Finally

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Dustin!” he said, moving his ass and headed into the kitchen to find it empty and…

  He turned around and headed back to the living room and the closed door that he’d been trying to pretend didn’t exist, praying that the kids hadn’t listened to him. He didn’t bother knocking, he simply walked inside and-

  “Damn it,” came the sadly sighed words that drew his attention to the left as his mind registered something soft sliding against his legs in time to see a large lilac sheet fall down onto a large lump on the bed. There was a soft grumble, and then, the sheet was pushed aside and Devin sighed with relief when he spotted his children curled up on Charlie’s bed, fast asleep.

  “They just fell asleep,” came the whisper that drew his attention to Charlie to find her sitting on the bed with a warm smile as she pushed the sheet aside. At his questioning look, she gestured absently to the sheet with a sighed, “We tried to make a tent in the living room, but we couldn’t get it to stay up so we decided to make one in here instead.”

  “I see,” Devin said, watching as she pushed the covers aside and climbed out of bed.

  “I hate to say this,” Charlie said with a sad shake of her head, “but your daughter cheats at tic-tac-toe, checkers, and hide and go seek.”

  “She really does,” he murmured absently as he watched Charlie make her way around the bed, untying the jump ropes that they’d used to create a tent as she went.

  “Your kids are lightweights,” she said with a teasing smile as she walked past him and headed towards his living room.

  “Oh, yeah?” he asked, following her through the living room and into his kitchen.

  With a sigh and a sad shake of her head, Charlie headed to his refrigerator and said, “They couldn’t cut it playing Go Fish.”

  “They don’t like losing,” Devin murmured absently as he watched her pull two foil-covered plates out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter.

  “They really don’t,” she said, smiling as she grabbed a carton of chocolate milk and some condiments out of the fridge and placed them on the counter before she set to work on replacing the foil with paper towels and-

  “I’m not a bad father,” he found himself saying, for some reason hating the idea of her thinking that he was a horrible father more than anyone else.

  “Why would I think that you’re a bad father?” Charlie asked, looking genuinely curious as she placed a plate with a large stack of pancakes, bacon, and home fries in the microwave.

  “I don’t make it a habit of staying in bed all day,” Devin said, sighing heavily as he tried to figure out how this happened. No matter how fucking exhausted he’d been before, he’d never left his kids to fend for themselves.

  “You were exhausted,” she said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal.

  “I’m always exhausted,” he said, chuckling without humor as he rubbed his hands down his face.

  “I know,” Charlie said, making him frown as he dropped his hands away to find her shrugging it off as she pulled the plate out of the microwave.

  At his questioning look, she said, “The kids told me. They told me that you always get up with them in the morning and take care of them. They got nervous when you didn’t wake up, so we checked on you during the day so that they could make sure that you were okay. I think the selfies helped.”

  Eyes narrowing on her, he swiped his phone open and-

  Felt his lips twitch when he saw the first photo of the kids sitting next to him on the bed, giving a thumbs up. The second picture was of Dustin lying across his back, smiling. Another of him surrounded by dinosaurs, one of him with his daughter’s pink princess tiara on his head, one of his son kissing his cheek, one of his daughter kissing his cheek, and one of-

  Charlie sitting on his bedroom floor with Dustin and Abbi sitting on her lap, smiling. For a moment, Devin simply stood there, staring down at the picture until he found himself murmuring, “Thank you,” as he saved the picture into his favorites folder.

  Chapter 7

  At least he wasn’t glaring anymore, Charlie thought, only to bite back a sigh when Devin looked up from whatever T.J. was showing him to narrow his eyes on her.

  Great.

