Page 19 of Just One Promise (The Carter Brothers 3)
My brothers aren’t meeting us out here this morning, but I know if they were, they’d be jealous as hell. Neither of them has been able to get Summer or Quinn on a board, though of course now with them having babies, time is even more limited.
I show Audrey a few moves while on the sand, and then we’re ready to go out in the water.
“Are you sure I can do this?” Audrey second guesses herself as she paddles out, and I wade beside her.
“I’d never steer you wrong, I know you can do this,” I tell her.
“If you say so,” she blows out an exasperated breath.
I guide her every step of the way and when she finally catches a wave, I hold my breath watching her the whole way until she loses her balance and falls backwards.
I swim until I reach her, “Did you see that? I can’t believe I did it!”
“Fuck yeah, you did. Proud of you, now you can come out here every morning with me,” I tell her.
“Not so fast, I like my sleep far too much. I mean I love you and all, but not every day, early morning surfing,” she doesn’t even realize what she blurted out.
My only response, “I love you too, Audrey. So fucking much.” Out in the ocean with the waves crashing around us, our lips meet, tears stream down her cheeks. I may have said I’d never want what my brothers have, but I’m sure as fuck glad that I have Audrey. I sure am eating my words now, but what a way to eat them.
30
Audrey
“Heath, wake-up, Heath, you need to wake-up, you’re having a nightmare,” I was jarred awake with Heath’s body shaking, tossing, and turning. Add into the fact he’s moaning, “No, don’t hurt me.” It has me on high alert.
“What?” Heath questions when he wakes up. Heath and I talked about this before, about how his childhood before Momma Tina adopted him, the things he went through at such a young age. I cried for him, no not for him, for the boy that lost his innocent childhood.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
“Yeah, I haven’t had one of those in years. I’m sorry, I woke you up,” Heath gathers me in his arms.
“I’m here if you want to talk about it. I promise, I’m not pushing. Just know I’m here, now and always.”
“I appreciate that, more than you’ll ever know. This may take some time, and I promise we’ll work through this, together,” Heath states.
I trail my fingers along his torso, trying to calm him, and soothe myself. I feel Heath’s body relax, drifting off to sleep.
Sleep isn’t going to find me tonight, once I know he’s asleep, I somehow manage to sneak out of the room, with my phone in my hand.
When I make it downstairs, I unplug my laptop out of its charger and go out onto the back deck. I may as well work, since I can’t sleep.
I’ve been working non-stop, all hours of the day and night. Something I absolutely hate too, it’s taken away my time from Heath, and my time away from family functions too.
The only problem with that is, I love what I do, but not who I do it for.
Spending the next few hours scouring the internet, trying to find something in my field, maybe it’ll be a little less time consuming. I don’t want to spend sixty plus hours working and needing to be up all hours of the night, especially now that I have Heath in my life.
“Hey, what are you doing up?” Heath is so stealthy, I never hear him come up behind me until he’s there.
“Jeez, you scared the crap out of me, again.” I laugh.
“Looking for a new job, I’m feeling the need for a change. Not only that, but I don’t want to work so many hours, day and night. I could probably find something different and still make the same amount of money.”
“Do what you need to, if you can’t find work right away, we’ll be fine.” I know he thinks it’ll be okay if I don’t work for a while, but it would kill me not to.
“That may be an option, and I appreciate it, but I’m working. I have to feel like I’m bringing something to the table.” Heath kisses my forehead.
“You’ll figure it out, but I’m with you through whatever, Audrey. Thick and thin, you made a promise to me in the bedroom, and this is my promise to you. I’ll stand by your side no matter what.” I close my laptop, stand up, and kiss Heath with all my strength.
“Thank you, it goes both ways. I love you, Heath,” I state.
“Love you, babe. We’ll be good, quit that fucking job that has you up in the middle of the night. I know I didn’t help much, but you shouldn’t be up worrying about a job either,” Heath basically demands.
