“Um…you do realize that there’s no possible way Will is gay, right?” Anna said. “Trust me, Kat and I would both know if he was gay.”
“How can you tell?” Eric asked.
“Because he would be sending off vibes.”
“Maybe he’s bisexual,” I said, defending myself.
“If he’s bisexual, then I’m the boogey man,” Anna said. “I’m telling you, Will is not gay.”
“I can’t believe you guys,” Derek scoffed. “This is Will we’re talking about. When have you ever known him not to be out fucking a woman?”
“Wait, so you really think this Charlie person is a woman?” Robert asked.
“Let me ask you this, did he ever actually refer to Charlie as a man?”
I thought about it and looked at my brothers, all of them realizing at the same time as me that we hadn’t heard him say anything in reference to Charlie being a man.
Derek threw his hands up in the air and scoffed. “Un-fucking-believable. You just fucked over Will.” He turned to Eric with an accusing glare. “How could you let him do that?”
“Uh, that’s not the worst part,” Eric said, ducking his head. “He asked Will to bring Charlie to the bakery. Half the town is going to be there to meet him.”
“Then fucking call him and tell him not to go,” Derek snapped. “You’re sending him into the lion’s den.”
“Shit,” I said, pulling out my phone. I dialed Will’s number, but he wasn’t answering. What the hell was I supposed to do now?
Will
“Do they have any good food at this place?” Oliver asked as we pulled into a parking spot down the street from the bakery. The town was packed this morning, but I had no idea why. It was like there was some huge event going on, but I hadn’t heard of anything recently.
“They have lots of good food.”
“Yeah, but is it all grown up food?” he grumbled.
Charlie grinned next to me and glanced into the backseat at Oliver. “I’m sure they have cookies or something.”
“And they have hot chocolate,” I said, hoping that would put the kid in a better mood.
I couldn’t say he was too thrilled about coming out with me today. When he opened the door and saw me, he turned to Charlie and asked where Nathan was. I had some serious competition for this kid.
“Whatever. Hot chocolate is for little kids.”
“That’s not true. I still drink hot chocolate.”
“That’s because you’re a dork,” he shot back.
“Hey, that’s uncalled for,” Charlie scolded him. “Will is taking us out for a fun day. The least you could do is say thank you.”
“Thanks,” he said sarcastically.
I glanced at Charlie and choked down a laugh. The kid hated me, which meant I was going to have to work extra hard to win him over if I was going to win Charlie over. And she was hard enough as it was. I could see where the kid got his balls from.
I opened my door and stepped out of the car, stretching slightly in the brisk air. I was up earlier than usual for a Saturday, but the chance to hang out with Charlie was too tempting. I desperately needed coffee if I was going to deal with this kid all day.
He flung his door open and hit the car beside me, dinging the car and scraping the paint on my door. The kid smirked at me, but when his mom came around, he changed into a wide-eyed deer.
“Oliver! You have to be more careful! You can’t just fling your door open like that.”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to. I swear,” he said, his little eyes filling with tears. That damn kid knew exactly what he was doing. He glanced up at me, swiping at his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
Charlie sighed and looked up at me. When her back was turned, the kid gave me the middle finger. My jaw clenched in anger, but I wasn’t giving in to this little shit. I was raised a Cortell, and we didn’t take shit from anyone.
“You know what? I’m sure it’s fine. I’m pretty sure this is Mr. Dennison’s car. We can just find him and you can apologize.”
“Is that really necessary?” Charlie murmured under her breath.
I gave her a sideways glare. “Well, that depends, do you want your son to learn to take responsibility for his actions?”
She sighed and turned to Charlie. “He’s right. We need to go find Mr. Dennison and tell him what you did.”
The kid looked pissed as hell. I sure as shit wasn’t going to win any brownie points this way, but if I let him walk all over me, he wouldn’t respect me either. I glanced down the street and saw Mr. Dennison coming out of the hardware store. I smiled to myself and called out his name. He looked up at me and I waved him down, then motioned for Oliver to walk ahead of me.
“This is a little overkill, don’t you think?” Charlie whispered to me.
“That kid did it on purpose,” I whispered back. “You should have seen the evil look he shot me when you weren’t looking.”
Her expression was one of disbelief, but then her lips thinned and she nodded.
“Mr. Dennison,” I smiled, shaking his hand. “This is Oliver and this is Charlie.” I gripped Oliver hard on the shoulder and looked Mr. Dennison in the eye, hoping he would understand what I was about to say. “Oliver accidentally hit your door when he opened the back door on my truck. He feels really awful about it, but he insisted on coming over here to apologize.”
Mr. Dennison nodded slightly, his eyes twinkling as he listened to what I said. Then he turned to Oliver.
“I’m really sorry, Mr. Dennison. It was an accident.”
“Oh, I’m sure. How about we go take a look at the damage.”
Oliver’s eyes got wide and I watched as he swallowed hard. “Uh…yeah.”
We walked over to Mr. Dennison’s car and he shook his head, tsking several times. “Oh, you’re right. That’s definitely quite a dent.” He sighed heavily, rubbing the back of his neck. “I would say…at least a few hundred dollars to fix, wouldn’t you?”
