Matchmaker Backfire - Flora Ferrari Page 0,2

up, I take a deep breath. Knowing I’m about to regret what I have to say.

But the thought of not seeing him at all as well as losing him forever is worse than anything.

“Alright, dad. I’ll go. And sorry for being a brat. I know how much this trip means to you… how much it cost.”

“That’s my girl,” he says, leaning in to hug me, patting my arm.

“Don’t worry though, Wendy’s paying her own way. She insisted. And once she saw some more photos of Carter, she even offered to pay for the whole trip, all of us!” He laughs, making me cringe at that name again.

That plastic made-up face and fake chest.

“But, we’ve already paid. I just want us to have a great time, honey. A family holiday… As much of a family as we can be anyhow,” he adds, and I can feel his own hurt creeping back in.

“Say you’ll come, honey? I know Carter is dying to see you again,” he adds.

“He is?” I ask, sitting up as though the man himself is in the next room.

“Sure he is, said so yesterday on the phone. He’ll meet us in Vermont, flying in straight from his rig in Alaska. Said he can’t wait,” he adds again. “And he’s dying to see you.”

Dying to see me?

Carter Everett?

Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?

Chapter Two

Carter

It’s a small case I pack, leaving my phone out so I can check in with Greg.

And Serena.

Greg tells me he has a ‘special surprise’ in Vermont. And knowing him, he’s trying to set me up with one of his co-workers or some such.

Again.

He’s always angling for me to settle down. And for the first time in twenty years, I think I might.

I’ve got a single suitcase, a couple of changes of clothes but a ton of money in the bank and investments.

I started rigging when I couldn’t afford college, even though I turned down that athletic scholarship.

Seemed weird.

Run around with a ball for free money? Yeah right, and then do exactly as we tell ya, boy. Not my style.

Too many bad memories of that sort of thing.

So here I am, on the plane to Vermont. It’s not the Swiss Alps, but I know Greg does the best he can, and he promises a couple of joining cabins with Alpine views.

Good enough for me, but I’m just glad to be going home, close enough anyway.

A Boston boy, I always said I’d come back and settle down.

Now? I dunno, but a visit to the green country in winter sure sounds nice.

And Serena.

Well… I don’t wanna talk about that. She’s always been a cute kid, Greg’s only kid and old enough to be my daughter. If I’d ever had one.

But the graduation snaps Greg sent… his insistence I come along with both of them to Vermont for the whole week.

Like I said.

I can’t talk about it. I won’t

It’s not right.

But… Serena.

Drumming my fingers on the armrest as the plane lands I can’t help but wonder what Greg’s really up to. I’ve known him my whole life. The terrible two from one of Boston’s most notorious boy’s homes.

Relax, slick. It’s just a vacation. You’re nervous because you’ve never had one and you don’t have to go back to work next week.

There are a few cries of anguish from the passengers. Big jet, icy runway. Lumpy landing with lots of to and fro.

Try landing a chopper on a rig that’s got a platform bowing at twenty degrees in a gale…

It feels good to be safe again.

Solid ground.

Serena.

Fuckin’ stop it!

I have to change my screensaver now, back in the land of the living. I edited Greg’s photo to only show Serena in her graduation gown, and after… a rare shot of her by the family pool later the same day.

Ashamed but not ashamed to say it, I get hard every time I see both.

She’s still a shy girl, a long white tee covering her. Thick and long blond hair that she had up in a ponytail that day.

Fuck me though, her chest, her fine ass, those hips.

She’s a young woman now.

She’s the real reason I’m coming home. Even though I know it’d be a train wreck if Greg ever found out.

Why would a twenty-two year old, curvy… perfect, voluptuous girl with her whole life ahead of her go for an older, somewhat rough around the edges kind of guy like me?

I dunno.

But at my age, and level of lonesomeness, the fantasy keeps me going through the tedious task