FIRST LINES FRIDAY 56: Love Thy Neighbor

CARTER stood on his stoop as the movers drove away. Maybe he looked like an idiot waving at a truck with “Hanson’s Flat Rate Moving” emblazoned on the side, but he didn’t care. Santa Josephina was the type of town where Carter had dreamed of living since his first year in Los Angeles drove the romantic idea of big city life out of him. LA was the wrong place for someone like Carter. He needed quiet; he needed to not be bombarded twenty-four hours a day with noise and visual distraction. Turning back to his house, he looked up at the address plate over his new door.

Number Seventeen Fort Washington Terrace.

Now that was a good address. Easy to say. Fun to say.

Carter had gone out again after dark, after Ethan was home. He’d stood in the same place and imagined Ethan guiding him to look at a certain spot in the sky. He’d found the spaces between the distant twinkles and listened. It was harder to hear (or to imagine he heard) without Ethan there, but he did the best he could. It was like rushing, like water, and distant bells, a cat maybe, and, deep, deep in the distance, so far he almost couldn’t reach it, longing like he’d never felt before.

He’d never known need had a sound.

By twenty-four, Carter Stevenson has stuttered and ticced his way to debilitating shyness. Although his friends accuse him of letting his Tourette’s dictate his life, Carter moves from Los Angeles to a quiet California town. He’ll keep his head down and avoid people. He doesn’t anticipate his new neighbor, Ethan Hart, crashing into his solitude and forcing him to get out and live.

From the beginning, Ethan makes his love for Carter clear. But he fears Carter won’t see past Ethan’s damaged brain, even though it makes Ethan more attuned to his emotions than most people. For Carter, there’s a bigger issue: he’s been burned by so-called “perfect” matches, and he won’t risk his heart again.

One way or another, Ethan’s determined to show Carter they belong together. Then Ethan receives tragic news. Suddenly he must turn to Carter for strength and support. Will Carter come through when Ethan needs him most?