Carter Brothers: Dane (OLD VERSION)

Extra Tory Chapter

 Extra Tory Chapter

As soon as Emery and Dane left, Tory rushed back upstairs to slip into her navy, knee length dress. She stared at the mirror hoping she looked better than she felt. The dress was a one shouldered chiffon, quite plain dress that Tory had bought in the early stages of her marriage. Of course, ‘early days’ were the only real ones she had and after the divorce she hadn’t bothered buying fancy dresses or other expensive articles of clothing. But not having the nerve to wear to the bright red dress she’d bought the day before, she opted for the darker colour. She teamed that up with pair of 3 inch, navy heels, a pair of dangling black earrings and a matching navy clutch. Before she forgot she grabbed her long black coat and readjusted the curls hanging down from her bun. Endless questions of worry ran through her head but before she could address them, the doorbell rang and that’s when she realised with alarm it was already 9.

“James, hi, come on in,” greets Tory nervously fiddling with the tie of the coat.
“Actually Tory, I thought we should set off. It’s about half an hour’s drive from here,” replies James. Dressed in dark jeans, black shoes and a navy coat, Tory didn’t think men could look so good in such simple clothes. His blonde hair had been cut shorter and made him look so much more handsome than she remembered him to be from that day at the mall. James too was caught up in Tory’s appearance. He had thought she was beautiful, thus the unusual chatting up at the mall, but seeing her dolled up and glowing was incredible. A grin spread across his face as he thought of how beautiful she’d look at the location of the date.
“’Half an hour’s drive?’ Where are you taking me, James?” exclaimed Tory surprised. Chadwick itself was only about a 15 minute drive away. James laughed seeing her stunned expression.
“I promise you’ll be perfectly safe. I’m not some psychopath. It’s just a very special place, that’s all,” explained James gladly watching the softening of Tory’s expression.
“Are you sure James, because that’s probably what all psychopaths say,” joked Tory smiling as the laughs jumped out of James.
He shook his head and tilted it to his car, as Tory locked up the house and followed behind him.
Like a perfect gentleman, he opened the door for her to slide into the plush interior of the sophisticated Mercedes Benz. Tory scanned the entirety of the car, noting with hesitance at how clean and pristine it looked. She knew for a fact, her own little second-hand Ford had tiny holes in the worn seats with padding spilling out, and that the radio had a few knobs missing, not to mention the grease stain that wouldn’t wipe off on the front-board. But James’s car; well, it may as well just be a showcase car, one of the high-end ones at that too. So clearly James is rich, gathered Tory as the man himself started up the car. Such a rich and handsome guy should technically have no shortage of the herds of women flocking at his shiny shoes. So why her? She asked herself. What has she actually got that the other no doubt beautiful women have? Apart from a child, a failed love-life and no sex-life whatsoever, Tory just couldn’t see what she had to offer that others didn’t.

“Are you okay?” asked James, finding Tory’s silence a little unnerving.
“Hmm? Yeah, fine thank you,” replies Tory changing the subject before he could ask what she was thinking about. Revealing her insecurities wouldn’t exactly be a good start to a date and she didn’t want James thinking of her as whiny.

Their easy teasing small talk was carried on for the next half-an-hour until James started slowing down and Tory started noticing the country side like scenery. The winding road had led them up to a cliff edge where James stopped the car and grinned excitedly at his passenger.
“Okay, we’re here,” he states getting out of the car. Tory follows his lead and exits as well, only to walk over to him opening the trunk of the car and grabbing some things.
“Do you need a hand with that?” she offers only to be declined.
He leads her through a short narrow passage, in front of the car, and as they clear onto the other side Tory finds herself gasping. The entire city of Chadwick’s skyline could be seen upon the cliff top, and better still it was completely private, meaning no teens hooking up around or too much wildlife. Just the soft whistles of wind and the far-away tooting of owls could be heard.

“Do you like it?” asks James, kneeling on the recently laid picnic blanket. Tory slowly sits down beside him and nods, still taking in the beauty of the glowing lights below.
“It’s my favourite place to come,” carries on James, lighting up a small torch and placing it in the middle of the blanket like a candle.
“How did you find it?” Tory asks in wonder.
“When I was younger my mother and I would go on hikes together. We found this place, purely by accident and it turned into our special place. I stopped coming here after she passed away but she always told me that when I...” James trailed off, and with that trailing off Tory became confused. Her lips tugged slightly into a frown as eyebrows knitted together.
“ ‘When I’?” she gently asks assuming his mother must be a sensitive topic. Tory’s own parents passed quite a while ago but she was never close to them.
Although James was glad that Tory hadn’t mentioned more on his mother’s death and told him the standard, ‘sorry for your loss’ line, he wasn’t sure he wanted to finish his sentence. After all, he didn’t want to scare her away. Although, seeing her frown seemed much more of a downpour than he liked to feel.
“That,” James took a short intake of breath, “when I found a....special woman. That I should share it with her.” He had wanted to say ‘when he found a woman he loves’, but stating something so meaningful in the early stages of this budding relationship wouldn’t end well. In fact, he himself couldn’t believe how attached he was getting to the woman before him. He would look forward to their phone calls, his heart lurching every time at her laugh or giggles, his eyes always trained on the clock as he would count the minutes until he finished work and could call her. He didn’t want to admit it but there was no use denying it either, there is just something about Tory that made James feel like he’d found his soul-mate, as impossible as it is.

“And you brought me here?” incredulously exclaims Tory feeling her heart melt at the gesture. She’d never felt so cared for or loved and it was surprising to have it coming from a practical stranger. He isn’t her mate, nor her long-time lover or even best-friend. Just a man, she’d been calling for around the past few weeks and speaking to. There had been nothing physical involved, kissing or anything. Yet he does something like this...and for her! Her! Tory just couldn’t get her head around it.
“Yes, well,” James cleared his throat awkwardly, “it’s alright.”
Tory lightly shook her head and smiled secretively. He is just too cute.
“Food?” offered James, taking up a few boxes from the picnic basket.
“Takeaway?” teased Tory. James’s cheeks tinted pink as he got out the knives and forks.
“Er well... yeah, sorry. Cooking’s not my strong point,” he mumbles tipping the Chinese onto a plate.
“Phew, at least now I know you’re not perfect,” replies Tory light heartedly causing James to laugh.


Again, the conversation flowed as smoothly as the wine James had brought. Before she knew it, Tory found herself sat in the car with James, the heater turned up as they laughed and talked some more.
“I should probably get back,” sadly comments Tory glancing at the small digital clock near the stereo system. Its digits taunted her, reminding her that she wasn’t a carefree 20 year-old but rather an almost 40 year-old with responsibilities, one being getting home.
“Oh....okay,” replies James passively starting the car. He understood her need to get back but wished they could spend more time together. He enjoyed the night and wished it could last.


Taking a bold move he pulls over at his apartment in Chadwick causing Tory to look at him confused.
“Would you like to come in for coffee?” asks James.
“James, I need to get back. My little girl-oh....” nervously trails off Tory. She had a pretty good intention of what ‘coffee’ meant. But-but...no. She couldn’t do that. It’d been too long and besides, she couldn’t. Not on the first date at least. Although it did feel like they’d known each other for months and months.
“Yeah. You said, Emery’s away tonight. Come in, please?”
“James...”she sighed, shifting uncomfortably, “just coffee?”
“Coffee, tea whatever you want. I just don’t feel ready to end the night, just yet. So please, we can just talk. Whatever you want,” encourages James.
“Okay,” murmurs Tory.
Grinning James led her up to his apartment.