Page 30 of Forever After All (Pine Harbour #2)

Carter

" M um, Dad, this is Carter." My girlfriend beams at her parents. Yep, I'm calling her my girlfriend now. Her smile warms my skin like the first day of summer.

Walking into the small country home, a little spaniel runs around my feet, barking and jumping.

"Ginny, get down ," Alice's dad urges the excitable pup tearing around my feet.

"Ginnyyyyyy! I missed you, girl," Alice squeals to the little dog in a frequency that shouldn't be heard by humans. Ginny barks again and jumps up into Alice's arms, licking her all over the neck. Alice wrestles to keep her away from her face.

"Alice, you saw her two days ago, don't be dramatic," Alice's dad says.

"What is life without a little drama, Dad?" She playfully rolls her eyes at him and then laughs so loud she doesn't hear our conversation behind her .

"Hi, Carter. I'm Hope." Alice's Mom pulls me into a hug. The tiny lady barely reaches my chest and I can't help squeezing her that tiny bit harder. "Ooh, you smell lovely!" she says as I release the hug.

"I assure you, ma'am. You wouldn't have said the same about forty-eight hours ago, but thank you." I smile at her.

Although Hope is tiny, it’s very clear where her daughter gets her looks.

Alice is the spitting image of her momma.

The same long light brown hair, the same green eyes, the same dimples as her lips pull up into a smile.

Alice's father is of average height, greying, and very affluent sounding.

Poor man having to spend the afternoon with a retired, hockey playing country boy. I reach out my hand to shake his.

"Hello, sir—" I start, but he cuts me off.

"I do not have a knighthood, my boy. Call me Alex." He shakes my hand and pulls me in to give me a large pat on the back.

"Well, okay. Alex, then." I smile at him as we are ushered through the house, but I can't help feeling intimidated by his presence.

Alice carries Ginny in her arms to the large kitchen and dining room then sets her down on the floor, encouraging her to go to bed.

A huge, green range cooker in one corner, brown tiled floors and off-white on the walls, and a large, heavy wooden dining table on the other side of the room.

I may not know much about kitchens, but I know my mom would love this.

If I was going to imagine an English kitchen, it would be this one.

My hand hovers over my pocket as I’m half-tempted to pull out my phone to take photos to send to my mom, but I think better of it, because that would be weird.

Taking a seat at the dining table, I settle into the bench seat next to my girl and bump knees with her.

"Still can't believe it about Danny, Alice. How did the funeral go yesterday?" Hope asks as she shuffles around with a kettle and a teapot. So British.

"It was like any other funeral, I guess," Alice answers, while looking at me, and I give her a reassuring squeeze to the knee.

"Alice tells us that you used to play hockey?" Alex says from the other side of the table.

"I did, I was pretty good too!" I beam at her dad, hoping to impress him somehow.

"Cricket was always my sport, but I can appreciate a good physical game." His voice bellows around the kitchen. He doesn't mean to shout, but that's just his natural volume.

"What made you retire?" he asks.

I give my knees a hard slap. "These," I reply, and a laugh booms out of him. "They gave up before I was ready to. I'd still be playing if I could. I knew retirement was coming soon, I just wasn't expecting it to be at the end of the last season." I answer every question he asks me.

"That's a shame, there’s something to be said about the discipline that comes with playing a sport." He nods at me. I like this guy. "What do you do now?"

"Right now, I’m enjoying a little downtime, but in the future I'd like to work with kids in sport.

It's something that Alice's boss is helping me with.

" I haven't told many people about my plans for the future yet.

But Alice's boss is incredible. “She's putting me in touch with some of her contacts, and together, with a group of seven or eight retired athletes, we’re setting up a sports camp.”

Alice looks at me, pulling her eyebrows into a little frown. "You didn't tell me that," she says, waiting for me to elaborate.

"It's just something we're working on," I reply. "Nothing in motion yet." I rub her thigh that my hand has been nervously clinging to since we sat down with her dad.

Hope carries a tray over to the table and puts four cups down before placing the teapot in the centre. She covers the pot in something that looks like a cat.

"It's a tea cosy, Carter," Hope answers the question that hasn't left my mouth yet. "Helps keep the tea hot."

"Clever," I respond, wondering what other Briticisms I am unaware of .

"Never get in the way of an English person and hot tea!" she exclaims.

"I'll try to remember that." I beam at my future mother-in-law across the table. They might not know that bit yet, but I do.

I still think about my ex-girlfriend sometimes, only when I think about marriage.

That would sound bad if I said it out loud.

But, with Eleanor, I never—not even once—thought about marrying her.

With Alice, I think about it all the time.

It took me a long time the realise that I kept going with Eleanor for the wrong reasons.

because now, I realise that if it isn't forever, then I don't want it.

We spend the next couple of hours discussing animals, art, careers, politics, and every British person's favourite topic—the weather. I discover that Hope was an artist and Alex was a pilot for a British airline. What a cool fucking career.

"So, tell me about it, Alice. How was Sarah? How was the family? Were there lots of people there?" Hope tries to probe Alice again about yesterday, and I feel her fingers clench around my leg.

"It was a funeral, Mum. There isn't much to say." Alice tries to change the subject, but her mom continues to push for information. Hope is a very sweet lady and means well. But I wish she'd stop asking questions for Alice's sake .

"Still, it's such a shame," she continues. "He was such a nice boy when you were together. Far too young to die."

I feel myself getting a little annoyed but try not to let it show.

