Carly and Dave were once a hot and heavy couple until work had her up and ready to leave Coral Valley. Though she'd secretly hoped that Dave would try to stop her from leaving town, he ended things refusing to leave his own career behind. The night she left town, she found herself in a hotel room having one drunken night of passion with Dave's best friend Kenneth Ashford. Flash forward to the present and Carly's back in town. She came back to work for the D.A.'s office to represent the prosecution on the very high profile Kipp Mahoney shooting case. During the process of the trial, she tried to reconnect with Dave, but failed which lead her right into Ken's arms again.

After Ken had lost his true love Caitlin, he found it easy to latch onto Carly. The two had a very intense, brief fling that ended when she discovered that he'd been using her in his quest for revenge against those he felt had wronged him--including Dave. While there were far more things going on with Ken by the time the truth of his motives came out, Carly left him without listening to his words of love.

Now having been played for a fool and having betrayed Dave, she prepared to leave town, but Dave stopped her from doing so and the two started to reunite. It was then that she told him about her daughter Kayla and Dave learned the horrible truth about the first night that Ken and Carly came together that would forever change everything for the three of them...