by Seton, Cora
And she was on the porch, sitting in one of the chairs, watching us. Her arms were crossed and there was a scowl on her face. Apparently, she didn’t want to be up this early either.
Vince waved at her as he got out of the passenger side of his truck. “Hey, Charlie!”
The familiarity with which he addressed her poked at my jealous side. According to Mom, the Morgans had moved in after I’d left for boot camp, which at least, addressed why I’d not met Charlie before. I hadn’t been home since then. But Vince had, and Coby was her age, so they’d probably gone to school together.
Charlie’s scowl melted away and she hesitantly waved back with a small smile. She stood up and stepped down the porch steps. “Vince, I didn’t know you were home.”
He shrugged. “Christmas break.”
“How’s school? Veterinary med, right?”
“Yeah,” Vince said, a slight lift of surprise in his voice. “I’ll be back at A&M in January. I can’t believe you remembered that.”
I didn’t hear her response. Jealousy pounded in my ears. She knew my family. My brothers, my sisters, knew details of their lives. If I’d come home more often, maybe she’d have at least known my face.
I had no right to be jealous. I wasn’t stable or dependable like Vince. I was stuck in the past I couldn’t change. So much so that I’d become addicted to the adrenaline rush of the secret military operation I’d been recruited for right out of BUD/S.
“Yeah, the work’s pretty hard, but I love it.” Vince’s voice filtered its way back through my ears.
“Nothing that’s worth it is ever easy,” Charlie said, her eyes resting on mine for a brief moment. What did that mean? Was she trying to tell me something? Like maybe I needed to try harder with her, instead of giving up? Or that it really wasn’t going to happen?
I cleared my throat and pointed back toward the truck. “Hope you don’t mind we backed the truck into your driveway. We thought it might be a good idea to get the porch started before the heat rolled in.”
“It’s December,” she chuckled, a musical sound I hadn’t expected. “There’s not a lot of heat.”
“Yeah, but the sun…” I trailed off as I looked up. The sky was overcast today. I was just spouting off stupid things. It was like my brain disconnected whenever she was around.
She broke eye contact with me and moved to Coby. “I hadn’t seen you in a while, Coby.”
Coby grinned and took her hand, that special Prince Charming smile splitting his lips. “Miss me?”
“Like I missed a car wreck,” she said, grinning back. “How’s the shop?”
“Same ol’, same ol’.” Coby shrugged. “I’ve graduated from changing tires to changing oil these days.”
“Wow, Matt sure is taking advantage of your skills,” Charlie giggled back. “I hadn’t seen you since graduation much.”
“I work a lot of early mornings,” he said.
“That would explain it. The bar’s mostly nights. I suppose, we’re just passing by each other without knowing it.”
I clenched my fists. Coby was flirting with her. And she was doing it back. That wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Though it made sense. Coby was her age. I had two years on them. Maybe she wanted someone closer to her age. Oh, that made my chest hurt.
Vince glanced at me and then back to Coby. A heavy sigh left his mouth. “Down, Jesse.”
“What?” I snapped my head to the side.
“So, Charlie, we’re going to need to move the furniture from the porch.”
“Just set them in the garage. It’s open.”
“Oh, and Mom wanted me to tell you to come by, too.”
Charlie’s eyes widened, ever so slightly. “Really?”
“She’s just being nosy because she hadn’t seen you in a bit,” Coby blurted. Vince glared and punched his shoulder. “Ow! What was that for?”
“You weren’t supposed to say that, you dumb shit,” Vince growled.
Charlie’s eyes slid over to mine, smoldering with unhidden heat that hit me as soon as our eyes locked. Ha. She was still thinking about me.
“I’ll walk you there,” I offered.
“So you can skip out? No fucking way!” Coby protested. “I’ll take her.”
We were going to fight over who got to take Charlie fifteen feet next door?
“I can actually walk myself,” Charlie protested. “I hardly need an escort to go next door.”
