by Phoebe Mills
“Thank God you’re here,” Becca said. “I have no idea how I would’ve gotten that wine in here without you.”
Abby laughed. “Glad I’m useful for something.”
“I’m normally not a huge drinker—being the only one responsible for Sofia sort of zaps that freedom, you know?—but whenever Carter gets started on our dad, I need a glass or four.”
“Yeah…,” Abby said, settling back into the couch cushions. “I don’t remember him being so…”
“Hostile?” Becca asked with a raised brow.
Abby winced and lifted a shoulder. “Has he always been like that toward your dad and I just didn’t notice?”
“No…I think he hid a lot of it from you in high school. Didn’t want to scare you off.” Becca poured herself a healthy dose of wine before doing the same for Abby. “But they’ve always had a troubled relationship. Our dad was always worse on Carter.”
Abby wasn’t sure if she should be getting this information from Becca rather than the source himself, but she was desperate to know more about Carter’s life since she hadn’t been a part of it for so long. And if his sister was freely offering it, Abby wasn’t going to turn it down.
“How so?” she asked.
Becca sighed. “It’s your pretty standard dysfunctional family, I think. Wife dies of cancer, single dad is left to raise two kids on his own and instead buries himself in a bottle. And the only time he came up for air was to degrade Carter and tell him how worthless he was.”
Abby gasped, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. “Oh my God, that’s awful.”
“Yeah.” Becca blew out a deep breath and sank back into the couch cushions. “Our dad was always…firm, I guess. But it got a lot worse after our mom died. I’m not making excuses for his behavior, but I think he saw a lot of himself in Carter. And Dad blamed himself for my mom’s death, irrational as that is.” She shrugged. “Probably why it was never as bad for me—Carter reminded him of himself, and I reminded him of the woman he lost.”
Abby had always known there was something off about Carter and his dad’s relationship, but she’d had no idea just how deep the wound ran. When she and Carter had been a couple, he’d never wanted to talk about his father. And any time they’d spent together had, more often than not, been at her grandmother’s house or out and about in town.
Come to think of it, she could only remember visiting his childhood home once, when Carter had forgotten something. Even then, they’d just slipped in and out. He’d grabbed what he needed quickly and efficiently, and Abby had just figured it was because he was desperate to get out of a house where his little sister was. But now she wondered if he’d been hiding that part of himself from her.
“So you guys have cut off all contact with him?” Abby asked.
Becca sighed. “It’s a long story. Yes and no. I still go to see him or call to make sure he’s okay. But there’s only so much I can do for a person who is desperate to self-destruct. Because of that, I won’t allow him into Sofia’s life. He knows about her, but he’s never met her.”
Abby’s heart broke over that bit of information, but before she could respond, Sofia came bounding down the stairs, a superhero cape flying out behind her.
“Miss Abby!” Sofia yelled with the kind of exuberance only a three-year-old had. “You’re at my house!”
“I sure am. Thank you for having me. Were you playing dress-up?”
Sofia tilted her head to the side and peered up at Abby. “No, why?”
Abby looked over Sofia’s ensemble. She wore rainbow-striped tights, a bright blue tutu, an oversized vest that was clearly her mom’s, a superhero cape, and a hat with earflaps.
Abby and Becca shared a smile over Sofia’s head. “Just wondering. I really like what you’re wearing.”
“Thanks, it’s my favorite!”
“I can see why. It’s amazing.”
Carter popped his head into the living room. “If you guys haven’t drank your dinner already, spaghetti’s on.”
Abby laughed, picking up her still-full glass, as well as Becca’s, before following her and Sofia into the kitchen. She’d been too engrossed in Becca’s words to even pause to take a sip. Now, though, as she looked into Carter’s eyes, questioning and wary, she wondered if Becca should have told her anything at all.
* * *
Dinner had gone surprisingly well. Abby hadn’t felt out of place, and there’d been no awkward silences. Just lots of reminiscing and laughter. And though she’d tried to avoid staring at Carter, she couldn’t help but be drawn to him. More often than not, she’d look at him only to find he was already watching her, at which time her stomach would flip-flop for absolutely no good reason.
This was the best date she’d had in forever. The only problem was, it wasn’t a date at all, no matter how many looks Carter stole, or how many times he made her laugh, or how he’d rested his arm along the back of her chair after they’d finished eating. She swore she’d even felt his fingers whisper across the thin material of her sweater, sending her synapses into overdrive.
It was making all those could-have-been thoughts even more impossible to ignore.
After the plates had been cleared, Becca had whisked Sofia away for her nightly bath. That left Carter and Abby alone in the kitchen. They stood in front of the sink, him washing the dishes and her drying, as the conversation flowed easily between them. Granted, it was mostly surface level, but she didn’t mind. She’d missed this with him. Had missed the easy way they had with one another, and she was content to soak in as much of it as she could while he was home.
“So…,” Carter said as he passed her a dripping plate. “How much did she tell you?”
“What? Who?” Abby asked as she swiped at the dish with a towel.
Carter rolled his eyes. “My sister.”
To Abby’s credit, her movements stuttered only slightly. Okay…so maybe they were moving past surface level stuff now.
