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“No!” she said. Her head was still down. “Take me home. I’m fine. I mean it. Just do it.”
She’d never snapped at him like that before, but he took a step back and would have to trust her.
By the time they got back to her house, she was sitting up and breathing in and out with her eyes shut.
He parked in her driveway and went around to the door to help her, but she got out on her own and was steady on her feet as she walked up the front porch, unlocked the door and then sat on the couch after taking her jacket off.
“Want to tell me what that was about?” he asked.
He’d seen Eli’s and Griffin’s faces when she stormed out. The grins they had that they were as impressed as him by what they’d heard.
“What?” she asked. “I’m sure you understood what I said in there.”
“We’ll get to that in a minute. I meant your reaction in the truck.”
“Panic attack,” she said. “Or adrenaline. Not sure. The same thing happened to me after I found out about Colleen. I’ve never had it happen before that and not since.”
He supposed he could understand. “Because it meant something.”
“It did. I pushed through it when I found out about Colleen’s accident. But the minute she passed I sank into the chair. I thought I was going to throw up. The room was spinning, I was light-headed. I couldn’t focus. I put my head between my legs and kept breathing. I remember after the doctor gave me the news, he was the one that got me through it. Once this was done with Mike, once I said what I had to, it just hit me again.”
He reached his hand over. “You did well,” he said.
“I did,” she said. “And I would have never said what I had if I didn’t believe beyond a doubt that things would be fine. That you and your family would be there to back me and help me.”
He let out a breath. He’d been waiting for the hammer to fall on him since yesterday and it seemed as if that wouldn’t happen now.
“We will,” he said. “Even I didn’t know Eli would do what he had.”
“Do what?” she asked.
“Come over and say he was my cousin.”
“It’s the truth though,” she said.
“Yes, but he’s a distant cousin. Not even of the same cloth, let alone branch.”
“That’s your problem!” She turned and yelled at him. “You can’t get out of your own head at times even when no one else is looking at you the way you think they are.”
Guess he was wrong about not getting grief over this. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do,” she said, standing up. “You are so insecure about where you came from that you can’t see that most don’t know it’s there other than the wall you put up.”
“That’s not true,” he said.
“Maybe it wasn’t when you were younger, but it sure the hell is now. I’m an outsider on this island and I know what I see.”
“What’s that?” he asked. “The grease monkey that turned into a man? The one women like to have a night with here and there but don’t want to settle down with because it’s not their type? I’ve heard that before, you know.”
Avery stopped her pacing. “You might have heard those words in your youth, but they aren’t there now. Every single person who brings your name up on this island has nothing but great things to say about you. What a good guy you are. How you put everyone first. You go out of your way to help them. Your damn ex even said what a mistake she’d made and felt bad about the way you were treated in high school.”
“So?” he said. “It doesn’t change anything.”
“It should change everything in your mind, but it’s not. Carter, I was going to give you a hard time about this whole thing with Mike. The going behind my back to Griffin and not telling me. If you’d told me what you wanted to do, I’d probably tell you not to do it.”
“Because you can’t take help from anyone,” he snapped back at her. “What’s so funny?”
She started to laugh. “Are you being serious? I’ll admit I never wanted help from anyone and when I came here it was hard, but from the minute I stepped foot on this island you and so many other people have done nothing but help me. Make me feel welcome. I’ve never asked and have always felt guilty over it, but I accept it.”
