by Cara North
It was then Charlie realized the place was set up for the baby. Gates at the entranceways just need to be pulled to keep her corralled.
“Where’s Ayden?” Tom sat one seat over from Charlie.
“He’s being a bear this morning, so I let him sleep,” Charlie said as she accepted the hot tea from Ayden’s mom. “Thank you.”
“That boy’s never slept in a day in his life.” Ben came in the kitchen entrance, kicked off his shoes, and slid slippers on.
“Angel.” He stepped to Charlie and kissed the back of her hand. “Glad to see you’re alive.”
“I’m sorry?” Charlie looked at the man who wasn’t much bigger than his wife.
“When Ayden pulled you out of that truck last night, I wasn’t sure. He smacked your head into the door. You didn’t feel it?” He winked.
“He?” Charlie reached for her head.
“I’m just teasin’.” Ben got a swat from his wife.
“Don’t pay him no mind, Charlie. He plays all the time.” Lacy began pulling plates down from the cabinet, and Noel joined her getting things set up for breakfast. “Can I do anything?” Charlie asked and began to stand.
“No, no. You’re a guest here.” Lacy waved a hand towel at her. “You like grits?”
“Um?” Charlie looked to Noel, then to Tom who thankfully nodded. “Okay?”
“Where’re you from again?” Ben asked.
“Vegas. My mother was originally from Sweden and my father from Finland. They met at a casino, and well here I am, first generation American.” Charlie smiled and shrugged.
“Scandinavian. Why aren’t you a super model?” Ben lifted his coffee as Lacy set his plate in front of him.
“I was a showgirl.” Charlie nodded. “I had the offer once, but it’s not who I am.”
“So what do you really want to be?” Ben watched her scrutinize the breakfast Lacy now set in front of her.
“I don’t know.” Charlie started with the eggs. It was a plate full of food. No way could she eat it all, but she would make herself at least try all of it.
“What she really wants to be is with Ayden.” Noel sat next to her and nodded. “You have to pull out the pictures, Momma.”
Charlie was stunned, both at Noel’s blatant confession on her behalf, and at the fact that she called Lacy Momma.
“Tell her who you were talking to yesterday that made your voice go out.” Noel nudged her under the table.
“Ayden.” Charlie was quiet. She thought for sure Noel had made peace with her, but she felt like she had just stepped in front of the firing squad now.
“My baby?” Lacy sat down slowly. “You talked to Ayden all the way here from North Carolina, and he didn’t leave you at a rest stop?”
“He likes to talk to me?” Charlie surveyed the table, and all eyes were on her except Noel.
“Told ya,” Noel said with a smile. “That will be fifty bucks each.”
“Hush.” Ben held his hand up. “Now, Charlie, you tell me this, and don’t bullshit me because I’ll know the truth.”
Charlie looked at the man.
“Who is his favorite artist?” Ben crossed his arms and waited.
“Elvis.” Charlie was insulted by the question. Anyone who knew Ayden for five minutes knew that.
“Please, Pop,” Tom chimed in. “What are those two dogs named?”
“Starsky and Lola, Hutch died two years ago, and Lola came from a neighbor.” Charlie turned to look at the dogs patiently waiting on the porch for breakfast to be over. Starsky, a black lab, and Lola, a red Doberman, were quite a pair.
“Well now.” Noel smiled again. “Pay up.”
“One more question.” Lacy Blythe smiled and turned her baby blue eyes to Charlie. “Ayden has dimples. Where are they?”
“Left and right cheeks.” Charlie stretched her neck from side to side.
“He only has a dimple in his left cheek,” Noel conceded.
“No, she’s right. I used to chase that naked ass to get clothes on it.” Lacy nodded. “Welcome to the family, Charlie.”
“We’re not getting married. We’re just trying to see if…” Charlie gulped hard. She wanted to run upstairs and drag Ayden down to manage his crazy family.
“You don’t want to marry my baby?” Lacy propped her head on her fist.
“I didn’t say that. I just…” Charlie was getting flustered.
