Page 41 of The Deadbeat Next Door

She bit her lower lip. “He was leaving town to go to college around the same time and he wanted me to spend the summer with him on a pre-college road trip. I refused. Harrison’s situation was getting worse and I was saving every penny I earned to be able to take care of him after I’d finished college. My parents were also having a hard time accepting the idea of me going off to college, and I wouldn’t leave them sooner than I had to. George and I might have managed to weather that disagreement, but he got caught stealing a lawn mower. He and his friends used to race them, you know, and he stole Mitch Lowry’s mower because the guy had won five of the last six races and George wanted a look at his engine. It was innocent, a prank really, but Mitch Lowry never did have much of a sense of humor. George wanted me to lie and say he’d been with me the night the mower had gone missing, but I’d told him it was a dumb idea and I…I think I was looking for an excuse for a fight, maybe, I don’t know, but I refused to lie for him. He didn’t even get in any real trouble, but he felt I’d betrayed him and he broke up with me.”

“Seems like something the two of you could work out if you really wanted to.”

“Well, I guess we just didn’t want to bad enough. Let’s head in.”

I fought the urge to grab her and kiss her, remind her of the chemistry we had, and followed her inside. I smelled good food before we even stepped into the kitchen and my stomach rumbled. Mary Ellen waved to us both from her spot at the stove where she was mashing something up. Her smile was tight, but I guessed it had something to do with the family gathering and nothing to do with me and Carrie.

“There you two are,” Bart said. He didn’t bother to get up from his chair, already pulled up to the table, but waved us over. “Carrie Harrison.” He took her free hand in his own. “It’s good to see you, sweetheart. You never come around anymore since you and George broke up.”

I swung my head to look at Carrie, but she was smiling at Bart. “I didn’t expect you to remember me,” she said. “I was only over here once or twice.”

“I remember you. You were the only girl my grandsons ever brought around who I thought was worth the time they gave her.”

Carrie’s cheeks pinked. “That’s so sweet of you to say.”

Bart gestured to the table. “Have a seat and tell me how you two met.”

“Oh,” Carrie said. “I’m sure Mary Ellen needs some help in the kitchen.” I squeezed her hand to let her know she wasn’t getting out of this.

“I’m just fine, sugar,” Mary Ellen said. “You sit and talk to Uncle Bart.”

Carrie sat and I sat next to her, George and Dwight sat across from us. We’d anticipated this question back before we’d met with Missy Melcher and had decided to stick as close to the truth as possible rather than come up with a play-by-play retelling of our faux love story.

Carrie pulled her hand from my grasp and laced her fingers together on the table top. “The truth is I despised Cody from the first moment I met him.”

When I’d told her to stick as close to the truth as possible, I hadn’t anticipated this truth. My shock must have shown on my face, because Bart laughed.

“He doesn’t look at all like your type,” George said. “Not at all the kind of guy I thought you’d end up with.”

“Believe me,” Carrie said. “He’s not at all who I thought I’d end up with either. He moved in next door and didn’t seem to do much but wash his truck and lay around. He looks more like he should be in an MMA cage or a WWF ring than dating a school teacher.” Everyone had another good laugh at my expense and I decided enough was enough.

“I liked Carrie the first time I saw her,” I said. “I didn’t think she’d ever give me the time of day, but she was like a breath of fresh air after you’ve been sucking in the smell of your own sweat and disappointment for too long. She looks delicate and sweet, but she’s tough and willing to fight for everyone she loves.”

Carrie blushed and gave me a shy smile and I couldn’t help but smile back, feeling like I’d won one of those MMA competitions she’d imagined me in.

“We all know Carrie’s a wonderful woman,” George said. “But the last thing she needs is someone else to take care of. She needs a good man who will take care of her.”

Judging by the way George was glaring at me, I was pretty sure he thought he was that good man who should take care of Carrie. Maybe he was…Okay, he probably was, but not until after I had my hands on his granddaddy’s land. “You’re absolutely right,” I said. “And I intend to spend every day of the rest of our lives together making sure she’s taken care of.”

“Pretty words,” Bart said. “But I’m a details man, myself. Why don’t you tell me just exactly how you intend to take care of our Carrie.”

Now it was our Carrie? I felt like I was on the uphill side of a losing battle.

“Time to eat,” Mary Ellen said. She put a pot of beef stew on the table and then brought over a basket of steaming hot muffins. “What can I get everyone to drink?”

We requested our drinks and filled our plates and Mary Ellen sat to join us once everyone had what they needed. “Now,” she said. “I only got bits and pieces of this story while I was cooking. What did I miss about how you two met?” The look in her eyes when they landed on me was one of amusement with a healthy dose of disbelief.

“I hated him,” Carrie said. “And he liked me, but it was clear we were completely incompatible. He asked me out anyway and I have to say, I’ve never had so much fun on a date in my life. He made me laugh and I love a man who can make me laugh.”

“We used to laugh all the time,” George said, effectively shattering any warm fuzzies I’d felt from Carrie’s assessment of our date. We had laughed a lot. We’d talked about our favorite books and movies and had more than a few in common. We told stories from our childhoods and talked about where in the world we’d most like to go. It was one of the better dates I’d been on and I wondered if she was telling the truth about how much fun she’d had.

“We did,” Carrie said. She was smiling at George like she’d forgotten all about her fiancé next to her. “You always could make me laugh harder than anyone else.”

“So hard you nearly peed your pants that time on the Ferris wheel at the carnival.”

Carrie barked out a shout of laughter. “The kids below us would have had an unpleasant surprise.”

Everyone laughed and I joined in, though I absolutely didn’t like this walk down memory lane.

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