“At the very least,” I nodded. “And that’s if you take it somewhere good. Plus, the paint job needs to be fixed, and that might cost you a little more.”
He huffed. “Yeah, and if I take it over to Momence, you know they’re going to rip me off. Might be upwards of a thousand dollars.”
I snorted. “Yeah, those bastards are out for everything they can get.”
“Won’t your insurance cover it?” Oliver asked, his eyes wide, but for different reasons now.
“Shoot, you know, I can call the insurance company, but it could be weeks before they get out here to take a look. And then how much longer until it gets fixed?”
“I only have twenty dollars,” Oliver practically shouted. “I can get more money. I can do extra chores.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary. You know, my brother, Josh, has his garage up and running. Let me see if I can get him to work at cost.”
“That’d be great,” Mr. Dennison grinned, reaching out to shake my hand. “And just try and be more careful next time,” he said to Oliver. “You must not know your own strength.”
He turned and walked away, leaving me with a practically hyperventilating kid. Charlie didn’t look too impressed either. My smile faltered, but I cleared my throat and held out my hand. “Should we go get some coffee?”
She pursed her lips and pushed past me to the sidewalk. I had a feeling that I just made a huge error with her. But I didn’t get it. Did she really want her kid to go on manipulating people like that?
I walked beside her to the bakery, noticing how people were stopping and staring at me along the way. A few even pointed at me. That was weird. I was just about to head into the bakery when I saw Corduroy out in front.
“Hey, Will,” he grinned. “And who’s this lovely lady?”
“This is Charlie and her son, Oliver.”
“Charlie,” he said, as if I had stuttered.
“Yes, Charlie.”
He nodded, as if he understood. He grinned and held out his ha
nd. “It’s nice to meet you, Charlie.”
I looked at him funny. “What’s that about?”
“Huh? Oh, nothing. Are you heading in there? Here, let me get the door.”
He very generously swung the door open and gave a sweeping bow, directing us inside. I shook my head, but headed inside, Charlie right beside me. The bakery was packed and when we walked in, all eyes turned on us and everyone started whispering to each other.
“Is something going on?” Charlie asked.
“I have no idea.”
“Why is everyone staring at us?”
“It must be because you’re so beautiful. No one ever stares at me like this.”
Mrs. Cranston, sweet old lady that she was, walked up to us first, and I just knew that shit was about to go down. “Will, it’s so good to see you.”
“You too, Mrs. Cranston.”
“And, who is this?” she asked, tilting her head sweetly.
“Uh, this is Charlie.”
“Charlie?” Her voice raised slightly and she frowned. “But I thought Charlie was…”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You thought Charlie was what? How do you know her name?”
She cleared her throat and tapped her hair like she was trying to poof it up. “I think there may be a bit of a misunderstanding here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Hey,” someone shouted. “Where’s the dude?”
“What dude?” I asked in confusion.
“Charlie.”
I frowned and turned to Charlie, wondering what the hell was going on. “Uh…this is Charlie, but I can assure you that she’s not a dude.”
“Are you sure?”
I looked at Charlie again, wondering if this was some kind of sick joke. “Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m pretty sure.”
“Is that your kid?” another person asked.
“Yeah, the page didn’t say anything about you having a kid.”
Charlie leaned into me and whispered with a little laugh. “Will, what the hell is going on?”
“What’s with you and your brothers and all the kids out of wedlock?” an older woman asked.
“And why haven’t we heard about this child before? Were you ashamed?”
“Hang on,” I said, trying to clear the air. “This is Oliver, and no, he’s not my son.”
“Then whose is he?”
“Charlie’s.”
“I thought Charlie was a man,” another person said.
I turned to Corduroy for answers, but he just grinned at me. “What the hell is going on?”
The door swung open and my brothers all piled inside, running into each other as Joe came to a screeching halt in front of me. He looked nervous…and sweaty. “Uh…hey, Will,” he nodded, wiping his hands on his jeans.
“Hey,” I said, noticing that Derek was also here, which I had no clue why.
“Uh…” Joe took a step forward and whispered in my ear. “I think there’s been a slight mixup.”
“Hey, Joe,” the mayor shouted. “What the hell’s going on? We’re all here, but this is definitely not a guy.”
“What’s he talking about?” I asked Joe.
He laughed nervously and glanced back at our brothers. “Uh…maybe we should talk outside for a minute.”
I nodded and headed outside with my brothers. When the door was shut, I glanced over at Derek. “What are you doing here?”
“Funny, I was sitting at home, wondering why my brothers were calling me, so worried about you. So, I decided to come check it out for myself.”
“And?”
He nodded to Joe.
“See, the funny thing is, these people somehow think that Charlie,” he pointed inside, “is a man.”
“Okay,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest, not quite understanding where he was going with this. “Why would they think that?”
“Because I may have told them that,” he said hesitantly.
“I’m confused. Why would you tell the town that Charlie is a man? And why would that matter to any of them?”
Joe looked at the ground, kicking his shoe against the sidewalk. “Uh…Eric, you want to take this one?”
