When she mentioned school, Luke met her eyes for one long look, but she couldn’t face those green eyes and had to look away. It was going to be hard enough to climb into the Taco Rocket and drive away without him knowing how she was feeling as well. The rest of the afternoon she spent waffling between enjoying being with him and trying not to feel so good about being with him, but it was hopeless.
Riding the ferry in the breeze off the water, with him standing beside her at the rail while the kids sat on the bench below them, made it all the harder not to imagine her and Luke, with kids of their own doing this same thing some day.
A gull cried as it wheeled in the spray and as she turned to look at it, the wind caught a curl and blew it across her lips. She reached to brush it out of the way, but Luke’s calloused brown hand beat her to it, and she looked up into his eyes as he gently smoothed the curl from her face. Glancing down from her eyes to her mouth, he softly ran a thumb across her bottom lip and her stomach did some little gymnastic thing as he did it. He looked back up into her eyes and gave her that easy smile before he turned away to answer a question for Elsa. The electricity of the moment was gone again as quickly as it had come, but the butterflies it had loosed in her heart were still fluttering like mad and she had to work to be able to breathe. She had no idea what that casual touch meant to him, but she had never felt like this before. It scared her.
Her lip tingled all the rest of the boat ride and even during the drive back to the hotel and as they walked in the glass front doors, Evie asked her, “Are you sick, Charlie? You’ve been very quiet.”
She glanced at Luke, carrying a sleeping Jamie beside her and knew he’d been watching her as well and she tried to brush it off. “I’m fine, Evie. I’m just thinking, but thank you for asking. The party tonight is going to be fun, isn’t it?” The little girls went off chattering about how excited they were and Charlie was able to try to get some semblance of a normal state of mind back before they made it up to the hotel rooms. But she never was able to get Luke off of her brain, even when she was back in her own room and dressing.
****
The reception that night was fun in some ways. The little girls thought they had died and gone to the prom and that Jamie was their own personal prom king. They were all three dressed for it in their lacy little dresses and a suit and tie and they were unbelievably cute. After the dinner they wanted to dance and Charlie stayed near them on the dance floor. It was supposedly to keep tabs on them, but Luke stayed nearby as well and Charlie was definitely enjoying her duties when he danced there with her. She tried to laugh and maintain her cheerful distance, but when the band played slow songs it was heaven to be in his arms. All of her earlier ideas about keeping her distance went out the window and it was all she could do not to melt. The best she was capable of was trying not to let it be obvious.
Chase came by occasionally and tried to get her to dance with him as well, but she politely declined him every time. Even though she tried to pretend that she was only being sociable to Luke, she definitely drew the line when it came to purposefully letting Chase get his hands anywhere near her.
Several times Fo came by, but there were always either girls he’d known forever with him or new girls that someone had introduced him to, and Charlie hardly even got to talk to him all night.
When her parents showed up, they had Elroy in tow and when they located Charlie on the dance floor, they brought him with them there as well. Her parents began to dance and she dutifully danced with Elroy, telling herself it was just for this one song. That song was followed by another slow one however and she found herself being maneuvered away from the others to a more secluded corner where Elroy apparently finally felt the need to discuss their future.
At first, Charlie didn’t understand what was going on, but when he stroked her hand with his and leaned in to kiss her temple she began to wise up fast. She was just pulling away to put more distance between the two of them when Elroy said, “Charlie, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.” She looked up at him wondering what exactly was coming when he went on, “You must know your parents have spoken to me several times about taking care of you.”
At this, she stopped dancing altogether and pulled away from him. “Yes, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that as well.”
“Oh, good. Then you know what I’m about to ask you.”
She looked up at him and knew she needed to stop him before he asked something he’d be embarrassed about when she told him unequivocally no. “No. I don’t know what you’re going to ask me, but you need to know, Elroy. I’m not really interested in having any kind of relationship just now. Especially not one that my parents have any say in. I’m heading to law school here in a few weeks and that will take years. I know my mother has a tendency to want to micromanage my life and she thinks she’s in charge, but I’m simply not interested. I’m sorry.”
He only smiled serenely and, completely unconcerned about what she had just said, replied, “You’re mother told me you would probably say something like that. Don’t worry. I’m incredibly patient and have no problem waiting for you to deal with whatever you need to to arrange to come back here for law school and your internships. And trust me; I do understand your hesitation. Take all the time you want until you feel comfortable with me. Your mom has told me about how you sometimes need extra encouragement in making decisions.”
Charlie’s mouth dropped open and she looked at him in disbelief. He hadn’t taken her anymore seriously than her parents usually did. For a long time she had assumed he was a bit simple, but he wasn’t. He was merely as power crazed and out of touch with reality as her parents and the rest of her family.
Just as she was about to tear into him and let him have a piece of her mind right here at the reception, Luke danced over to her with Elsa and Jamie in his arms. He whispered something to the children and then set them down to dance together as he said to Charlie. “I’ve been looking for you. Isn’t this the song you said to save for you? Come dance with me and save me from these two will you?”