  Giving up on trying to figure out what she did to piss him off, Charlie shifted to get more comfortable on her new lounge chair as she reached over and grabbed her glass off the small patio table that she’d purchased along with this lounge chair this morning to help her enjoy what was quickly becoming her favorite part about this apartment. She’d never had a deck before, but now, she was definitely hooked, she absently thought as she took a sip of her drink while she watched the man that really seemed to love to glare as he pulled himself back up the tree that they were building a tree house in and-

  “I thought you were trying to save money,” came the heavily sighed complaint that drew her attention to the man who really didn’t seem to know what he was doing to find him running his hand through his meticulously cut jet-black hair as he released a frustrated sigh.

  “And I did,” Charlie said, taking another sip before she gestured to all the patio furniture that she’d purchased this morning along with the gas grill that didn’t look like it was going to be finished anytime soon before adding, “All this stuff was half off.”

  “I don’t understand why they couldn’t put this together at the store,” Ben said, sighing as he tried to make sense out of the directions that came in the box.

  “It would have cost twenty more dollars,” she pointed out as she gestured for him to get back to work.

  With a grumble, Ben shifted his attention back to the directions in his hands as she glanced over to watch as Dustin chased his sister around the large backyard, trying to show her something in his hand. They were so damn cute, Charlie thought as she found herself glancing back at the tree surrounded by tools and stacks of wood and-

  “He looks pissed,” Ben pointed out as she once again found Devin glaring at her.

  “He really does, doesn’t he?” Charlie murmured thoughtfully as she watched Devin continue to glare at her as he reached down and grabbed the board that T.J. was handing up to him.

  “What did you do?” Ben asked, making her frown as she glanced back to find Ben trying to figure out how to attach the two metal bars in his hands.

  “What makes you think that I did something?” Charlie asked, even though she’d been wondering the same thing.

  Last night, he’d thanked her for watching his children before gathering them in his arms and brought them upstairs to tuck them in only to come back a few hours later when they snuck back downstairs and crawled back in her bed. That’s when the glaring started or rather, resumed. That had been followed by glaring at her when she made muffins for the kids and offered him one, which led to her deciding to go check out the end of summer sales at the mall, hoping that he’d grow tired of glaring at her by the time she came back.

  He didn’t.

  No, that short break seemed to rejuvenate his glaring skills. She’d barely had a chance to open the hatch on the back of her SUV when he was there, glaring at her until she stepped aside so that he could unload her car for her. When Ben showed up a few minutes later, mostly because she may have lied to her best friend and offered to make him lunch if he came over, he’d shot her one last glare before tossing the patio chair to Ben, who really needed to work on his reflexes, before heading back inside.

  “Because I know you?” Ben said with a look that told her that it was more than obvious that she’d done something to piss off the man that she was almost ninety percent sure was still glaring at her.

  “That hurts, Benjamin,” Charlie said with a sad shake of her head as she picked up her iPad and returned her attention to the article on small business accounting that she was trying to get through.

  “The truth hurts.”

  “So would throwing this iPad at your head,” she pointed out as she wiggled her toes, enjoying what was probably going to be the last warm weather
they had before fall hit.

  There was another grumble and then, “Are you planning on helping me?”

  “I’d only get in the way,” Charlie pointed out as she swiped to the next page and-

  “Charlie, look what I found!” came the excited announcement that had her looking up in time to watch as Dustin came running up the small stairway with his hand held out only to accidentally knock over her table, sending her glass flying in the process before she could grab it.

  The sound of glass crunching followed by a small gasp had her moving, she was off the lounge chair and had Dustin in her arms before the first tear had a chance to roll down his face.

  “Shhh, it’s okay,” Charlie said, trying not to panic as she turned around and placed him down on her chair.

  “I-It was an accident,” Dustin managed to get out through sobs as she leaned down and felt her stomach drop when she saw the thick piece of glass stuck in the bottom of his shoe.

  Forcing her trembling hands to work, Charlie quickly untied his small sneaker as she absently mumbled, “It’s fine, Dustin. Accidents happen,” and carefully pulled his shoe off and-

  Felt her shoulders sag with relief when she spotted his pristine white sock covering his small foot.