“Oh, well, she, um…She may have mentioned that you don’t get along with your dad.”
Carter laughed outright at that. “Now I know for a fact she didn’t say that. Us not getting along is the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever heard. He hates me, and the feeling’s mutual.”
Abby’s heart nearly broke in half at the matter-of-fact way Carter spoke. She knew what it was like to have a parent who wasn’t all that interested in your life. One who’d rather be doing other things. One who saw you, at best, as an inconvenience, and, at worst, as a burden. What she didn’t know was the level of dislike Carter was talking about. God knew she didn’t have a great relationship with her mom, but she didn’t hate her. Could never.
But that hate was something Carter had, apparently, been living with for a while. At least as long as she’d known him. His mom had died when they were sophomores, if she remembered correctly. They’d started dating the summer before junior year, so he’d been feeling this the entire time they’d been together. And she’d never, ever known.
She turned to face him, leaning her hip against the counter. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Carter braced his hands on the sink and blew out a deep breath, staring out the window into the inky black night. “I don’t know. Because I was a teenager with a hot girlfriend, and I didn’t want to jeopardize said hot girlfriend making out with me by unloading all that on her?”
She breathed out a laugh and shook her head. “But you knew about my mom—how she wanted to be anything but a mom. How she always made me feel unwanted.” Abby’s voice cracked at the last word, but she swallowed down the emotions that sometimes got the better of her and continued. “My life wasn’t perfect, and my family certainly wasn’t. I would have understood.”
“Yeah, well.” He shrugged. “I had him telling me how worthless I was. And at some point—especially when you’re that young—you start to believe it.”
Abby rested her hand on his forearm, feeling how tense he was. “Carter. You can’t honestly believe that.”
His mouth tipped up at the corner as he glanced over at her. “Twenty-nine-year-old Carter? No. I’m good. But sixteen-, seventeen-, eighteen-year-old Carter? Yeah. I believed it. Carried it with me for a lot of years, too. But since I’ve been gone, I’ve learned I’m more than what my father thinks of me.”
He shrugged and passed another dish to Abby. “His words don’t have power over me anymore. I’m going to do what I want, and I’m going to succeed while I’m at it. And if what I’m doing with my life happens to get back to him and makes him eat every last word he’s ever said about me, then all the better.”
“Does he know what you’ve been up to?”
“I’m honestly not sure. And I don’t really care. I’ve got a great job that I love, and I’m doing exactly what he swore I never would—making something of myself. Like I said, if he had to eat his words, that’d just be karma, but if not, I don’t care what he thinks anymore.”
Abby studied his profile, reading the lines of frustration on his face, the stiff set of his shoulders, and knowing, with absolute certainty, that what he said wasn’t the complete truth. Carter did care what his dad thought—at least enough to prove him wrong.
She cleared her throat. “Well, I’m glad you’re in that place now…even if that means you’re no longer a true resident of Heart’s Hope Bay.”
“I don’t know, I think you’re always a true resident here. No matter how long you’ve been gone, or how far away you’ve traveled.”
Abby smiled. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. I do know Mabel and Gladys were sure happy to have you back in town. Actually, I know several ladies who’ve been happy to have you back.”
In fact, there’d been an uptick in her grandma’s friends swinging by the Sunshine Corner to pop in and see their “grandchildren” or Hilde—conveniently during the times Carter usually dropped off or picked up Sofia. Abby didn’t blame them in the least—he was definitely a treat for the eyes.
“Oh yeah?” he asked, turning to face her and mirroring her stance as he rested against the counter, his arms folded over his broad chest. “Are you one of these people?”
“Well…yes, but I didn’t mean me.”
“No? Who, then?”
“The Bridge Bunch.”
“The who?”
Abby laughed. “I think my grandma formed the group after you’d already left. Hilde and Mabel are the ringleaders—aka troublemakers—of that group. Anyway, apparently you helped Mabel get her groceries out to her car the other day. When she stopped in to see her great-grandson at the Sunshine Corner, she went on and on about it and what a nice young man you are. She also mentioned how she has seven granddaughters from the ages of twenty to thirty-four that she could set you up with. You know, if you’re interested…”
She was only teasing, but even just saying the words felt like razor blades on her tongue. Which was ridiculous. She had no claim over him. They’d been a couple once, a lifetime ago. But they were no longer together. Hell, they were barely friends. But if this conversation and these past couple of weeks reminded her of anything, it was how much she missed him in her life.
“Tempting,” Carter said dryly.
Abby tried not to let the relief show on her face, but she wasn’t sure she succeeded. Carter’s lips ticked up the slightest bit, and then he reached out and swept his thumb along the bare skin just above the open neckline of her sweater, and her breathing stuttered.
“Rogue water droplet,” his said, his voice low and rough as he lifted his gaze to hers, allowing his hand to drop to his side. “I’ve missed this, you know.”
“What’s that, doing dishes?” She tried to control the quality of her voice, but it still came out breathless. She cleared her throat and tried again. “You have one of those fancy machines in your place that does them for you?”
Carter laughed. “No, I mean this. Me and you, talking. It was always so easy between us, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was.”