Without even waiting for her answer, he stepped neatly in front of Elroy and took her in his arms and then subtly danced her away from the speechless attorney. Elsa and Jamie followed them and soon they were back over on the other side of the small dance floor near where Fo was dancing with a very animated Evie.
Charlie literally sighed with relief and Luke smiled hesitantly down at her and asked, “Are you as thoroughly disgusted as you looked over there, or am I reading you wrong?”
She leaned into him instinctively and asked, “Does it show that clearly? I’m sorry.”
His breath fanned her heated brow as he spoke. “I’m not sure if I rescued you or him. What did he say to you?”
“I don’t know that I can even tell you without wanting to swear. I tried very politely to tell him I wasn’t interested in any kind of a relationship, and he replied that my mother had told him I would say that. He said my feelings weren’t a problem. That he could wait until I arranged to come back here to go to school and that my mother had warned him I’d need help making my decision about him. That he could wait. He didn’t even begin to consider that I could actually decide for myself that we weren’t going to have a relationship.”
Luke chuckled at her outrage. “After knowing you these last weeks, I have a hard time picturing them assuming things like that. You haven’t seemed very indecisive to me.”
She thought about that. “Elroy doesn’t even know me. And I don’t truly think I am indecisive. It’s just that they’re so unbending and so self assured, they don’t stop to consider the fact I might have a brain or that I’m not a child anymore. I don’t think it’s ever crossed my mother’s mind I might have an idea of my own that could be viable.”
He gathered her into his arms more tightly almost as if to hug her and said, "Maybe what you need to do is simply get married. They’d never wonder about arranging your life again.”
Charl
ie laughed and it felt good to let the frustration go. “That’s a great idea, Luke. But I’ve spent most of my life learning to be pro-active and not basing my decisions on what someone else does or wants. Wouldn’t marrying almost in revenge be just a trifle foolish?”
He smiled down at her. “That would depend on who you married.”
His green eyes looking down at her with the little smile lines starting around them and talking about marriage, even in an off hand way, made her a bit breathless. For a second there she wasn’t thinking all that clearly. Then Luke chuckled again and Charlie looked up to see what he was laughing at. “The tough old birds aren’t very happy about me rescuing you. I’m not sure, but I believe the look I just got could be considered a glower.”
Still more than a little outraged at Elroy, Charlie moved even closer to him and said, “Yeah, well, here’s to being rebellious. Let’s turn our backs to their glowering, shall we? Being rebelliously pro-active would dictate that I not let them and their scheming ruin my night.”
Luke laughed again and turned away from her parents. “Now, I’ve read a few books in my day, but rebelliously pro-active sounds suspect to me. You’re not taking those pain pills again are you?”
She smiled and relaxed against him. “You’re missing the spirit of the thing.” She paused for a second and then said, “You know you shouldn’t talk about marriage so casually. My parents may not understand the seriousness of it all, but you should.”
Just then he turned to avoid another couple and then looked down and met her eyes. “I wasn’t speaking casually, Charlie. They certainly couldn’t keep trying to marry you off if you already were.”
She gave him a lopsided smile. “You’re forgetting that he’s a divorce lawyer.”
Luke shook his head and laughed. “I guess there is that. Maybe we’ll have to figure something else out.” He looked all around the hotel ballroom and wondered aloud, “How long do you suppose we have to stay here to be considered polite?”
“Aren’t you having fun?”
“I’m fine, but doesn’t that deep conversation between your parents and Elroy look like a war party powwow to you. They’re cooking something serious up. Maybe we should discretely leave. Do you feel strongly about staying?”
Charlie shook her head and looked over to where her mother and father were in a decidedly serious looking conversation with Elroy that included numerous glances in her and Luke’s direction. None of them were looking too happy and she had to wonder if Luke wasn’t right.
He danced her over to the side of the floor and whispered, “Why don’t you act as if you’re headed to the restroom and I’ll tell Fo’s parents thank you and good night and collect the three little one’s. We’ll take them back to Dad and Angela’s suite and either get them ready for bed or take them down to the coffee shop and get desert or head for the pool. Where would your parents be the least likely to look?”
“It’ll never work, Luke. They’d call out hotel security looking for me if I didn’t answer my phone.”
“So just tell them you took something for your shoulder, which would be true and don’t worry about it.”
“Actually, they don’t know about my shoulder, but maybe lying low for the night would be fun. There’s a theater next door. I wonder if anything is playing that the little kids could see. I’d be hard to find in the dark.”
He looked surprised and asked, “You didn’t tell your parents?”
“No. I didn’t think I should.”
“I would have thought it would have been nice to have someone to talk to about what happened.”
She shook her head. “Me tell my parents I’d been assaulted in a pig barn feeding the runt in the middle of the night? No. They would have been horrified and simply insisted I come home immediately and raised a fuss. I talked to Fo. And a little bit to you. My parents wouldn’t have even wanted to know that one.”
The look he gave her almost made her feel guilty for not telling them, but he didn’t say anything else about it, just whispered to her as they neared a side door, “I’ll meet you at the rooms in a few minutes. See ya.”
