floor instead. When he doesn’t argue, I look back at his grandma curiously. “You pretended to have dementia so––”
“Carter would be forced to bring you here for my birthday weekend,” his grandma finishes for me. “It was a delightful idea in my own mind. And it was working marvelously. You two reconnected instantly, and I’ve never seen Carter’s eyes twinkle as much as I have this weekend.”
I shut my eyes as I take this in. So this weekend was just one big set up.
Here we were, sneaking around, acting our parts, muddying the waters with our real feelings and trying to kid Carter’s grandma that nothing had changed. The whole time she was playing us.
“And Jade…?”
“Oh heavens, that woman knows nothing about this,” Carter’s grandma says, her expression turning to disgust. “Jade wouldn’t see the truth even if it was staring her in the face.”
Carter frowns. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”
“Because you also couldn’t see it,” his grandma says through a laugh. “You needed to see Zoe again. I wanted you to get back together for a long time. When I saw Zoe’s breakdown, I knew that she missed you just as much.”
I squirm at the word breakdown and grin shyly. I’m horrified at the thought that Carter’s grandma knows about the disaster of a speech that went viral.
I meet her gaze and she points at me. “You said Carter was the one that got away.”
I squeeze Carter’s hand. “It’s true.”
“But if I hadn’t pressured you both to get married, you wouldn’t have ended up in shark infested waters! And my goodness, is it true that you punched one, Zoe? How did you find the courage to do such a thing?”
I bite my tongue with a smile. Carter will probably not appreciate hearing the truth; I just visualized the shark as my future mother-in-law.
“Please accept my sincere apologies. I should not have meddled.”
“There’s no need to apologize, Grandma. I have no regrets,” Carter says.
“I have one or two,” I add, waving my bandaged arm with a wince. “But we should be thanking you. If it wasn’t for you, we’d not be here.”
And even after all that, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Right now, I’m snuggled up in Carter’s arms; everything feels right in the world again.
Suddenly, Carter’s grandma is coughing violently into her handkerchief.
“Are you all right? Do you need a drink of water?” Carter asks. I watch her in alarm. His grandma wheezes a little and nods. “Can you get a bottle from the kitchen, please? The staff will tell you what I like.”
Carter kisses my forehead and pulls away carefully. When I don’t fall to the ground, crying out in agony, he heads for the door.
As soon as he’s gone, his grandma puts her handkerchief in her purse and looks at me with determination.
“Now he’s out of the way, we need to talk about your mother-in-law.”
My stomach contracts at the mention of her, and I do my best to keep my expression impassive. But Carter’s grandma frowns. “You can drop the act, you and I both know she’s not going to lead the Zoe fan club any time soon.”
I heave a sigh, relieved I don’t have to keep pretending. “I don’t understand. I thought she didn’t like me because I was poor. Now I’m successful and she still hates me.”
Carter’s grandma rolls herself closer to the bed and takes my hand. “Oh, my love. It’s not you. Don’t you see? Now that her husband is dead, she’s just the in-law.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
Carter’s grandma huffs. “You want to know why she’s so controlling? It’s because she’s terrified. And she’s terrified of you most of all.”
When I don’t reply, Carter’s grandma laughs. “Sanctum is Carter’s property now. And the resorts, the properties, all the investments… They’re his. Jade is just trying to keep her claws on it all, and the best way she can do that is by driving off any potential competition.”
I shake my head. Competition? She sees me as competition?
“But I don’t care about any of that. What does she think I’m going to do? Throw her out and cut her off from the family?”
Carter’s grandma raises her brows. “I wouldn’t judge you poorly if you did; I’ve seen the way she treats you.”
I swallow the urge to laugh. “She’s Carter’s mom. I can’t do that,” I think aloud. “I guess it’s something Carter and I will need to talk about... I’m going to face his mom and work through these issues. It’s a good thing I know a really great therapist.”
This time, I do laugh, and Carter’s grandma joins in.
After a moment of silence, I glance up at the clock hanging on the wall. “You know; we still need to celebrate your birthday.”
Carter’s grandma begins to argue but I shake my head. “Oh, we’re celebrating all right. And I know just how we’re going to make this evening special.”
Carter’s grandma studies me for a moment, then fresh wrinkles appear as she breaks into a beaming grin.