by Mary May
“Charlie?” Lakyn badgered her again. She shrugged as she worked on her double chocolate milkshake.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Lakyn. Yes, he is really cute. But, no, I don’t want to go out with him. I can’t give you a reason why. I just don’t.”
Lakyn dropped her head down on the table in complete hopelessness and despair. “I give up! I officially give up! That was the cutest boy I have seen since…since…birth! If he isn’t enough to make you dive headfirst into the dating pool, then no one will!” Charlie smiled at her best friend around her straw as she reached over and patted her hand.
“It’s ok, Lakyn. I get my fun just from watching you date!” She lifted her head from the table and gave Charlie a serious look.
“This isn’t funny, Charlie! We are seniors. We have prom coming up this spring. If we want to get asked, then we need to get busy! I’m not allowing you to miss prom again this year!”
“Get busy doing what? Either they will or they won’t. Seems to me there really isn’t much we can do about it either way. Besides, if prom is anything like the stupid dances in junior high, then I would rather stay home and rotate the tires on Mac-daddy.”
Lakyn’s jaw slowly dropped in disbelief. “I can’t believe you just said that. I don’t even know who you are anymore. Not go to prom? She didn’t just say that…I’m clearly hearing things. I must be ill.”
Charlie busted out laughing at Lakyn’s overly-dramatic reaction to her statement. “Ok, so first you get to spend hours having someone working on your hair, then twisting and tweezing, plucking and grooming you until you don’t even look like you anymore. Then you get to squeeze into some dress with straps and a girdle that you spent who knows how many weeks searching for, and don’t even get me started on the heels! After all of that, it’s hours of standing around taking pictures with every known relative, both yours and his. You’re telling me that actually sounds like fun to you?” Looking at Lakyn’s dreamy expression and unfocused eyes, Charlie knew she was fighting a losing battle.
“Yeah…” Lakyn sighed.
Charlie stood up and threw away her trash then prodded her friend to make her get up as well and stop drooling all over the table.
“Alright, I’ll make you a deal. I will go to prom with you as a double date, but only if someone asks me on their own. No forcing, no paying, no favors and definitely no strangers! It has to be someone from this school. Understand? Otherwise you’re a solo act and I get to stay home.”
Lakyn jumped up and hugged her tightly. “Deal!”
Charlie drove home deep in thought over what the next few months would bring. Soon she would be graduating high school and hopefully headed to college in the fall. It seemed so strange to think of not coming back here every day, not listening to the twin terrors fuss and fight over whatever they were currently fussing and fighting over. Not having Mama waiting with milk and cookies every day after school ready to listen to how her day was or Devon teasing her until she was ready to scream. She would miss Cleo’s cooking and her soft Cajun accent as she bustled around taking care of everyone. She had applied to several different colleges, but she was hoping to be accepted into Zion Christian University. They had a wonderful equestrian program, along with studies in social sciences and Bible theology. If she were accepted, she could take Stormy; that would go a long way in easing her homesickness. Pulling up into the yard, she saw Seth unloading some feed from the back of his truck. Jumping out, she hurried over to help. He smiled when he saw her reaching for a bag of feed.
“Thanks, Charlie. My old back sure doesn’t like this cold weather.”
Looking up at the gray overcast sky, Charlie nodded. “That looks like a snow sky to me.”
Seth lifted a critical eye to the sky, looking to the north then back to the east.
“Yes, ma’am, I believe you’re right. Learned how to read your skies real good, Miss Charlie.” They carried the bags inside, stacking them in the feed room, which was an empty stall.
“Well, I had a good teacher,” Charlie replied, giving the old farmhand a wink. “Where’s everyone at?” she asked, noticing the empty driveway for the first time.
Seth’s face lit up when he looked at her. “They are going after my Christmas present.” Wondering what in the world her parents could possibly get him that would have him all smiles like that, Charlie leaned against the stack of feed and asked if he knew what he was getting.
“Why, sure, I do! They are driving out to the airport to pick up Nate!”
Charlie wasn’t sure she heard Seth correctly, so she asked him to repeat what he had said. He smiled and repeated it again real slow so there wouldn’t be any mistaking his words.