She slipped out the door and it made her smile to think Luke was helping her elude her parents and their chosen betrothed. Maybe she should have been making it harder for them to find her all along. She was half way to her room before her phone rang.
****
Luke had joked with her about hiding from her parents and their intended in-law, but the tender kiss he’d seen Elroy give her on her temple when she’d been dancing with him hadn’t really been a laughing matter. That one little gesture had ticked Luke off and surprised him at the same time. He was usually pretty slow to rile, but somehow that kiss had been a wake up call. He’d known he cared a great deal for Charlie, but hadn’t realized how much until then. It had made him positively territorial and he’d been hard pressed to hide the slow burn he felt rise inside him. At least the kiss had made her move straight away from the guy. Luke’s smile came back when he thought about the look of total disgust he had seen on her face as he’d come up to them.
He collected the kids, bade Fo’s parents good night and made his way from the ballroom. He hated to encourage the rift between her and her family, but there was no way he could stand by and watch that pretty boy in the expensive suit and Italian shoes claim her. He didn’t understand her unwillingness to confront her parents and put a stop to all of this, but at least he could help ease her tension about them tonight.
Surprisingly, the kids were tired and were perfectly happy to head on up to the room to get ready for bed. Charlie peeked out of her own door as they approached and came across to his dad’s suite and helped him get them changed and into pajamas and get ready for bed. Their teeth were brushed and prayers were said when his dad and Angela showed up with both Fo and Chase in their wake. Tuckett was staying at Fo’s parents’ house with a cousin and he’d stayed downstairs, and Madge had actually struck up an acquaintance with one of the men from Fo’s dad’s company. She had stayed downstairs as well.
It was only nine o’clock and Luke was stumped as to why his dad and Angela had come up so early, but from the less than happy vibes he was getting he wondered if Angela hadn’t been up to her usual antics and his dad had called her on it. At any rate, his father took his parenting seriously and would have been up sometime relatively soon to be with his small children anyway. That was probably bothering Angela as well. She hated that sort of responsibility.
With the kids settled in, the four young adults headed next door to the theater to find out what was playing and Charlie seemed to take an almost childish pleasure in turning her phone to silent and then putting it where she couldn’t feel it vibrate. She should have been doing this kind of thing for a long time. She seemed to feel like it was a bit petty, but it was still preferable to being dominated ruthlessly.
She smiled gratefully when Fo and Luke neatly sat on either side of her as they took seats in the darkened theater to keep Chase from hassling her. It was great to be able to watch over so smoothly. Fo had always looked out for her, but now Luke helped and it was like being her own personal Guardian Angels. As they sat and shared popcorn and milk duds back and forth, the only thing he wished for was that cowhide couch back home that let her lean comfortably against his shoulder.
****
When they got out of the movie, there were several messages waiting for her from both of her parents and Elroy. The last one was from her mom demanding Charlie call tonight no matter how late it was and she didn’t sound very happy. Charlie sighed knowing that tomorrow she was in for one of the discussions she had come to dread. She wondered if the confrontation Luke had asked about was finally going to happen, but she turned off her phone for the night anyway. She owed that to the Langstons. This wasn’t their problem; the least she could do was spare them the dramatics tonight.
She was still feeling that way the next morning at breakfast when she took the inevitable call from her mother. Charlie let her ve
nt for a moment or two and then calmly said, “Mother, I appreciate your feelings, but I’m in the middle of a family meal just now. So we’ll have to finish this later. Please forgive me, but I have to go.”
Norma Evans wasn’t amused. Her voice could be heard by everyone at the table as she replied, “Charlene Marie Evans, I will not be treated like this! You and I have some things to discuss and we will do it right now!”
Again Charlie calmly said, “No, mother. We won’t. I have to go. Love you.” With that, she pressed the end button and then completely powered the phone down. Turning to the others, she apologized and tried to feign that all was well. “Sorry about that. So what are you doing today, Evie and Elsa?”
Luke was looking at her with that deep, quiet way he had as the little girls began to enthusiastically tell her their plans for going to the ocean. Inwardly she sighed. It would have been great to go with them today, but she knew she had about twenty minutes before her very irate mother would appear to demand her discussion. She had to protect this good family from the inevitable theatrics that resulted when her power monger mother felt thwarted and Charlie hurried to finish her breakfast and then excused herself. On the way out of the room, she asked Richard if he could manage without her for the time being and then went to wait at the curb for her mother. At least if she was inside a vehicle to vent her wrath, everyone else wouldn’t have to be subjected to her as well.
Charlie was surprised when Luke pulled up beside her in one of the rental cars. He rolled down the window and looked at her for a minute with concern and then asked quietly, “How can I help you, Charlie? Do you have to face her? Will it do any good? Or can we keep dodging her until we get on the plane tonight? Will she be mad enough to follow you back to Montana?”
Charlie tried to smile, but it wasn’t working very well as she replied, “I don’t know how you can help me, Luke. It won’t do any good to face her, but I don’t know what else to do. I’ll go to law school to avoid dealing with them, but there’s no way I’m marrying someone to please them. I can’t do it and I won’t.”
The Outer Edge of Heaven Page 12