Page 42 of Bride for Keeps

Her face changed, going soft, which was not a Lina trait at all. She looked away. “Go get dressed, Carter.”

But he simply stood there absorbing…this. Lina was here. Sierra was not.

His sister was here.

His wife was not.

It reminded Carter of the moment after his father had announced he wasn’t actually Carter’s father. There was a kind of numbness that spread from that deep flash of pain. Denial and impossible disappointment twined together to make the entire world feel frozen.

But he forced his feet to move, retrace his steps, go into the bedroom to find his clothes. He stopped in the doorway, looking at the rumpled bed, and he didn’t…

She’d left. After all they’d shared, after all he’d laid bare. She stillleft. Without the courtesy of an explanation or a goodbye.

As though he didn’t matter, as though nothing they’d ever had mattered. He walked over to the bed with the intention of grabbing his jeans where they lay in a heap on the floor.

Instead he found himself sinking onto the mattress, lowering his head to his hands. He’d tried, put his all, his heart and soul into repairing things. Into her. And he still hadn’t gotten the result he’d wanted.

She’d left. It was all a failure. A new kind of failure because any time he’d considered failure in the past it wasn’t like this. It was worrying his father would find out and be disappointed. It was worrying about reputation and what others thought, not the actual failure result.

This… He couldn’t bring himself to worry about his family’s opinion or what the town or hospital would whisper behind his back. All he cared about was the fact Sierra wasn’there, after all the inroads he’d thought he’d made and she’d still run away.

He lifted his head, frowning. She ran away from things that mattered. He thought he’d gotten through to her, but apparently he hadn’t. At least not enough. He could give up, let that feel like a failure. Or…

She ran away when thingsmattered. Who was he to think one night would fix that pattern? Giving up now would only put them back to where they’d been, and he wouldn’t go back there. No amount of failures could allow him to forget he had to keep trying, because as long as she was running, this was something worth fighting for.

Yes. No matter how many failures or setbacks. He pulled on his pants and shirt and then went back to the kitchen where Lina was sitting at the table, sipping tea.

“So, what exactly are you doing here?” he demanded.

She frowned, presumably at the tone, but she shifted uncomfortably, her eyes darting anywhere but to him. “Well, Sierra asked me to come get you since she, you know, took your car.”

“Right. Did she say anything else?”

“Uh.” Lina winced. “No. Just to get you home.”

“Of course.” It might hurt, but he would take it as a good sign. He wasn’t sure what had happened in his life to make hurt a good sign, but she’d disappeared early in the morning. She’d left no note, no words not to follow. It meant she’d been driven by panic, not rational thinking.

He had to believe that.

“You’re kind of freaking me out,” Lina said, studying him uncertainly.

“Why?”

“You’re calm, but kind of like…murdery underneath that.”

“I’m not murdery,” he replied darkly, moving for his shoes and coat. “I’m determined.”

“Determined to commit murder?”

“No. Now, stop sitting around chatting and relaxing—I have things to do.”

“What kind of things?”

“Find my wife things. What else would there be?”

“She sounded… Maybe you should give her some space. She was upset when she called me. Afraid, almost. I’m not saying she’s afraid ofyou, just… She’s struggling. You should give her space.”

“Why?” Carter demanded, shrugging on his coat once his shoes were tied.

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