“Stop. Don’t say another word, darlin’.” Ayden stepped off the bottom stair. Damn his family for drawing her out like that. They would ruin his plans yet. At least he had a good idea she would say yes when the time came. She also seemed reserved about it all. He still had a couple weeks to ease them both into it, no hurry.
“Ayden.” Charlie froze. Great, he heard the part about not getting married and probably thinks she doesn’t want to now. Not like, he wanted to but she could hope.
“Oh, Ayden, we’re just having some fun. Hell, you don’t talk to anyone, and you wore this poor girl out on the drive up here. How could we resist?” Lacy stood and walked to her son.
Ayden stood in the kitchen doorway with a scowl on his face so mean Charlie didn’t know what to expect next. “You give me a kiss. I’m your momma and you’re not too big to get your ass whipped.”
“You see how they treat me, Charlie?” Ayden kissed the woman on the cheek and made his way toward Charlie. He stopped to kiss Page on the cheek, passed Tom smacking him on the back of the neck, kissed Noel on the cheek and moved to Charlie. “I get more love from the dogs than them.”
Ayden pulled her chair out and pulled her up.
“Ayden?” He kissed her full on the lips and took her seat. “Uh, Ayden?”
“What?” He pulled at her, and reluctantly she sat in his lap. He could tell she was uncomfortable, but he didn’t care. He wanted her close, and he wanted his family to see where his loyalties lie. “This is my seat.”
Ayden picked up her fork and began eating her breakfast. Charlie didn’t complain because she had barely touched it. Half a biscuit and two eggs was more than the bowl of cereal she usually ate. Ayden’s mom had pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits stuffed on the plate.
Ben smiled and nudged his wife. Noel wasn’t lying about any of it. Ayden was definitely in love. His voice was just as hoarse as Charlie’s meaning they had indeed talked all the way to Tennessee. Now was the real test of questions.
“Whatcha plan on doin’ while you’re in?” Ben finished his plate and carried it to the kitchen. “Want some coffee?”
“Please.” Ayden looked toward the kitchen to talk to him. He was aware that everyone including Charlie was looking at him for the answer. “Take Charlie out on the horses today, and tomorrow I thought I’d take her to Graceland.”
“Tomorrow is your birthday.” Noel slugged his arm. “We have a surprise party planned.”
“Surprise.” Ayden shrugged. “I won’t be there.”
“Ayden, you will be at that party,” Lacy informed her son. “Take Charlie to Graceland in the morning and be home by seven tomorrow night.”
Charlie was in awe at how the women talked to Ayden. Noel had seemed bossy, but his mother was in control around here. Ayden didn’t seem to be fazed in the least. He ate her breakfast and patted her on the thigh. He smiled at Ben who gave a look of commiseration when he handed the coffee to him.
“We’ll see.” Ayden shrugged. He had planned to take her parking tomorrow night and really enjoy his birthday. Instead, he was no doubt in for cake and ice cream. A man of his age shouldn’t have to deal with surprise parties.
“Evelyn and Joshua are flying in, you ogre. What else were you going to do?” Noel faced him.
“I was going to enjoy a nice quiet birthday,” Ayden conceded. Why the hell had they made this fuss? Charlie was stunned into silence. It was as if she wasn’t there except she was. Her sympathetic touch to the hand he rested on her thigh let him know she wanted a quiet night, too.
“Oh.” Noel frowned. “We all thou
ght it would be nice to throw you a party. It’s the first time you’ve been home for a birthday since…”
“Since you were seventeen,” his mother said with her hands now on her hips. “I’m not getting any younger, and I barely see you as it is. Don’t break my heart, Ayden.”
“Noel said you have baby pictures?” Charlie chimed in. They had beaten him into submission she could feel it. Poor Ayden, no wonder he enjoyed her pampering so much. She made a mental note to baby him a lot while they were here, starting now.
“You don’t…” Ayden tried to take the plate back, but Charlie stroked her hand across his hair and smiled. He let go of it. He was used to the guilt trips and the fickle ways of his mother, and Noel acted just like her most of the time. Charlie pampered him in the strangest but essential ways. He slept in while she faced his family. They would have roused him at seven no matter what had she not run interference. Now she cleaned up after him like she had lived here all her life. “Thank you, darlin’.”
