Page 61 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

He patted my thigh and said, “He’s not coming anywhere near you.”

And he was right.

The Carters—all of them but the one holding me—stood like a wall, barring my father from getting to me.

“This way,” the doctor said, appearing out of nowhere to lead us toward a non-descript door. “It’s the doctors’ entrance. It’ll lead you to the parking lot.”

“You will let me talk to her!” my dad bellowed.

Auden didn’t hurry his steps. Didn’t break. Didn’t weaken.

He just strolled out of the hallway where we could hear my dad losing his shit with his brothers and dad and let the door close behind him.

Hell, he’d even stopped to hold the door for Athena, as if he could care less about his career, his reputation, or anything else.

Once the door shut on my dad’s bellowing, Ellodie said, “He’s fantastic.”

I pulled my face off of Auden’s shoulder, placed a kiss on his neck to tell him thank you, then said, “You have no idea. That was pretty tame in comparison to when he found out that I had a social media account.”

“That’s so weird,” Ellodie said. “I had all of that when I was like ten.”

“Same,” Athena concurred. “But then you have to admit that social media is a bad thing for young children who don’t know right from wrong. The way Maven explains it, she was almost an adult and he still didn’t want her to have it. I think he’s reported Pie Hard’s Facebook and Instagram account a hundred times.”

“I stopped trying to fight for the Facebook page,” I admitted. “Instagram only has photos of my cupcakes and pastries. There’s nothing that Instagram can find an issue with, and always reinstates my page after review.”

“Sounds like a quality guy,” Auden grumbled.

Ellodie pushed through the door of the hospital, and it spilled us into the parking lot that the doctors used.

“Main parking area is over there, but I had Quaid move our truck closer,” she instructed.

He let me slip from his back next to Quaid’s pretty red truck and then said, “We have to remove a few car seats and boosters, though.”

I waited, fascinated, as I watched Auden expertly remove a car seat like he’d done it a hundred times.

The booster seat came next, then he said, “Get in there with all of those crumbs and stray M&Ms.”

I snickered as I did just that, sitting right on top of what looked to be a chicken nugget.

“Sorry, my kids are lunatics,” Ellodie apologized.

I waved her off. “Are you riding back here with me?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Then it’s even,” I said. “Athena, you’ll be able to get to your car okay?”

“Absolutely. Your father doesn’t scare me.” She crossed her cute little arms over her chest.

Geez, I loved my friend.

Her bravery was part of what had drawn me in when we’d first met.

“We’ll drive her over.” Auden looked at Athena. “You can fit in the booster I didn’t take out.”

I burst out laughing, which caused Athena to look both offended and exasperated at the same time.

“This is not to leave this truck,” she grumbled as she climbed into the booster.

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