Vince’s gaze slid between me and Coby again. His brow pinched tightly together this time, and suspicion crept into his gaze. Could he see that something had happened between us? Not much got by the majority of Sugar Falls, but I didn’t think that our few private kisses would have made the gossip column at the Sugar Falls Gazette just yet. He rolled his eyes. “Five minutes, Jesse, and your ass better be here.”
“Seriously, I can walk on my own,” Charlie said.
“Nope. My mama taught me to be a gentleman.” I grinned sweetly at her, but she only glared back.
“Too bad that whole gentleman thing didn’t take,” Vince said, laughing.
I ignored Vince and I held out my elbow to her. “So?”
She didn’t look like she wanted to. In fact, she looked perilously close to running away. Was I pushing too much again? It was so hard to tell with her. Finally, she nodded. “Oh, fine.” A blush crept up her cheek as her fingers wrapped around my upper arm, her cool fingers touching the skin on the inside of my elbow.
As soon as we left the front yard and left the direct sight of my brothers, I veered her toward the back gate and yanked her into our backyard.
*
Charlene
I let out a small shriek of surprise as my body jerked through the gate to Jesse’s backyard. He shut the gate, the latch closing with a loud clack of permanence. “What the hell, Jesse?”
“You were flirting with my brother.”
“I was not,” I snapped. “You’re imagining things.” Coby was already a giant flirt. He’d asked me out half a dozen times our senior year in high school. I was a social pariah on my best day, but even I knew he needed to stay far from me. And now Jesse was acting almost the same way, if not more forward than Coby.
“You should go to dinner with me.”
I glanced up, which was a big mistake. The day light had cast a halo off his blond hair, giving him the ethereal glow like an old portrait. His warmth and strength enveloped me, pulled me under his spell. “I… what?”
“Look, I know you said no, and obviously, neither of us is out there for a relationship, but there’s something between us, something I’d like to explore.”
Explore? Like dating? That did not compute for me. Why on earth would he want to date me? I was bad news. The entire town knew it, even if they never said it. And why would they? I was the daughter of the town savior.
“And how would we explore with dinner?” I asked.
“Well, we already had the first kiss, so I suppose that takes the awkward out of the first date.” Jesse leaned against the fence. “Come on, Chuckles, I’m just asking for dinner.”
“Stop calling me that,” I said. The name grated on every nerve I had.
“Why? I like it. Chuckles.” He grinned. “It fits. Because you’re so cheery and all.”
I rolled my eyes. Cheery was probably not even close to me.
“So, is that a yes?”
“Is what a yes?”
“I asked you out for dinner.”
“No, you didn’t,” I replied.
“Yeah I did.”
“No, you demanded it.”
“Well, I thought—” He stopped himself, and a frown creased his brow. I rather liked him being off-kilter for once. He was so good at making me off-balance. I decided to press my luck a little more.
“A kiss does not get you dinner. Neither does asking me repeatedly or demanding that I go.” Quiet passed between us. Jesse’s smile fell and he avoided my gaze.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and he hung hi
s head like a chastised five year old.
Surprised, I shut my mouth with an audible click of my teeth. I’d never really had a guy apologize to me before. Brent certainly never had, and my parents… well, they were usually right, and apologizing would have been counter-productive for them. And Damien? Please. Eleven-year-olds didn’t even know what apologies were. He lived to irritate me. “What did you say?”
A long beat of silence stretched between us. He sighed heavily. “You’re right. I’ve been very demanding and repetitive. But you do something to me. You make me want to be with you.”
“You don’t even know me,” I whispered out.
“I’d like to,” he replied. He cleared his throat. “Okay, so, this is the last time I’ll ask. After this, I’ll respect whatever answer you give me. Will you please go to dinner with me?”
His chocolate eyes were so honest, so forthright. He really meant to go to dinner with me. He’d been persistent, which was either the act of a man who really liked a girl, or a obsessed stalker. I didn’t think he was the latter, though I supposed I could be wrong. He had helped me with Smith, too. Maybe I owed him dinner. I swallowed hard and a few harsh seconds of silence followed before I nodded. “Dinner, and that’s it?”
