Once a Charmer

by Sharla Lovelace

  Alan and Katrina took turns reading in a very cute back-and-forth exchange. Bash glanced at me sideways, and I shook my head. He chuckled, knowing fully well that wasn’t going to happen. Mr. Masoneaux and Mrs. Boudreaux were pretty straight forward, and poor Miss Mavis and Mr. Townsend sounded as if they left theirs at home at first and then pulled it off with self-deprecating humor and drew a big applause.

  I felt the warmth of Bash’s hand on the back of my neck, sending happy shimmies everywhere else as I looked up at him. His eyes looked up to something.

  “You trust me?” he asked, a smile pulling at one corner of his mouth.

  “Oh shit.”

  The smile turned into a laugh as he dropped a kiss on my forehead and grabbed my hand. “Come on.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  As we walked hand-in-hand out of my little hidey-hole to the path where the other nominees were standing and listening, I couldn’t help but sort of pretend that was normal. I liked holding his hand like we were a couple—in public. I liked watching Katrina’s eyes widen when he let go of my hand to rest his low on my hip possessively as we walked the three steps up to the pavilion. Like we were more than friends. Familiar with each other. Almost—

  No, we weren’t that, but familiarity had definitely changed. He’d been all over my legs and ass just two days ago, so as far as I was concerned he could claim and possess whatever of mine that he wanted.

  My thoughts stumbled over each other in shock at that realization. At knowing how far we’d ventured into very foreign territory in such a very short time.

  Bash pulled me tightly against him as we took the stage and waved, and my heart sped up when I saw the crowd. It had doubled since the intros. Holy Jesus.

  We did another quick introduction, this time of each other, completely off the cuff in a kind of look at us, we can be cute, too thing.

  Then he signaled to Vonda. “Can you bring me a chair?” The look of alarm was all over her normally beaming face, but she grabbed the nearest folding chair and met him across the stage. “Thank you.”

  “Have a seat, Allie,” he said, placing the chair behind me.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered, trying not to move my lips.

  His gaze slid over me. “Trust me.”

  He turned back to the crowd as I sat down and crossed my legs, unsure what I was really supposed to shoot for.

  I watched him gear up for the crowd, and watched them automatically fall in love with him. It was like going back in time to high school, when all he had to do was walk down the hall and his charisma made everyone want to be near him. I always felt a mixed bag of reactions on that. Like I had some sort of special code that gave me back door access to Sebastian Anderson. The vulnerable side of him no one else saw. That could talk with me for hours and share his life over leftovers that were just going to be thrown out. That was precious. But on the flip side, they got him in public. They got to hang out with him, have lunch, go to parties. They got to touch him and live in the world with him. I got the real boy. They got the public one.

  I always wished for both.

  “I wanted Allie to get to sit for a second,” Bash said into the microphone. “As you all know, she runs the best eating place in town.” There was a pause for clapping and I smiled and wished he’d get the spotlight off me. “This lady has been on her feet all day, and now has to wear these—ice picks strapped to her feet—back there in the grass. Do you see her shoes?” I laughed and wiggled a foot as the crowd laughed. “Seriously, I don’t know how you ladies do it. But she’s doing it.”

  He paused and pulled the mic free from the base and looked at the ground for a moment.

  What are you doing, Bash?

  “We had to write an essay,” he said. “About how we’d help this town. What we bring to the table. And why you should vote for us to represent the heart of Charmed.” His head moved slowly from side to side like he was in deep thought. “I have the assignment,” he said, pulling a folded piece of paper from his slacks pocket and holding it up to chuckling from the crowd. “But if you’ll indulge me for a second, I think I’m just going to wing it.”

  He turned to meet my gaze.

  Trust me.

  “I could say that Allie and I grew up here among you, but so did the others,” he said. “I could talk about the glory days in high school,” he said with a grin, bringing smiles from below. “But so can Alan Bowman. I want to talk about Allie and I as a team.”

  My stomach flipped a hundred times a second as he said those words, looking at me.

  “She’s my best friend,” he said. “She has been since we were teenagers and worked together at the Blue Banana.” He paused for a breath and I held mine as his eyes bored into me. “I delivered her baby there, almost sixteen years ago.” He glanced away from me at the crowd when some surprised murmurs rippled through and I let my breath go. “Yeah, not that many people know that. I’m also her daughter’s godfather and honorary uncle, another not-well-known fact but something I take enormous pride in.” His eyes landed back on me with something else in them. Something scary and new and terrifying and wonderful and something I couldn’t put a name to but I wanted so badly it brought me to my feet.

  “Allie sells my honey in her diner. I post her menu in my apiary. We’ve talked each other out and down from some pretty precarious places, because that’s what friends are for. Not just when you fall, but when you soar.”

  It was like everyone else left. My vision swam with tears and all I could see was him. Talking about our life together like we—

  “Allie and Angel are my family,” he said. “It’s not perfect, and if you’ve ever experienced a teenager, you know what I’m saying.” I laughed through my tears and I heard the burst of laughter from the crowd but I couldn’t look away from him. “But we are there for each other in good and bad the best way we can be because that’s what family does.”