“Nate’s coming home, Charlie.”
Charlie finished helping Seth put away the feed then ran up to her room. Once there, she sat on the side of her bed and put her cold hands to her hot face. Nate was coming home. Nate was coming home! It had been nearly four years since she had seen him. When he left after graduation, it was supposed to be for just a few months, but then that stretched into a year, then two, and now nearly four. She had been only fourteen at the time to his nearly nineteen. Now she was eighteen and he would turn twenty-two in the spring. How much had he changed? He had been away for so long and had seen the world. Seth would tell them all the different places where Nate would be stationed, and it seemed so exciting to be seeing all those exotic ports and countries. Of course, Charlie understood that he was there because there was trouble. Every day Nate faced danger and the very real possibility of death. She prayed every night for God to keep him safe and to return him safely home. It seemed her prayers were about to be answered! Too nervous to sit and wait, she decided to take Stormy out for a ride to kill a couple of hours.
Charlie finally turned Stormy back toward the house after she couldn’t take the cold any more. She had long since stopped feeling her legs, and her fingers were growing numb as well. Heading across the back pasture at an easy gallop, she saw Devon’s new truck pulling into the driveway and the doors open. She saw Devon get out then her mom followed by the twin terrors. Suddenly she saw Nate, or she guessed it must be Nate; it was a man in a military uniform. He looked so different! Jumping the dividing gate, she trotted into the yard, smiling as she watched Seth hug his grandson tightly. Pulling Stormy to a stop, she dismounted and tied him to a low- hanging branch before walking over to say hello to her old friend.
Nate met her halfway across the yard. With every step that brought her closer, Charlie’s breath seemed to get stuck halfway down. By the time she stood directly in front of Nate, she was afraid she might pass out from lack of oxygen because her breathing had become so shallow all of a sudden. Looking up, she stared into the face of a virtual stranger. It was Nate, but it wasn’t. He was so grown up and manly. She came to the startling realization that Nate, her childhood friend, was gone; even Nate her teenage knight in shining armor was gone. Before her now stood Nathanial…the man.
Suddenly unsure of how to act around this new grownup Nate, Charlie smiled as she nervously tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Hi, Nate, welcome home,” she said softly. When he smiled at her, she could see at least a little of the Nate that she knew. He bent down and gave her a warm hug. Charlie could feel the press of hard muscles under the uniform. She knew it wasn’t padding that filled it out so well -- that was all Nate.
“It’s really good to be home, Charlie. How have you been? Have you been staying off of roofs?” The teasing glint in his dark brown eyes proved at least one thing hadn’t changed. Flushing slightly, she laughed.
“I have. Actually, I’m completely reformed! I haven’t crawled a roof in nearly four years.”
“Which is a crying shame because the girl would have made a fine roofer,” Devon said, putting his arm around Charlie’s shoulder. Cringing in embarrassment, Charlie tried to shush him, but Devon wouldn’t shush.
“Seriously, Nate, I took her up there with me, her no more than what,
fourteen? I tell you, after no more than ten or fifteen minutes she was laying down shingles as well as I could! Worked as hard as I did that day, too, stayed right with me. I was pretty proud of my girl.”
Rolling her eyes, Charlie shook her head. “That’s great, Dad. I’ll be sure to add it to my resumé, “Can lay down roofing shingles if needed.”
Nate grinned at her as they walked in the house. “It’s a tough job market out there, Charlie. You never know; that little skill just might come in handy one day!”
They spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with Nate and hearing stories of all of his adventures. Of course, the twins were awestruck and thought he was an all- American hero. From the way he looked in his uniform to the confident way he spoke, Charlie couldn’t help but feel a little awestruck herself. She knew now why she never dated throughout high school, why none of the other boys could turn her head or tempt her heart. It was because she had lost her heart years ago to the boy who used to chase her around the schoolyard to pull her curls then later became her best friend. When Nate left, he took her heart with him, and Charlie didn’t even miss it because it hadn’t been hers for a very long time. Suddenly feeling scared and very unsure of what to do with all these unknown feelings, Charlie stood up.
