The Sometime Bride

released his grip on her hands and laid his palms on the table.
    “I can’t tell you what it felt like. Being there in that room of people—with your family. I felt so included. Really a part of things. I didn’t mean to make anything harder on you. Truly, I didn’t. I just wanted to say thank you.”
    The gratitude part she could buy. He seemed sincere enough in his emotion, but… “The note?”
    Mike wrinkled up his brow. “Guess I crossed the line on that one. My apologies. I sometimes get so swept up in things, I act before I think.”
    Carrie held her tongue, knowing very much what that felt like. Okay, so maybe he had acted on impulse. And maybe out of good intention. But what a viper she was going to look like now when she announced her relationship with Mike had ended.
    “How about your family?” she asked after a long pause. “Don’t they make you feel—included?”
    Mike gave a slow, sad smile and studied the tabletop. “Well, I guess family’s a pretty subjective word, isn’t it? Mine isn’t all that big, really. Just me and my dad.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry.” But Mike didn’t offer any more. He just sat there being very quiet. Abnormally quiet.
    Carrie studied the man with the gorgeous green eyes and shoulders broad enough to take on anybody’s troubles. It wasn’t only his trick with the flowers that was going to make ending this charade difficult.
    After what seemed like eons, Carrie reached across the table and laid a hand on his arm. “Mike?”
    “My dad’s sick, Carrie,” Mike said, looking up with moisture-tinged eyes. “Very sick. For the past two years, almost all of my income has gone to his care.”
    Carrie felt the raw burn in her throat. She’d never known her parents. They’d died in a house fire when she’d been barely a year old. By a twist of fate, she’d been staying with her grandmother as her parents were planning on going away together for their second anniversary trip. They’d never made it, and Carrie, thanks to the luck of the draw, had survived to be raised by her Grandmother Russell and doting great-aunts.
    Still, she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to lose someone who’d looked after you, somebody you’d equally loved and cared for. Carrie bit back the sting in her own eyes, realizing her Grandma Russell’s time probably wasn’t that far away.
    “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I had no idea.”
    “Well,” Mike said with a shaky smile, “Dad’s had a good life. A good hard life, lived the way he wanted to live. I can't fault him for that.”
    “What’s he got?”
    “It’s more like what hasn’t he got? His liver’s going, he’s got heart trouble. But, you know, the great thing is he’s still out there kicking. Tough old coot…” Mike’s voice faltered. “My dad. Still got that great sense of humor. In fact, just to look at him, you’d never…”
    “Oh, Mike.” Carrie stood from the table and walked to where he sat, putting her arms around him. Her heart went out to this man. This man who always tried to put on a good face, who had worked so hard to make her laugh… Who had sent her grandmother flowers. Who could kiss like nobody she’d ever known.
    “Now, don’t go feeling sorry for me,” Mike cautioned, looking up and returning her hug.
    “What I feel for you,” Carrie said, for the first time admitting it to herself, “goes way beyond sorry…”
    Oh great, Mike thought, she pities me. That’s even worse.
    “And the love I see in your eyes for your father only reconfirms it. I’ve seen somebody very different here today. And yesterday, at the shower also. It’s not just that you’re a warm, caring person. Not just that you can make me laugh…” Not just that he looked like sin, she told herself.
    Mike drank her in with his eyes, beholding a million new possibilities. Then stood to cradle her in his arms.
    She was going out on a limb here, and she knew it. But the words that were welling within her were so fierce, so true, she was losing all power to hold them back.
    “Mike, I think that I’m falling in love.”
    Mike nestled her closer and brought his forehead to hers, kissing her sweetly on the lips. “Only think?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.
    “Oh Mike.” She brought soft hands to his cheeks and looked at him deeply. “More than think. I know it’s brazen of me to say so. That it will probably take a while for you to feel the same way. I don’t understand what has happened to me.