“You don’t have to do anything. Like I said, this is on me. You’ve been clear. I need to accept that. Or at least respect it. I just worry about you, you know? And I’ve never seen you flirt before, so that was rough.”
“As for today, I don’t know what was going on with me, but I think we just need to be honest with each other. I need you to remember that, despite appearances and common misconceptions, I can, in fact, take care of myself. You know I’m far from stupid, and I’m not naïve just because I’m inexperienced, Charlie.” Even as I was speaking, I was growing more and more angry. I hadn’t intended to yell at him, but every angry thought I’d had that day was suddenly flooding my mind and spilling out of my mouth. “I’d appreciate it if everyone stopped treating me like I was made of glass. I’m an adult, dealing with a lot more than most people will ever have to. I don’t need keepers!”
I was spun suddenly past him and pressed against the wall of the shop we were walking past. It happened so fast that I’d barely registered the movement before I was trapped in the cage made of Charlie’s body. He was all muscles, sun-bronzed skin, and the musky combination of his cologne and the oh-so-familiar smell of Charlie.
His breath was sweet and so close to me I could feel it tickle the fringes of hair around my neck, setting my skin ablaze. I’d never had this kind of reaction to Charlie before and we’d been in rather close quarters. This time was different. He didn’t look up at me, which I was grateful for. I needed time to get myself under control.
“Dani,” he began, his voice sounding strained. “I’m sorry. But I don’t know what you want from me. I can’t just force myself to not care about you or what happens to you. I care, and I’m going to act like it. That means wanting you to be safe and worrying about you. If you want me to stop doing that, then I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”
I’d thought I could take a minute to compose myself while he was talking, but I’d been too focused on what he was saying and on the way his lips moved as he spoke, the muscles tensing in his arms and shoulders and chest. And when he looked up at me, composed was the last thing I felt. The last thing I wanted to be.
I knew he could see it written all over my face, in the tilt of my head and the dilation of my pupils. He watched me warily, and I could see that he wanted to make the move, wanted to bridge the gap, and for the first time, I wanted him to. I wanted to crack this carefully constructed poise he had around me and release the ferocity I saw when he looked at me sometimes. But experience had taught him not to, so if it was going to happen, it was going to have to be me.
The hope in his eyes faltered, and in that moment, I knew I was losing him. I knew if we closed that door now, it would be permanent, and my stomach clenched with fear. So I took a deep breath and reached for him. No sooner had I moved than he was meeting me in the middle. My hands tangled in his hair, and his body pressed me into the wall as his lips slammed into mine.
I whimpered a little at the violent impact. I could taste a tiny bit of blood from my lips, but my whimpering seemed to spur him on. His arms snaked around me, squeezing themselves between me and the wall. His fingers slid across my shoulder blades and neck, into my hair, and the warm brick behind me scraped along the skin of my lower back where my shirt had ridden up. Every sensation was like another log on the fire, building and burning until all I wanted in the world was more.
“Dani…” Charlie husked, pulling back a bit, but I chased his lips, recapturing them, and he groaned against my mouth, his hips pressing into my abdomen as his hands clutched the fabric of my shirt like he was a drowning man and it was the only thing keeping him afloat.
He pulled back again, ducking his head before I chased him down a second time. He planted his forehead against mine. “Dani, we have to stop.”
“What?” My mind was fuzzy, but bits and pieces of the past few minutes were breaking through the fog, and I started to panic.
“No, no, no. Don’t do that. I don’t mean stop stop. I just meant… We’re on the sidewalk in the middle of town. We should… get in the car, or go home, or something.”
“Home,” I whispered, and his head flew up so fast he almost head-butted me.
“What?”
“Take me home, Charlie. Mom will be gone to work by now. It’ll just be us. We can… talk. Maybe figure some things out?”
“Right, yeah. Let’s, um… Let’s get you home.”
