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I breathe in her sweet, familiar scent. There’s a new depth to it, less flower, more earth, but the essence of it is unchanged.
“Carter, oh my God, Carter,” she repeats over and over. Her arms are wrapped tight around me like I’m her lifeline.
Holding her again, there’s no doubt that she’s mine.
My heart is beating normally for the first time in almost two years. My lungs inflate fully for the first time in that long, too.
Her nose is pressed to my neck and her lips move against the base of my throat. My body reacts to her nearness, to the press of her curves, her breasts, her thighs, the way her hair smells. So, I put her down. When I look at her face and see that smile, I want so badly to hold her again, my erection be damned.
A throat clears behind us and I turn sharply back to my table. Nadia’s staring at us with wide, wet eyes.
Next to me, the throat clears again and this time, I follow the sound. Standing to my left, is the man I’d seen her with earlier. The one who’d wrapped his arms around her earlier, is looking at me like if there was a baseball bat in reach, he’d use it to put some distance between me and Beth.
She turns and wraps her arms around his neck hugs him fiercely.
He hugs her back, but his eyes are stony on me.
Who is the cradle robbing asshole?
She pulls out of his embrace and smiles up at him. “Joe, I can’t believe I did it.”
His expression softens the minute he looks down at her, his eyes shine with adoration.
“I can. You did a great job,” he says and taps the end of her nose with the tip of his finger. She preens and gives him a mock curtsey.
“You gonna introduce me, Beth?” he asks, nodding over her shoulder at me.
Her spine straightens and she nods. Then, she turns back to me, that smile back on her face.
“Carter this is Joe…my studio neighbor and my friend.” She squeezes his hand and they smile at each other.
“I’m her surrogate grandfather,” he corrects in a deep unequivocal voice, a glint of protective pride in his eyes. He shifts his weight and for the first time I realize he’s leaning on a cane.
“Joe, this is Carter. My….” Her lips purse as she stops to choose her words, and her eyes are bright with jubilant joy as they scan my face as if the answers to the universe’s mysteries can be found there. “He’s….my best everything. Ever,” she says with a happy, matchlessly beautiful smile.
My heart does that thing…that stumble, trip and fall that has always been its response to being near her.
It doesn’t care that she’s my…whatever. It only knows that for me, she is love.
“I see, well I find it odd then that I’ve never seen him at the studio,” he says and puts an arm around Beth, drawing her closer to his side. My chest tightens at how easily she moves against him.
It’s irrational to be jealous of him.
But I am. It’s clear that she loves him. It reminds me that I’ve missed every aspect of her life since we’ve been apart.
Every milestone.
Every birthday.
Every setback.
Every success.
I want that time back. I know that’s impossible. Looking at her now, seeing what she’s made of herself since I last saw her, I’m thinking that maybe this is exactly what was supposed to happen.
Her speech was amazing. I know the Beth I said goodbye to in Winsome couldn’t have given it. She’s always had it in her. Clearly, she’s found the tools to pull it out. And if this man has been part of that, I’m grateful to him. I let go of my jealousy and decide to be grateful that she had someone like him in her life.
“Very nice to meet you, Joe,” I stick my hand out and he takes it and shakes it very firmly. His expression is inscrutable, but no longer stony.
