Chapter 2
TWO
JUDE
A strangled noise leaves my throat as I follow closely behind a half-naked Charlotte.
“I didn’t realize we were stripping,” I remark, following her to the laundry room on the main floor.
Charlotte tosses a dirty look over her shoulder. “How else am I supposed to get my clothes clean?”
Her response wipes the smirk from my face. She’s got a point.
She walks into the laundry room with me close behind her. “Please tell me you have stain remover,” she mutters, beginning to open up cabinets. I take her coffee-stained shirt from her hands and let her resume looking as I take it over to the sink on the other side of the room.
“Yeah, I should.” I lay the shirt flat on the counter next to the sink. Luckily, the classic Pembroke green hides the coffee well. With some water and stain remover, she should be able to go to work with nobody knowing of the spill.
“Have you ever even been inside these cabinets?” she asks, a teasing tone to her voice. I turn around to find her walking closer to me with a bottle of stain remover in her hand. She sets it down next to me before bending over and pushing her skirt down her thighs.
There’s a split second where it’s hard to breathe as I try not to focus on the fact that she’s standing next to me in nothing but her bra and underwear.
Is that a thong?
I force myself not to look. “I do know how to do my own laundry, thank you very much,” I rasp.
My pulse spikes, but I close my eyes in an attempt to gather myself and play it cool.
It doesn’t matter that Charlotte is standing next to me in tiny scraps of fabric.
It’s a normal Friday morning, where I’m just helping out a friend to clean up a mess.
“I didn’t know if that was taught at boarding school or if you just had people do it for you.”
I step to the side as she comes up closer to the counter next to me. She wets the fabric of her clothes before laying them flat once again and starts to spray them with the solution. I watch her as she works, making sure I keep my eyes safely pinned on her face.
Charlotte has been one of my best friends for almost a year now.
No matter how much I’ve flirted with her, she’s always made it clear that she has no interest in being anything other than friends.
I’ve respected it. At first, her disinterest was a bruise to my ego.
But the more she denied me, the more I wanted to get to know her.
The more I got to know her, the more I liked her being my friend.
She’s incredibly cool. Not many women call me on my shit, but it’s one of her favorite things to do.
“Did you manage to drink any of—” My words fall short as I make the mistake of looking at her, completely forgetting for a moment that she’s almost naked. Another weird noise comes from deep in my throat at the sight of her in nothing but her bra and panties.
I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t look away from the way her breasts pool over the cups of her lace bra. The bra is a nude color, and her thong is a bright pink. My lips part, and suddenly, all I can think about is how dry my mouth is and how desperately I need a drink of water.
Charlotte sticks her hand in my face, her fingers snapping. “Eyes up here, lover boy.” She laughs at the same moment I feel blood rush to my cheeks.
I meet her eyes immediately. I expect to find her upset, but instead, she looks at me with a lifted blonde eyebrow.
“Sorry, I…” My words trail off because I don’t know what to say.
It feels like I can’t take a full breath.
I just really wasn’t expecting to see my best friend in nothing but her bra and thong, and I definitely didn’t expect the sight to steal the air from my lungs. This is Charlotte. My best friend.
“You were checking me out?” She pulls her gaze from mine and works on getting the large stain out of her skirt. She really has to scrub at the fabric. There’s more coffee on the skirt than there was on her shirt.
“I wasn’t checking you out.” My words come out hurried and jumbled. I wasn’t checking her out. I can’t be checking her out.
I stare at the side of her face, making sure my eyes don’t drift lower again.
“Sure you weren’t.” She laughs and shakes her head, her focus staying on the skirt and treating the stain. “It’s nothing you haven’t seen before. I’ve worn bikinis that showed more skin than this.”
She has a point. The thing about the bikinis, though, is that I was expecting to see her in those.
I prepared myself not to look at things I shouldn’t be looking at.
I can flirt with her all I want because it’s fun, and I don’t know how not to flirt, but I’m well aware of the line she’s drawn for us, and I never want to cross it.
Her friendship means too much to me to do that.
Needing a change of subject, I rip my gaze from her face and look at the clothes she’s busy treating.
“I can’t believe you don’t have an extra uniform.
” I give her a smirk. I actually can believe it.
Charlotte spilling coffee all over herself and not having an extra outfit to change into is just like her.