Charlie still looked a bit skittish, like a loud noise might be too much for him, but he tentatively leaned toward me, brushing his lips gently across mine this time. So much had been built up over our time together that the first kiss had been like an explosion, a massive release of the pressure I hadn’t even known was there. The second kiss was sweet, an intimate exchange of everything we were to one another and our hopes and fears of what the future might hold.
Charlie pulled back, eyes still closed as he exhaled shakily, then he opened his eyes and smiled. He stepped back and reached out for my hand, which I gave him, then he led me back up the street to the car, opening the door and depositing me inside. Then he ran around—ran—and climbed in the driver’s side, revving up the engine and sliding the car into gear. We didn’t have to wait long for an opening before he pulled out into a wide U-turn and headed down the street toward my house.
That was the moment I truly realized something inside me was changing.
8
Dani
The car grew more and more uncomfortable throughout the drive home. Not in an ‘Oh, my God, how do I get out of this’ kind of way. It was more that things had changed between us, and neither of us knew how to act with this new dynamic. Something was going to happen when we got to my house, and it would be unlike anything that had ever happened between us before. Everything was forever different, and part of me felt like I was now in the car with a total stranger.
Just as my anxiety reached critical levels, Charlie reached across the console and took my hand again, like he could feel me freaking out and wanted to make it better. I looked over at him, watching him watching the road, and he glanced sideways at me with a smile. He squeezed my hand, and I took a deep breath, steadying my racing heart. He was still Charlie. He was still my best friend, the one who had been standing by my side all this time.
I finally calmed myself as we pulled off the main road and into my neighborhood. Then he turned onto my street and pulled into my drive and the panic started to swell in my chest again. We had to get out of the car now. We had to go inside and be alone and… stuff. I swallowed as Charlie put the car in park, set the emergency brake, then turned to me.
“Can you wait there for just a second?” he asked with a smile. His voice sounded clear and calm, and his face was so open. He looked so happy, and for the first time ever, didn’t look like he was holding anything back.
I nodded, and as he turned, swinging the door open and exiting the car, I thought about my last observation. He didn’t look like he was holding anything back. It wasn’t something I’d really thought about consciously before, but now that I had, I realized I’d always felt that way. Always. Charlie always seemed like he wasn’t real, and this was why. He was hiding something. But could it have been this all along? Had he only been hiding his true feelings for me?
Or at least the true strength of his feelings for me. He’d never managed to hide them from me completely. We’d truly been no more than friends that first six months to a year, but by the end of our first year of friendship, it was obvious things had changed for one of us. Now I thought back and wondered if the only things keeping us apart for the last year had been him trying to be respectful and me lacking any self-value. Man, that would suck.
My car door swung open suddenly. Charlie had exited his door and walked around the front of the car to mine to open it for me, which was incredibly sweet, and very contemporary Prince Charming. I smiled up at him, but my smile faltered as I caught sight of his face. He wasn’t looking at me anymore, but back at the house with his eyebrows pu
lled together tightly. I could also hear the sounds of vicious barking coming from somewhere behind the house.
The only time I’d ever heard anything like the sound coming out of Shadow was that very morning when some guy had been messing around in the woods behind the house. Never before then, but I thought I now understood why Kim had wondered if he was okay. He sounded demonic, absolutely lethal.
I screamed, “Shadow!” as I leapt out of the car and sprinted toward the house, bag in hand, already pulling the keys out as Charlie called my name. I had the key in the deadbolt when Charlie grabbed my hand. I rounded on him, prepared to tell him to go to Hell if he was going to try to keep me from making sure my dog was okay.
Then I heard padded feet running fast and headed our way, and we both turned and looked just in time to see Shadow run around the corner of the house right at us.
I dropped into his assault as he hit me full-force and threw my arms around him in relief. He only allowed me to hug him for a split-second before he shook me loose and pushed toward the door. He jumped up and pawed at the keys one time, then he turned and took up a defensive stance behind us. I looked at Charlie and reached for the keys, but he just shook his head and placed one finger over his mouth.
