Page 64 of Between Now and Always

She turns around to hang her coat on the small hook behind my door and I notice that she’s trembling.

I walk to her, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“What happened?”

She stiffens and slides out from under my touch, and turns to face me. Her expression is unreadable.

“You smell like brewery,” she remarks in an even voice, as inscrutable as her expression.

“We went to a bar after practice, someone spilled beer on me. I was just about to shower when the bell rang.”

“I’m sorry I showed up like this, so late. But you weren’t answering your phone. And this can’t wait.”

She pulls her phone out the small purse she’s carrying and hands it to me open to an email.

“Read this.”

I take it, and sit.

I read the email, look at the pictures and with every word and every image, I fluctuate between horror and rage as I realize the implications of what she’s laid out.

“Is this true? Dina? She set us up?”

“If I hadn’t seen the evidence of it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it.”

My heart is racing at a thundering sprint and I drop my head in my hands. “She…we… we lost so much time,” I stammer in wild disbelief.

“Carter, we don’t know for sure. That’s why I came. We need to take DNA tests, brand new ones. Between you and Phil.” She looks away from me and swallows hard. “And between you and me.”

I sit, stunned by the sudden turn in the tide with my ears ringing so loudly that it drowns out the silence that stretches between us for a few minutes.

“Is your heart racing, too?” I ask, finally.

She bites her lip and her eyes don’t meet mine. But she nods. “It has been since I found out.”

Her quiet, hesitant tone doesn’t dampen my reaction to her admission.

I feel triumphant, vindicated. “I’ve always known… there’s no way we could be related.” I stand, wrap an arm around her waist and lift her off her feet into a hug.

“Put me down, now,” she says and the anger in her voice is like a slap.

I put her down, and take a step back.

Her expression is glacial.

“Just a few hours ago, you told me you didn’t want to see me again,” she says and wince at the memory.

“I didn’t mean that, come on,” I cajole.

She looks even more upset. “But yousaidit. And then, you walked out on me. You invited me to join your family and then you left. Do you know how humiliating that was?” she demands.

“I’m sorry. I know it was shitty. But this changes everything, we can be together,” I plead.

“That, Carter is the problem. It’s not that easy. What’ll you do if the test doesn’t say what we want?”

I let out a long sigh, desperate to fix what I’ve broken.

“I have money saved up to buy a house in Corsica. I love my career. But I love you more. No matter what those results say, let’s just fuck off and go live there. Let’s agree to be happy together, no matter what.”

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