Page 39 of Bad Boy Done Wrong
“I was fine. Street smart.”
“You were lucky.” She climbed on top of him and hugged him full body, her head on his chest, her arms and legs squeezing his sides.
He cupped her head and wrapped an arm around her waist.
She propped her hands on his chest and looked up at him. “Why did you keep running away? Were the foster homes bad?”
He pushed her soft hair out of her face. “They weren’t all bad. Sometimes the other kids were worse than the caregivers. Tough, violent, cruel.” She dropped her head on his chest and hugged him tight again. “Anyway, I ran away to find my real mom. By the time I met Joe Campbell, I was nine. He looked into it for me, found out she was dead and helped me settle into my last foster home. His house was like a second home. I spent most of my time there.”
She held onto him in the longest hug of his life, probably trying to comfort him.
“Carrie, I’m fine now. Really. Joe turned things around for me.” She kept right on hugging him. “Tell me your troubled past,” he said to lighten the mood. He knew she’d had a good life so far. It was written all over her expressive face. She was open and enthusiastic, not beaten down by life.
She shifted to his side, one arm and leg over him and then reached up to adjust his arm around her shoulders. Bit of a forced cuddler, but he didn’t mind as much as he thought he would. “My biggest heartache was wasting time on my ex, but I guess that pales in comparison to what you went through. I had a very normal middle-class childhood. My mom was a nurse, my dad a pilot, my older brother was already in college when I was born. I was a surprise baby, but even that wasn’t bad. They all doted on me.”
He kissed her hair. “I could tell.”
“Why? Do I seem spoiled?”
“No. You just seem like someone who knows they’re loved, who knows where she comes from, and has the confidence to take a few chances.”
“Like with you,” she said with a laugh. “Taking a chance showing my wish list to a bad boy.”
He clenched his jaw. It wouldn’t be long before she moved on. He’d been lucky to have her as long as he had. Lucky to have her at all, really. It made him question why he’d been working so hard these past years when the best things in his life hadn’t been any work at all, just random dumb luck. Meeting her, meeting Ethan, meeting the Campbells. It suddenly occurred to him the best things in his life weren’t the things he thought made him important, rising above his past—his teaching job, academic accomplishments, or even his research. It was the people he’d met. And he’d made very little time in his life for them. It all went back to his lone-wolf nature, he supposed. Kinda sucked for him and the people around him, Carrie included. It was good she wouldn’t be around long enough to get hurt.
Though he hadn’t actually been alone much recently, now that he thought about it. He’d been with several communities in Indonesia and a solid year with his ex, Muriel, and her family. Well, look how wellthatrelationshiphad turned out.
Carrie interrupted his depressing thoughts. “You realize this is the longest conversation we’ve ever had?”
“Yeah.”
“We should talk more,” she said with a yawn.
“You’re tired. Go to sleep,” he said gruffly.
“Are you going to sleep?” she asked.
He didn’t reply. The truth was he couldn’t, but he didn’t want to make her feel bad.
“I’ll go home.”
“No. Stay.” He tightened his hold on her, keeping her in place against his side. He’d be damned if he was going to kick her out of bed just because he couldn’t sleep. Besides, he’d made a promise. They’d sleep in the same bed, even if only one of them got a good night’s sleep.
“Mmm,” she said and relaxed against him.
A few minutes later, she fell asleep. He could tell because her breathing was deep and even and her entire body went limp. He waited another half hour, hoping it was long enough for her to shift into a deep state of sleep before sliding her to her side of the bed. He covered both of them with the blanket, shifted to the far edge away from her, leaving lots of space between them, and closed his eyes.
He woke surprised he’d slept past nine and in his own bed. The cover was only half on him. He turned to see Carrie wrapped with the blanket under her like a burrito on the far edge of the other side of the bed. His and hers blankets might solve the problem.
That was when he knew he had a bigger problem. Planning for a future with Carrie in it.
