“Hey,” I took another step sideways, putting myself squarely between them so she couldn’t just look past me. “Is that any way to talk to your son?”
Mrs. K’s nostrils flared, anger flashing in her eyes. “How would you know? Between your mother’s hands-off parenting and your father running off to God knows where, you have noideahow a parent should talk to their child. You weren’traised, you were barely even dragged up, and now you come tomyfamily wedding and make a spectacle of yourself at every possible opportunityandembarrass my son. You never grew up, did you? Always a troublemaker. Your father probably left because he couldn’t stand the sight of you.”
I went to say something—anything—but the words caught in my throat. Every word I knew seemed to be stuck in the back of my throat right now, choking me, lungs burning for air and eyes stinging as tears welled up in them, panic and pain filling my chest.
I’d been wrong. Shecouldhurt me. She’d found a way.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
I managed one deep breath before I realized I couldn’t stop myself from bursting into tears, and I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction. Instead, I bit into the side of my cheek and turned, heading for the nearby side door and pushing it open.
“His father’s dead,” Carter said quietly, still standing where I’d left him.
My stomach clenched as I stepped into the glaring sunlight outside, tears overwhelming me as soon as the door swung closed.
I slid down the brick wall of the bar, landing heavily on the snow beneath me, too packed to do much to cushion the fall. Sob after sob made my whole body heave, sore and cold and still recovering from the shock of falling, salt tears clinging to my lips, nose threatening to drip on me.
The door I’d come through opened again, and I looked up to see Carter, blurry through tears but unmistakable.
I didn’t want him to see me like this. I wanted him to see me cool and confident and ready to take on the world, to takeanything.
A handful of words from his mother and I was reduced to a crying wreck.
I suddenly felt like I understood a lot. About Carter, about his dad, and even about why I’d never really been friends with Hallie even though I got the impression she liked me.
“I’m…” Carter hesitated, footsteps crunching on the snow as he walked the three paces it took to bring him in front of me. “So sorry about that.”
I couldn’t look at him. He shouldn’t have been seeing me like this. I was here to supporthim, not the other way around. Carter shouldn’t have had to put up with me.
Enough people had put up with me in my life. His mom was right. Always a troublemaker.
“Hey.” Carter put a hand on my arm. “You can cry all you want, but don’t do it sitting on the snow. Kieran will kill me if I let you catch pneumonia,” he said.
I laughed despite myself, letting him pull me up when he offered his hand, collapsing forward against his chest as he pulled me in, a second wave of tears breaking over me.
Carter’s coat was getting soaked, and I didn’t have the strength to do anything about it.
His arms tightened around me, stronger than I’d taken him for, a solid wall of protectiveness and comfort, and I fell just a little bit in love with him.
Even though I knew I was currently ruining my chances. Who’d want a hot-tempered asshole who couldn’t take being yelled at one time?
Carter never shushed me while I cried myself out. All he did was hold onto me, steady as a rock, fingers digging into my back even through all the layers I was wearing so I didn’t freeze to death out here in the middle of the goddamn frozen North.
Eventually, I pulled myself together.
“I’m not sure that’s how pneumonia works,” I said. It was weak, but it was the best I could do. If I tried to talk about anything else, we’d be right back at square one, me collapsing into the snow again and crying my eyes out.
“I’m not willing to test your theory, if it’s all the same. I’d miss my sister’s wedding if you got sick now.”
In spite of everything, I smiled against his shoulder. “You’d stay with me?”
“I dragged you out here,” Carter said. “The least I could do would be sit with you while you suffered. Besides, I clearly wouldn’t last long without you here. You took that for me, and you didn’t have to.”
I sniffed again, burrowing closer to him. If I’d already ruined my chances, I might as well enjoy it.
“She shouldn’t talk to you like she does,” I said, sure of that. “I should kick her ass for being rude about my mom.”
“I thought you showed incredible restraint innotdoing that, but right now I’d probably hold your coat for you while you did,” Carter said softly.
