Carter Reed 2 (Carter Reed #2)(62)

“Okay. See you.”

It felt weird getting into a car with Amanda’s boyfriend—and no one else. For an entire year I had been surrounded by Carter and his men. Being with a stranger brought old memories to the surface, back when I traveled alone—before Carter came back into my life and I was living with Mallory. I realized if she had seen me with this guy, she would’ve wanted to date him. And Amanda would’ve hated it. I chuckled.

“What’s that?” Brian asked, merging with the traffic.

“Nothing. Just ‘another time, another place’ sort of thought.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” Amanda’s boyfriend. I shook my head. “It’s nice to officially meet you.” I was going to make her leave him. If someone made me leave Carter—I would’ve left them instead. “You love her?”

“I do.”

I nodded. “Good. She’s a good friend.”

“She’s a good person.”

“Yes, she is.”

He glanced at me before looking back to the road. “She cares about you a lot.”

I cared about her, too. My gaze fell to my lap, remembering the bomb that night. I had chased after her so she didn’t end it with him. “She really loves you.”

“I know,” he said. Then he cleared his throat. “Listen, uh. I’m not a fool. I know how tight you are with Amanda. I know about you, her, Mallory, and some guy she always describes as a pain in the ass.”

I smiled. Amanda had hated Ben more than I had.

“I know there’s history, and I know you’re in love with Carter Reed,” he continued. “I’m a cop, but I’m just trying to show you that I get the complexities of this situation.” He coughed again, shifting in his seat. “But, uh, I’m in it for the long haul. I don’t know how to say this. I guess, well, I never want Amanda to get hurt.” He held a hand out to emphasize his point. “So…you know… I—we can leave it at that. If you know what I mean.”

I wasn’t sure, but I bobbed my head up and down. “Oh. Okay.”

“I came to New York while she was there. She told me that woman on the news was your sister. Well, okay. That’s a lie. I saw the woman on the news, and I know who you are. You could be twins. Amanda kept quiet. I don’t know if she was going to tell me or not, but I came out because I wanted to support her any way I could.”

I snuck a peek at him. He wasn’t looking at me. His head moved up and down like he was talking to the traffic as he drove. He tugged at the collar of his shirt and his hand would wave in the air from time to time as he spoke.

He was nervous.

For some reason, that settled the nerves in my stomach. He clearly loved Amanda. I could hear it in his voice and I saw it now, in the way he tried to appease me. As he kept talking, I stopped listening, but I was glad I hadn’t made Amanda break up with him

“Carter said you were an honorable guy,” I told him.

He stopped mid-sentence and looked at me for a moment. “Really?”

I nodded and looked back to my lap, wrapping my hands around each other. “He did.”

“Oh.”

Before he said anything else, I murmured, “Treat her right. Always.”

“Oh.” This ‘oh’ was much quieter than the first one. “Yeah. I’m hoping to. The always part, I mean.”

“Yeah. I got it.”

“Not that you should—” He lifted his hand in the air again.

I cut him off. “She’ll say yes.”

“Oh,” he said a third time, but this one was breathless. His hand dropped to his lap. “Wow. Okay, I mean. Yeah.” He nodded to himself and sat straighter in the seat. “All right. Thank you.”

One more nod. My neck muscles were protesting from the continuous up and down motion. “Yep.” The sign for the hospital came up, and I pointed. “There’s our exit.”

“Oh, yeah.” He swung to the right lane, and it wasn’t long before he pulled up to the entrance, and I got out.

He held a hand up. “I won’t be long. She said they’re in the seventh floor lobby now.” Then he pulled away toward the parking ramp.

The doors slid open as I approached and walked inside. Right away, I heard, “Oh my god, Emma!”

Amanda and Theresa rushed for me. They threw their arms around me, and I was engulfed in the tightest group hug ever. Noah stood back and gave me a little wave.

They were here. I still couldn’t believe it.

“Emma.” Amanda cupped the back of my head, as if shielding me. “We’ve been so worried. Your sister—We can’t—”

“Our daughter was brought in earlier.” A high-pitched voice spoke from behind us to someone at the reception desk.

Amanda and Theresa went back to hugging me, but a nagging feeling tugged at me. That voice… I looked over to see a woman and a man, both wearing winter coats. The man had a hand to the woman’s back as they waited for the clerk to respond.

“Your daughter’s name?”

I knew. Before they said it, I knew. These were Andrea’s adoptive parents.

I pulled away from Amanda and Theresa as the man answered the clerk, “Andrea Nathans.”