“I’ve had a very long day. If everyone will excuse me, I think I’m going to head upstairs and go to bed. Nate, it’s great to have you back home.” Then without giving anyone a chance to reply, she practically ran up the stairs.
Sabrina stared in surprised as Charlie fled upstairs looking like she had just seen a ghost. Nate’s eyes followed her until she disappeared from view; then he turned back to Luke, who was asking him a hundred different questions. Devon’s gaze caught Sabrina’s and asked with a raised brow what that was all about. Sabrina answered with a slight shake of her head that she didn’t know. After another half hour or so, Seth asked if Nate was ready to go see his parents, that they should be home by now.
Once Seth and Nate had left, Sabrina climbed the stairs and knocked softly on Charlie’s bedroom door. After hearing a muffled “Come in,” she opened the door to find her daughter sitting on the side of her bed holding her pillow tightly to her stomach, looking a little shell-shocked.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” Sabrina asked as she sat on the bed next to Charlie. Charlie looked up at her with tears pooled in her eyes.
“Mama, I think I’m in love with… Nate!” From the shocked tone to the look of absolute surprise in her eyes, Sabrina guessed what was so very apparent to everyone else was a new discovery for Charlie!
“Oh, sweetheart, I’ve known this for a long time. I can’t believe you are just now figuring it out! Didn’t you ever wonder why the other boys at school didn’t interest you at all? You have loved Nate since…well, I know since junior high anyway, maybe before then.”
“But it’s Nate, Mama! How in the world did I fall in love with the boy that drove me crazy? He pulled my hair and called me too little and wouldn’t let me go swimming with him and Emily Ross! It’s Nate!” she groaned as she hid her face in the pillow. Sabrina couldn’t help but smile at Charlie’s look of outrage that she had let her heart do the unthinkable.
“Yes, but it’s also the same boy that let you punch him in the face for pulling your hair, protected you by not letting you go swimming when you were too little and came to your rescue more than once when you needed saving. And, Charlie?” Sabrina paused, reaching out to pull Charlie’s face up so she would look her in the eyes, “Nate has been in love with you for just as long; he has been waiting for you to grow up. That’s why he went away for so long, to give you a chance to do exactly that.”
Charlie looked at Sabrina, her eyes wide with hope and yet still doubtful. “Mama, are you certain? How can you know this for sure? What if you’re wrong?”
Sabrina laughed. “Baby, after we picked him up from the airport, the first person he asked about was you, not Seth, not his parents, you! When you came across the pasture on Stormy, he completely stopped speaking to Devon in mid-sentence; then when you got up and raced out of the living room, his eyes followed you all the way up the stairs. Sweetheart, you can trust me. I’m not wrong on this, but if you need a second opinion, go talk to Devon. After all, who knows what a man acts like when he is in love better than another man?” Sabrina kissed Charlie on her forehead before leaving her room.
After her mama had left, Charlie smiled then covered her heart with both hands.
“Oh, my gosh! This is what all the fuss has been about!” she said with a look of wonder on her face as she fell across her bed and stared up at her ceiling in a happy daze, finally understanding what all of her friends had been trying to tell her for so long. That there is no feeling on earth like falling in love!
Charlotte, Raphael and Skye watched as Gideon paced Charlie’s bedroom. The girl had finally fallen asleep after hours of happily staring at her ceiling in a romance-induced state.
“But, Gideon, she is eighteen! This is long overdue and it’s Nate! He is a good guy. If I had to go handpick someone for Charlie, he is who I would pick for her. Why are you stomping so hard?” Charlotte tried to reason with Charlie’s guardian, but he wasn’t ready to listen to reason just yet. He had known the way the wind was blowing between those two longer than anyone, most likely, but he liked it better when Charlie was clueless to it and Nate was still off being honorable a thousand miles away.
Chapter 15
Taking her mother up on her advice, Charlie sought out Devon the following afternoon. He was working on the tractor under the shed when she walked up and started handing him tools as he needed them. After an hour of this Devon looked at her grease-covered hands and red chilled fingers.
