Page 110 of Family Bonds: Carter & Avery

She was pacing in her office. “What am I going to do?”

“We,” he said. “Together. Be pissed at me all you want after the fact, but you aren’t doing this alone. Get that right through your head right now.”

She stopped and stared at him. “Fine. And trust me, I’m going to be pissed. I am. It’s going to fester and then unleash like a big pussy wound. Be prepared.”

He held back the laugh. It was a funny statement in his mind considering what was going on.

“I’ll take it. For now, finish working. Griffin said he’d let me know if Mike leaves the casino. If you don’t have plans tonight, we should at least find out what Griffin found out, don’t you think?”

“I guess,” she said. “But I’m not sure what to do with Josie. She shouldn’t go with us and I don’t think she should go to the casino either.”

“Will Ava take her?” he asked.

“Ava is back to work now and so is Seth. Adele goes to daycare after school. It would seem odd if she went there without an explanation. She’ll be here after school too.”

“My mother,” he said. “She’ll love it. And Josie might too.”

They’d gone to dinner at his parents’ a few times in the past two months on a Sunday. Josie always had a blast.

“I suppose,” she said. “I don’t want to wait too long.”

“We shouldn’t,” he said. “I’ll call my mother.”

He pulled his phone out, his mother answered right away and said she’d take Josie, no questions asked. Of course he knew his mother would grill him when he got back to the garage too.

“What are you going to tell her when you go back to work?” Avery asked with her arms crossed.

Guess she figured out his family dynamics pretty fast.

“That you and I need to take care of something. She won’t ask me more because she knows I won’t tell her.”

“Fine,” she said. “I need to know what is going on. Somehow I’ve got to get through the rest of this day too.”

He pulled her into his arms. “It’s going to be fine,” he said. “I won’t let anything happen to either of you.”

“Should I call my lawyer?” she asked.

“That is up to you,” he said. “But as you said, we don’t know anything yet.”

“I’ll wait,” she said.

“Good. Now go play with some puppies and kittens.”

She laughed. “Yeah, that is what I do all day. You go race the cars around the lot.”

“I wish,” he said. “That would be more fun than going back to the engine I was working on.”

She lifted her head and kissed him. “I’m still pissed and we are going to talk about this more.”

“I expected no differently,” he said.

36

Sticks Together

“Ican’t believe this is happening,” Avery said to Carter as they pulled in front of the casino.

“At least Josie didn’t question anything,” he said.

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