Saving Carter

Chapter 5 - The Park

“How did you…?” Carter trailed off, not wanting to offend her. She looked up and smiled at him. He watched as her brown eyes crinkled lightly. Her whole face lit up, he felt his stomach lurch a bit but he didn’t understand it.

‘Probably just nerves’ he told himself although he was having a hard time believing himself.

“Okay so Carter, you want to come to the park with us on Saturday?” Nick asked, resting a hand on Carter’s shoulder. He thought about it for a moment. He didn’t mind hanging around Nick since he considered Nick a friend but he wasn’t all that comfortable around Maria and Daniel yet plus Lucky was just a special case all by herself. She didn’t make him uncomfortable but he found her pretty and funny and he felt that hanging around her was like cheating on Sarah even though he didn’t have any feelings for Lucky. He was trying to avoid it happening.

“Yeah sure” he finally answered hesitantly.

'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'

“Carter! Heads up!” Daniel called the next day. Carter was beginning to regret agreeing to go to the park. Daniel threw the ball his way and he caught it and threw it back for him. He was sitting under a tree playing around with his phone idly just to avoid conversation and so far it had worked out. Nick and Daniel were throwing a ball around and Maria and Lucky were playing on the swings.

“You want to come join us?” he jumped at the sound of Lucky’s voice since he could have sworn she was on the swings.

“I’m fine” he said, giving her a sleepy smile and looking back at his phone. For the past month he had tried hard not to use his phone since he knew the messages and missed calls would have piled up. A lot were from his parents or his best friend Jordan who he hadn’t spoken to since he left.

“C’mon it’ll be fun!” she said, she took hold of his hand and his eyes widened when he felt sparks and he noticed her eyes widen too but she seemed to recover faster than he did. She pulled and although it didn’t really do much he got up and let her pull him all the way to the swing set where Maria was watching on with an amused look on her face.

“Lucky has a thing for parks” Maria told Carter with a friendly smile. He nodded in understanding and let out a chuckle of his own.

“C’mon Nichols” Carter raised his eyebrows in amusement when Lucky called him by his last name. “Push me!” she yelled. He shrugged and pushed the swing she was sitting on lightly but she kept telling him that she wanted to swing high so he pushed the swing with more force and he couldn’t help but smile when he heard her giggling wildly.

A few hours had passed and he was finally starting to enjoy himself although he spent most of the time with Nick or Lucky. Then Daniel decided to invite them all to his and Lucky’s house for a little while which Carter wasn’t looking forward to.

He stared at the front door of Lucky and Daniel’s house as Lucky kept knocking on it, waiting for someone to answer the door. He had to admit the size of her house was impressive, but he was more worried about the fact that he may have to meet a new person which is something he used to enjoy but as of late he didn’t want to. It seemed everyone had a quality in them that reminded him of Sarah.

“Yes?” he looked down at a cute little girl who looked to be at least three or four years old and resembled Lucky in every possible way, apart from the purple hair.

“Hey Leigh, is your mommy here?” Lucky asked the little girl, kneeling down to talk to her. Daniel lifted the little girl into his arms and Nick and Maria just waved at her. They were clearly used to seeing the girl around.

“Oh right. Carter, this is our niece, Leigh” Daniel said, the little girl waved at Carter shyly and he felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips as he waved at the little girl.

“My sister isn’t here but I’m guessing her husband is here since Leigh is here” Lucky said, taking Leigh into her arms. Carter couldn’t help but chuckle as Leigh stared at him with her huge brown eyes. She was adorable.

“Leigh!” Carter jumped at the sound of an adult male voice and he watched as a tall man came bounding the stairs. His curly hair was messy and his NYU shirt was wrinkled. Basically, he looked like he had just woken up. “Where were you? I told you to stay upstairs.”

“Sorry daddy” Leigh said, with her thumb still in her mouth.

“Who’s this?” the man asked nodding in Carter’s direction. Carter gulped; he was giving him a look that was slightly intimidating.

“This is Carter. He’s kind of new here” Daniel said. “Carter this is our brother in law, Jhonny.”

“Hi” Carter said in a soft voice, he held out his hand and shook Jhonny’s hand, ignoring his stare down. They had barely met two minutes ago so he didn’t see why he was being glared at or just stared down.

“Nice to meet you” Jhonny said, taking Leigh into his arms.

“Uh yeah” Carter said, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly. They all stood in an awkward silence for a while until Nick broke it.

“Where’s Shawna?” Nick asked, wrapping an arm around Maria’s shoulder.

“She’s at the studio. She should be back soon” he said, fixing Leigh’s shirt which was twisted slightly. Nick nodded and Jhonny invited them inside to sit down. Carter sat awkwardly on the arm of the couch next to Lucky, feeling uncomfortable around Jhonny considering he was giving him a proper glare. He almost jumped for joy when Jhonny went back upstairs with Leigh in his hands.

“He seemed to like you Carter” Nick said sarcastically. Carter gave him a half smile and shook his head.

“He’s just wary. I told him a lot about you and he took it the wrong way” Luck explained, playing with her hands. Carter cocked his head to the side wondering why she looked shy all of a sudden.

“Why did you tell him about Carter?” Nick asked, giving her a teasing look.

“Because I was just telling him that I was going to the park and he asked who I was going with and he’s never heard about Carter before so he was curious” Lucky explained. Carter noticed that she was still avoiding eye contact which only served to confuse him more but he shrugged it off for now thinking she was probably just feeling nervous.

‘I wonder if she likes me or something’ he thought but he shrugged it off as soon as he thought it since there was no way someone like Lucky would have a crush on someone like him.

She’s not Sarah

 

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Kbye.