Carter Reed 2(85)

She flushed and grinned. “Sorry. I know. I’m nervous, too.”

“Why?” I turned back toward the house. The question was more for myself than her. There was nothing to be nervous about. I’d been at Andrea’s bedside every day she was in the hospital. We were still strangers, but we were a work in progress now. Her parents had come too, but our paths only crossed one other time. Andrea had wanted me to come in the afternoons, and her parents were allowed in the mornings.

She’d been in the hospital a week for monitoring, and I knew some of her stay hadn’t been smooth. She’d fought with her parents, and she hadn’t said much to me. We talked more about what we remembered from our pasts, about AJ and our mother.

I had no reason to be scared to go into her parent’s home, but I was.

“I don’t know.” Amanda smoothed her shirt, then rubbed her hands over her jeans. “This is real, you know? I mean, her dad is her real dad. He could’ve been yours, or maybe he can help you find yours. Who knows? He didn’t say anything about your brother?”

I shook my head. “Just that he asked AJ if I could go with him and Andy, and he refused. AJ’s older than Carter and me—not that it matters—but I guess our mom kicked him out, and he was in the system already. It would have taken too much time to go through the legal stuff for him to take AJ, too. And my real dad took off long ago. That’s what he said.”

“Oh.” She grew quiet.

“Yeah.”

“Still. She’s your real sister. I think that’s good for you to have real family. You never did before. When it was you and me with Mallory and Ben, none of us did. That’s what we bonded over. Mallory would’ve been happy for you.”

I let out an uneasy breath. The knots weren’t loosening in my stomach.

“It’s a nice house,” Amanda noted.

I smiled. It was. It was a mansion. It looked like it had three or four levels to it, complete with a pool around the corner in the back.

Amanda looked at the backyard, too. “Is that a tennis court on the other side of the pool?”

I laughed. “Maybe. Who knows? She said her family was wealthy. He’s a hotelier, like Noah.”

“Does Noah know him?”

I frowned. “I have no idea. I didn’t think to ask.”

“That’d be a trip, huh? If Noah knew your sister’s real dad all this time?”

I didn’t care about that. My hand flattened over my stomach, and I pressed down as if I could calm the nerves that way.

“What do they think of Carter?” Amanda asked after a moment.

I lifted a shoulder. I couldn’t look away from the front door. Theresa and Noah were still waiting, and she rang the doorbell again.

“I…don’t know. I only saw her parents twice, and the second time it was in passing. Andrea told me she forbade them to speak to me until she wasn’t so furious with them.”

“I think I kinda like your sister.”

I turned, sharing a grin with her. “Yeah. Me, too.”

“Emma, I think everything’s going to be okay.” She patted my hand. “You and Carter are back home. I have no idea how everything was resolved, but it seems like it was—and Carter and Brian even met. They seemed to like each other.”

“They stood on opposite sides of the room the whole night.”

“Still, Carter didn’t shoot Brian. Brian didn’t arrest Carter. That’s a win in my book.”

Hearing the amusement in her voice, I patted her hand back. Everything was going to work out for Amanda, even though Brian hadn’t proposed yet. He’d assured me that night when he and Carter were both at Noah’s for dinner that he had it planned. Just a few more months…

“Things are good,” she continued, “really good.”

I waved her off. “Stop talking. You’re jinxing everything.” Laughing, I tried to soften my blow, but she was making the knots tighten back up again. “Declaring that everything is great is the fastest way to mess it up.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t believe that.”

I glared at her. “Mallory. Dunvan. My sister was kidnapped. Let’s just…cool it with the declarations of happiness.”

“Okay.” She was still grinning. “Oh, look.”

Theresa and Noah stepped aside as the door opened, and Andrea’s father was there. He was dressed like Noah, in black pants and a sweater. Andrea’s mother appeared as well, in a dress with pearls around her neck. Her hair was pulled back in a bun. They shook Theresa and Noah’s hands, their movements tense and robotic. Theresa gestured to the car, and everyone looked our way.