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When she shouted out his name, he knew he’d done what he’d set out to.
His body was drained and depleted right now.
He moved to the side of his bed and sat down, her legs still around him.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m more than okay,” she said, sighing. “How about you?”
“More than okay too,” he said quietly. “You pull something out of me every single time and I worry that I hurt you.”
“I’m tougher than you think,” she said.
“I know, but that doesn’t mean I ever want to hurt you. Physically or emotionally.”
“We all hurt in life, Carter, even when we don’t want to do it to someone. It’s how you deal with it afterward that counts.”
He supposed she was right but knew it was not something he wanted to talk about right now.
Not when he felt like he was more in love than he’d ever been in his life and he was positive she had her own demons she was trying to hide.
28
Be Prepared
“It’s so good to see you, Mom,” Avery said, giving her mother a big hug on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
They’d been able to get on the ferry an hour earlier than expected as the appointments scheduled were things Kendall could deal with. Avery snuck out with Josie and they loaded up her car and took off.
“You look so good,” her mother said, giving her a tight hug. Tighter than she remembered before. “Let me see you, Josie.”
“I missed you, Dee,” Josie said, moving into her mother’s arms for a hug.
“I missed you too, sweetie. But I hear everything is going well on the island. Let me see this puppy you’ve got.”
“Betty has gotten so big, but she doesn’t look it next to Dopey and Doc,” Josie said. “You know Avery has a boyfriend, right? His name is Carter and he worked on her car and he fixed up the clinic for Avery before we moved. He’s nice to me and his dogs are huge, but they play well with Betty too.”
Avery looked at her mother and saw the grin. “I did know about Carter,” her mother said. “I would have loved to meet him.”
“He works a lot,” Josie said. “Like every day. I asked him to come with us, but he said he couldn’t and was sorry.”
Avery turned to her. “When did you ask him?” Now she felt like an idiot that Josie asked and she didn’t.
“Last night,” Josie said. “When you let Betty out after dinner, he was cleaning the dishes and I asked if he could come with us.”
“Carter has to work,” she said. “He only has tomorrow off. He’s working on Friday and Saturday.”
“That’s what he said,” Josie said. “But I still wished he could have come. Dee, you’ll need to come to the island to meet him, I bet.”
“I’d like to do that,” her mother said.
“Where is Grandma?” she asked.
“She’s napping. They changed her meds and she normally has a nap before dinner. She knows you are coming and I think she wanted to be rested up.”
“Josie,” Avery said. “Why don’t we go put our things in our rooms and then come back down and get a snack before dinner?”
Josie grabbed her bag and Avery picked hers up and they went up the stairs. Her old room still looked the same as it had when she left for college over fourteen years ago.
