She wasn’t fine. She was decidedly un-fine, fantasizing about the last man on earth she should be fantasizing about, and stuck in the car with him for the next—she glanced at the clock in the truck—six and a half hours.
Great.
“Why don’t you pick a radio station you like?” he asked.
Finally.
She found them some tunes from this decade and settled back. They made a stop for lunch at a great burger joint, and she discovered Carter didn’t seem at all uncomfortable with her. In fact, he was a good conversationalist. He talked about the town square project, which piqued her interest quite a bit. She actually couldn’t wait to go to the meeting next week.
But there was still this invisible wall between them, and she was the one who’d put it there by dredging up the nightmare of the past. It was uncomfortable, at least for her. If they were going to endure this trip—and work on the committee together—she had to do something about taking it down.
“About the night of the wedding.”
He flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. “We don’t have to talk about that, Molly.”
“I think we do. Look, about the things I said . . .”
He gave her a quick glance. “Don’t.”
She stilled, waiting for him to blow up at her.
“You said what you needed to say. You were hurt. I get it. And I wasn’t the most supportive person back then. For that, I’m really sorry. There are a lot of things I’d like a chance to do over—do them right the second time, but I can’t. And I’m sorry about that, too. You told me how you felt, so you don’t have to apologize for that. You never have to apologize for the way you feel, Molly.”
The only thing she could do was stare at him, unprepared for what he’d said.
“Okay.”
“We’re going to be in each other’s orbit for the foreseeable future. We’re both going to have to learn to live with that. I can if you can,” he said.
She felt the wall crack a little. She kept expecting the same Carter she’d known all those years ago, and this wasn’t the same guy. There was a maturity to him she’d never known before.
If she could just tuck the past away and live in the now, if she and Carter could somehow learn to become friends, then she could get through this.
“I think we both can,” she said.
He gave her a half smile. “Good.”
The rest of the trip passed by with some decent music, and she even relaxed enough to take a short nap. She woke when they entered the city limits, and she gave him directions to her apartment. He pulled into the parking area, and she grabbed her keys out of her purse.
She opened the door to her apartment, conscious of the fact Carter was going to see her personal space. She wasn’t sure why that idea concerned her.
“This is nice,” he said as he walked into the living room.
“It came furnished.”
“That’ll make it easier to move out then, won’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then. Let’s get started packing you up.”
Chapter 11
IT WAS OBVIOUS from the efficient, orderly way Molly approached this whole packing thing that she was used to moving. She already had boxes folded up in the back of her closet, and several rolls of packing tape. Well-organized, which made it easy, but a little sad, too.
He opened the boxes and she put him in the kitchen to start clearing out cabinets. She kept her inventory small—only a couple of plates and glasses and pots and pans. She didn’t seem to have a full set of anything, so it didn’t take long to box up everything in there. She didn’t keep knickknacks like a lot of women did. In fact, after he did the kitchen he moved into the living room, but there wasn’t much other than a couple of photos of her parents and her sister with Luke and their dogs. He packed those up in one of the open kitchen boxes and headed into the bathroom.
Same thing here. Essentials, and nothing more. No plants, no pets, and other than those couple of photos, nothing personal. Nothing that said, “Molly Burnett lives here.”
His place was littered with touches of his past. His baseball trophies, photos, pictures on the walls, memorabilia. Everything that was part of his past was in his house. With her place?
Nothing.
They had more or less fully packed her up in a few hours.
Was this what her life was like? When she got tired of living in one place, she could pack up in a day and move her entire life to the next city?
Molly surfaced from the bedroom, where she’d finished packing up boxes. “So, I guess we’ll stay here tonight. It’s too late to make that drive back to Hope.”
“That works.” He looked over at the sofa. “This looks comfortable enough to sleep on.”
“We should get dinner. There’s a great pizza place a couple of blocks away that delivers. I’ll give them a call, unless you have something else in mind.”
“Actually, I do. Let’s go out.”
She frowned. “Out? Out where?”
“This is Austin, Molly. Home of great music. We’ll grab something to eat, and you can show me around.”
She shifted back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Oh . . . uh . . . well, I haven’t been here that long so I don’t know where everything is as far as entertainment.”
Which meant she didn’t go out all that often.
“That’s okay. We’ll just wander around together and figure it out.”
“It’s kind of late.”
“It’s not that late. And I’ll bet things are open. Let’s go check it out.”
She hesitated, and for a minute Carter wondered if she was going to insist on staying in. But finally, she nodded.
“I’ll go change clothes.”
“Great.”
He got out his phone while Molly was in her bedroom. When she came back, he had a grin on his face.
“What?” she asked.
“Did you know this was one of the weekends for the Austin City Limits music festival?”
She rubbed her temple with her fingers. “I might have known that.”
“But you didn’t mention it.”
“I’ve kind of had a few things on my mind.”
“Oh, right. Sure you did. Anyway, wanna go?”
She shrugged. “Sure. If you don’t think it’s too late.”