was dramatic and overwhelming.
Grace let Carter take his fill. Even she held nothing back, enjoying the delicious expertise of his embrace, the sensual dance of his tongue around hers. It was a sweet awakening.
And, very possibly, a bittersweet goodbye.
Chapter 4
“Gracie, I’m not going to tell you what to do. Besides, that’s not why you called me all in a tither about Carter asking you to go away with him. You expect me to get upset and defend your honor? You want my permission? You’re a grown woman.”
“Okay, I don’t want you to tell me what to do, but I need help!”
“You don’t need help, either, girl. You just need to make up your mind about what you want. You either feel something for the man, or you don’t. Simple.” Ward Mathison began to laugh heartily, as if the punch line to a joke had just come back to him. “Lord, what’s going on in the world! Your Mama and me sure had it easy. Nothing like the pretzel twisting y’all put yourselves through these days.”
Grace, sitting in bed with her knees drawn up to her chest, began to relax under the nonjudgmental sound of her father’s voice, and his wisdom. It was the reason why she’d finally called him.
“Do you like him?” she asked.
“Do you like him? is more to the point.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. I’ve only had a chance to talk with Carter maybe half a dozen times in the eight years since you met him. He strikes me as a very smart man. A good man.”
“A lot like Benson,” she murmured thoughtfully.
“Right. But different. If Benson hadn’t died so unexpectedly, you two might have made a go of your marriage for a long time. Maybe forever. But it didn’t work out that way. So now Carter shows up and has the guts to admit he’s always cared about you. It’s your move. The ball is in your court, if you’ll pardon the sports analogy.
“Grace, this is a no-brainer, baby. If you’re developing real feelings for him, I’ll watch the kids for a week while you go have a good time and figure it out. If you decide to stay home, then I’m coming over on Sunday for dinner like I always do after church.”
Grace wasn’t sure her father fully understood that the force driving her was not about what she might feel for Carter, but what to do with what she used to feel for Benson. The question of loyalty might raise its ugly head, but maintaining her children’s memory of their father was more important. That really only left, as her father said, what she wanted to do. Grace started by asking herself two simple questions: What’s the worst thing that could happen? And, what was the best possible outcome?
* * *
Grace had put herself through such a night of what-ifs that now, as she got out of the cab she had taken from Grand Central, she felt a preternatural calm combined with the excitement of a child. She hoped she’d be able to find Carter at the check-in point at the pier, but she also wondered if it had been a mistake not to call and let him know she was accepting his Valentine’s gift. What if he’d gotten so discouraged he’d changed his mind?
She didn’t see him anywhere in the lines of people waiting to show passports and get their ship IDs, so Grace refused to let the porters tag and take her luggage. For all of her ambivalence about traveling with Carter, she had no desire to go without him.
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