Charlie removed my fingers from the keys, leaving them in the lock, and replaced them with his own, simultaneously handing me his phone with the dial pad already programmed to 9-1-1 and ready to send. I nodded and backed off, giving him room to grip the doorknob tightly and hold the door steady as he slowly and silently unlocked first the deadbolt, then the doorknob, checking his periphery the whole time. He handed me my keys, which I pocketed, and then he slowly opened the door.
He pushed it in just a few inches and pulled back at the same time. After a moment, when nothing happened, Shadow turned and shoved both of us with his whole body toward the door. Charlie looked back at me and I nodded at the dog. He looked past me at Shadow, who turned and woofed once, then Charlie nodded to me, pushing the door in and slipping inside ahead of me. I followed close behind him, then Shadow ran in, and Charlie closed and locked the door behind us.
The dog barked once and ran back into the kitchen where he resumed his hellish display from this morning, barking and growling, scratching and clawing at the door. Without turning on any lights, Charlie followed him to the kitchen. I took a deep breath and dropped my bag on the floor, then I stuffed Charlie’s phone in my pocket and followed.
When I stepped into the kitchen, Charlie was peering between the curtains. “Stay inside, keep the dog in here with you, and lock the door behind me.”
I barely managed to hear him over my pounding heart, and by the time I processed what he’d said, Charlie was already out the door and letting it swing closed behind him.
“Shit! Charlie! Shit!”
He was already gone. He’d taken off like a terror toward the woods, and it was so dark, I lost sight of him long before he reached the tree line.
“Fuck!” I slammed the door closed and locked the deadbolt. Shadow hadn’t even tried to run out after him, but he was now standing at the door with his enormous paws on either side of the glass and watching through the window. I was right beside him, switching on the back lights so I could see and staring at the darkness beyond them. Why had he taken off? Had he seen someone? Was he just looking around or hoping his presence would scare someone off? Jesus, that dumbass was going to get himself killed. What the fuck was he thinking?
And who the hell was hiding outside our house spying on us?
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the glass. This day had gone from weird to horrible to amazing and now to straight-up scary. And—
I jumped and screamed as something banged against the door. My head shot up, and Shadow jumped down as Charlie’s face appeared in the window. I exhaled heavily as I stepped back, flipped the lock on the deadbolt, and yanked the door open as fast as I could. I pulled Charlie inside, wrapping my arms around him in relief. With one arm, he hugged me in return, shuffling us forward into the room and closing the door behind him with the other. I heard the click of the lock, then his other arm wrapped around me protectively, squeezing me tightly and placing a kiss on the top of my head.
I looked up, catching sight of his mouth before anything else. Charlie leaned down and pressed his lips gently to mine, and I responded to him, pressing up onto my tiptoes and leaning into him. His hands slid up my back and wove themselves into my hair as I processed everything I’d seen in his face. Not just the fear and resolution, but the bruises, dirt, and blood. Whatever had happened outside, I needed to know, but first, I needed to satisfy myself that he was here, whole, and mine.
My arms slid up around his ribs, catching the curve of every muscle coiled beneath his shirt as they did. There was something so intimate about the way he held me, having his arms over mine and me wrapped around him like armor. My body reacted to him in a way I had never experienced, and I felt this sudden flare of ownership, territorialism in its most raw and primitive state. He was mine. Shadow was mine. My mother, this house… They were all mine, and if anyone threatened them again, there would be Hell to pay.
Fury like I’d never known, never imagined I was capable of, rose up within me and Charlie gasped suddenly and pulled back. I saw the blood on his lip, but it took a moment to realize it was fresh and hadn’t been there a moment ago. Had I done that?
My temperature suddenly dropped, and I felt the flush in my cheeks as they turned several shades of pink. My mouth formed an ‘o’ and I started to speak, but Charlie cut me off.