  “You’re okay,” she said, giving him a warm smile as she leaned over and kissed his forehead.

  “I’m sorry,” Dustin mumbled softly, making her chuckle.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I didn’t like that glass anyway,” Charlie lied even as she made a mental note to hop onto eBay later and see if she could find another glass with the Slytherin symbol on it.

  “Oh, shit…” came the weakly whispered words that had her frowning before Dustin was suddenly plucked off the chair.

  Sighing, Charlie looked up to tell Devin that his son was okay, but the look on his face…

  Really freaking scared her, especially when he handed Dustin off to T.J., who wasn’t looking so good right now, and followed that up by reaching down and picking her up and placing her on the chair. She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong when the second, “Oh, shit…” drew her attention and had her turning her head to see what was wrong when Devin reached over and stopped her.

  “It will be okay,” he said, gently caressing her cheek, but something, mostly Ben’s next, “Oh, shit…” told her that it definitely wasn’t going to be okay.

  Then again, Abbi’s hysterical sobs and Dustin’s, “Where did all that blood come from?” clued her into the fact that something was very wrong.

  “What’s going on?” Charlie asked, trying not to panic as Devin looked down at the bottom of her foot and clenched his jaw as another, “Oh, shit…” drew her attention to the left and-

  “Oh, my god…” Charlie found herself weakly whispering when she saw all the blood covering the deck right around the time that she became aware of the pain tearing through her left foot.

  She probably would have been okay if Ben hadn’t followed that up with another, “Oh, shit…”

  Chapter 8

  “You know, it’s probably nothing. I’ll just go home and put a band-aide on it,” Charlie said absently as her hold around his arm tightened right around the time that she decided to bury her face against his arm, whimper, and mumble, “Oh, god,” when his cousin Aidan reached for the first syringe.

  “I’m afraid that you’re going to need stitches,” Aidan said with an apologetic smile as he sat there debating how he was going to pull out the thick pieces of glass stuck in Charlie’s foot as the woman in question began shaking her head with a, “I don’t want to do this,” as her hold on him somehow tightened.

  “It will be over before you know it,” Devin promised her even as he shot his cousin a glare that told him what would happen if he fucked this up.

  “I want it to be over now,” Charlie mumbled sadly as Devin glanced back at the asshole that was always hanging around her as he dropped his head between his knees with another, “Oh, shit…” as he slowly exhaled, looking really fucking pale.

  “Ben?” the woman hugging his arm said.

  “Yeah?” the man that hadn’t stopped saying, “Oh, shit…” since this all started, said.

  “You are the worse best friend ever!” Charlie said with a whimper that had Devin biting back a curse as he pulled his arm away and picked her up, careful of her foot, and shifted her halfway down the stretcher before he carefully climbed onto the stretcher behind her and pulled her back against him.

  Before his back hit the stretcher, Charlie was grabbing back onto his arm and hugging it against her chest with a murmured, “I really hate him.”

  “What the hell, woman? How is this my fault?” Ben demanded, raising his head in outrage only to spot all the blood covering the bed and floor and followed that up with another, “Oh, shit…” as he dropped his head back between his knees.

  “It’s going to be fine, Charlie,” Devin said, pressing a kiss against the top of her head as Aidan gave her legs a pointed look that had Devin raising his legs and carefully placing them over hers to stop her from moving and making this worse.

  “Wait! I’m not ready for this!” the woman in his arms said, starting to panic when she realized what they were doing. “Can’t we talk about this?”

  “We need to take care of this now, Charlie,” Aidan said as he gently grabbed hold of Charlie’s small foot and-

  “No, no, no, no, no! Please, just leave it! It will eventually push its way out like splinter, right?” Charlie said, trying to pull her leg back but she couldn’t move it, not with his leg holding it down.

  “It has to come out, Charlie,” Devin said, glad that he’d managed to stop her from seeing the damage, but god, had she tried.

