Chapter 42
CHAPTER 42
CHARLIE
A fter a morning of chores, I looked at the duffel open on my bed, pondering what else I might need to add to it. I had jeans, shirts, underwear, and socks. My boots were already on my feet and my toothbrush, toothpaste, and shampoo were stowed in a plastic baggie, zipped into the side pocket of the duffel.
Floss. I need floss .
Rubbing the back of my neck, I went to retrieve the last item from my bathroom and then glanced around my room, added my phone charger to the bag, and decided that if I needed anything else, I’d buy it. As I zipped it up, my gaze landed on my nightstand and I strode over to it, grabbing a box of condoms and chucking those in there as well.
Just in case. Always prepared.
Really not able to think of anything else I might have forgotten, I slung the duffel over my shoulder and went into the kitchen to grab some coffee for the road. Just as I started the machine, a knock fell heavily on my door. I groaned, assuming it was my brothers who’d come to say goodbye.
Colt would be going to New York with me and Dallas had decided he wanted to come too, but Cody, Wyatt, and Mason were staying behind. I trudged over to the fridge, calling out. “It’s open!”
A moment later, I was surprised when my parents walked into the kitchen instead of my brothers. I smiled at my mom and nodded at my dad, motioning at the coffeemaker behind me. “Want some?”
Dad grunted, his brow furrowing like he was confused. “Have I ever said no to that question?”
I chuckled. “Fair enough. Mama?”
“I’d love some,” she said as she pulled out a chair for herself at the kitchen table, sitting down and turning to watch me. “Do you have a minute to chat before you leave?”
“Uh, sure?” I took out two more mugs, fixing coffee for all three of us just the way we liked it before I went to join Mom at the table. Dad sat down beside her, his expression thoughtful as he reached for his mug.
I frowned, too eager to get on the road to wait them out much longer than I already had. “What’s up?”
My father placed his fingers over the top of his mug, his palm hollowed, kind of making it look like a spider sitting on top of his coffee. He turned the mug in slow semi-circles, and for a moment, he just watched the wind gusting through the tops of the trees outside.
“This visit to Manhattan is important, Charlie,” he started before finally moving his gaze to mine. It still had a thoughtful gleam to it that told me something was weighing pretty heavily on his mind. “When you get there, you have to represent the ranch as well as you always have, and watch out for Olivia, alright?”
I nodded. “I was already planning on doing both of those things.”
“It’s a huge city with lots of people.” Dad let out a deep exhale, gaze sliding back to the branches of the trees swaying in the wind. “Don’t you go and give her a reason to want to stay there, son.”
Laughter shook my shoulders even though barely a sound escaped. “You got it, Dad.”
Mom rolled her eyes at him, flashing a gentle, curious smile at me. “How are things going with her, Charlie? You can tell me. The cat’s out of the bag.”
It is? “What cat? What bag?”
Dad shook his head. “Come on.”
I sighed. “Who told?”
Mom arched a single eyebrow at me, her gaze filled with knowledge, humor, and approval. “You did, honey. Olivia too. There’s no hiding it anymore. Unless you two stop looking at each other, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. You just can’t seem to keep your eyes off each other, can you?”
I groaned and swiped a hand over my face. “I thought we were doing a better job of not making it that obvious.”
Mom gave her head a slow shake. “Maybe you would have been able to hide it from other people, but not from us, honey. Not from me .”
Glancing at Dad, I briefly wondered if he was about to shove a verbal pineapple where the sun didn’t shine for disobeying him. He didn’t say a word though, just looking at Mom like she was his entire world—and like he was trusting her with doing the talking for now.
She smiled when I looked back at her. “Are you going to tell me how it’s going yet? I like her, baby. Dad and I both do. We adore her. We’re not trying to interfere. I just want to know you’re both happy.”
“We are.” Well, I was happy, anyway. Judging by the way she’d been laughing with me the other night, I was pretty confident she felt the same way. “Things are going really smoothly, actually. I took her on our first official date on Saturday night. It was great.”
Mom beamed at me, her smile growing until it had taken over her entire face. “You treat her well, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” I looked back at my dad. “You’re not pissed about this? I thought you said none of us were to touch her.”
“Son, you touched her before the first time I ever met her, didn’t you?” he asked with a wry smile. He scoffed down a soft laugh. “The way you two have been with each other since that first meeting, there’s no way that was your first actual meeting, but you don’t have to tell me about it.”
My eyes nearly bulged out of my head, I was so surprised. Oh boy, we really haven’t been doing a good job of keeping things on the down low, have we?
At the strange gargling sound I made involuntarily at the back of my throat, Dad didn’t bother scoffing down his next laugh. He just let it out. “I told all you boys that she was off-limits, but behind closed doors, your mama and I have wanted you and Olivia to have a shot all along.”
Shocked as all get out, I couldn’t respond, but it turned out he hadn’t been done yet anyway. “At first, that morning before the meeting, I just didn’t want any of you flirting with Nathan’s daughter when I knew she would be working with us going forward, but as soon as I saw you two together, I knew the train had already left the station.”
