Page 73 of The Road Sometimes Taken

“Oh but you can and you did, didn’t you?” Allie asks. I look around and shake my head. Refusing to believe this. This is crazy. This can’t be true. I know that I miss him but is this loneliness, this longing, this yearning for more, because I’m in love with him?

Natalie leans forward, her expression soft and understanding, like she’s trying to catch every fragment of my heart that’s falling apart. "You know love is acceptance," she adds, her voice gentle but firm. "Love is respect. It’s about joy, and laughter, and finding someone who sees you for exactly who you are—no filters, no pretending." She smiles, that kind of smile that makes everything feel a little brighter, even though I know she’s talking about something I can’t seem to reach.

I swallow hard, trying to hold myself together as her words hit me one after the other. It feels like they’re sinking deeper than I want them to, like they’re chiseling away at the walls I’ve built around my heart. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe I need to let them break through.

Allie’s voice is the next to wrap around me, her tone both fierce and warm, like she’s trying to light a fire inside me, something I can hold onto. "Cara," she says, leaning closer, her eyes searching mine like she’s trying to remind me of something I’ve forgotten. "You know exactly how to love without saying those three words. That’s how you love all of us. Fiercely. Without hesitation. You’re there for us no matter what, no questions asked. Don’t you see it? All he wants is to be that person for you, bestie girl."

Her words hit me hard. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own hurt, in all the ways I’ve convinced myself that love is supposed to behard, that I’ve forgotten what it really is. I’ve forgotten how toletit in and to let myself be loved.

But Allie, Roe, and Natalie—they’re right. Love is supposed to feel like home. It’s supposed to build you up, not tear you down. And maybe, just maybe, I’ve been pushing away the one person who’s trying to be that for me. The one person who has always seen me. I just kept seeing it all as a game that even when he tried to tell me he wanted more, I brushed him off.

They’re not wrong. Manny may not have said that he loved me but he sure as hell tried. He also showed me every day for weeks how much he did with his actions and his listening ears. With his patience and his demeanor. And then he tried to tell me he wanted more, and I shoved it all down for fear of not being enough. For fear of not being able to compete with his job.

“What about his job?” I ask between a sob I’m not able to hold. Did I mess it all up? Am I too late?

“What about it? That’s something for the two of you to discuss but you need to stop being a dummy and go tell that man that you love him, too,” Allie insists and those words shock me to my core.

“You love him, don’t you? It’s written all over your face. I’ve never seen you so connected with someone like you were in Nashville, and then at the wedding,” Natalie adds, a teasing grin on her lips.

“Stop lying to yourself, Cara. What are you really afraid of?” Allie presses, her gaze sharp.

A knot tightens in my stomach, and I can feel it pulling, twisting, like a weight sinking deeper and deeper. If I can’t admit this to them, how the hell am I supposed to face it myself? How am I ever going to tell Manny? I swallow hard, the words fighting to escape, the truth I’ve been avoiding for too long.

"What if what I have to give is less than what he wants? I don’t want to uproot my life for a man. I want to live it fully the way I’ve always wanted without feeling like I'm failing a partner for not putting their wants first," I finally blurt out, my voice cracking on the edge of the question. It’s been lingering in my mind for weeks, maybe longer; a nagging, relentless whisper that refuses to let me go.

The room falls into silence for a second, but then Natalie leans in, her expression soft yet firm, like she’s pushing the doubt away with nothing but the sheer force of her belief in me. "You are enough," she urges, her voice warm and steady like a lifeline. "Just because that jerk couldn’t see it doesn’t mean no one else will.Wesee you, Cara. And you’re worthy just the way you are. Nothing about you needs to change. What you have to give is plenty and I’m sure you and Manny can come to an agreement on things but Cara, I don’t think youunderstand... his job is not as a priority as you think anymore. I’m pretty sureyouare his only priority.”

I raise an eyebrow, the smallest flicker of curiosity sparking through me despite the heavy weight of my thoughts. "I’m whose priority?"

"Manny’s!" she says with a grin, and her eyes sparkle like she’s sharing a secret only we’re in on. “I’m sure he’ll give it all up to makeyouhappy but you have to let him.”

The laughter that follows bursts from them, deep and free, and it catches me off guard. I can't help it. I laugh, too. It’s a sound that bubbles up from somewhere inside, loosening the tightness in my chest, even if just for a moment. I look at them—at these women who have held me up more times than I can count—and the tension starts to slip away, piece by piece. Maybe I am seen. Maybe I’m not as invisible as I feel sometimes.

"Agh, this is so hard," I groan, flopping dramatically back onto the couch. I let my body go limp, surrendering to the weight of everything I’ve been holding in. The room spins for a second, and I let the comfort of these familiar people settle around me like a warm hug. Keeping me safe and warm and sound.

"It really isn’t," Allie says, her voice carrying that no-nonsense tone she always uses when she’s ready to shake things up. She crosses her arms, sitting up straighter, that determined gleam in her eyes. "It’s just a matter of you believing it. Manny believes it. We all believe it. Now it’s time for you to believe it, too."

The words hit me, not like a blow, but like a wakeup call, a reminder that I’ve been holding myself back for too long. I close my eyes for a moment, letting their laughter echo in my mind. Maybe, just maybe, I don’t need to fight this alone.

“And you’re okay with all of it? You’re acting entirely nonchalant about this. This is your brother, Allie.”

“Who better to become my sister than you, my sister by choice? It’s not a big deal to me, Cara, because I can see how much he cares about you. And if how shitty you’ve been feeling for the past few weeks is any indicator, I think you feel the same. Actually, I know you feel the same,” she replies, smiling softly at me as she brings her soft fingers to touch my hand.

“So what? I’m just going to call him and be like ‘Forgive me, Manny. I love you,’” I mock, looking at them with worry in my eyes but seeing nothing like that in theirs. They all seem to feel strongly about this in a different way than I thought they would take it. Even if I realized it before thatheis the piece I’m missing, by the time I realized that it was too late. It’s been too many days.

“Welp, that’s when we come in for help. We have an idea,” Natalie announces with a big smile that mirrors both Roe and Allie on their faces.

36

THE CONTRACT

MILLIONAIRE, CHRIS STAPLETON & I GUESS I’M IN LOVE, CLINTON KANE

Manny

“Lucia,why do I have a meeting at 4:00pm? I haven’t worked past 4:00 in weeks,” I tell Lucia who just came to bring me the folder. I know old habits die hard but after I came back from the road trip, I held a meeting with everyone in the office and outlined new rules. No more staying past 4:00pm, last meetings at 3:00pm, everyone needs to take a fourteen-day vacation a year, and no more checking emails from home. It’s been a challenge for some, but not for me. I came back from that trip with a different mindset and there’s no going back.

It didn’t stop with work. I go for walks or runs every afternoon outside and when I don’t, I’m in a bad mood. It’s crazy how much I needed nature and never realized it before. They said that people spend one thousand hours a year on technology and that number multiplies by three when you work on a job like mine. Cara had mentioned she was doing that outdoor challenge, so I researched it and I’vebeen tracking my hours. My mental health has been better since. I also started therapy. That was weird but needed. I’ve been to four sessions and I think Mark and I will have a long road ahead together. Apparently, I have some issues that need to be worked on.

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