I was tempted not to open the door. It had been several days since I’d said more to him than was absolutely necessary at work. I’d done all I could to communicate with Deacon and Everett over him and hadn’t answered any of his texts or calls. Needless to say, I hadn’t been over to his house for a visit since the fight.
“Lauren?” he said through the door. “I know you’re standing there. Your car is in your regular parking spot.”
“I’m busy,” I said.
“Come on,” he said, stopping me as I started to walk away. “You have to talk to me at some point. You know you do. I’ll just hang out right here until you open the door.”
I let out a sigh and opened the door.
“You know you sound a lot like Ashton when you say shit like that,” I said, cocking my hip and glaring out at him.
He grimaced. “I don’t want to be associated with that guy in any way.”
I shrugged. “If the jackass behavior fits.”
“Lauren, come on. Just talk to me.”
Sighing again, I pushed away from the door and headed into the apartment. “Come in.”
Carter followed me and closed the door behind him. I was sitting on the couch again, continuing to fold, when he joined me in the living room and sat down.
“Let me help you with that,” he said, reaching for one of my pillowcases.
“That’s not necessary,” I said. He finished folding and set the pillowcase down. “You know, I asked you not to get involved. In fact, I told you specifically not to get involved, that I didn’t need you to handle it, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but—” Carter started.
“But you just had to do it anyway. Even though I specifically told you that I was going to take care of it myself and went through the proper channels of getting a protective order against him. That was what needed to be done. Yet, you still just couldn’t stop yourself, could you?”
“Lauren, I’m sorry. I know you’re upset, and I know I went against what you asked. You told me you didn’t want me to do anything, but I just couldn’t take it. As soon as I saw him, I was just so angry and upset about what he did to you and the way he had been treating you, I couldn’t stand it anymore. Yes, like you said, I couldn’t stop myself. I just wanted to make him pay,” Carter said.
“I didn’t need you to do that,” I said. “That wasn’t for me. Don’t try to say it was.”
“Of course, it was,” he said. “What do you mean it wasn’t for you? Why else would I fight a man if it wasn’t to defend you?”
“I didn’t need to be defended!” I said, my voice rising.
“You showed up at my house after everything. You’re the one who came to me and told me what happened.”
“I was scared,” I admitted. “He’d been bothering me and calling me for so long. It just wore me down. Then seeing him and having him lash out at me like that was scary. I wanted you to know what happened, and I wanted you to comfort me. That doesn’t mean I needed you to swoop in and come to my rescue. I’m an adult woman who has been taking care of myself for many years. I didn’t need you, or anyone else, to stand up for my honor.
“This isn’t the first time someone had given me unwanted attention. This is the worst time, but I was handling it. I was managing it, just like I had been since it first started happening. I wanted to be able to go to the police, take the appropriate legal steps, and have him not be able to come near me again without real consequences.
“That was the way I wanted to take care of it, and you should have respected that. Instead, you took it upon yourself to act like some Neanderthal. I just can’t believe you would act like that.”
“I just wanted to protect you,” he said.
“No.” I shook my head. “That wasn’t what that was about. Like I said, that wasn’t for me. That was for you. I had it under control. I just wanted you to comfort me. You going after him like that was about you needing to prove to yourself that you were the bigger bad ass. It was about being impressive and looking big and bad for the people around you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Carter said. “There’s no way I would do something like that to impress people. I don’t need to impress anyone. I just couldn’t stand thinking about him causing you any more trouble. And I was so angry with him for everything he’d already done. Being near him was just too much for me to stand.
“Yes, that restraining order could give him consequences if the police are able to take him in and convince the courts he violated the order on purpose. I wanted to make sure he got his punishment in a real-world way as well.”