Page 46 of Bride for Keeps

“The same way women always survive it. Working hard, loving fiercely, and asking for help when you need it.”

“So, maybe calling someone when you have to pee and you’re afraid to put the baby down?”

Kaitlin wrinkled her nose, but her mouth curved. “It’s a work in progress. And that’s life too.”

A work in progress. Now that,thatmade a certain kind of sense. Maybe she didn’t even have to feel like she was good enough for Carter, or comfortable with showing him her cracks, orreadyto face everything she was going to have to face.

But maybe she could try. And keep trying. Progress, not perfection.

Because, much to her surprise, she did have a whole legion of people who loved her. Who supported her. If she’d opened up to any one of them before she’d been completely at rock bottom, what might have changed?

What might still change?

Chapter Thirteen

Lina had drivenCarter back to Marietta. They’d gone up and down just about every street and side street. He’d had Lina drive by Sierra’s parents’ house, the florist shop where Kaitlin and Beckett lived, and even passed Sierra’s brother’s house. But Carter hadn’t spotted his car anywhere.

“Where the hell could she be?” Carter muttered. “Has she texted you back?”

“No. She knows I’m with you though, or at least might assume since she called me to pick you up. We could stop by the hospital and try to catch Jess. Sierra might respond to Jess.”

“Just…take me home.”

Lina spared him a glance. “So, you’re giving up?”

“No. I’m starving and I have a headache. I’m going to go home, eat something, take an aspirin, and then I’ll call her parents. If they don’t know where she is, well, then I get to worry.”

“You shouldn’t worrythem. Wherever she is, she’s fine and she’ll let you know when she’s ready—”

“Just take me home, Lina. I’ll handle the rest.”

She huffed out an irritated breath and rolled her eyes, scowling as she headed for his house.

He wasn’t sure what compelled him when his sister was so completely Team Sierra and prickly at best and he’d never been her favorite person, but he didn’t think that should be the last thing he said to her today.

“Thank you for your help. It means a lot.”

She shrugged jerkily. “Whatever.”

“No. Not whatever. You took time out of your day and life to come pick me up then drive me around, and I know it’s because you care about Sierra. I appreciate that.”

“I care about both of you, dumb ass,” she grumbled, eyes firmly on the road ahead of her.

“I care about you too.”

“Carter. Look.”

He looked away from her to the view ahead of them. As they approached his house, he could see what Lina wanted him to look at.

His car. Parked in the drive. The car Sierra had taken this morning. Lina pulled up next to it and Carter simply sat there.

“Do you think she’s here?” Lina asked incredulously. “After all that, she was here all along?”

“The lights are on,” Carter noted. It wasn’t dark yet, but the afternoon had turned the kind of gray that made it feel much later than it was. “I didn’t leave the lights on.”

“Well. Are you going to go in and find out or are you going to sit here?”

He felt rooted to the spot. Hope a terrible thing bubbling through him, because she might not be in there. Or she might be in there, just gathering up her things to leave again. There were so many ways she could crush his hope, and as much as he’d determined to keep trying, he needed to be ready to face possible disappointment. Tamp down this surging, desperate hope. “I shouldn’t get my hopes up.”

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