"For goodness’ sake, Hope, leave Alice alone. She said she doesn’t want to talk about it, so drop it," Alex urges his wife to stop asking questions and huffs, shooting a smile at Alice from across the table.

"It was fine, Mum. Can we talk about something else?" Alice tries to redirect the conversation, but Hope continues to ask questions. It isn't her fault, but I really wish she would stop talking.

"Still, though…drugs? I had no idea." Hope carries on asking questions, oblivious to Alice's desire not to answer.

" Mum, enough. " Alice loses her temper and her mom is taken back by her sharp outburst. I’m torn between wanting to keep Alice safe and wanting to tell her parents what she’s refusing to. I put my arm around her shoulders and give her a small squeeze.

"Hope, honey, I did tell you to stop asking." Alex shakes his head as Hope seems surprised that Alice raised her voice.

"Oh my, Alice." Hope sounds shocked. "I was simply asking a question. I just can't get over such a nice man ending up with the wrong crowd. Far too young…" She reiterates her earlier point.

"Not young enough," I answer before my brain can catch up with my mouth.

"Carter, enough," Alice pleads with me to stop talking shoots me a look so furious that if looks could kill, I think I'd be dead.

"What was that?" Alex asks.

"I said, not young enough." And I can't help hammering home my point.

"Carter. Stop it," Alice says again and she tugs on my hand.

"Sorry, what?" Hope asks looking confused.

"Alex, Hope, I'm sorry, but he wasn't nice.

He was the worst," I say, angrier than I intend for the words to come out.

"He was a horrible human. He abused your daughter for months and you had no idea.

Alice has kept this to herself for all these years to protect you.

To protect herself. But it's about time you know what he did to her.

" I clench my first into a ball to help stem the anger.

"How could you?" Alice whispers, looking down into her palms, and a wave of guilt washes over me instantly.

But I couldn’t listen to it for any longer.

"Alice, I—" I try to speak to her, but Alex cuts me off.

"Alice? What is he talking about?" He sits up straighter in his seat, and under extreme stress the teacup he's holding breaks in pieces in his hand.

Alice clears her throat, trying to prevent tears from forming, but the need takes over, and for the first time since meeting her, I feel like the world's worst fucking person, friend, boyfriend. I made her cry.

"Carter, you need to go and wait outside," Alice says to me so calmly as tears flow down her cheeks that it gives me the chills.

"Alice, you—" I try to speak.

"Go now," she interrupts me. "I need you to leave this room right now and you need to wait outside."

Feeling like I just got told off by my own mother, I rise from my seat and walk towards the door. Ginny's head pops out of her bed, and she watches me.

"Alex, Hope, it was really great to meet you. I'm sorry, but you needed to know." And then I leave the room.

Sitting on an iron bench in front of the Barretta house, I can hear cows in the distance and the sound of birdsong. Their front yard—or garden, as the British call it—is blooming with flowers. I crunch my feet several times on the gravel and bounce my leg up and down in the air.

You're a fucking asshole, Carter, I think to myself as I impatiently wait for Alice to appear from the house.

I hate that I did that to her, but my fury got the better of me when listening to Hope talk about what a great person Danny was.

It doesn't sit well with me that, for all these years, so many people thought that he was some kind of fucking saint.

In fact, it makes me sick to my stomach to think about the women he may have dated after Alice, and thinking about whether he hurt them is too much to acknowledge.

If any of those women cried on their loved ones like Alice cried on me, or panicked like she panicked, or trembled like she trembled…it makes me want to bring him back to life, just to kill him again.

"Well, you certainly know how to leave an impression on your girlfriend's parents, my boy."

I look up to see Alex walking towards me. He sits next to me on the bench and slaps my back.

"Alice is finishing up with her mum. I wanted to give them a moment." He nods at me, and I nod back in return, but struggle to form any words.

"I'm sorry, sir," I start, but the words get caught in my throat and come out sounding like I spit them out altogether.

"I told you to call me Alex," he replies.

"Sorry, sir, I can't do that. I want to explain. I don't want you to fucking hate me. Sorry, I don't want you to hate me when I love your daughter so much," I start to plead with my future father-in-law, desperate for his approval.

"You listen to me, Carter," he begins. "I'm never going to hate you for protecting my daughter. I'm never going to hate you for telling us the truth. I just wish I knew sooner, I could have saved her myself." Alex’s voice thunders in the warm sunshine.

"I don't think Alice needed anyone to save her, she just needed to strength to save herself…and I took that away from her by telling you." I sound a little defeated, because I am. Warring with myself for breaking her trust.

"What are your intentions with her, son?"

And without even needing to think about it, I say, "I'm going to marry her. If she ever forgives me."

"Carter, I've been pissing Hope off for the last forty years. These Barretta women can hold a grudge, let me tell you." He begins to chuckle a little. "Good luck, you're going to need it." Then he slaps me so hard across the back that it sends the wind right out of my lungs.

"Do I have your permission to ask her?" I question Alex.

"Son, I gave up a long time ago giving Alice permission to do anything…but if it helps, yes, you do. What I think does not matter nearly as much as what she thinks, and she thinks you're pretty damn great." He beams at me, and I shake Alex's hand as Alice walks out of the door.

"Dad, I love you, but we need to go now." She doesn't look at me and not having eye contact with her is punishment enough for me. "I'll call you tomorrow before we fly home, okay?"

"Sure, sweet pea." Alex stands, pulling his daughter into a hug. "Don't go too hard on him, he did the right thing," I hear him whisper.

"Goodbye, sir." I give a firm nod as Alex returns into the house and the heavy wooden door closes behind him with a thud.