Page 47 of Bride for Keeps

“Nope,” Lina agreed, too readily for his tastes.

“She probably just got a bunch of her stuff and left,” Carter decided, because if he said all the negative possibilities out loud he’d be ready for them. He could roll with the punches.

Funny all the ways actually communicating had the potential to help.

“Probably,” Lina agreed again, but when he still just sat there she sighed. “Or, she’s in there. So, why don’t you go find out?”

“Right. Okay.”

“It’ll be okay either way. Because you’re not giving up, right? So, even if it doesn’t go well like this morning, you’re going to…” She waved a hand between them. “Keep trying or whatever.”

“Even when it’s hard. Even when I fail,” he said, more to himself than Lina.

“Then get the hell out of my car.”

Yes. He needed to move. It took a while to get his head and his body on the same wavelength, but eventually he got out of the car. It felt like his body was weighted with lead. Even his heart beat faster and harder against all that.

He didn’t have his house keys, he realized, because Sierra had taken his entire key ring to drive his car. So, if she wasn’t here, he was kind of screwed.

On a deep breath, he raised his hand to knock. “Screw that,” he muttered. It was his house as much as hers, and she’d walked out on him this morning. He could damn well walk into their home.

As long as it wasn’t locked. He tested the knob and when it gave he felt some kind of relief. There was a bone-numbing fear there too, but he brazened through it, striding into the house.

He wasn’t sure where he expected to find her. He had an image of her in their bedroom completely clearing out her side of the closet instead of just the missing chunk he’d been staring at for days. Another of her dumping all of her toiletries into a bag and sailing out of the house.

If he pictured them, he could survive them. Or so he told himself.

But instead of any bad scenarios, she stepped into the space between the living room and the kitchen, staring at him with an expression he couldn’t read.

It reminded him of that night all those weeks ago. He’d come home simply to change, exhausted and numb. All he’d wanted to do was curl up in bed with her, but Mom had been demanding she needed him or she didn’t know what she’d do.

Sierra had stood right there, staring at him with that same unreadable cast to her features. Then she’d followed him into the bedroom. He’d been weighed down by that numb feeling, but she followed and when she had, the pain leaked through.

It was why he’d stayed silent and distant for all that time. He couldn’t be strong around her, couldn’t keep it together. So, he’d had to keep her at arm’s length, to keep the pain and confusion from pouring out and into her. But then she’d kissed him and…

A better man would have resisted, or so he’d thought at the time. Now, knowing it had given him the opportunity to be a father, a chance to come out of that horrible fog, well, maybe he’d been the best man he could be.

“Hi,” she finally offered, still standing where she was, still expressionless.

“You’re here.”

She stood there looking… He didn’t have any words aside fromperfect. Wearing the same clothes she’d had on yesterday, her hair pulled back sloppily. She still had that paleness to her, a weariness. But she washere.

“I’m here,” she said carefully. Too carefully.

He couldn’t take it. What did he care if he was strong? What did it matter if she stomped all over his heart again? He didn’t have to be strong for her. He had to be honest. “I’m going to need you to tell me right here, right now, if you being here means something.”

“I’m not sure it means everything,” she said, her voice quiet and wavery. “But it means something.”

That was all he needed to cross the distance, pull her into his arms, and kiss her with every last ounce of relief that coursed through him.

Without a hint of hesitation, she kissed him back. Soft and sweet and, hopefully not just his wishful thinking, filled with her own relief. All through last night he’d thought he was getting through to her, reaching her, but he’d known, ignored but known, she’d been holding pieces of herself back.

Because this,thiswas everything. Soft and relaxed, honest and pure. This was hope.

“Carter,” she said, holding him off thoughnotpushing him away. “We have to talk.”

“I know. God, I know. Just once more.” And he gave himself leave to kiss her until he shook, until she trembled, and until the entire world seemed so far away they both had to blink when they pulled away as if coming back to earth.

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