Page 107 of Family Bonds: Carter & Avery

She smiled. “I wish I didn’t have as much as I do, but it’s fine. And yes, that is exactly what it was for Colleen. Her mother chose that other family over her daughter. Colleen’s father moved on and out of the area too. She felt as if she had no one.”

He wanted to say kind of like Avery, but Avery always had her mother. He understood now the bond between the two women and why Josie was really like a daughter to Avery.

“Don’t you think if Colleen’s mother or sister wanted to know Josie they’d make that step?” he asked. “They know you have custody.”

“I’ve thought of that. They have all my information. They moved out west years ago. They didn’t even come back for the birth of Josie. It was a few years before they met her and that was because Colleen had felt a little guilty and flew out to see her mother. She’d come home upset and that was the end of it.”

“Did she say why she was upset?” he asked.

“Yeah. Just more of the same. She was never good enough. Her mother had another family. She was all but ignored and they didn’t connect with Josie. Didn’t show any excitement over meeting the child and went about their lives as if Colleen and Josie hadn’t flown there for the week. She spent most of the trip on her own with Josie and regretted it.”

“You never know things until you do them. You shouldn’t regret it either,” he said. “Sounds like she tried and needed to in order to move on.”

“I think so too. I wonder if that is when she made her will,” she said. “I never asked. I don’t think it matters. Josie would have been miserable with anyone other than me. I know that.”

“Exactly,” he said. “Don’t ever think otherwise. She’s a happy well-adjusted child. You’re giving her the family life she is used to.”

“But she enjoyed yours today,” she said.

“She can continue to enjoy it,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

It wasn’t like him to make comments like that and Avery didn’t reply. She only sent him a soft smile and a wink. He wasn’t sure why that hurt that it was her only reaction.

35

His Family Now

Almost two months later, Carter crawled out from under the hood of a car he was working on. He had the engine ripped apart and his hands were covered in dirt and grease. It always amazed him at how poorly people treated their cars. Some oil and filter changes could have saved this engine rebuild. But it was a job and money and what he did.

“Carter!”

He turned his head. He hadn’t realized someone was calling his name. There were all sorts of noises in the garage and music going on top of it.

Alex was standing there in his captain’s uniform and a winter jacket, his white hat on his head. It was colder than a bitch out at the end of February.

“Hey,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“I was out doing an inspection and Griffin called me. He wanted to know if I was at the garage. He’s been trying to reach you.”

“Oh,” he said. He never had his cell phone on him. He left it in his office. If someone needed him they called the garage’s phone. No reason to break his cell by having it fall out of a pocket or getting knocked around.

“Thanks,” he said. He grabbed a rag and started to wipe his hands off. They never got clean enough this way so he walked to the sink to wash them. This time of year they were split and cracked more than normal.

Avery always had such soft hands and she was washing hers as much. She’d told him the lotion she used and he’d tried hers and then got some for himself. Didn’t seem to make a difference, but she didn’t mind either.

“You never said if you reached out to Griffin or not,” Alex said. “It’s been months.”

“I did,” he said. He’d waited until after the holidays. After the conversation that Avery and he had about family and how Colleen never had anyone but Avery and her mother.

Part of him said he did need to know what was going on with this guy.

He had to protect the two of them in his life because they were his family now.

Getting information wasn’t the end of the world in his eyes. That was how he justified it.

“I’m glad,” Alex said.

He was done washing his hands enough and went to his office. “Why are you following me?”

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