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I guess I just wish for a lot of things.
Hurting my dad, putting Carter on the spot, and not even being out of the bath when it all finally goes down.
Still. As frightening as it is, I’m kinda glad once I hear my dad and Carter having it out on the landing.
I know Carter wouldn’t hurt my dad physically, but I’ve never heard my dad so upset.
I cry myself once I feel my ankle going out from under me as I rush to get out of the bath, but it’s done now.
Like so many other things.
He actually asked me to marry him though! Carter Everett asked me to marry him.
I barely have time to think about it, hurting my ankle again and then scrambling to dry off and get dressed as I hear Carter taking my dad downstairs.
“Come down here, Greg. Let’s just sit and talk,” he tells him calmly.
There’s another brief scuffle from my dad and a dry croaking sound, but I know that Carter’s taking dad downstairs to have the talk we’ve been trying to avoid thinking about.
That’s the kind of man Carter is, even if it hurts. Even when it’s ugly, he’ll meet it head on once he knows what he wants.
And it’s me he wants now, for good.
Forever.
Once I hear them both moving downstairs, and once I’m sure my dad isn’t going to try and hurt Carter or himself in the process, I wrap myself in some towels and make my way to my bedroom, drying off and getting dressed.
Decent dressed, not just a robe or pajamas.
I don’t want to upset dad more than he already is.
My ankle’s killing me but I make the effort to slip on jeans and a sweater, choosing my puffy slippers to match my ankle.
Each stair feels like a razor on my ankle, but it’s facing my dad that makes me feel worse than ever until I remember what Carter said.
‘I love you, Serena. And I want you to be my wife…’
It’s the one thing that pulls me closer to him again, gravitating down the stairs and not worrying so much now about how upset dad is.
Carter’s not taking me away, he’s giving me a new life.
He’s my hero, my best friend.
But so is my dad… Just in totally different ways.
I can have both, we can all have each other still.
Family.
While Carter and I have our own.
The thought makes me stop on the stairs, holding my belly for a moment, feeling the magic Carter put inside me, knowing that marrying him is the best thing for all of us.
It’s the only way for us to move forward now that I’m his.
Dad’s voice carries up the stairs, jolting me from my reverie as he describes how he dropped everything to fly back once he figured out what was really going on between me and Carter.
I feel my heart sink, knowing dad would throw away his career if it meant he thought he was protecting me.
As if Carter was or is any danger to me, except for stealing me away from him.
I guess dad wanted me to stay a little girl forever, even after college.
He always said I could stay at home as long as I wanted for free, no strings.
I just never thought he’d put his own life on the line to keep that happening.
“I got several calls,” I hear him explaining to Carter as I tiptoe down the stairs slowly, stopping every second step to grind my jaw from the pain in my ankle.
“The Lodge owners, they called and said you’d left… after they explained what had happened with that woman I tried to set you up with.”
I hear Carter make a low sound, then feel him listening for me on the stairs.
It’s hard to explain, but it’s like some sort of ESP between us now.
We know where each other is at, how the other feels.
It’s comforting.
I listen as my dad asks Carter if this is his revenge somehow.
“Is that what this is? Because I tried to make you happy with a stranger? Or maybe it’s because I actually had a family, is that it…?”
But Carter’s words cut him off.
“I’m sorry this hurt you, Greg. You’re like my brother, closer than anyone’s ever been in my whole life. But what happened between Serena and me isn’t anything to do with you. I love her Greg, and I’ve asked her to marry me.”
I hear a sound escape me, a sound of recognition, hearing Carter explain his love for me.
“Get in here, Serena,” My dad says, sniffling.
A lot like Carter, my dad just knows stuff when it’s me. When I’m lurking on the stairs or in the hallway.
I take a deep breath and walk into the living room where dad’s sitting with his head in his hands and Carter opposite, one leg over the other as he patiently explains the situation.
