The rest of the trip passed by with some decent music, and she even relaxed enough to take a short nap. She woke when they entered the city limits, and she gave him directions to her apartment. He pulled into the parking area, and she grabbed her keys out of her purse.

She opened the door to her apartment, conscious of the fact Carter was going to see her personal space. She wasn’t sure why that idea concerned her.

“This is nice,” he said as he walked into the living room.

“It came furnished.”

“That’ll make it easier to move out then, won’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then. Let’s get started packing you up.”

Chapter 11

IT WAS OBVIOUS from the efficient, orderly way Molly approached this whole packing thing that she was used to moving. She already had boxes folded up in the back of her closet, and several rolls of packing tape. Well-organized, which made it easy, but a little sad, too.

He opened the boxes and she put him in the kitchen to start clearing out cabinets. She kept her inventory small—only a couple of plates and glasses and pots and pans. She didn’t seem to have a full set of anything, so it didn’t take long to box up everything in there. She didn’t keep knickknacks like a lot of women did. In fact, after he did the kitchen he moved into the living room, but there wasn’t much other than a couple of photos of her parents and her sister with Luke and their dogs. He packed those up in one of the open kitchen boxes and headed into the bathroom.

Same thing here. Essentials, and nothing more. No plants, no pets, and other than those couple of photos, nothing personal. Nothing that said, “Molly Burnett lives here.”

His place was littered with touches of his past. His baseball trophies, photos, pictures on the walls, memorabilia. Everything that was part of his past was in his house. With her place?

Nothing.

They had more or less fully packed her up in a few hours.

Was this what her life was like? When she got tired of living in one place, she could pack up in a day and move her entire life to the next city?

Molly surfaced from the bedroom, where she’d finished packing up boxes. “So, I guess we’ll stay here tonight. It’s too late to make that drive back to Hope.”

“That works.” He looked over at the sofa. “This looks comfortable enough to sleep on.”

“We should get dinner. There’s a great pizza place a couple of blocks away that delivers. I’ll give them a call, unless you have something else in mind.”

“Actually, I do. Let’s go out.”

She frowned. “Out? Out where?”

“This is Austin, Molly. Home of great music. We’ll grab something to eat, and you can show me around.”

She shifted back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Oh . . . uh . . . well, I haven’t been here that long so I don’t know where everything is as far as entertainment.”

Which meant she didn’t go out all that often.

“That’s okay. We’ll just wander around together and figure it out.”

“It’s kind of late.”

“It’s not that late. And I’ll bet things are open. Let’s go check it out.”

She hesitated, and for a minute Carter wondered if she was going to insist on staying in. But finally, she nodded.

“I’ll go change clothes.”

“Great.”

He got out his phone while Molly was in her bedroom. When she came back, he had a grin on his face.

“What?” she asked.

“Did you know this was one of the weekends for the Austin City Limits music festival?”

She rubbed her temple with her fingers. “I might have known that.”

“But you didn’t mention it.”

“I’ve kind of had a few things on my mind.”

“Oh, right. Sure you did. Anyway, wanna go?”

She shrugged. “Sure. If you don’t think it’s too late.”

“I’ll bet they’re rocking late into the night. Besides, it’s not that late. Let’s check it out.”

“All right.” She grabbed her jacket and they were out the door.

Carter was going to make her smile and take her mind off her worries, at least for a couple of hours.

Chapter 12

AS MOLLY HAD suspected, the festival closed up at ten p.m., and it was ten thirty by the time they got there.

“Not a problem,” Carter said. “I checked my phone and there are some late-night venues continuing on at some of the clubs. We’ll go to one of those, grab something to eat, and listen to some music.”

“Providing we can get in. Some of those events are sold out in advance.”

“Then we’ll find one we can get into.”

She took a deep breath. “Hang on. Let me make a call.”

She grabbed her phone and punched in Delia’s number. “Hey, Dee, it’s Molly. I’m in Austin to pick up my things, and a friend of mine and I would like to check out the music here for the festival. Do you think you can get us in somewhere?”

She smiled at Delia’s rapid-fire voice, then smiled. “You’re great. Thanks so much.”

She hung up and gave him directions to Lambert’s. “We can also eat barbecue there.”

“Perfect.”

They had to park a couple of blocks away, but it was a nice night so the walk wasn’t bad. There were a lot of people out and about because of the festival. Molly couldn’t believe she’d totally blanked on the musical festival this weekend. Then again, her head had been filled with details about her mom, and rushing back here to get her things, not hanging out and listening to music.