31. Will Get Too Messy
31
WILL GET TOO MESSY
N o one told her flowers not only looked pretty but took a crap ton of work!
Three weeks later, Charlotte was out weeding the yard again. She should have thought of this when she bought the house.
At least she knew the difference between weeds and plants now. Or so she hoped.
Marco let out a bark and she turned to see him chasing a butterfly in the yard. He was tied up. She might consider a closed in fence at some point so he had more freedom.
She studied the big green leaves of what looked like a plant, but not something that matched anything else, then decided it needed to go, grabbed it with her gloved hand and yanked.
It slipped out of her hand and she fell backwards a few steps.
Hmm, maybe it belonged. Though she thought Foster had told her it was quickweed. Whatever it was, it didn’t want to come out!
She got on her knees and grabbed the little spade and dug around it as she’d seen Foster do and managed to wiggle it out and put it in the bag with the rest of the weeds.
Marco started to bark louder. “Leave the butterfly alone,” she said, laughing.
Her dog had grown into his legs and looked more like a mixed breed than ever before. At five months old he was almost forty pounds and not easy for her to carry around like he used to be. She hoped he didn’t grow much more.
When she heard a car door, she turned and saw the red Porsche in her driveway and let out a groan.
Was he ever going to get the hint and leave her alone?
She stood up and wiped the dirt from her knees and then started to laugh.
Maybe Landon would be appalled by the way she looked now. If he thought her daily work-from-home wear was bad, it was nothing to her gray yard shorts that had dark stains on them. She didn’t even know what the stains were and didn’t care at this point.
She wore a sleeveless tank top in blue. It was too hot to wear anything else. A pair of black Crocs on her feet and her hair was in a messy bun on her head.
The gloves came off, literally, and she dropped them to the ground and marched over to stop him from getting too far onto her property.
“What are you doing here now?” she asked.
“You’re embarrassing yourself and me,” Landon said.
“And how exactly is that?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“It’s gotten out that you’re dating a younger man,” Landon said. “Are you trying to make me jealous or something?”
She rolled her eyes.
Maybe she joked about Foster being younger in the beginning, but when he turned it around on her being the older one, she realized it was only funny once.
“Who I date is no concern of yours,” she said. “I want you to leave. I’m not sure how many more times I have to tell you this. I’m not interested in you. We are done. It’s been almost a year at this point. What’s the matter? You can’t find another idiot to believe things that aren’t true?”
He marched closer to her.
“I don’t know what has come over you. This attitude and physical change is disgusting.”
“Then don’t look,” she said. “Don’t even think of me.” She was waving her hands around. “This is me. The real me. I don’t care if you don’t like it. Get off my property.”
He reached out and grabbed her arm and yanked her close to his face. “You better watch your words. Because once I leave here I’m not coming back.”
Charlotte was opening her mouth to tell him how happy she was to hear that but didn’t have a chance when she saw a blur out the side of her eye, then Landon was falling backward and she was going down too since he hadn’t let go of her arm until he hit the ground.
She stumbled and righted herself just in time to see Foster’s arm pulled back ready to punch Landon in the face where he had him pinned to the grass.
“Foster! No. Stop right now!”
She must have gotten through to him because his arm froze, but then both hands moved and grabbed Landon’s white shirt by the chest. He yanked his torso up and snarled, “If you come within a mile of Charlotte again, let alone touch her, it might be the last time you can walk. Do you hear me?” Foster said, shaking Landon.
Her ex’s eyes were as large as melons and he nodded his head.
“Get off of him,” she said, touching Foster’s shoulder.
He didn’t flinch but did relax some and moved off of Landon.
Her ex got up fast and took two steps backward. “You’re crazy. Both of you. You’re going to pay for assaulting me, Foster. I know who you are. Don’t think you’re going to get away with this.”
“Get off her property now before I do more than tackle you,” Foster said, taking a step toward Landon.
Landon turned and sped walked to his sports car, the back of his white shirt covered in streaks of grass and dirt.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked when Landon pulled away.
“What?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
Foster moved toward her and she stepped back. “I asked you a question.”
“He grabbed you,” he said, clearly still angry. “He was warned multiple times not to come here. He knew things were done and he still showed up. That’s stalking, Charlotte.”
She ran her hands through her hair.
She was getting a good look at him with a temper now.
Wow.
She wasn’t sure what to feel about it.
She’d never seen any violence like that in person before.
Ever!
But she wasn’t so much upset over that as she was that Foster might have just made more trouble for himself.
“He’s not stalking me,” she said. “He’s being a jerk.”
He put his hands up. “Are you afraid of me?”
“No,” she said, moving toward him. “I’m not. I don’t know what I’m feeling. I’ve never seen someone attacked before, but I’m not afraid of you.”
“Come here,” he said, reaching for her.
She went into his arms, thinking he was going to hug her.
Instead he picked her arm up and looked at the bruising that was left from Landon’s fingers. “That’s what he did to you. You’ve told him a number of times to leave you alone. That you were done. To stop reaching out and he shows up again. And he touched you. He bruised you. Maybe I should show you some self-defense moves like Laken and Talia know.”
If Foster hadn’t said that, she wouldn’t have burst into tears.
“You’d teach me to stand up for myself?” she asked.
He pulled her into his arms this time. “I’m not always going to be around,” he said. “You need to know how to do that. Jesus, I’m fucking shaking right now.”
She could feel it on him and was glad to know she wasn’t alone.
“Adrenaline,” she said.
“Yeah. Are you sure you’re not afraid of me? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You did some. But it’s more because I know him. He’s going to cause trouble now. He said you assaulted him. He’s liable to press charges.”
“I don’t care,” he said. “I’m more concerned about you. And if you want, you should go do it first.”
“It will get too messy,” she said. “I’ve got his text messages that I’ve told him to leave. Can we just forget it? Marco, relax.”
Her dog was barking and jumping and trying to get free.
“He would have protected you,” he said. “If he was loose.”
“I was thinking I needed a fence here for him to run around. That might have helped.”
Foster moved out of her arms and went to pet and calm her dog. “It’s okay, Marco. Good boy.”
Her dog settled down just as quickly as she had when she was in Foster’s arms.
“How did you know he was here?”
“I was mowing the lawn,” he said. “I turned the corner to come up the property on the tractor and got off it and started to walk up when I noticed his car.”
“Which would explain why I didn’t hear it close.”
“When I saw him getting closer to you I started to run and then he grabbed your arm and I just launched myself.”
“It all happened so fast,” she said. “I was getting ready to tell him to leave, but the next thing I know I’m being pulled to the ground.”
Foster turned his head to look at her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. He let go of me and I just stumbled. You’ve got dirt on you though.”
“Not as much as he had,” he said. “That will teach him to wear white.”
“His tan pants were ripped in the back too,” she said and started to laugh. “I’m not sure why this is funny. I mean, it’s not, but I’m laughing.”
“Delayed reaction,” he said. “I’m not sure I want you alone tonight.”
“I planned on staying with you anyway,” she said. “But you can’t be with me every single night.”
She wasn’t going to move in with anyone.
She liked her space to do her own thing.
Maybe she could understand a little of what Foster went through when he felt the walls were closing in on him.
“Are you afraid of him?” he asked. “Do you think he will come back again?”
“No,” she said. “To both things. He won’t come back. He’s humiliated. But he might make trouble for you. You should be prepared for it.”
“I’m not afraid of him.”