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good idea, Adaleigh.”
    She stepped closer, “Are you sure?”
    “ Positive,” but she took another step closer and he had nowhere to go.
    “ Come on, let me help you in and then I gotta go. But before he could move, one hand was around his back as the other hand ran down the front of his pants in a beguiling way.
    “ Adaleigh, stop,” he said firmly.
    But she fell into him, sending them both tumbling on the bed. She was on top of him, and he attempted to shift her off but she had her arms planted on both sides of him on the bed. “I’ve been dreaming of this,” she said, taking her hand and rubbing his crotch again.
    He wrapped his arms around her , in what she thought was a hug, and rolled her on her back. “I want you, Andy.” It was a breathless voice, and she added with a giggle, “You want me too. I can feel it.”
    Finally he had the advantage. He rolled off of her , and off the bed. “No, Adaleigh, I don’t. I’m leaving, now.”
    “ Damn you!”
     
    Andy made his way quickly to the door, pillows following him as he went out. As soon as he was in the car his phone started ringing. He looked and it was Adaleigh; he didn’t answer it. He drove the ten minutes to his home and it rang twice more. When he was in the house he looked and there were three voicemail messages. He sat down on the sofa and listened. After he’d heard them he dialed.
    It rang a few times and finally she answered. She was crying “Why don’t you like me?”
    “ Listen Adaleigh,” he started.
    “ I haven’t been anything but nice…” she mumbled.
    “ Just listen. It’s not that I don’t like you.”
    “ Then why,” she sobbed.
    “ Look, you’re drunk, so I hope you’ll remember all of this tomorrow. I’m not interested in any female but Carlee right now. I messed up way too much, way too many times, with her mama. I’m not gonna screw up what I have with her.”
    “ She’s seven,” Adaleigh said.
    “ She is, but that represents twenty-some years of fucking up with Beth. I loved her, Adaleigh,” he said. “But I didn’t know what to do with that love until it was too late. So I’m gonna be everything Carlee needs from me. I know you won’t understand that. You don’t want to, but this is how it is, for now anyway.”
    “ But…”
    “ Adaleigh, there is no ‘but.’ Right now my life revolves around that adorable child and I like it that way. Maybe someday I’ll feel differently, but for now I know this is how I want my life.”
    “ You missed a really good chance to get laid, Andy Stevens,” she mumbled.
    He smiled to himself. “Go to sleep, I’ll call you in a few days, we’ve got an album to get ready to go.”
     
    After he hung up he sat on the sofa for a long time thinking about the past, he knew what he said was true. He wasn’t ready to share his life with anyone but Carlee.
     

CHAPTER FOUR ~ Time Will Tell
     
     
    Ten days later , Angel, Carlee, and Andy were in the Bahamas at the cottage on Eleuthera. Shirley, the caretaker, had everything ready when they arrived and was standing in the yard waiting when they pulled up. Carlee flew out of the car and into her arms.
    “ Hello baby,” Shirley said in her island lilt. “I’m so happy to see you!”
    Shirley was always happy to see them when they arrived. For twenty years she took care of things at the cottage when Andy was away. Her mother, Edwina, had done the same before her. She was there to help Andy and Beth when she was still alive, and she was part of Andy’s ‘family’ now. She adored Carlee, and loved getting together with Angel to cook and talk when they were all together.
    Adrian Minors took over the auto storage and repair business when his dad, Wilford, died. Andy still had the 1963 Chevy Nova station wagon that he bought when he first purchased the cottage on the island in 1976. Adrian kept it in good shape.
    And it ’s a good thing too, because Carlee loves that old car. Andy thought.
     
    They spent two weeks