“Don’t you dare apologize. That was”—his eyebrows shot skyward, and he licked his lip as he took a deep breath, releasing it slowly before he continued—“quite alright.”
Charlie smiled, and I smiled right back at him. What had come over me? Maybe I had been reading too much romance lately. Okay, only horror, suspense, and thrillers from now on. Maybe a nice rom-com to give myself an occasional break. Oh, who was I kidding? I was a romance girl.
“Okay, so, first… thank God you’re okay, but never again, Charlie. I mean it. Never. I will kill you myself if someone else doesn’t.”
“I’m sorry I scared you. I was just… furious. I couldn’t think straight. I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven. As long as it never happens again! Now, second… what happened out there?”
“I thought I saw movement out back, so I went out there, then I saw someone take off into the park, so I took off after them. I caught up with the guy and tackled him, but he managed to roll away and then someone else hit me from behind. I didn’t hear or see anyone else until I got hit. I think the other guy hit me with a tree branch or something. I went down hard, and my head was fuzzy enough I couldn’t get back up until they were gone.”
I stared at him for a moment with eyes that could’ve set something ablaze. “Charlie—”
“I know. Believe me, I know it was stupid. I won’t make a mistake like that again. Especially now, knowing there was more than one person out there and it’s happened twice.”
“Yeah, about that…”
Charlie cocked his head to one side and looked at me suspiciously, so I continued quickly.
“I think it’s happened way more than twice. Kim, the woman who delivers our mail, she told me this morning that Shadow’s been barking like crazy the past few weeks, and she was wondering if he was sick. I hadn’t heard him until today, but he’s not a barker. Kim even said she never hears him bark. I have to believe the two are related.”
Horror was the only word for the emotion on Charlie’s face at that moment. All the color drained from his face and lips, and he looked a bit greenish, like he might be sick. He took a deep breath and stepped back, steadying himself on the counter just behind him.
“We need to talk to your mom,” he said quietly. “It’s not safe for you guys to stay here.”
“Maybe. This is pretty freaking disturbing. We need to call the police and report this before we do anything else.”<
br />
“And you should stay at my place tonight.”
I froze, glancing uncertainly up at Charlie. I knew what he was suggesting had nothing to do with us and everything to do with my safety, but safety was the last thing on my mind. Scenario after scenario from all the books I’d read were running through my brain on repeat and I started to feel hot and flushed again. It didn’t help that when I finally chanced a glance up at Charlie, his eyes were dilated, his cheeks were red, and he was breathing hard. My eyes met his, and we both looked immediately away.
“Um… Mom…” I said, shaking my head and stumbling my way into some sort of explanation. “I don’t want Mom to come home alone, even if we text her, and I don’t want to tell her all this via text. I’ll text her and tell her I need to talk to her about something when she gets home and remind her to be careful coming home after this morning.”
“Okay. Then I’ll stay here tonight. There’s zero chance I’m leaving you alone.”
Charlie reached around me and slid his phone from my back pocket, sending inappropriate tingles all up my spine and down my legs. He swiped the phone open and tapped the screen once—I guessed hitting send where he’d typed in 9-1-1 earlier—and then he put the phone to his ear.
9
Dani
Charlie sat on the sofa next to me, holding my hand as we explained everything that had happened that day to the two officers that came out. The officers took down everything we said, and the best description they could of both men, though between the distance and the dark we didn’t have much more than basic build and an approximate height for the guy Charlie tackled.
The two police officers said that if we remembered anything else to call them, and if they found anything, they could maybe charge the one guy’s partner with assault, but there wasn’t much else they could do. At this stage, no chargeable crimes had been committed other than the assault on Charlie in the park, and since he’d tackled the other guy first, even that was weak at best. As much as it sucked, legally, their hands were tied. They told us to be vigilant and not to go anywhere alone, even walking to the car and back. They suggested Mom and I call a neighbor to watch us when we left and came home, to keep the dog inside or with us, and to get a security system.
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