“So you’re okay with it?” My voice was slightly higher pitched than I would’ve liked, and I cleared my throat and dragged in a deep breath in the hopes that oxygen would help me break through the shock. “What about Nathan? Do you think he knows too?”
Dad paused to think it over, then slowly shook his head. “I don’t know, son. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not too happy when he finds out you’re together, though. Makes me think he doesn’t know yet, but he probably suspects.”
I swallowed hard. “We’re not officially together yet, but if it starts leading that way, I’ll have a conversation with him.”
“That’s my boy.” Dad finally wrapped his fingers around his mug and brought his coffee to his mouth to take a sip. “Nathan might take some convincing when the time comes. We’re a client of his group of companies and it’s not likely that he’s going to support a relationship between his daughter and a client.”
“I’ll handle it,” I promised. “If it starts going in a direction that makes it necessary for him to know, I’ll take care of it.”
“I know you will, Charlie.” Dad flashed me a grin. “Well, have a good time in New York, son. Learn while you’re there. Try not to resist the experience too much, and for God’s sake, watch out for your brother and Dallas too. Don’t let them wander off.”
After giving him my word, we all finished our coffee. Once we were done, we said our goodbyes and it was time for me to leave. I picked up both Colt and Dallas on the way to the airport.
Colt rode shotgun and Dallas hopped in the back, wearing his best jeans—they were still washed out and worn through, but there were only actual holes in one of his knees and his back pocket. As soon as he was buckled up, he leaned forward with a big grin on his face and met my gaze in the rearview mirror.
“I’ve heard that in New York, a place you can’t even fit a twin bed in counts as an apartment,” he said, cocking his head and squinting like he was sure he was being led on. “Apparently, the rent for even that would be like, as much as an actual house here, but it’s more like a dungeon than an apartment.”
Colt scoffed. “That can’t be true. You need more than just a bed in your apartment. I mean, where do you cook? Go to the bathroom? Knock boots?”
Dallas’s expression sobered. “I heard they don’t cook. They just eat at restaurants all the time.”
My brother twisted in his seat to look at my friend. “No way. I watch TV, bro. Have you ever watched How I Met Your Mother ? Those guys had a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom.”
“Yeah, but they did wake up with a pineapple once. Think that’ll happen to us?” Dallas asked, like he was genuinely concerned.
“I’m pretty sure that apartment was a TV set, not an actual apartment,” I said, though I had no idea if I was right. I laughed as they started bantering back and forth about the other things they’d heard. “We sound like a bunch of country hooligans. It’s not going to be that crazy.”
When we arrived at the airport, I parked and we grabbed our stuff. Then we headed inside to meet up with Olivia, London, Lacey, Liam, and Nathan. I made a beeline for Liv when I spotted her, sitting at a small table with the others and sipping on a fancy not-coffee.
I don’t know what’s in that thing, but those drinks with the fancy names will never qualify as coffee.
All I wanted as I strode toward her was to pull her into my arms, but her father was right there . As she took another sip of her drink, her gaze found mine as if she’d been drawn to my presence from across the crowded terminal, and she gave me eyes like don’t do it .
I sighed but heeded the warning, respecting her desire to keep this from her father for now. Instead, I just led my brother and my friend to their table and grinned. “Good morning, everybody.”
Nathan’s gaze flicked up from the tablet he’d been reading the news on, and he stood up, extending his hand to shake mine and pulling me in for a quick hug. “How are you, Charlie? How’s the family?”
“They’re good.” I thumped him on the back after giving him a firm handshake. It was obvious from the hug that the man still liked me, but that was probably only because, to his knowledge, I wasn’t rock-hard for his daughter. “You all ready for the conference?”
“It’s my favorite event of the year.” He grinned at me, the joy in his features taking at least ten years off his age. “I’m so happy to have you all joining us this year. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I don’t like flying without licorice. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. Grab some coffee, gentlemen. I’ll be back in a few.”
With far too much speed and agility for an older man, he spun around and took off, and I stared after him with a furrow in my brow. “He seems different today.”
Olivia smiled. “It’s the conference. He really, really loves it, and this year, for the first time, he wasn’t in charge of all the arrangements, so he’s just getting to go instead of having to stress about the logistics. Plus, he’ll be seeing Mom again soon.”
“Makes sense, then.” Once I’d watched him disappear into a store, I snagged his seat beside her and quickly leaned over to plant a kiss on her cheek. “Good morning, City.”
“You better quit with the kissing.” She turned to face me. Despite the warning, there was a ridiculously pleased smile on her lips.
I winked at her. “Why? I waited until your father was away, didn’t I? Because?—”
“Yeah, yeah, because you’re a gentleman.” Despite the teasing tone of her voice, I liked that she’d finally realized that I wasn’t just pretending.
“See, you’re learning.” I grinned at her before I turned to face her youngest sister and her best friend. “It’s nice to finally see you two outside of work again. How’ve you been? Happy to be heading back to the Big Apple?”