Page 66 of Love In Translation

“That’s the first time we’ve heard you criticize Paddy,” Carrie replied. “Normally, you’re her biggest cheerleader.”

It was a fair comment, but lately, she’d gained a different perspective on her grandmother. “I love her, but I’m terrified to tell her I screwed up. I shouldn’t be this scared of her,” Rheo admitted. “If I felt more secure about her love, this wouldn’t be as big an issue.”

Carrie nodded. “You’ve always put her on a pedestal, Rheo. You’re learning she’s a flawed human. We’re all flawed, Rhee,” Carrie continued. “It makes us what we are and gives us space to change and grow.”

Rheo wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want another family feud, Carrie.”

“And Paddy can start a fight in an empty room,” Carrie added. For a full minute, nobody had a reply to her pithy comment.

“Anyway, we were talking about you returning to work, Rheo,” Gail said, breaking the silence. “What do you need to return?”

It was nice they were taking an interest. Also a little strange.

“Fletch thinks I need confidence. He thinks that if I succeed at something I hate and suck at, then I can only succeed at something I like and am good at.”

“He sounds like a smart guy,” Gail commented.

He was.

“So, what do you hate?” Carrie asked. “We could go rock climbing? What about a three-day hike? Kayaking?”

Rheo shuddered. “No, no, andno. But Fletch thinks I should enter Gilmartin’s Mud Race, the fun one, this weekend,” Rheo added, putting as much disdain into her voice as she could manage.

“Oh, you’d hate that!” Carrie cackled.

She would.

“And are you going to do it?” Ed asked.

That would be a hard no.

“I’ll do it with you!” Carrie cried, clapping her hands and wiggling her butt in the chair. Nobody should be this excited about doing a mud race.Ever.“Would Abi like to do it with us?”

Another hard no.

“I’m not doing it,” she told Carrie, but her cousin had the sameI’m not listening to youexpression she remembered from when they were girls.

“You have to live beyond your comfort zone,” Carrie insisted.

“Why does going beyond my comfort zone mean me having to get muddy, sweaty, and breathless?”

Carrie rolled her eyes. “Do I really need to explain that to you?”

Because a mud race was everything she hated? And that if she finished the race, if she didn’t quit, there would be some measure of pride at knowing she’d completed something she loathed.

“I don’t think we’ve done anything like this together,” Carrie said, sounding ridiculously happy. “Oh, thisisgoing to be great!”

No, it wasn’t, but Rheo couldn’t take away her excitement by telling her there was an ice cube’s chance in a fucking volcano that she was going to climb over obstacles and run through mud.

Gail started to clear the plates and Carrie stood to help. Carrie’s phone buzzed. Rheo looked down and saw Fletch’s name light up her screen. So Fletch could text Carrie but not her?Nice.

Carrie read the message and looked at Rheo. “They’ll be here in a couple of hours,” she quietly told Rheo.

“They?”

“Fletch is bringing his friend, his expedition doctor, Seb Michaels, with him,” Carrie replied, sounding less than impressed.

God, Fletch texting Carrie instead of her hurt so goddamn much.

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