Page 4 of Fall With Me
He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Don’t you remember our conversation about this season at Sunday dinner last month?”
Uhhh…you mean the Sunday dinner where I spent most of my time cyberstalking my favorite famous fitness instructors on Instagram?
I wince. “It’s been a busy month. Remind me what they said.”
He sighs. “It’s getting too loud and cold for them to keep attending games since Grammy’s injury. They gave me their tickets to use how I want this year. Next year, you get two extra seats.”
What? How did I miss that entire conversation? How did I not put up a stink to get my bestie Kate a ticket? Man, I really was distracted that night.
“Oh, right.” I buckle my seatbelt. “Who did you give the tickets to then?”
He pulls out of my driveway, heading toward the stadium. “A new hire at work.”
“Aww.” I pat his shoulder. “You’re such a nice boss.”
Carter grunts in response, which is on par for him.
He’s like a pumpkin. Hard shell on the outside, soft on the inside.
Like giving tickets to a new employee. How many other bosses would do that? Mine at the gym certainly wouldn’t. But then, Bert doesn’t make much money, whereas Carter has done quite well for himself as the owner of a video game design company. Still. Carter’s sweet. He just doesn’t want anyone to know it for some reason.
“Are they meeting us there?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“How’s Emma?” I force myself to ask. I don’t really care about her, but I do my twin.
He shrugs. “Wouldn’t know.”
Why doesn’t he know how his girlfriend, who isn’t the most relaxed person I’ve met, is doing? “Because…”
He checks his side-view mirror and changes lanes, ignoring me. Our commute to the stadium is less than fifteen minutes. My time to coax this information out of him is severely limited. Once we’re at the game, Carter laser focuses on football.
When he doesn’t reply, I do what I’ve done since we learned to talk. Call it twintuition or just knowing my brother extremely well, but I know exactly how to handle this.
“You’re on another break?” I ask.
His gaze stays on the road.
So that’s not it...
“She’s out of town for work and hasn’t had time to call?”
He shifts in his seat.
Nope, not that either. “You finally realized she’s too corporate and doesn’t suit your personality at all and dumped her?” Is there too much hope in my tone? Emma’s nice. But she doesn’t fit in with our family. We’re athleisure wear on Sundays. We’re barbeque and game nights.
Emma’s tight buns and black pencil skirts. Brunch and pedicures every weekend. She’s pretty and assertive, which is how I think she convinced Carter to go out with her in the first place.
He clears his throat and does the slightest head nod at the same time. Bingo! “Seriously?” I squeal. Yeah, there’s no hiding my excitement. It was as clear as a freshly cleaned window: those two did not belong together.
“Do you care at all if I’m upset about it?” he asks. “Or heartbroken?”
Oh goodness. I’m a terrible sister. Why didn’t I ask that first? “I’m sorry, Carter. How are you holding up? How long ago did this happen?”
He flashes me a quick grin. “I’m fine. It’s not like I loved her.”
I roll my eyes. Obviously. It’s hard to love someone who has the personality of a fence post. But it also brings up another issue Carter and I have. We both have yet to be in a serious relationship. I can’t speak for all of Carter’s reasons, but for me, I put too much pressure on myself and my boyfriend to be the perfect couple. This strain ends up breaking us apart soon after we get together.
