"What do you mean it's over?"

Carter's grip on the phone tightened, knuckles turning white, when his voice replied to her.

"You know what it means." Ed paused before continuing, this time without any feeling of regret.

"You're just. . . well you're just not who I thought you were. Let's face it. You've changed Carter."

She couldn't think of anything that sounded more like a lie. It was him who she caught snogging with that Margret girl in the back of the bait shop before his shift started! And now when she calls him to say things were over with them, Ed had the nerve to dump her!

"No Ed, you've changed. And there's no way you can dump me because I already dumped you."

Turning off the handheld phone Carter couldn't help but give it a narrowing glare before chucking it behind her. So much for the idea of high school sweethearts.

"Hey!"
A deep stressed voice cried from over her shoulder. Dad was getting back from the grocery store and looked to be the assault of her phone throwing tantrum. I mean no one likes getting hit on the head by a hard, projectile that happens to be their own phone. More so when there was a no throwing items or fits inside the house rule. Oops. Carter could already see another hour tacked on to her job at the bait shop later. Another hour she would have to suffer being around Ed. Knowing there was no possible way for her day to get any worse Carter turned around on the stool and let out a depressed sigh.

"Sorry Dad." He quickly handed her some of the brown grocery bags he'd brought in and began flipping through the mail on the island.

"So who were you talking to anyway? Donny asking you out again?" There was a split second when a smile spread across his face and the crows feet around his eyes darkened before he realized Carter was being serious. She tried to clear the evident sound of disgust from her voice and failed.

"No, dad."

Knowing her dad and Ed got along well, almost like father and son, Carter felt bad to tell him what his newest 'buddy' does behind his daughters back.

"Well you know how Ed's been working at the bait shop now. I just thought things between us would get better. You know with all the time we're around each other."

Grabbing the carton of milk from the bag she stuffed it into the fridge along with the cheese and lunchmeat, which she noticed was turkey and not ham like she liked. Of course he knew Ed worked in the bait shop. He'd hired him! Resisting the urge to smack herself in the head for her pure idiocy she turned her attention to the canned goods.

"Well things were a lot closer. Between him and Margret that is."

"Margret as in the sweet girl you played dolls with in second grade?"

A cringe couldn't help be resisted at the horrid mention of her childhood days. Dolls were so not her thing.

"That's the one."

"Well you don't seem too happy about it. Don't you want Ed to have other friends?"

"It's fine with me as long as he's not making out with them."

A smirk, or something close to it, came to her face when he dropped his freshly made poured cup of coffee on the floor. Clear shock written on his face and anger painted in his blue eyes.

"Shit!" He muttered.

Holding his hands, now dripping and burning, Mr. Mason hurried to the counter and took hold of the paper towels.

"Sorry. . .So Ed and her. . ."

The implication was clear enough and Carter was quick to reply.

"Yep. In the store room at the shop."

If it as a few weeks ago she would be having trouble coping. Maybe even holed up with a tub of forbidden chocolate ice cream in her room crying her eyes out. But Carter wasn't one to cry easily. Not even when she broke her leg climbing the willow in their front yard. But she just dumped her boyfriend for kissing another girl and she didn't feel tears, but rage. She thought she loved him too when he confessed his feelings on graduation day. But if she loved him so much why wasn't she broken? Carter knew from all those tv dramas that love was always right before your eyes. And with Ed it had been just that. For years he said he had liked her. They did have some good times together. . .but no more. Deciding that you're first true love was not the person for you was a devastatingly heart wrenching feeling. The aching in her heart for what he symbolized would never change but the boy she'd known all her life had. And that's the way it would be, she finalized, to be nothing more to Ed than an acquaintance. Margret even no less.

"I don't know what to tell you pal." The pet name he'd given her as a child brought back a little glimmer of hope to her face. Her dad was still around and that's all that mattered. Only they mattered, and it had been that way since mom had died. Until Rosie came along.

"Well you could always fire him."

A little too hopeful sounding as she kneeled down and helped clean up. Earning her a pair rolling eyes and a deep sigh from the man next to her.

"Carter you know I can't do that. Firing the guy because he broke my only daughters heart," Carter made a face at how cliché everything sounded, "would be wrong and you know it."

There was a minute of silence between them as the coffee spill was slowly removed from the slate flooring.

"I'm sorry pal."

The silence and her heart broke at the words. He shouldn't be sorry. Carter didn't want his pity, didn't need it.

"Don't dad. Please just stop."

Standing up she threw the dirty paper towels into the waste bin under the sink and hastily left the kitchen. Within minutes she'd climbed the stairs and slammed the door shut behind her. Locking the door she planned on spending the rest of her evening peacefully and by herself. Maybe even a nice long bath.