He nodded.
I blew out a breath. “Okay. That would be good, I think. Dinner.”
“Jesse!” Vince’s rumbling baritone echoed in the quiet morning air. “Get your ass back here!”
“I’m coming!” Jesse called back. He turned back to me.
*
Jesse
I tried to tamp down the urge to jump around and start doing my victory dance. But I figured that might scare her if I did that… and probably attract my idiot brothers, too. Instead, I grinned. “I’d kiss you to seal the deal, but my brother’s waiting for me, and if I kiss you, I’m not going back.”
She turned her head toward her side, toward the gate. She smiled, all trouble. “Guess you’ll have to wait then.”
She started toward the back door, throwing a sultry look over her shoulder. I shook my head. “Temptress.”
“I never said I wasn’t,” she replied.
“Oh, hell, fuck it.” I grabbed her hand and yanked her into my body. Her hands landed on my chest while I leaned down and smashed my lips against hers. With this girl, I had no will power. I’d intended to wait, to prolong what I’d already tasted, but she was too alluring, too tempting.
Her body melted into mine. I backed her into the side of the house, lifting her off the ground. Her legs rose and wrapped around my waist, pressing her against my growing arousal. One arm wrapped around her, the other palming her ass, under her skirt. Her panties were smooth, like satin. I squeezed the flesh, feeling the pliancy of it beneath my fingertips as we kissed.
Her fingers slid into my hair, trying to grip the short hairs that were barely there. I suddenly wished it was just a little longer so she could.
I could have kissed her forever, but that wasn’t the plan. If I didn’t get back to the porch soon, one of my brothers would come looking, and getting caught with my hand up her skirt was not on my list of things to do that day. Reluctantly, I pulled away. “Sorry.”
I put her down, but by the dazed expression in her eyes, I wasn’t sure she could stand without support. The male in me loved that I could do that to her, that I could have that affect on her.
“I’m not,” she replied, smoothing her skirt back to where it was supposed to be. “That makes me a little more excited for dinner if we do more of that.”
“Really?” Not that I really wanted her just to come to dinner so we could make out. I really did want to get to know her a little. Maybe figure out the mystery. Figure out why I was so attracted to her in the first place.”
“Yeah. Want to pick me up from work? I’m not closing so I should be done fairly early.”
“Sure, I can do that.”
Charlie straightened to a standing position and circled her wrists with her fingers, alternating hands to wring her wrists. She was nervous about something, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what Jason had said at the diner. There was so much I didn’t know about her, that I wanted to know. Why didn’t she want help? Why didn’t she want the police involved the other night?
In my experience, girls like her, girls that were smart and had good heads on their shoulders… sometimes they made bad decisions, like Jane did. I wondered all the time if I had been more present, if I had spent more time with her as my girlfriend, if she’d have made the same choices.
I wasn’t the white knight sort of guy back then… but these days, I had these damn protective urges anytime I saw someone in trouble. I blamed my training. It was an outlet, something where I could atone for how I had lost control with Jane and save someone where I couldn’t save her. Charlie brought that urge out in me ten fold over everything else. She brought out the white knight inside me who wanted to slay the dragon to rescue the princess. The problem was… I wasn’t sure that the princess wasn’t hanging out with dragons on her off hours.
“I’m pretty sure Vince will come after you if you don’t get back soon.” Her voice snatched me from my thoughts, pulling me back to reality. “I’m pretty sure I can find your mother on my own.” She smiled.
“So, I’ll see you tonight, right?”
She nodded. “Tonight.” Slowly, she disentangled herself from me and stepped toward the back door. I flexed my jaw as she turned the knob and went inside. I could hear my mother inside, greeting her as the door shut. I went back to the Morgan house, where Vince pulled me to the side, away from where Coby was pulling up old boards on the porch.
“What’s wrong with you?” I wrenched my arm from his grasp and stared hard at him.