Honestly, it’d been everything she’d spent the past eleven years looking for—a relationship with her best friend who also happened to set her body on fire and made her ache with need.
The attraction part was still very much alive and well between them, as her body now humming with life could attest to. And though she didn’t know him as well as she once had, easy conversation still flowed between them, as well as comfortable silences.
For the briefest moment, she got lost in a fantasy of them doing this every night. Cooking dinner together and then cleaning up…long talks about nothing and everything at once. Discussing their days and then getting lost in each other’s bodies before collapsing in a heap, tangled in the bedsheets and each other’s arms.
If only he lived in Heart’s Hope Bay, this could actually be their life. If only he would stick around. But she knew he’d never stay. He’d said it without words in how he’d bailed as soon as possible and stayed away. And now, after learning about the history with his father, she understood exactly why he didn’t want to be tied to this town. Why he didn’t want to be anchored here.
Just the same as she knew she would never leave.
It was just her and her grandma here, but that family, small as it may be, meant the world to her. The same as the family she’d adopted for herself—her best friends, her coworkers, and all the kids at the Sunshine Corner. Abby’s roots were too deep in Heart’s Hope Bay to ever leave.
But that didn’t stop her from wishing things could be different, because she couldn’t remember ever wanting anyone as much as she wanted Carter.
“Abby,” he whispered.
She jerked her gaze up. Maybe he’d been thinking the same things, remembering the same shared history, feeling the same irresistible connection. His eyes locked on her lips, and heat stole through her body, lighting her up from the inside out. Determination was written in his eyes, and she froze, her own gaze dropping to his mouth as she wet her lips.
She wasn’t sure who leaned in first. All she knew was suddenly Carter’s hands were gripping her face, his mouth pressed to hers as he brushed his thumbs across her cheeks, and it felt like coming home.
Carter licked a path across her lower lip and then groaned when she opened to him. He tasted like wine and felt like heaven, and she had to clutch his forearms for dear life, hoping the grip would keep her upright as fireworks rocked her body.
So much between them had stayed the same as it’d once been, but this…Oh, this had only gotten better with time. Carter was no longer the fumbling, hurried boy he’d once been. In his place was a determined man who was patient enough to draw things out in order to increase the pleasure. And Abby’s pleasure? Good Lord, it was through the roof. Every nerve ending in her body was firing, her skin tingly and warm, a hum settling in her belly…and lower. She ached for more—was desperate to feel Carter’s hands along every inch of her.
Just as she pressed her palms to his chest, really letting herself feel the rock-hard solidness of it beneath her fingers, Becca’s crutches sounded on the wood floor in the living room.
With a gasp, she tore her mouth away from Carter’s and turned in time to watch Becca stroll in, her eyes flitting between Abby and Carter. “Did I interrupt anything?”
“What? No, not at all,” Abby said, not daring to even steal a glance at Carter, let alone reach up to make sure she didn’t have lipstick smeared across her face.
Apparently content with that answer, Becca stashed her crutches against the wall before dropping into a dining chair. “I forgot to ask you how the renovation is going.”
Abby blew out a long breath, grateful that Becca hadn’t interrogated them more on what had just happened—mainly because Abby didn’t have a damn clue herself. And she could admit she was relieved to have something to focus her attention on other than the man who’d stolen every one of her brain cells.
She tucked her hair behind her ear and nodded. “Good. Well, maybe not good. It’s going slow. I’m trying to save as much money as I can, s
o I’m doing a lot of work myself, even if I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time.”
“Well, that’s just perfect!” Becca said, her smile bright. “Carter is great at renovations. I’m sure he’d love to help.”
Abby finally slid a glance to Carter only to find his gaze already locked on her, his eyes hot and hungry and not attempting at all to hide it. Her body reacted to the attention, perking up and revving for a hell of a lot more than what she’d gotten. Having Carter in her home for a project of that size would only make things worse. She had no idea how she was supposed to resist him now that she’d been reminded of how good he tasted and exactly how talented that mouth of his was, not to mention how alive her body came under his touch.
She gulped and tore her eyes away from him. “Oh, no, that’s okay. I’m sure he doesn’t want to spend his time back home doing renovation work.”
Becca shot her brother a smirk. “Oh, he definitely does. And he won’t take no for an answer.”
Chapter Seven
Only a couple days had passed since the kiss that had rocked Carter’s world. It wasn’t a secret that he and Abby had chemistry, but he’d thought maybe it had languished in the years they’d been apart. Ha. That was completely laughable. If anything, the heat between them had only ratcheted up, now practically an inferno. And their connection? It was obvious that hadn’t evaporated, either.
He’d had his head up his ass back in high school, hiding so much of himself away from the person he felt the closest to. Stupid pride had kept him from opening up to her about his father then, but it seemed less important to pretend his life was perfect for her now.
Plus there was the matter of Becca airing all their dirty laundry in front of the world.
In the end, it didn’t matter. Instead of turning away from him—the way a part of him had feared she would—Abby empathized with every difficult piece of his past he revealed. The softness in her gaze didn’t make him feel like less of a man. It made them feel closer.