“Charlie girl, I’m not saying that I’m not grateful for your help, but I have a gut feeling there was something else that brought you out here. My gut is usually dead on, so what’s up?” He tossed the wrench down and looked at her, waiting until Charlie finally asked him what was on her mind. Devon shook his head as he wiped his hands on a grease towel then handed it to Charlie.
“That boy has it bad. I don’t know what you did to sink your little claws so deep into his heart, but he has the worst case of love blues I have ever seen. I thought maybe going off for so long might cure it for him, but, if anything, it’s worse. So are you saying that you feel the same way about Nate?”
Not able to meet Devon’s direct stare, Charlie looked at the ground and nodded.
“I think so…yes,” she admitted quietly.
“You think so? This is usually something a person is pretty sure about.”
Bringing her head up, she looked him in the eye. “I love Nate and I’m sure of it.” She said it with conviction and without wavering. Devon smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they walked back to the house.
“I know that, Charlie girl. I wanted to make sure you knew it.”
Charlie stopped and looked up at him. “So now what? What do I do now?”
“Just wait, sweetheart. Let him come to you. I bet you won’t have to wait long.” Charlie sighed as they started up the steps. “I hope you’re right.”
Devon smiled as he looked over her head at the dust trail coming down the driveway. Taking her by the shoulders, he turned her around.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I’m right.”
Charlie gasped when she saw Seth’s old blue truck coming down the drive. She knew it wasn’t Seth driving because he never got the truck out of third gear these days. It was Nate!
“Oh, no! I look terrible! I’m covered in grease and…and…stall him!” Whirling around faster than a springtime tornado, Charlie bolted into the house and ran upstairs to change. Devon waited for Nate to park the truck and step out. He was out of uniform, but there was still no mistaking the mark that military training left on the way a man stood and carried himself. He smiled and opened the door for the young man.
“Hey, Nate, come on in.”
“Thank you. I believe it’s even colder
out there today than yesterday,” Nate commented as his eyes searched the kitchen and the living room looking for Charlie.
“Yeah, calling for snow later today, followed by days of it raining hot dogs and French fries.”
Nate smiled and nodded, still watching for Charlie. “That’s what I heard, too,” he said absentmindedly.
Devon busted out laughing! “Oh, Lord, have mercy – it’s worse than I thought. Have a seat, son, before you hurt yourself. Charlie will be down in a minute!” He pulled out a kitchen chair and pointed at it until Nate sat down, smiling sheepishly.
“I’m sorry, Devon; it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Taking pity on his discomfort, Devon nodded before he sat down across the table from him.
“Yep, but you’re no worse than I was with her mama. I didn’t know up from down any more after I locked eyes with Sabrina. Still don’t sometimes, truth be told,” he said with a wink. Devon grew serious as he looked at the man across the table that held Charlie’s heart in his hands.
“Nate, I have known you all your life, and I knew you to be a good kid, and I know you to be a good man. But I feel the need to point out to you that Charlie didn’t date while you were away…ever. I don’t think she even knew why until you came back yesterday, why she didn’t. It wasn’t because other guys weren’t interested. Believe me, she had more than her share of admirers, but none of them were you, so she shot them down. I’m not telling you this to give you a swelled head but to tell you be careful with her heart because she gave all of it to you a long time ago, so be worthy of it. Do you hear me?”
Hearing Charlie’s footsteps on the stairs, Nate looked at Devon and stretched his hand across the table. “Loud and clear.”
Nate’s heartbeat sped up as he watched Charlie come into view one step at a time. By the time she stood before him as a complete picture, he felt light-headed. Charlie had always been pretty. A pretty little girl with bouncy curls that had fascinated him so much it got him punched in the mouth. A pretty adolescent with long coltish legs and eyes that were too big for her face, but now? She took his breath away! Those same curls that his fingers still itched to tunnel through were held back from her face by a wide black headband then tumbled down to the center of her back. She looked at him with blue eyes that always had the ability to draw him in and hold him, even now tightened their hold. Wearing a simple blue and black flannel shirt and jeans with a black belt studded with rhinestones and not a drop of makeup that he could tell, Charlie was effortlessly beautiful. The best part was she didn’t even realize it.