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I maneuvered in next to Jo-Beth and hollered, “Drive!”
And drive she did.
CHAPTER 28
Phoebe
CARTER TWISTED in his seat to face me, his angular face swimming in my vision.
“Phoebe,” he said, fingers resting on my cheek. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I’m so—”
“You love me?” I asked.
They were the only words that came to mind, the only ones that seemed important in that moment.
He hesitated then grinned, white teeth shining out from tanned skin. “Yeah. How do you feel about that?”
I knew Henry and Jo-Beth were in the car — logically I was aware of that — but the world seemed to shrink even smaller than the entirety of the vehicle. For the first time in her life, Jo-Beth was silent.
All at once, it became just Carter and me, nobody and nothing else. No ex-wives, no tiny towns, no broken vehicles. Just us.
“Carter…”
“If you don’t love me, that’s okay, too. I feel better just knowing I got the words off my chest.”
“Of course I love you. I’ve been trying pretty hard not to love you, but that doesn’t seem to be working out.”
His brown eyes widened, so big that I thought if I leaned in I might just fall through their depths and out into the universe.
He cleared his throat, which still sounded rusty with smoke, and said, “I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming.”
“But—”
“Yeah,” he said morosely. “Thought so.”
“But… it’s all happened so quickly. We crashed this car, what, three days ago, if that? How do you love someone this hard, that fast?”
He bit his lip. “I dunno, Phoebe. Just know that I do.”
“It scares me.”
“Serious shit is scary. And I am seriously in love with you.”
“Daddy!” Henry cooed next to me, breaking our little bubble. “I love Phoebe too! I love her! Can she be my mommy?”
That just about tore my heart in two.
Carter smiled at his son, then back to me. “See? Love happens fast. I ain’t trying to pressure you into nothing. If we can’t be together, so be it. I just want you to survive and thrive, to get back to your life and make something out of it.”
“But I want to be with you,” I whispered. “And we live a world apart.”
Carter’s hands cradled my face as he thought over my words. I could see his eyes darting all over me, inspecting my injuries, checking for the permanence of any damage. It was like watching his brain cells firing on all cylinders, and knowing with a warm glow that every one of said cells was focused on me and my well-being.
“I have to resettle anyways,” he said at last. “There ain’t any more safety in living in Rough and Ready. At the very least, I gotta be closer to a police station.”
The car jiggled beneath us. Presumably we’d gone over a bump, but I also got the strange sensation that the car was in agreement with Carter.
He continued, “This is awful bold of me, and if it’s outta line, just say so, but… what if we moved near you?”
Oh my God.
Three days ago, I’d been lamenting the fact that no men took me seriously, that I had no real prospects in dating. Now, a man was talking about moving across the country, with his child, to live near me.
Carter reddened and added, “Of course, you can say no. And even if we do move, it wouldn’t mean we were like, married or anything. I just wanna, um, be near you. Try dating. Hopefully with fewer killer ex-wives.”
That made me laugh.
I took a leap of absolute, intrinsic faith. Maybe it was physical impact of the smoke and choking, or maybe it was the emotional realization that life is short and you have to love while you can.
“I think Bridgeport is big enough for the three of us,” I murmured.
His lips curled at the edges. “Yeah?”
“Well, at the very least, it’s bigger than Rough and Ready. Still small enough that everyone knows each other and is family.”
He moved his hands down to my shoulders, rubbing them softly.
“That sounds wonderful, Phoebe.” His eyes moved past mine and onto Henry. “Kiddo, what do you think about living closer to Phoebe?”
Henry jumped up and down in his seat, sending shudders through the car.
“Ya, ya!” he cried, his high voice ringing in my ears. “More Phoebe!”
Carter looked back to me, still smiling. “I guess that settles that. I know we’ll love Bridgeport, because I love you.”
“Does it feel weird to say that?” I asked, laughing.
“Only because I had to stop myself from saying it for so long.”
In the front seat, Jo-Beth finally broke her self-enforced silence and let out a long whoop of excitement.
“Hell, yes!” she cried.
“Does that mean you approve?” I questioned. “I thought you said he might be nuts.”
“Oh, he clearly is. But I think he’s your kind of nuts.”