Vince’s lips pursed in a tight angry line. “Are you getting involved with Charlie?”
“I don’t see how that’s your business, Vince.”
“God, do you ever think with your head, and not your dick?”
“You know I do,” I ground out through clenched teeth. How dare he ask me that, of all people.
Vince sighed hard. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just…” He stopped.
“What’s your problem?”
Vince sighed. “I like Charlie, Jesse. I do. She’s a decent girl. But she’s not the sort for you.”
“Why? Because you want her?”
“No!” Vince said quickly. “She’s Coby’s age, for God’s sakes. I was talking about because of your history with Jane.”
“Charlie only works in a bar. She’s not a drunk or a pill popper.”
“I didn’t say that. It’s just… She’s… there are things you don’t know about her.”
“I know. Everyone deigns to tell me all about how she’s the wrong sort of girl.”
“I just don’t want her endangering you, too.”
“Why does everyone say that?”
“Because that’s her heritage, Jesse. It’s her family.”
“Family does not define who you are,” I said. I believed that. If it had, I’d never have left Sugar Falls. I’d have stayed and gone to work the mechanic shop with Dad. That was what Coby was doing. But all I’d ever wanted after Jane died was to get out, and I had.
Vince sighed and shook his head. “You’re fucking useless when you’ve got it bad for a girl. Maybe someone else in this town might tell you about her.”
“Bunch of nosy assholes in this town,” I muttered. “My love life is no one’s business.”
“Maybe. But it will get around to you, sooner or later.” He glanced at our house again. “Are you seeing her soon?”
“Tonight.”
“Ask her then.”
“What do you mean? Why should I? Her past is her past. I don’t care.” Even as I said it, I didn’t believe it. I wouldn’t have been poking Jason if I believed that. I did care, especially where Charlie Morgan was concerned. Not that her past would change anything. But because I cared.
“Because it’s clear that you’re not level-h
eaded where she’s concerned. If I have to watch you make any more googly eyes at her, I might puke on your shoes.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Deny it if you must,” Vince grinned. “I know the truth. You never really dated in high school, Jesse.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You never really had sex, either.”
“Whoa. We’re not going there,” I growled at him. “I’ve had sex before.”
“Okay. I’m just saying… guys who have sex on a regular basis don’t say ‘I’ve had sex before’. She’s the first girl you’ve ever shown that kind of interest in. Physically, I mean. It could blind you to what she’s all about.”
“She is not! Jane was!” I snapped and instantly regretted it when I realized Vince had trapped me. I closed my eyes, calmed myself and asked, “Why is everyone so interested in what girl I’m attracted to?”
“We’re all just worried about you, Jesse. You really haven’t been the same since Jane.”
Jane again. My heart seized tightly, wrenching painfully in my chest. Was it hot outside all of a sudden? Was the sun beating down on me? I glanced up, but saw nothing but clouds. Nope, it was all in my head.
Vince frowned. “Fine. Forget I said anything.”
Anger swirled inside me, unreleased by the unfinished discussion between us. I wanted to punch him for bringing up Jane. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to say that he was wrong at all. Jane was the one serious girlfriend I’d ever had. Hell, she was the only girlfriend I’d ever had. I’d loved her, and we’d been each other’s firsts in so many ways. And it had ended too soon.
Chapter Eight
Charlene
‡
“Charlie, is that you?” The feminine voice drawled from the living room. The back door opened into the kitchen, which was furnished in chestnut cabinets and baby blue tiles on the walls. The Richter house was an older house, made by the same builder as my house was, so the kitchen, though completely different in decor, was identical in construction.
“Yes, Mrs. Richter,” I replied. I took a couple steps out of the kitchen and leaned around the doorway into the living room. Their living room had more of a modern feel to it, with a black and red theme prevalent through the room, but there were touches of home in it, and in the corner, a Christmas tree, thick with all kinds of ornaments from shiny metal ones to obviously homemade ceramics.