Lacy smiled, Ayden called the woman darlin’. She really liked Charlie. The woman knew how to treat her son. She didn’t have the luxury of babying Ayden as a single mother. He had out grown her by the time he was ten, and the only thing she could do was nag him and guilt him and boss him to keep his ass out of trouble. She was grateful when Ben’s brother had given him an after school job on the ranch. Grateful that Ben had patience with a teenager when they got married.
When Noel came along, it was the opposite, a nine-year-old girl who was beaten and abused. She taught her all the defensive moves and how to get control of a man. Noel excelled at bossing, yet the child couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. Incidentally how she came to be in their custody in the first place.
“Come on, Charlie, let me get you those pictures.” Lacy linked Charlie’s fingers in her own and guided her to the living room.
* * *
With Charlie out of sight and earshot, Ayden turned to the remaining family. “What the hell are you guys doing? I told you to be nice not put her through an inquisition.”
“I bet them fifty bucks each you would bring home Charlie and she would know more about you than anyone,” Noel confessed. She smiled a guilty smile at Ayden and shrugged. “She handled things just fine. You think I should split it, seventy-five each? She did do all the work.”
Ayden growled. “And a birthday party. Who throws a party for a man my age?”
“We do. Jesus, Ayden, you’re not dead, and a birthday party was a nice way for Charlie to get to be a part of the family. It’s more for her than for you if you want the truth.” Noel unlocked Page from the high chair and held her on her hip. “Did you know she has spent every holiday alone or working for the past ten years?”
“What?” Ayden looked at Noel and then to Tom. Tom threw both hands up in a defensive wave letting Ayden know he was on his own.
“Yeah.” Noel scowled at him. “You really should take all this time you’re wasting and get to know her.” Noel moved toward the hall. Charlie and Lacy were downstairs in the family room with the photo albums. “She just answered trivial questions about your life, but I bet you can’t tell me any of those silly things about hers. If it wasn’t in a file, you don’t know it, do you?”
Ayden gulped hard. He swallowed his sister’s words like a brick. It tore his throat and hit his stomach leaving a heavy feeling of remorse. Noel was right. What he knew about Charlie was wrapped around the past and the intimacy of the present. He didn’t know her favorite color or her favorite song. Ayden couldn’t respond, and Noel burned a hole in him with her gaze.
“That’s what I thought,” Noel said in a sad whisper and left the room.
“It takes time to know those things,” Tom reassured him. “You just started dating, and Charlie could be a private eye she asks so many questions.”
“There’s no excuse.” Ayden heaved a heavy sigh.
“No, there isn’t. But it’s not too late to do something about it.” Ben sat across from Ayden. “Women are talkers by nature. Men have to work at it. That’s why your mother and I work so well. She talks. I listen. If I started talking about what I like, she’d probably kick me to the couch.”
“I agree.” Tom nodded. “Noel always says she wants me to talk to her, but she really only wants me to talk to her about what she’s interested in.” “Do you know her favorite color?” Ayden looked at Tom.
“Yeah, yellow.” Tom stood. “But that’s because she made sure I knew it. She reminds me and tells me all the things I should know about her. Charlie is only interested in knowing about you. If she’s not telling you about her…”
“I’d look into it.” Ben nodded. “Women like to talk. And they like to talk about what they like. If she’s not telling you what she likes and doesn’t like, I’d look into it.”
“Great.” Ayden scrubbed his hands over his face. Complicated. His relationship with Charlie was not complicated before. They met every year, and she told him a few things and then picked his brain about the last year of his life. It was easy, familiar and routine. Not complicated.
The men wandered down to the family room one at a time. Page was crawling around on the floor playing with whatever toy held her interest for the moment and then moving on to something else. Ayden watched the child from the bottom of the stairs and decided that women must be born complicated. Tom was laughing with the rest as they passed the pictures around.
“What’s so funny?” Ayden moved to stand next to the couch and grabbed the photo from Tom’s hand. “Mother.”
“What?” Lacy dabbed her tears.
“I’m naked.” Ayden handed the photo back to her to put in the pile.
