Chapter 46
46
“ D o you love him?” Jane asked a little too casually over the top of her burger.
Their usual late lunch was taking place in the diner again, but Carlisle hoped the usual gossips weren’t listening in. She felt her eyes go wide and she turned to look over her shoulder.
Not her best look, but luckily no one was near. Even the server was at the other end of the counter. The place was usually not very busy between the lunch and dinner rush.
When Carlisle didn’t answer, Jane asked, “Are you ready for our interview?”
“I actually wanted to talk to you about that,” Carlisle said as she set her fry back down on the plate, her usual burger sitting a little heavy today.
“What's wrong?” Jane leaned forward, reaching across the table and grabbing her hand as she saw her friend’s distress. “It's the interview, isn't it?”
“It’s too much,” Carlisle confessed. She hated telling Jane this. It still felt like she was letting her friend down horribly. Simon's idea seemed like her only hope .
“You weren't okay when I took you home the other day.” It was a statement, not a question or an accusation.
Carlisle shook her head.
“I'm not letting you lie to me again,” Jane told her, the force behind her voice the kind that can only come from a true friend. “Do you want me to tell it next time?”
“Simon had an idea . . .” When Jane motioned for her to keep going, she said, “He thought we do it one more time. But we do it at home and we film it. Then we have the station show it, because I can't tell the story over and over.”
She watched as Jane absorbed the idea. “We have to tell them that ahead of time. I don't know if this next interviewer is going to be prepared to roll footage from us.”
“I know.” Carlisle was breathing heavily. Maybe she could do it twice more .
Had she said it out loud? Because Jane squeezed her hand. “If we have to do it live, I'll tell it. I think filming it's a good idea, though. Let me reach out to my contact and see if we can make it work for Friday.”
Jane tapped away on her phone and Carlisle thought the whole thing through again. They could plan out what the most important parts were, what would have the most impact. Because she might only be able to do it once.
“Hey, how are you doing?” The voice came with a southern lilt and Carlisle looked up. Suddenly thrilled, she would have jumped up for a hug, but Ever was already sliding into the booth next to her.
Carlisle felt the other woman's arms around her. “I haven't seen you since the party for Lennon and Gabe.”
“We’ve been busy, but the wedding is coming up soon.” Though she smiled, there was something about Ever hugging her that always took Carlisle back to being tugged up and out of the car. To finally seeing the light at the surface of the water. Even now, when Ever was just sliding into a booth at the local diner and hugging her, the feeling of this woman's arms was safety and life.
Carlisle rested her head on her friend’s shoulder for a moment. “We've been busy with the kits, and I haven't gotten to see you enough. Let me take you out to lunch next week.”
Ever seemed to pause and Carlisle decided she could pin her friend down next week. “How are your classes? How are the boys?”
“Well, Royal is going to graduate high school in a few years. But I will graduate next year!”
“I’ll be there!” Carlisle declared, so happy for her friend. Ever’s life had been turned upside down by the accident as well.
Ever shook her head. “You know, I counted the years until I was done being a parent.”
Jane looked up from the message she’d sent and agreed. “I’m looking forward to it too, and I chose to have each of my kids. Claire is only two.”
“I thought I was getting out a few years early, but I seem to have picked up Salem and Scarlet and tacked on a few more years.”
Carlisle was wondering what it meant that she’d “picked up” Jax’s twins. But Ever grinned wide and held her left hand out.
Carlisle felt her jaw drop and her eyes go wide at the gorgeous rock on her ring finger. “How did I not know this?”
“It literally happened last night.”
“Oh, Ever!” Carlisle leaned in, embracing the woman with the tightest hug she could offer. She could only hope that her embrace meant one-tenth of what Ever's meant to her. “I am going to throw you the best engagement party!”
Carlisle committed to it, even knowing she was broke. Even knowing that she might be up to her eyeballs in previous commitments and more. But nothing could ever repay this woman.
“You don't have to,” Ever said with a smile .
“I know.” Carlisle did. Ever had saved her just out of being a good person. When everyone else stood on the bank and pointed, Ever waded into the water and dove under three times before finding the car. “I want to. ”
Ever grinned. “I’ll let you! Anyway, I saw y’all in here and just wanted to duck in and tell you the news before you heard it through the grapevine.”
“We're going to be real cousins.” Carlisle grinned, her day made infinitely better by the announcement.
She and Jane waved Ever off as she headed down the street, a lightness in her step that Carlisle hadn’t noticed upon her approach.
Jane held up her phone. “Marcy already replied.” Marcy was the producer for the interview in Nashville. “She said we can do it. And they'd like it to be somewhere between a minute and a half and two minutes.”
Carlisle was still breathing out her relief when Jane asked, “Do we have to film one for every interview? Does it just get you ahead of it?”
“Simon's idea was to use the same one over and over again.”
Jane nodded along, clearly planning. “We need to do it before Friday, and we need to do it well. Maybe even today. What's the chance your cousin has time to slide us in?”
“Jax?” Carlisle did not understand.
“Emma Kate, you goob!”
Carlisle laughed. That would be perfect. Em filmed herself all the time for her social media that more than paid her bills. “Let me message her and see.”
Tapping out the text, she looked up and ate a french fry. She could taste it, she was happier, her day had turned around. Ever had fantastic news. Simon's idea was going to work.
While she had assumed—like Simon did—that she and Jane would film it, Jane was right. Emma Kate would do a better job .
But her friend had her arms crossed and her elbows on the table, her gaze solid on Carlisle, “You never answered my first question. Are you in love with him?”