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“For a few minutes,” she said. “We’ll put the timer on.”

Once Josie was tucked in, Avery went back downstairs and found something on TV to kill time.

She wanted to talk to Laine but didn’t want Josie to hear. It was too much to text anyway, so she’d wait it out.

After twenty minutes, she went upstairs to check on Josie and saw her sound asleep. The TV would shut off in ten minutes so she’d let it go for now.

She texted Laine to see if she was around to talk and then went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. It felt like there was never any time to sit and relax anymore.

Laine called her rather than texting back. “Fill me in,” Laine said.

She laughed and stayed in the kitchen at the back of the house and away from Josie. Not that she thought Josie could hear her upstairs, but she was going to talk quietly anyway.

“We went to dinner and then came back here for thirty minutes.”

“Did you kiss?” Laine asked. “I know you wouldn’t have done much more but eating together is boring.”

She felt the heat fill her body as she remembered Carter pulling her close to his body.

“Yes,” she said. “As much of it as we could before I had to leave.”

“More than on your lips?” Laine asked, giggling.

“No,” she said. Though there was part of her that wouldn’t have minded Carter’s mouth on another part of her body.

“But you wanted to,” Laine said.

Best to not agree to that. “We are taking it slow. It’s not as if I’ve got much free time and I don’t know that Josie needs to know right yet.”

“How was Josie when you were dating Kurt?” Laine asked.

She sighed. She hadn’t talked to anyone about this other than her mother and even then not much. She didn’t want to burden her mother when she had enough on her plate caring for her grandmother.

“They didn’t see much of each other. You know why Kurt left.”

“Asshole,” Laine said. “It’s a good thing you didn’t waste any more time with him.”

“That’s right. So knowing what you do, it’s not surprising he didn’t spend much time around Josie. I didn’t push it either because I had to put Josie first. We were both grieving and I could barely get out of my own way.”

“I’m going to assume Kurt wasn’t there for you?” Laine asked.

“No. Not like I would have liked or needed,” she said. Just like her boyfriend couldn’t even fully take care of the flat tire she’d had, he sure the hell couldn’t take care of her in her time of need.

Like her father couldn’t do for her mother. Or more like her father didn’t do anything for her mother at all during the marriage.

“The good news is Carter knows about Josie. No reason to explain that.”

“He does know. I was clear Josie has to come first,” she said. “He didn’t seem to have any issues with that. He’s very understanding.”

“Slow too,” Laine said, laughing. “Everything about him is slow.”

Not when he worked though. She’d seen him through the glass working on her vehicle and he was moving fast and with a purpose. Just like he was the first night they were in the clinic.

“Yes and no,” she said. “But since I’m trying to maintain that speed too, it works.”

“When is the next date?” Laine asked. “I can take Josie for you if you want.”

“I appreciate that, but not right yet. I haven’t set anything up with Carter. The next time I’ve got some free time is Monday night. Less than tonight. Barely enough to get dinner unless we meet out.”

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