“You’re wearing a cowboy hat, honey. That’s not naked.” Lacy smiled. “He hated wearing clothes.” She put the photo back in the box.
“You’re only at age three?” He shook his head. “You’ll have to finish my humiliation another time.”
“Oh, Ayden, lighten up, she’s seen your naked ass before.” Lacy laughed again.
Ayden shot Charlie a wide- eyed look of confusion. All she could do was shrug.
“I think she’s had enough fun today anyways.” Lacy gathered the last photos and put them back in the box.
“Are we going riding now?” Charlie asked.
“If you still want to.” Ayden pushed his hand through his hair. He didn’t want things to be complicated and yet here they were.
He was looking at her not knowing what she really wanted to do, and now afraid she was only doing it because he wanted to. Ayden didn’t want her to follow along at all costs just to make him happy.
“Of course I do.” Charlie stood. “What should I wear?”
“Jeans, shoes you won’t mind getting muddy. I’ll give you one of my shirts…”
“Do I get to wear a hat?” Charlie was beaming.
“Sure, honey, you can wear whatever you want.” Ben nodded.
“Are you going, too?” Charlie looked at Noel. Of course, she wasn’t, she was pregnant, but no one was supposed to know that yet.
“Uh, no.” Noel hadn’t told anyone about the baby. She knew it was too soon to have another baby, but now that they were looking to move to Charlotte, she may just quit working all together.
“Oh that’s right.” Charlie smiled. Noel had put her on the spot this morning and though she liked her, she wasn’t going to let her think she was as easy to boss or manipulate as Ayden. She also didn’t want her to think she could continue to boss or manipulate Ayden, not without getting a little pay back. “I forgot about the baby.”
“Baby?” Lacy now looked to Noel. “You have something you want to tell us, young lady?”
“Tom!” Noel squealed.
“It’s not like they can’t tell.” Tom rolled on the floor with Page. “Hell, Ayden thought you were just getting fat. I thought it was better to tell the truth than let people think that.”
“Fat?” Noel looked to Ayden then to Lacy. “Momma, you too?”
“Most couples gain a few pounds in the first years. I didn’t think you were fat.” Lacy glared at Tom. “But he’s put on the husband ten. I thought you may have, too.”
“I have not gained ten pounds.” Tom felt his stomach then looked at Ayden and Ben. He had probably gained fifteen. Ben was older, but he worked the land and kept fit from it. Ayden always looked ready for an Incredible Hulk role to open up again. “Shit.”
“Shit.” Page spoke clear as day.
Laughter broke out. The child’s first clear word besides “mommom” and “dadada” was shit.
“Well, you should all know Evelyn is pregnant, too. She told me last night on the phone,” Noel said it to reveal a secret, but no one was surprised. “You already knew. No one tells me anything.”
“I’m surprised they let Tom still work after marrying you.” Ayden shook his head and reached for Charlie’s hand. The woman had balls taking on Noel like that.
“What does that mean?”
“You can’t keep a secret, honey, never have been able to, probably never will.” Lacy smiled and hugged her. She may not have given birth to Noel, but she was her child. “You are my child, Noel. God sent you to me for a reason. I love you dearly and I’m not mad that this little one is coming so soon. I need all the grandchildren I can get.”
Charlie followed Ayden up the stairs and listened to the women talking. She missed that, having her mother and her father around. She missed Michael the most. It was fun to spar with Noel and even more fun to confide in Stephanie. She was stealing Ayden’s family one by one and hoping to keep them. Hoping to keep him.
Ayden was already in a well fitted pair of jeans that were soft and worn. His T-shirt fit just as snug, and as he slipped into a pair of hiking boots, Charlie crossed her arms in agitation. “Why aren’t you wearing boots?”
“I am.” Ayden didn’t look up. She had been asking him questions about the horses, probably trying to avoid telling him anything about herself. “You brought tennis shoes, right?”
“Yeah, but you’re supposed to wear cowboy boots.” Charlie had imagined him in boots and a hat. Her Tennessee cowboy come to life.
“I don’t think I even own cowboy boots anymore, darlin’.” Ayden shrugged. Why the hell was she wrapped up about what he put on his feet?