Free Road to Absolution by Piper Davenport

help.”
    Carter chuckled
and hugged him. “I’d appreciate that, buddy.”
    I had to back
into Mav’s room again and force back tears. Ohmigod, was there anything more
precious? The answer was no and I’d spent six years missing out on it.
    “Cass?” Carter
walked into Maverick’s room with fresh sheets. “Hey? You okay?”
    “Hmm-mm,” I
said, brightly, refusing to look at him.
    I felt his front
hit my back and his arm slid around my waist. “Hey,” he whispered. “What’s
wrong?”
    “Nothing,” I
rasped. “I need to get these sheets in the washer.”
    He let me go and
I pulled myself together as I did busy work. By the time the bed was changed
and Maverick was tucked back in, I felt a little closer to myself again.
    Carter followed
me into the living room and pulled me down onto the sofa next to him. “Spill.”
    “What?” I played
dumb.
    He wrapped an
arm around my shoulders and pulled me against his chest. “Babe, why were you
crying?”
    “Because it’s
apparently my day.”
    “Cassidy.” He
chuckled, kissing my temple. “Tell me the real reason.”
    “I was just hit
by how much we’ve missed.” I snuggled closer. “He doesn’t spend as much time
with strong men for obvious reasons, well, other than my dad, of course, so
having you say those things held weight. It doesn’t matter how many times I
tell him I will never get mad, he worries.”
    “Does he do that
a lot?”
    “No, but he does
a couple times a year. Doctor says it’s normal.”
    “Yeah, baby, it
is. Were you worried it wasn’t?”
    I looked up at
him and grimaced. “A little bit.”
    Carter smiled.
“I’m gonna tell you something and you have to promise never to repeat it.”
    “I promise.”
    “Aidan wet the
bed until he was ten.”
    I sat up.
“Seriously?”
    Carter nodded.
“He just had a small bladder so it was harder for him to make it to the head,
but then it seemed to fix itself. I shared a room with him, so Mom told me if I
ever teased him or told the other boys, she’d scalp me.”
    “Ohmigod, she
totally would.”
    He grinned.
“Which is why I never said a word.”
    I snuggled back
against him. “You’re also a nice guy, Carter, so that could be part of the
reason.”
    “That’s not for
public knowledge.”
    “I’ll take it to
my grave,” I promised.
    “’Preciate it,
baby.” He kissed my temple. “You really don’t date?”
    “I really don’t.
The club get-together was my first… um… what would you call it? Attempt to see
if I could find someone, maybe?”
    “Yeah, well, you
found someone.”
    I giggled. “Yes,
I guess I did, huh?”
    “You gonna let
me stay?”
    I sighed,
dropping my head back to look at him. “I don’t know.”
    “I’m stayin’.”
    I rolled my
eyes. “What was the point of asking me if you’ve made up your mind?”
    “Gotta give you
some semblance of control, babe.”
    “You’re an
idiot.”
    He pushed me
onto my back and stretched out on top of me. “An idiot who’s going to make you
want to scream.” His mouth went to my neck and I couldn’t help but crane it to
give him better access.
    “No screaming,”
I whispered. “I don’t scream, but even if I did, I think we should wait a bit
for this.”
    “You’ll scream
with me.”
    “Highly
doubtful.”
    Carter dropped
his head to my shoulder with a sigh.
    “Carter,
Maverick is only a few feet away. I want to try and at least pretend I’m
not a total whore.”
    His eyes met
mine and he scowled. “You ever say anything like that again, Cassidy Dennis,
you and I are gonna have a problem.”
    “Well, it’s
true.”
    “It’s not
fuckin’ true,” he snapped. “Even if you fucked me in your kitchen right now,
you’d still not be a whore. We love each other, we’ve known each other for over
eighteen years, and we’ve been best friends for most of that time. I think
we’ve waited for an appropriate amount of time, don’t you?”
    I shivered. “I’d
kind of like the kitchen option at