Page 8 of Carter
Epilogue
Seven Years Later…
“It’s okay, honey.” Carter puts his hands on my shoulders and looks down at me. “Everything’s going to be fine. The kids are having a great time.”
“But I promised Joanna a magician and now there’s not a magician. All the other kids are going to go home and they’re going to tell their parents about how I couldn’t even book a magician and they all think I’m a lousy mom because of that time Mikey went to school and he told everyone about how I dropped all the ice cream on the floor and we got spoons out and eat it.”
Carter does his best to hide a smile, but can’t quite manage to hold it.
I give him one of my death stares. Meant only for when the children are refusing to eat their vegetables or wash their teeth before bed, or when Scampy, our dog, comes into the house covered in mud and messes up my carpet.
“I’m sorry,” he says, “I know I shouldn’t laugh. But you care way too much about what the other moms think.”
“I can’t help it,” I say. “You don’t have to stand there and feel their disapproving eyes on you every morning when you drop the kids off at school.”
“I know,” he says.
“And it’s not like the kitchen floor wasn’t clean!” I say. “I’d only just finished mopping it.”
“I know.” He nods his head. Playing the role of the sexy, supportive husband to a tee. “Plus, there’s the five-second rule to think about. What did they expect you to do? Drop a whole tub of ice cream on the floor andnoteat it?”
“Exactly!”
Around us, my two children and their friends are running around like crazy people. All hocked up on sugar and no-school and getting to see their friends on a Saturday.
It’s my daughter Joanna’s seventh birthday.
I can’t believe the years have gone by so quickly, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
After Carter and I made love in his truck, we went back to my house, just like he said, and told my mom we were getting married.
She was shocked. But as soon as she saw the way we were looking at each other, she knew I’d found my soulmate.
Graham tried to kick up a fuss with the police and have Carter arrested. But I reminded him how many of his dirty little secrets I had rattling around in my head, and he dropped the charges pretty soon.
He wasn’t even able to destroy our chances of finding work.
It turns out Graham had amassed quite the array of enemies. Once people found out about how Carter had stood up to him and punched him in the face, both of us were inundated with offers for work.
Pretty soon, we were earning so much money I was able to not only pay for mom’s medicine but get her in to see an expensive specialist.
She’s still with us, and going strong. And sometimes I wonder whether that would have been the case if Carter hadn’t put Graham in his place.
And best of all, his party was a disaster.
Unable to find a reliable contractor at such short notice, he ended up hiring a bunch of undocumented workers from the local Home Depot parking lot.
They hit a water pipe in the garden and everything flooded. Totally ruining his birthday party.
And then word got out that he was hiring illegal workers and not paying them.
It was in all the local newspapers and even got some national coverage.
His reputation was destroyed.
Pretty soon, he was fleeing on his private jet and has never had the guts to show his face again in this town.
Ding!
