A/N — hoping to finish this one off pretty soon. I have around six more chapters, I think. xoxo - kals

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Chapter 17 — Carlton and Sam

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Carlton sat, ramrod straight, watching the door. It was only through sheer effort that his fingers were not playing with the tablecloth, one made out of real cloth. He checked his watch as casually as he could, noting that Sam still had three minutes before she was officially late. Carlton had arrived fifteen minutes early, of course, having it drummed into him from birth that early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable. But over the years he had learned, through trial and error, that few women were on time for dates. Even Kara tended to run late when they were going out, rolling her eyes when he called her out on making them wait, and explaining that he didn't have hair and makeup to work into the schedule.

But when Carlton bitched about it to Danny, the other guy just shrugged and said he didn't mind. Carlton supposed that was how you knew you found the right person. All that annoying stuff just ... didn't matter so much anymore. Kind of like the way Carlton didn't mind so much when Ravit teased him about his shoelaces, even though he would have given Miller twenty push-ups for the same comment. With effort, Carlton pushed away memories of Ravit. Because Ravit was gone and the way he felt about Sam was about the closest he had come to feeling ... that ... again since the world went to hell. Which, Carlton supposed, was the reason he was making a muck of the entire thing. He might not be the savviest guy on the planet, but even he knew that accidentally dumping a glass of wine on Sam's dress was a bad start to a relationship.

All he could say was at least it was white and not red.

The clock was just hitting the seven when Sam appeared in the doorway, glancing around until she found Carlton in the back. Behind her, Bacon raised his hand to give Carlton a thumb's up and, not for the first time, Carlton wondered if he made the right choice in picking Bacon's place for their first official date. Unfortunately, there were only so many restaurants up and running in St. Louis and this was the one place where Carlton was certain the food would be good.

Bacon would rather die than serve bad food, especially to one of his crew.

As Sam approached the table, Carlton stood, hoping he didn't look nervous. Although he would never admit it to the guys, he hadn't been entirely sure that Sam would appear. Sure, he'd done all those things that Wolf suggested, showing up at the coffee shop with Frankie in tow and dancing with every woman he could think of at the Abbot's fundraiser, but none of that changed who he was.

And, Carlton could admit, who he was could be ... well, a bit too much like Eric Miller for his taste. He moved to pull out Sam's chair. "You look," he paused to take in her tight jeans, white poufy shirt, topped by some kind of red wrap, "as delicious as a cinnamon latte."

But instead of laughing, Sam's lips thinned and she sat with a slight huff that Carlton knew from long experience was not a good sign. He was pretty sure that Sasha made that same sound yesterday when Miller tripped halfway through the obstacle course and accidentally took her out for the rest of the team challenge. Sam waited until Carlton was sitting before she spoke, hands folded in front of her. "We need to talk."

Bacon chose that moment to appear, a broad grin on his face. "My man! What can I get for the two of you to start?"

"Um," Carlton had no idea what to say.

Sam, on the other hand, didn't hesitate. "Two of whatever you have on draft."

Seeming to realize that something unexpected was going on, Bacon eased away from the table. Sam's attention returned to Carlton. "I know what you've been doing and it has to stop. Hanging out with Kara's mom, bringing the baby by the coffee shop, asking Maria to talk to me. I just wish that you could ..."

"Maria?" Carlton interrupted. "What are you talking about?"

For the first time, Sam seemed uncertain. "Maria Nave. She said that you served with her brother Javier."

"She does," Carlton confirmed, laughing nervously. "I mean, she works here, of course. But I served with her brother. He was one of my guys from ... before."

There was a short silence, broken only when their beers arrived. Bacon hesitated only for a second before disappearing without asking them to order. Carlton wondered whether food would just start appearing in another attempt to save what was looking more and more like a botched date. "You didn't ask Maria to come by and tell me that ... you own part of this place."

Carlton choked, hissing. "Shhhh." At Sam's scowl, he revised. "This is Bacon's place. We just ... helped a little. Nobody's supposed to know that."

"You mean..." Sam paused, then took a sip of her beer. "I thought you asked her to tell me. I mean, you haven't exactly been discrete. First you show up at the coffee shop with the Green kid. As if I didn't already know you liked kids from the times you came in with Manny and Christopher. Then you were so obvious at the fundraiser, although I will say that I was impressed when you kept a straight face when Debbie stepped on you with her stilettos."

Uncertain where this was going, Carlton shrugged. "She hit my laces. Nothing gets through."

Sam actually smiled, then she sobered. "I thought having Maria drop a hint about you ... you know was to show that you had money. It's just too much. I like you, Carlton. I don't need you to do all this crazy stuff to try to impress me."

"I..." Carlton stopped, tempted to fall back on a joke, before imagining the look on Kara's face if he had to fess up later. "I'm not good at this."

"This?" Sam asked just before three large platters of jambalaya arrived at their table.

Carlton's mouth was immediately watering but he kept his eyes on Sam's face. "Dating. Kara says I'm shit at it and my last ... girlfriend died."

Genuine sympathy flooded Sam's eyes, and she reached out to touch his hand. "I'm sorry. I know the words don't mean much anymore but I am."

"I ... really like you too. That's why I went along with everyone's suggestions about the dancing and the babies and stuff. Although I didn't tell Maria to, um, talk to you. She only knows because Cruz had a stake in the place too. Now it's her stake."

Sam leaned closer, eyes widening. "So you have a stake, Maria has a stake. I'm guessing that the Greens and Millers do too?"

Carlton froze, realizing that he couldn't answer the question without pissing off his friends or lying to Sam just when the date might be going better. He lifted the closest platter, spooning off a portion of what looked like shrimp jambalaya — sparing a thought for where Bacon got shrimp — before offering some to Sam. "It's best when hot."

"I get it, they're your friends." She took a bit, before moving to the other plates. A moment later she lifted her head. "If we're going to do this, I don't want to play games. I want to see you the way you are, even if you are kind of bad at it. Which, just so you know, was kind of obvious."

It wasn't what he expected, or how he wanted this evening to go but as Carlton considered what had happened, he decided that this was not, in fact, the worst date of his life. In fact, he could see this being one of the best. He lifted his beer. ""I'm like a paratrooper falling for you, fast and hard."

Sam paused, beer halfway to his, before rolling her eyes and clicking their glasses. "Lucky for you, Kara already told me all the terrible lines that you like to use."