Page 61 of Family Bonds: Carson & Laine

“Then be happy like Laine is. She’s so much fun.”

“Yeah, Carson,” she said, poking him in the belly. “You like having fun, don’t you?”

“As long as no laws are broken,” his mother said.

“Or any more trips to the ER,” he said.

“That I can’t promise,” Laine said. “Sometimes the body needs to boogie when it wants to right, Adele?”

His niece started to giggle. “Laine dances when she teaches classes. She said it releases endorphins and allows your true in the moment feelings to come out. I do paint better once I dance and then close my eyes. It’s like you can reach your hand out and touch your emotions or put them on the canvas after.”

It might have been one of the most raw descriptions that could have been made about Laine and it came from a child.

“You’re absolutely right,” Carson said, grabbing Laine’s arm. “We need to dance more in life.”

He dipped her once, saw the smile on her face and the emotions in her eyes.

His heart was long gone and there was no stopping it or hiding it. His brother saw and he was pretty sure his whole family did.

Now he only had to hope he didn’t mess this up.

18

MORE RUMORS STARTED

“Am I still the talk of the island?” Laine asked Avery a few weeks later. Since Avery saw so many people in her veterinarian clinic, she heard a lot of gossip.

More so since Avery and she were friends.

“Things have calmed down some,” Avery said. “Josie, what are you going to paint this time?”

“I want to do another abstract,” Josie said. “Can I do that, Laine? I want to do it of food now that I’ve got one of all the dogs done. I didn’t know how much fun it’d be to paint things so bright.”

She was thrilled that Josie had expanded her reach.

“You get to paint anything you want,” she said. “What food are you going to paint?”

“A brownie sundae,” Josie said.

“Your favorite dessert,” Laine said.

“And it’s Carter’s too,” Josie said. “We have that in common. Can I go start to draw it so you can talk to Avery?”

“Go ahead,” she said. “You know what to do.”

She watched Josie go to the back room and start drawing.

“You know as well as I do that when someone dates a member of the Bond family it’s news for a while. Then add in the fact of you losing the top of your swimsuit.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s so funny when I think of it now. I should have known better than to wear it.”

“Please,” Avery said, waving her hand. “You were thinking you wanted to turn him on and make him suffer while you pranced around in a tiny suit.”

“That is exactly what I was thinking,” she said. “And it worked.”

She’d told Avery everything that happened that night so her friend had the truth. Then the two of them laughed when more rumors started that weren’t true.

There had been all sorts of things said about her on this island that she never cared to correct.

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