One Call Away

Chapter 5

Somehow April came and went and every day Hailey felt a little bit better, a little bit more like herself. Simon was amazing and finished everything with the will and when Vicky contacted a lawyer about contesting the will, Simon put the man in his place and nothing more was ever said. A transport company came and took the cars and when the six months was up he would take the keys for the Mexico condo and have them sent. He told her in no uncertain terms was she to give it up early.

Dan's boss came over with the final check for his work on the massive development project that he worked so hard on and had come to fruition. It was more money than she could have imagined and she followed her dad's advice and invested it so she had a good nest egg. She was very grateful for his advice, especially when her car died with a freak engine issue and she needed to get a new one. Carter picked her up from the side of the road, helped her get the car towed, then helped her test drive new cars.

Carter was Hailey's life line. They were very good friends before Dan had died but after the blow up with Helen and Vicky, they were together all the time. They had dinner together almost every night, alternating at each other's house, talking and just hung out. Hailey loved the normalcy of it and he made her feel whole.

Carter knew he was in trouble the more they hung out together. His feelings for Hailey grew and when he moved at the end of the summer, he was going to be left with a broken heart. He still felt terrible for the way she was treated by the Smythe family, but was so pleased that he was able to help bring her to a better place.

They were just driving around in her new car one weekend in May, enjoying the spring weather with the top down in her new convertible and listening to music. A song came on the radio that made Hailey pull into a side street, turn it up and listen. Carter looked at her but didn't say anything when he saw her hold up a finger, so he just listened to the words of the song.

'I'm only one call away, I'll be there to save the day, Superman got nothing on me, I'm only one call away' He heard those words and listened to the rest of the words and felt a little pull on his heart.

When the song was over she turned to him, "That's you."

"What's me?" Carter asked.

"The song. You are there for me. I've called you on a million different things and you come and save me. It's perfect that it says Superman has nothing on you, since you are Thor and way better anyway. But you are my own personal super hero." Hailey smiled.

Carter blushed a little, and chuckled, "Well I mean how can I argue with that? I'm glad I retired early so I could become your personal superhero."

Hailey laughed, making his heart beat faster to hear it again, which made Carter happy and she leaned over and kissed his cheek and whispered, "Thanks for saving me Thor!"

Carter had to change the subject and not think about how her lips felt on his skin and move his leg so she didn't notice the bulge forming in his pants, "Ashley coming next weekend?"

"Yeah Greg is going to a conference on Thursday in San Diego. She is going to meet him there on Monday night and they are going to work on starting a family."

"I wondered when that might happen. They have been married for how long now?" Carter asked.

"Two years now and he is settled in Dallas and she likes it there, well except that I'm not there," Hailey smiled.

"Of course, that goes without saying. But I have to say, the two of you in one city or state for extended periods of time, scares the shit out of me!" Carter admitted.

Hailey turned and looked at him, "If you only knew!"

Carter just shook his head and they continued on. Hailey was working a bit more over the last few weeks to try and get a groove going. Her boss was great about giving her extended time off after Dan died and she was grateful for the time to think. But some of the conclusions she came to troubled her and she was just going to keep to herself. She didn't want to admit them to anyone. She was desperately afraid that her family and Carter would think less of her, and she didn't want to lose any of them with her revelations.