  Bash’s voice caught, and he stopped to clear his throat. My feet started to move on their own as the tears fell freely from my eyes.

  “What he’s saying,” I said, taking the microphone from his hand. My hands trembled, my voice shook with emotion, but what he’d started had to be completed. “Is that we are already a team. In all the important ways. We already serve this town in ways you love. We’re not perfect, either. We have flaws.” I stopped and laughed as I swiped at my eyes, and was amazed to hear them laughing with me. “We have problems, just like you do, but we stand together, so if you’ll put us together as one with Charmed, you’ll have the representation you can be proud of.” I drew a tear-filled breath and smiled the best I could. “Thank you.”

  Bash pulled me into his arms, and everything drained from me as I buried myself in his chest and the applause roared from seemingly everywhere. I didn’t care anymore. If they liked us, great. If they didn’t, none of that mattered, because—because this man that was wrapped around me, that held me so tightly with his face in my hair had stood before our world and told it that we were us. He’d given me the gift of both sides.

  Someone took the mic from my hand as I wrapped my arms around him, wishing I never had to let go. Nothing ever felt so good. So right. If only there weren’t hundreds of people watching the goodness.

  I pulled back and looked up into eyes probably as raw as mine felt.

  “All right, that was amazing,” said Vonda’s voice over the speakers. A low rumble of thunder could be heard miles away. “Let’s move on to the grand finale before it decides to rain on us,” she said, giggling. “Everyone who hasn’t changed yet, go get changed!”

  We walked off, back through the pathway, back to our hole, where Carmen was crying. She picked up the paper schedule and smacked Bash with it.

  “Damn you,” she said.

  He laughed, but he looked like he’d been punched between the eyes. He sank into one of the chairs and ran his hands through
his hair.

  “You okay?” I asked him, still dabbing at my eyes.

  Carmen grabbed the dress in one hand and a blanket in the other, trying to figure out how we were going to do this.

  “That just—went somewhere I never saw coming,” he said. “That was—”

  I knelt to my knees in front of him. “That was amazing.”

  The look he gave me melted me right into the ground and I was totally okay with that.

  “Come on,” Carmen said. “Bash can you help me hold up these blankets so she can get naked without everyone seeing?”

  I think we both heard get naked and knew that was a bad plan. He pulled keys from his pocket and gestured with a nod over my shoulder.

  “My shop is literally right there,” he said.

  I turned to follow his gaze to the building next to the bakery. He was right, it was almost throwing distance.

  “It’s locked up tonight, no one is there. You can change and be back in five minutes.”

  I pulled off the shoes. “Without these, I’ll be back in three. Let’s go.”

  We were off at a run, had the door open and I was in Bash’s office and literally naked except for my panties within thirty seconds. I stepped into the dress and pulled it over my boobs, still unable to believe I actually bought a backless dress that I had to wear with no bra, for an event with Bash. Granted, nothing was going on then except some dreams, but—

  And that’s when I realized I hadn’t been dreaming about him. Interesting. I guess my real life with him had become active enough not to need the supplements.

  Carmen helped me fasten the clasp behind my neck, I was already wearing the jewelry that sparkled well with it, and she’d been dead on about the hair style. It was both pretty and sexy with the bare back, and—once again, the thought of standing so exposed like that with him now—it was making my blood rush to some serious places.

  “Okay, am I good?” I asked. I knew my face was probably a wreck, now, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. And this was mostly for distance viewing, anyway.

  “You look stunning,” she said. “My lord, you and Bash will make a hot couple.”

  My gaze flew to meet hers.

  “Tonight,” she added quickly. “You’ll make a hot couple tonight.” She glanced around. “Wow, he’s got a lot of pictures around.”

  “Yeah, he had a bunch at the apiary, too,” I said, glancing cursorily at the black and white photos in his office and also in the showroom up front. My eyes stopped on one that was framed by his computer: A close-up of Angel a couple of years ago, laughing at the camera, her hair blowing around her. Goose bumps covered my skin. He had that photo there like a parent would. “He likes old pictures of the town. We ready? I’ll just leave this stuff here and come back for it afterward.”

  We ran past the stacks of honey jars and packages of things I didn’t have time to check out, locked the door behind us and back up the hill. A little more challenging with the open concept, trying to keep things from bouncing out.

  I could see Bash walking back to his table to get his jacket, so I pulled my shoes back on, pulled a powder compact from Carmen’s everything basket to pull things slightly more together, and swiped some sparkly gloss on my lips.

  “You’re not cold?” Carmen asked. The air was thick and warmer than it had been, but the pending rain had it feeling damp and it was getting chilly.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “My nervous breakdown will keep me warm.”

  We were last on the list, and I was thoroughly giddy about that. I was behind Alan and Katrina in line, however, and I wasn’t particularly fond of that. Especially when Alan turned around.

  “Holy shit shows,” he said, looking me over.

  “Really?” I said.

  Katrina turned around, her eyes going from me to her husband, and she whacked him on the back of the head.

  “Really?” she echoed, as he turned back around.

