Unwilling

Con raises a rueful eyebrow. “Time off sounds good, but I haven’t been working there six months yet, which means I don’t have that privilege unless I’m at deaths’ door…don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

He smiles a little as Jamie tells him about giving her dad backrubs. “He was right,” he agrees. “Feels like an Angel to me…” His eyes drift shut again, soothed by Jamie’s touch, and on the verge of falling asleep, despite sitting up at the table.


Carson stops at the door and listens to Nate’s words. They want to penetrate to his heart, but his wall is so thick right now…

Seeing the offered hand, he takes it, though isn’t sure if it changed anything or not. He had to think…had to decide…

Without any more words, Carson leaves. He stops by his desk to pick up a couple things, then heads out to his pickup. Pulling out of TJY’s parking lot, he turns right instead of left, heading down the dead end street. Parking, he gets out and walks to the broken bridge, fixing his eyes on the scenery that he and Misty had looked over. It seemed so long ago…it hadn’t really been.

Things weren’t supposed to turn out like this… he hadn’t planned on this thing with Ashlyn to go so long, making it harder to keep a secret. He hadn’t bet on the consequences that came through TJY. He hadn’t thought about losing Misty over all of this. He just hadn’t thought with his brain at all. And now he had decisions to make… and he had no idea what he was going to do.

The anger comes again…anger for this whole stupid situation. It was his own fault and he knew it, but he couldn’t help hurling blame in other people’s directions.

Carson wasn’t used to being introspective…his own thoughts confused him, and there was pain there that he didn’t want to face. Standing here now, he slowly shuts back down, unwilling to delve any deeper. He turns back around and goes back to his truck. This time he heads across town towards the hotel. It doesn’t take him long, and soon he's pulling into the lot and parking. Hesitating just a moment, he exits his truck to make his way inside.