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She thought again of the accident. Everything was different after that.
“What’s wrong?” Carter asked, reading the emotion on her face. Most people didn’t want to hear about a sad childhood, but not so with Carter. “Tell me,” he urged.
She looked down at her gyro. “I already told you most of it. It wasn’t just my mom. It was like my dad didn’t want a tomboy anymore. Whenever I wanted to go with them, he’d say, ‘oh no, your mother doesn’t want you to do that.’ And then she’d offer something like baking cookies or girly stuff I didn’t want to do. Like it was a consolation prize.” Then she said slowly, softly, “She just seemed so needy.”
She stopped then, looked at Carter, and clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “I sound like a whiny little kid.” She tried to smile away her embarrassment.
“You don’t need to be embarrassed. It helps me know you better.”
She snorted. “Yeah, like a pathetic little girl lost.” She took a big bite of her gyro so she couldn’t say anything else.
He trailed a finger along her jaw, leaving tingles in the wake of his touch. “You’re not whiny. You’re a very capable woman. It explains why you’re so capable, because you felt like you had to prove yourself.”
His understanding made her heart stutter. She’d complained so often to Aunt Teresa, thinking that was all she needed. But telling Carter was different. He empathized with her, yet admired her at the same time.
Swallowing a bite of gyro, she said, “Thank you.”
Even his eyes smiled. “For what?”
“For understanding. And I’ll tell you another big secret. I always wore shorts under my dresses so the boys couldn’t see my underpants when I climbed in the trees.”
He laughed, loudly. And Jamal called out, “You two are having way too much fun over there.” He pulled a chair over to join them, even if it crowded the small table.
“Why don’t you all pull over your chairs?” Carter called.
They did, bringing the tables too, and the rest of the lunch passed with a lot of laughter.
It hit her then. She was smitten with Carter Ellis, an old-fashioned word because this felt old-fashioned. Not lust, just something pure and sweet.
And she wanted more.
