Little Girl Don't Grow Up Too Fast

What About Us?

 Days later Carrie, Mike, and Charlotte were on a plane heading to the next city on Carrie's tour. The rest of the trip, it had been awkward between Carrie and Mike. It wasn't like they were fighting or anything, but Carrie had started to become distant and it was as if she didn't know how to interact with her boyfriend. Mike could tell something was up with her, but he knew that she would tell him when the time was right.

"Charlie, how about you go ahead and shower before heading off to bed," Mike told the teenager as the three of them had arrived in their hotel room in Texas which was where Carrie's next show was. Mike was going to be able to stay for her show before having to head back to Nashville to continue his hockey season.

Charlotte grabbed a pair of pajamas from her suitcase and her cosmetic bag before heading to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Carrie set her laptop on the office desk that was in the corner of the room and plugged it up to its charger and started to go through the hundreds of emails she received on the daily.

While Carrie sat in her office chair busying herself with her work, Mike came up and stood behind her, starting to rub her shoulders. Her eyes fluttered shut as she threw her head back at the sensation of his hands digging into the knots that her muscles had built up. "That feels so good," Carrie moaned.

"Can I talk to you about something?" he asked whispering in her ear followed by kissing her shoulder.

"I've got to answer these emails."

"Please?" he begged as he turned her chair to face him.

"What about?" she wondered as her eyebrows furrowed.

Mike shrugged, "Us."

"What about us?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. I just feel that you and I have been kind of off the last few days. Did I do something?" Mike asked, worried that he would upset her.

"No," she answered in a very high pitched tone. Mike couldn't help but chuckle as she clearly lied to him, causing her to do the same. She felt dumb to think that she could ever keep something from him. "I just, I overheard you talking to my parents when we were in Oklahoma. You were talking about our future."

"How much did you hear?" Mike worried that maybe she had heard too much.

"About how you see a future with me..." she admitted slowly, biting her lip from nervousness. "And about how you want to marry me."

"Oh gosh," he replied, embarrass that she had heard that conversation. He ran his fingers through his hair as he began to turn red. "I'm sorry."

"Why haven't you talked to me about any of this? We haven't even had that conversation yet. I had no idea you felt that way."

"Well, of course I feel that way. You've been the love of my life since I was twenty years old. Your the mother of my daughter. I guess maybe I didn't bring it up to you because I was worried you would get freaked out...that maybe I was coming on too strong," he replied.

The two were quiet for a while as he waited for Carrie to respond. "I guess I just don't know what to say."

"How do you feel about our relationship? Do you see it going anywhere?"

"Mike, of course I do. I love you," she grabbed his hand as he sat across from her, smiling softly as she looked up into his blue eyes. "I find a way to love you more every single day and I don't think that's something that could ever change. I-I-I just feel like everything is happening so fast. We haven't even been back together for a year yet and there's Charlotte to think about and we'd be turning her whole world upside down and-"

"Care-"

"But I don't want to break up over this. I don't ever want to be apart from you. If this is something we need to do now, then I'll make myself ready," she pleaded to Mike, fearing for the worst.

"Carrie Marie Underwood, nothing in this world is going to break us apart. It's okay to not be ready. I don't expect you to be. I'll be waiting for you as long as you need to."

"Are you sure?"

The hockey player leaned toward her, giving her a slow positive kiss. He spoke up as they pulled away, "I am positive."

"Thank you," she leaned in again to give him a peck on the lips. "You mean the world to me."

"You guys are seriously so mushy," Charlotte cringed having already walked out of the bathroom in her pajamas as she wrung out her hair with a towel.

The couple laughed before getting ready for bed themselves. Instead of going to bed worrying about the future, Carrie went to bed relieved but couldn't stop thinking about Michael Andrew Fisher. She knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She may not have been ready for that level of commitment yet, but she knew she would love that boy forever, and now she knew that he loves her just as much if not more.