Unforgiven by Lorhainne Eckhart

the road, or can you drive so we can get somewhere?” Joe was leaning in, talking to Ben and Logan—the three older brothers.
    “Why didn’t you say anything about Carrie’s dad?” Logan said to Ben, and Joe was leaning in, cars passing, bringing up a tail wind that shook the Range Rover. One vehicle honked, maybe because they were parked and Joe was standing a little too close to the road.
    “What’s going on with Carrie’s dad?” Joe asked, leaning in and then purposely looking around to Samuel and Jake.
    “He’s had heart trouble for a while,” Ben said. “And he finally had a heart attack. I got a call from Carrie’s stepmother. He didn’t want to trouble Carrie, but he was having chest pains. Carrie wouldn’t have gone. I had to get her up there to see him. They’ve had a strained relationship that they’re working through, which is why I couldn’t hop on a plane to this numbskull’s wedding—which didn’t happen, by the way.”
    Joe seemed to pull back and tapped the window. “Well, let’s go. I’m not comfortable standing out here while you guys debate whatever it is you’re debating.”
    Joe was already walking away when Ben rolled his window back up and pulled back into traffic. Yeah, of course Samuel felt like crap. He was starting to realize that whatever had happened with his brothers had nothing to do with them picking a side and more to do with the crises going on in their lives. When had they stopped talking, stopped knowing what was going on with one another?
    “So what’s going on with you and Carrie?” Samuel asked. Maybe it was his way of breaking the ice.
    Ben didn’t say anything for a minute as he glanced up in the rearview mirror, still driving. The way Logan was watching Ben seemed curious. He was the only one who seemed to know about all of them, to pull them together, to keep them together.
    “Carrie, well, she keeps me on my toes,” Ben said. “We’re good. She’s hard headed, stubborn, but I like having her there. We’re both at the point of trying to figure out what to do next. Her father and stepmother have a bed and breakfast, so she understands that. When the fishing lodge came up, we snapped it up. It was a great deal. It’s something we can do together. The money I left the oil industry with isn’t going to last forever. It was just a cushion, and it’s drying up. I’m going to ask Carrie to marry me. I haven’t brought it up before now.”
    “Hey, congratulations,” Logan said, “but is marrying Carrie what you want or what you feel you need to do? It sounds to me as if it’s just something on a list.”
    Samuel couldn’t help thinking the same thing.
    “Of course I want to marry her. It’s just—” He stopped, and Samuel could see he was thinking about something. Whatever it was, Samuel hadn’t realized there was more going on with Ben than maybe any of them knew.
    “Just what?” Jake asked. He had been sitting quietly, taking everything in.
    “I’m not sure she’s ready. At times, I notice she’s trying to find herself. We thought she was pregnant.” He shook his head, glancing up in the rearview mirror. “She wasn’t, but it was enough of a scare for Carrie that I saw she’s not ready to be a mother—and I want kids. I don’t know. I just need to give her some time.”
    Samuel didn’t know what to make of Ben’s dilemma. With Jill, she’d never once said she was scared of the baby. She was having it, but that was a whole other scenario. “You know, Jill never once has said she doesn’t want this baby. Not once has she said anything about it, whether she’s happy or sad. She hasn’t mentioned buying anything—a crib, furniture, clothes. She only mentioned once about a bigger place.”
    He hadn’t thought much about it until now. Maybe he really didn’t understand how women thought past his own fears of being tied down, but there was something about Jill and the thought of her never being in his life that he couldn’t