Carter S ❤️ Hazel H

Carter Fredrick Shore, a computer programmer, awoke drowsily to the sound of the screeching alarm clock, lazily moving around in the relatively empty guest room of a friend’s, technically Hazel’s brother, Duke and his own wife, Laurel.

It was nearing 6:30 a.m. and the sun was starting to streak in through the blinds. It was the first of October in the Lone Star State; he’d officially been without her for more than 243.3 days.

It still took every single ounce of strength he had left to get out of bed in the mornings, and to force himself to go to bed in the evenings.

He’d been staying with his brother-in-law and his wife for, well, more than a few months now…. Ever since the loss of his wife, Hazel Elise Harrison-Shore. She’d passed in April after a hard-fought battle with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

Carter couldn’t imagine even stepping foot back in their shared apartment, a 2 bedroom in Addison, and though they’d only been married a short time (almost a full year after dating for 3), he’d never been happier. Marrying the slight kooky, creative, free spirited artist (she’d doubled as a photographer and a graphic designer) Hazel Harrison had been the best and most fulfilling adventure of his 29 years so far. 

Now, 8 months later, he was living out of his suitcase in her brother’s red brick, Craftsman-style house that her brother, Duke, shared with his own wife, Laurel not too far from where Carter and Hazel’s apartment was.

They seemed not to mind him being there; if they did, they never mentioned it as Duke was a sports agent affiliated with local Dallas-based teams and his wife, Laurel Teagan Schwartz-Harrison, a paralegal from Georgia he’d met during a school trip and Duke’s high-school sweetheart. 

Hazel, Duke and Carter had all grown up together in the same not-so-perfect, struggle-for-everything kind of atmosphere with hardworking, fantastic parents (Duke and Hazel’s mother, Renee, a widowed nurse; Carter’s own father, Brody, a widowed landscaper) that genuinely and unconditionally loved them as they were in their hometown of Dallas, Texas. 

Whatever they’d lacked in money or material items, their parents made up for with heart, character, example, truth, and love. 

Duke got to be a close friend throughout high school, while Hazel and Carter both dated others in their search of “the one” versus “the one right now”. Carter, next to studying computers back then, had fought to find himself not unlike his future brother-in-law but surprisingly, being so refreshingly different from half the girls both Carter and Duke had known going through school, it’d seemed that Hazel hadn’t had a problem accepting and loving herself for who *she* was.

Being around Hazel, even back as just friends, had been like breathing clean, unpolluted air for Carter. There’d never been a dull moment; there’d never been another person he’d been more drawn to, even if at first he hadn’t seen her that way…. That seemed to come way after.

It wasn’t until afterwards, midway through college at UNT, they’d met up after one of Hazel’s beloved art exhibit adventures for coffee that Carter, and maybe even Hazel, came to realize what they’d really meant to each other. 

“Knock knock,” Duke announced cheerily in his deeper baritone. He was 6’3”, muscular build he hadn’t always had but built during his own tough times in school, blue-gray eyes and effortless confidence. Hazel, his only sibling, had been 5’5” with blue-green eyes and knew how to make everyone take notice of her.

Hazel had hated sports, loved the arts, and lived to make others’ lives better. She spoke a language only she knew; Duke, however, had gone through multiple personality changes to figure out who he really was. He, now, could say he was happy with who he was…but it had taken quite some time. Hazel, on the other hand, had skipped that stage entirely — she’d always been able to love who she was. Duke had envied her for that; among many other things.

He eyed the room, minimally decorated with gray walls and a bed, clean except for a half-hazard suitcase with clothes strewn all over, a hamper full of clothes to be done later on that day, and a make-shift computer and desk office set up on the dresser Laurel had added in shortly after they’d moved in. Carter would work during the day and then either spent time with Duke and Laurel, or other friends, or he’d venture out to North Richland Hills to visit his beloved mother, a retired eye doctor.

It was almost as if no one really inhibited the room, even if both Duke and Laurel knew different. He knew his brother-in-law was suffering. They all were. 

His sister, his younger sister, had had a strange affect of working herself into your heart whether you knew it or not. Duke and Hazel had polar opposite personalities but…he’d had given anything to save her, to bring her back to them. Sadly, her cancer had other plans. So here they all were. 

“There’s uh, coffee and pancakes downstairs for you, Car. Laurel had to bolt early this morning but she sends her love.” 

Carter nodded, slowly rising to a sitting position, his modest handsomeness covered by his rapidly growing bangs. He’d rarely wore his hair like that but Hazel had loved it so he’d grow it out for her, on occasion. He nodded in thanks, and the next thing he knew, Duke’s bigger hand was outstretched, one on his own and the other on his shoulder. 

When Carter had looked up with his deep green eyes he saw Duke’s emotion in plain view, saw the sheen of unshed tears threatening to fall from his lighter blue-gray eyes. 

“I know, Carter. I *know*.”

One of Duke’s strong arms tugged his lankier counterpart up, offering him an uncharacteristic brotherly kiss on the top of his head. “C’mon, let’s get you up and at ‘em. Some breakfast, a shower, maybe a walk before you get down to work won’t cure everything, but will do for now. We’ll…tackle all this one day at a time, one second at a time. Let’s go.”