  I concentrated on the big evil mountain ahead. I blew out a breath. It was okay, I’d conquered it, I could do it again. Bash was here. If tonight proved anything, it was that there was nothing I couldn’t manage with him by my—

  When he walked around the corner, buttoned up and adjusting his cuffs like something from a James Bond movie, all other thoughts left my head. When he looked up and did a double take on me, I knew we were done for. I took a deep breath, and attempted normal, while my very exposed cleavage suddenly felt every molecule of air move as his eyes blazed a path.

  “Wow,” I breathed as he walked closer.

  “Still delicious?” he asked, his gaze burning into me with a wicked playfulness.

  “I—can’t even be trusted with that word right now,” I managed, running a finger down his lapel and watching his pupils take over the blue at both my touch and probably my chest.

  I turned around to get in line, reveling in the sound of the strong exhale as he got my naked back.

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  Okay, there was a rush in that much power. I was lightheaded with it. I tilted the bare side of my neck to tease him a little.

  “Problem?”

  “Not as long as I keep this jacket on,” he said. “God, you kill me in this dress.”

  I giggled. “Oh? As in?”

  “As in I have a wood the size of China,” he muttered.

  I had to clap a hand over my mouth. “Really?” I whispered.

  The finger that traced down my spine as his lips brushed my ear made me suck in a breath.

  “Care to check?” he breathed.

  Yes. Yes, I would.

  “Probably shouldn’t,” I said with a grin over my shoulder to match his.

  His lips were right there. Apparently many things were right there. Dear God, we weren’t going to survive these clothes, much less this night.

  The mountain was looming and his hands slid up my arms to my shoulders. We both blew out breaths as if to remember where we were and what we were doing.

  “You know what I’m going to say, right?” he said as he pulled me back against him.

  “I’ve got this?” I said weakly.

  “You’ve got this.”

  “Okay.”

  It was my turn to look up the ladder.

  “Just like last time,” he said.

  “Okay,” I repeated.

  I heard Katrina and Alan’s names announced as she no doubt flounced down the stairs, and I knew I had to get up there. One foot stepped above the other as my heart pounded in my ears.

  “Don’t look up my dress,” I said.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “You’re looking now, aren’t you?”

  I heard a chuckle. “Only as moral support.”

  “You’re a prince,” I said, hearing the shake. “Okay,” I whispered to myself as I topped the surface. “You’ve got this. Just hold on. Keep walking.”

  I didn’t stop. I kept moving blindly over the top on trembling legs, thinking of that suit waiting for me on the other side. All I had to do was lock eyes with Bash and I’d be fine. Just—

  Light so blinding it could have come from heaven hit me with a ffomph sound. Our names were announced and I was supposed to come down, but I couldn’t see anything.

  I couldn’t see anything. Or anyone.

  “Allie, I’m down here,” I heard.

  Panic, deep-seated and fear-driven, washed over me as I flailed with a hand in front of my face, desperately trying to find Bash. Find the steps. Find the earth. I sucked in a gulp of air and forced myself to stay on my feet—to not react like I always did. Like everything in me wanted to. Flattening myself to the ground.

  People are watching. You can’t do that. Fuck. Shit. Please don’t do this.

  “Turn that damn light off!” Bash yelled, his voice getting closer as I felt h
is steps jogging up to me. “I’ve got you,” he said then, grabbing my hand. “Stay on your feet, we’re walking down together.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said under my breath, holding onto him with a death grip.

  “Nothing to be sorry about,” he said. “They already love you. Just smile.”

  We made it to the bottom, all lined in various flowers I tromped in my heels, and all my newfound confidence and girly power vanished. All I wanted was to go home and put on my normal clothes and be me again. I could be strong and deal with weakness when I felt like myself. This had me all out of whack and embarrassed and put in a literal spotlight for the second time that day, and I’d had enough.

  “Okay folks,” Vonda was saying. “Time for you to vote and head over to the new banquet building. Go to charmed royalty dot com and click on your favorite King and Queen choice.”

  “It’s like a reality show,” Miss Mavis said, shuffling by. “We’re famous.”

  Famous. I wanted to tell her I’d always been famous in this town and it wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.

  “You okay?” Bash asked, his hand on the back of my neck. “You look—off.”

  I laughed, feeling exhausted. “Off. Great.”

  “You know what I’m saying,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me back out of the crowd, out of the flow of the herd. “You went a little gray up there. I’m worried about you.”

  I shook my head. “Just—some things never change,” I said. “You can dress the girl up, but the same crap’s still underneath.”

  “Same crap?” Bash said. “What, because you’re afraid of heights?”

  “This isn’t fear of heights, Bash,” I said. “That’s ooh, I don’t want to look down. What I experience is unforgiving, unreasonable, heart-stopping, anxiety-ridden, paralyzing terror to the point of blacking out.”

  “I know.”

  “I know you know,” I said. “Until tonight, you’re the only person I’ve ever let see that, and it’s humiliating. I’ve—”

  I couldn’t talk about it anymore. I had to keep walking. Get back to my table and get my shit so I could move on to the next stop and get this damn night over with.