Page 78 of Right in Front of You

MOLLY

Wearing my yoga pants, which Joelle had conveniently packed for me, I went back up to the deck only to stop dead in my tracks as my sight reached the platform. My mouth dropped open as I stepped on the third last step. The scene in front of me was one out of a fairy tale. Spread out around the edges of the deck were tea-light candles. Hundreds of them. Carter must have also set them up on the roof of the boat because there was a glow emanating up into the night sky. In the middle of the deck was a mattress with blankets, pillows, and a bottle of wine with two glasses.

“Carter, this is beautiful.”

Now, if I were a betting woman, I’d say that he’d set up this romantic getaway to impress me. Not that he needed to do so. The more time I spent with him, the more I was beginning to worry about these feelings I was having for him and what they actually meant for me.

“No mosquitos tonight.” Remembering our time as kids when we’d been attacked by a swarm one evening, I was grateful for a bug-free night. I sat down beside Carter and relaxed back against the stacked pillows. Carter popped the bottle of wine and poured some in my glass. “You didn’t have to do all this, Carter.”

“I know. But I wanted to.”

“I thought you didn’t like candles. You keep putting the ones in my apartment out all the time.”

“Tonight is different.”

“Thank you. You really didn’t have to.”

“Stop saying that. Of course I did. You’ve been working hard at that hospital and taking care of me. I just wanted to make you happy.”

“I am happy and you’ve been pretty self-sufficient thus far. Too much, in fact.”

“Good, now what do you want to talk about?”

“Oh, so we’re going to ignore the fact that you keep refusing my help?” I teased.

“It would definitely make the evening go smoother.” He winked and gave me a lopsided smile that made it difficult to concentrate.

“Seriously, Carter. How are you feeling? You’ve been on your leg for a while today. Is anything hurting?”

“No, everything is fine. I told you I’ve been practicing my walking when you’re at work.”

“Well, it definitely shows. I can see it in your movements and agility. But—”

“Molly, I really don’t want to talk about my health. In fact, I’d like to forget that I was ever at the hospital. Tonight, I just want to feel like a man who’s still able to make a woman smile.”

“Well, I can confirm that you’ve definitely made me smile. You’ve made me the happiest I’d felt in a long time.”

A second-long look of guilt passed over his face, and I wondered what that was about.

“I’m assuming you haven’t told your father about your graduation, but what about your mother?”

“I called her. She knows.”

“She didn’t want to come to see you receive your papers?”

“She did, but I asked her not to.”

“Why?” he asked.

I set the glass aside. “It’s complicated.”

“Life is complicated. Come on, Molly. You’ve seen me at my worst and brought me back to life countless times. If there’s anything I can do to heal your wounds, I want to. Superficial or not. I really, really want to.”

I looked at him from the side and wondered why it had taken us so long to finally connect. But maybe the passed time wasn’t worthless. We had both matured, had a chance to live separate lives as adults, and had been able to remain great friends, for the most part. We had both been through such terrors in our lives, that maybe if the timing had been different, it wouldn’t have worked out between us then. Would it now?

“That means a lot. Thank you. I guess it’s different with my mother because we were never that close.”

“That’s not the way I remember things. She protected you that day at the pub when we got ice cream. She didn’t want you coming home when your father was upset.”

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