Eric shook his head, but when I glared at him, he relented. “Okay, when you came over and started talking about Charlie, we all assumed…that is…you never said that Charlie was a woman.”
I shook my head, still not following. “Wait, I don’t get it. What does Charlie have to do with any of this?”
“We…” Robert sighed. “We assumed that your new love interest was…of the male variety.”
I just stared at him, sure I was hearing him wrong. Then I exploded. “You thought I was gay?”
“Look, in our defense, you never said differently. You just kept saying Charlie. You never said woman.”
“I never said man,” I yelled at Joe. “You told the whole fucking town I’m gay?”
“It was an honest mistake. Anyone could have assumed that with a name like Charlie,” he fumbled.
I looked to Eric, the one that was supposed to be logical. “Why the hell didn’t you just ask me?”
“Because…it’s a difficult subject.”
“No, it’s not. Will, are you gay?” I said like I was him. “No! See? Not that difficult.”
“We just didn’t want you to feel like we were judging you.”
“So, you told the whole town instead?” And then I tensed and looked at Joe, shaking my head slightly. “How did they all find out?”
His face turned beat red and he took a step back. “Will-“
“How the fuck did they all find out?”
He hung his head. “I posted it on the town Facebook page. I thought it would be easier to rip off the bandaid.”
I stared at him for a moment, my brain feeling like it had gone on the fritz, but then with one look inside that bakery, I lost it completely. With a roar, I ran forward, tackling Joe and crashing through the door of the bakery.
Charlie
I stood there awkwardly as people stared at us. I wasn’t sure what to do. I had no clue what was going on, but the raised voices outside said that whatever was happening wasn’t good. I saw the sheriff staring at me out of the corner of my eye, and I turned to him with a fake smile.
He tipped his hat at me. “Ma’am.”
“Sheriff, can you tell me what’s going on?”
“It’s Carter Roy, Ma’am, but you can call me Corduroy. Everyone does. And it’s only acting-sheriff.”
“Okay, Corduroy, what’s going on here?”
He chuckled slightly, running his hand over the scruff of his beard. “Well, I think I’ll leave that up to the brothers to work out.”
Just then, I heard a roar and then screeched when Will tackled one of his brothers through the glass door of the bakery. Glass went flying everywhere, and I tucked Oliver behind me to protect him from getting hurt. When everything settled, Will was on top of his brother, punching him in the face. One of the other brothers rushed through the broken door and grabbed Will by the back of the shirt and hauled him up.
“That’s enough,” he said, stepping in front of him. “Joe, perhaps you want to tell everyone what’s really going on here.”
“I’d like to hear that too,” I mumbled.
Joe stood, wincing as the broken glass bit into his skin, and brushed off the shards that coated his clothes. “Uh…there’s been a slight mixup. See, we thought that Will was dating a man, but uh…” He laughed like this was all so funny. “You can clearly see that Charlie is a woman.”
“Wait, you thought your brother was gay?” I asked incredulously, finding it difficult to ever picture Will as gay. “Where did you get that idea from?”
“Well, he said he was seeing Charlie, but he never said you were a woman.”
“Did he say I was a man?” I practically shouted.
“Well, no…”
“Wait, so you’re not gay?” a woman asked.
“No,” Will said furiously.
/>
“My son is going to be so disappointed,” another woman sighed.
“You mean I came all the way down here for nothin’?” a man asked.
“What is with this town?” I murmured to Will.
“Apparently, they have nothing better to do.”
I glanced over and saw that he had a gash on his forehead and he was bleeding profusely. “Oh my gosh,” I said, scrambling in my purse for a tissue. I snagged one and pressed it against his head, wincing as he flinched away from me. “Sorry, but you’re bleeding.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s really not. I think you need stitches.”
“See? Now, wasn’t that a hell of a lot more interesting than me filling you in before you walked in here?” Corduroy asked.
“A heads up would have been appreciated,” Will mumbled.
“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?” Corduroy laughed, slapping Will on the back.
I took Will’s hand and led him over to a table where a bunch of nosy people were sitting, just waiting for something else to happen. “Sorry, but since he’s bleeding and the action is over, how about you move so I can clean up his cut.”
I got a disappointed look, but they moved. Someone came running over with a first aid kit, not that it would do much good. At least I could clean it up for now.
“Hi, I’m Mary Anne. I’m sorry, I don’t have anything better than this.”
“Sorry about the door, Mary Anne,” Will said.
She waved him off. “Seriously, anytime you want to bring a crowd like this and break a door, you’re more than welcome. And may I just say, the stunts are getting better and better with every one of you.”
“The stunts?” I asked.
“Oh,” she said excitedly. “Well, with Eric, Joe announced Kat’s pregnancy to the whole town, right here in my bakery. And then with Robert, he came in to apologize to Anna, but his brothers had some crazy scheme and ended up starting a fight with Corduroy. And then there was Josh…Joe managed to introduce his girlfriend and baby to the town, and out Robert for knocking up Anna all in one fell swoop,” she giggled. “They’ve been very good for business. But I must say, announcing to the whole town that you’re gay was one for the books.”
Textbook Approach: A Small Town Romance Page 13