Matters to You (Hart #5) - M.E. Carter Page 0,1

phone on the couch and settle in. We still have some time before we have to leave for the appointment. “How’s it feeling?” I gesture to Lauren’s leg as she massages just above her knee. The tibia fracture that knocked her out of the entire gymnastics competition season last year is finally healed. But from the looks of it, it still bothers her. “Does it ache?”

“Mostly when it’s going to rain.”

“Or if you do too many tumbling passes?”

She crinkles her nose, knowing she’s been caught. “Just don’t tell my coach, okay?”

“You should be more worried about me telling Heath.”

Lauren shrugs. “He’s an athlete. What’s he gonna say? ‘Don’t work out so hard’? He knows I’ll throw that right back at him the next time he’s bruised up from a game.”

“This is why you two are perfect together. You understand each other.”

“You have no idea,” she murmurs and reaches over to the table, picking up a notebook.

I don’t know that I’ll ever understand how Heath and Lauren ended up together. Those two used to verbally spar with the best of them. But I suppose once your perception of someone changes, well, everything else changes too. Now they’re what I like to refer to as a power couple—cheering each other on at every game or meet, pushing each other during workouts, making sure they’re both stocked up in IcyHot and ibuprofen. It’s fun to see Lauren happy and in love. She deserves it.

“I can’t wait for you to see my new floor routine. Christmas Eve Sarajevo is amazing music for tumbling. And the turn sequence at the end makes me feel like I can do anything.”

Thinking about the music, I can envision how Lauren turned such a powerful song into an equally powerful routine. For just a split second, it makes me yearn to dance again.

Then the moment is gone when Lauren flips open the cover of her notebook and poises her pen into the ready position. “Okay. Baby shower. I need a list of people to invite.”

“Just do me one favor.” She nods and gestures for me to continue. “My sister really wants to help. Or at least feel like she’s helping. I know she’s still in high school, but can you call her and ask her opinion on things? Just a couple of times.”

Lauren doesn’t skip a beat. “Of course. I’m glad Nicole is so excited. Is she going to be able to come?”

I shrug because I don’t really know. “That’s the million-dollar question. I’m almost positive my mom won’t be there but I’m hoping she’ll at least let Nicole come. Even if it’s just to report back on how horribly bloated and exhausted I look and how much better off I would be if I’d just lived life their way in the first place.”

Lauren laughs through her nose. “Sounds… stifling.”

I shrug. “Their loss. Either they’ll know their first grandchild or they won’t. At this point, I don’t really care.”

I might eventually, but not today. Today is all about planning the celebration of my little boy’s birth.

Lauren and I spend a good thirty minutes discussing baby shower guests and games. I try to veto the one where everyone has to cut off the same amount of ribbon as the circumference of my belly, but apparently, this isn’t a democracy and she’s going to do it anyway. As long as there’s cake, I guess I’ll survive.

“The only thing we need to really figure out is where to have this party,” Lauren remarks as she continues jotting down ideas. “I don’t know the area well enough so I might need to defer to you on this part.”

“I bet the community group on social media would know.”

“You think?”

“Oh yeah. People are always asking for venues and specific businesses. Hang on.”

I find the page I’m looking for and begin searching for a decent venue to hold a party. I know I’ve seen a whole thread about it before. But then one post in particular catches my eye.

***CAUTION*** AVOID AVENUE R AT THE CORNER OF CINCINNATI. MAJOR ACCIDENT.

“Well shit,” I grumble.

“What?”

“There’s a car accident close to here. I think we have to go that way to get to the store. Let me see how long ago it was. Maybe it’s cleared already. Otherwise, we need to go soon so we can find a way around it.”

“Is it bad?”

“I can’t tell yet. Just says its major.”

I click on the post and my heart stops. A picture of the wreck has been posted in the comments and