Page 66 of Where the Roses Bloom

I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes—some mix of bravado and instinct and plain old fear. He wasn’t used to being the smaller man in the room. Wasn’t used to being the one who didn’t get the last word.

His eyes flicked to me, desperate now. “You really gonna let him threaten me like that?”

I didn’t move. “You called me a bitch, Carter.”

“I was angry!” he snapped. “I came all this way to apologize, and I walk into some backwoods porno scene with?—”

Rhett stepped forward again.

Carter shut his mouth with a sharp click and threw up a hand. “All right. All right. Look, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“You did,” I said. “You always do.”

He dragged a hand through his hair, frustration crackling off him like static. “Fine,” he muttered. “You wanna play this out like I’m the villain? Go ahead. Rewrite history however you want. But you and I both know we had something real.”

“No, Carter,” I said, voice like iron. “What we had was astory I kept telling myself because I didn’t want to be alone. And now that I’ve been loved right andfucked right, there’s no version of that story that makes sense anymore.”

His jaw clenched so hard I could hear his teeth grind. He looked at the bouquet in his hand like it might explain how everything had gone sideways.

Then he hurled it.

Right there in the grass at Rhett’s feet. A childish, clumsy arc of petals and steamrolled pride.

“You’re gonna regret this,” he said.

I smiled.

The kind of smile he’d never seen on me before.

“Are you done?” I asked. “Because I would really like to go back inside so this man can fuck me senseless.”

Carter didn’t answer.

Didn’t move either.

He just stood there—flowers at his feet, fists clenched at his sides, breathing hard like he couldn’t figure out whether to explode or implode.

His eyes flicked to Rhett. To me. To the open door behind us.

And then, he smiled.

Not the charming kind.

The other kind.

“You know,” he said slowly, voice low and oily, “for someone who claims to be over it, you sure sound like a woman still pissed I didn’t pick you.”

Rhett took another step forward, and I put a hand on his arm—not to stop him, exactly, just to remind him I was still here.

“You didn’t pick anything, Carter,” I said. “You sabotaged us. You lied. And now that you’ve realized I made you look good, you want the shine back. But it’s gone. It’s mine now.”

That smile didn’t leave his face, but something dark flickered behind his eyes.

“I came here in good faith,” he said. “But I see how it is. You’re gonna be one of those women.”

I blinked. “What women?”

“The ones who think they don’t need a man until it all falls apart. Until he shows his true colors.”