  The entire drive over here, he’d been forced to drive with one hand on the wheel so that he could keep her foot trapped on his lap to stop her from looking. The only thing that had stopped her from yanking her foot back so that she could get a glimpse of the large chunks of glass impaling her foot was the fact that every time she tried, she ended up gasping in pain.

  “No, it doesn’t!” she said, shaking her head frantically as she tried to pull her foot back and-

  “Charlie!”

  Immediately relaxed and shoved his arm away with a bored sigh when Dustin came running into the exam room, carrying a large teddy bear in his arms.

  “Hey, sweetie, what are you doing here?” Charlie asked, sounding relaxed and even a little bored as his son walked into the room, looking worried.

  “I wanted to make sure that you were okay,” Dustin said, watching as Aidan grabbed hold of her foot and-

  “Oh, I’m fine, sweetie. This is no big deal,” Charlie said, waving it off with one hand as her other hand grabbed hold of his other hand where his son couldn’t see and held on tightly as Aidan slowly slid the large needle in the bottom of her foot.

  “It looks like it hurts,” Dustin mumbled as he glanced back at her foot before adding, “There’s a lot of blood,” which had the asshole sitting against the wall dropping onto his side with a mumbled, “I-I think I need to lay down.”

  “Is there? I hadn’t noticed,” Charlie murmured absently as she asked the question that he’d been wondering. “Where’s Abbi?”

  “We dropped her off with grandma and grandpa, but I wanted to make sure that you were okay,” Dustin mumbled as he watched Aidan work.

  “What’s that in your arms?” Charlie asked, distracting him.

  “Uncle T.J. let me get this from the gift shop for you,” Dustin said, holding it out to her as her hand tightened around his and he heard what sounded like the start of a whimper before she managed to pull it back.

  “Aw, that is so sweet! Thank you, Dustin,” she said, reaching over to run her fingers through Dustin’s hair as Devin was forced to bite back a grunt when she’d somehow managed to squeeze his hand a hell of a lot harder than Heather had when she gave birth to the twins.

  “There you are,” T.J. said, walking into the room and cringed
when he saw Charlie’s foot before he could pull it back.

  “Why don’t you take Dustin to the cafeteria and have a snack while we finish up here?” Aidan suggested absently as he placed the syringe down on the small metal tray and grabbed another one.

  “T-That sounds like a good idea,” T.J. said, clearing his throat as he forced himself to look away from Charlie’s foot.

  “I wanna stay with Charlie,” Dustin said, stepping closer to the stretcher.

  “I was hoping you’d get me some ice cream,” Charlie said, sounding hopeful.

  Dustin worried his bottom lip between his teeth, looking torn only to reluctantly nod. “Okay, I’ll go get you some ice cream,” Dustin said, nodding as he turned around to leave.

  “Hey, do I get a hello?” Devin asked, absently running his thumb over the back of Charlie’s hand only to sigh when his son ran off without another word, determined to get ice cream for Charlie.

  “What…the…hell…” Devin said, shaking his head in disbelief as he watched his son leave only to end up grunting when the woman that had been playing it cool released his hand so that she could grab hold of his arm, wrap her arms back around it as she buried her face against his bicep with a muttered, “Oh, god!”

  “I’m almost done numbing your foot,” Aidan said as he continued working while Charlie shook her head somewhat frantically with a, “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to-”

  “I forgot to give you your bear!” Dustin said, running back inside the small curtained room just as the small woman hugging his arm suddenly shoved his arm away.

  “Oh, thank you, sweetie,” Charlie said, sounding touched as Dustin placed the stuffed bear down on the chair the nurse had dragged in here earlier for Devin.

  “You’re welcome!” Dustin said, already running back out of the room as he once again found his arm grabbed and-

  “Just cut it off,” she whispered hoarsely, making him sigh as he wrapped his other arm around her.