“Lesson learned,” she mutters, scrubbing at her skirt to remove the coffee.
Wanting to help, I grab her shirt and repeat the same motion as her. Luckily, the coffee comes out pretty easily.
“If only all your fangirls at the club could see you scrubbing coffee out of my shirt for me. Jude Kensington doing laundry? They’d fall in love with you.”
I meet her gaze with a cocky smirk. “They’re already in love with me. Plus, I only do laundry for the special women in my life.”
Charlotte rolls her eyes. “Your charm doesn’t work on me, Jude. Stop wasting your lines on me.” She snatches the shirt from me and grabs the skirt before walking over to the dryer and throwing them inside.
I make sure I keep my eyes safely on her face when she turns around and meets my gaze. I swear there’s a hint of pink to her cheeks that wasn’t there a moment ago, but I could be wrong.
“Nothing with you is ever a waste.” My grin gets even wider before I wink at her.
Her entire face breaks out into a smile. I’m pretty sure she crosses her arms over her chest before leaning up against the dryer, but I can’t be sure because my gaze is safely locked on hers. “Another line wasted on me.”
“Not wasted,” I immediately respond, lifting an eyebrow and daring her to argue with me. She doesn’t. It’s silent in the laundry room for a few beats before I decide to break it. “Were you able to drink any of your coffee before spilling it all over yourself?”
Her bottom lip juts out in a pout. She lets out a low groan. “I wasn’t lying. I really only got, like, maybe two sips. All I wanted was a Friday treat before starting my busy day, but the universe had other plans for me.”
“You didn’t trade shifts with anyone, right? You’re working all day?” I have her new schedule memorized, but I know the cart girls sometimes switch things around.
Charlotte nods. The motion causes a piece of her curled blonde hair to fall into her face.
My fingers twitch at my side as I fight the urge to tuck it behind her ear.
I know I shouldn’t. That’d cross a line I shouldn’t cross, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to.
Luckily, she beats me to it and tucks the stray strand herself.
“Yep. Hoping it’s a good day, lots of good tippers.
Devin keeps reminding me how low my rent is and how much more he could make if he rented out my place to someone else for the summer, so I want to give him extra this month. ”
“Are you trying to bribe your landlord?”
Charlotte purses her lips. “Maybe. Don’t judge me. We can’t all afford houses like this.” She waves her arms above her head.
“I’d never judge you, Char,” I rush to say. My body feels tight at her insinuation that I ever would. “Let me know if you need me to talk to your landlord.”
Charlotte shakes her head before clicking her tongue.
“Nope. I don’t need you to swoop in and save the day.
Plus, I don’t know if your charm would even work on him anyway.
I’ll just hope I make extra money that I can give Devin, and I won’t have to worry about finding a new place to live this close to the busy season.
I’m nervous he’s going to find renters at the last minute, and I’m going to be out of a place to live.
Maybe paying him more will prevent him from doing that. ”
I nod. My jaw clenches as I force myself to keep my mouth shut.
She’s been going back and forth with her landlord for weeks about her rent and being able to stay there.
I know the unknown is stressing her out, and I want to help her with it, but I also don’t want to overstep.
If she believes that the landlord thing isn’t a problem and that paying him more will keep things how they are, then I’m going to stay out of it.
That doesn’t mean I don’t like that she won’t let me help her, but I know her well enough to know she’s too stubborn to ask for help.
Neither one of us says anything else, and eventually, the dryer lets out a loud chiming noise. It slows down before the clothes stop tumbling.
Charlotte turns around, and I peel my gaze from hers.
“How much time do I have left to get to the club?” she asks.
I look at my watch. “About ten to fifteen, depending on how fast you get dressed,” I tell her. Just then, I remember the coffee that was spilled all over her seat. I turn around. “I’ll meet you outside.”
“Oh, so now you leave the moment I put my clothes on?” Charlotte calls out, her tone teasing.
“I’ve got something I need to do!” I yell over my shoulder. I stop in the kitchen and grab a roll of paper towels and some all-purpose cleaner before walking back outside.
Opening the door to her car, I find coffee all over her seat and even some in the cup holders and space between the seats. I get busy wiping her car clean, making sure to check all the nooks and crannies.
She really meant it when she said she didn’t get to drink any of her coffee. It’s everywhere.
“I feel like I should take a photo of this.” Charlotte’s voice comes from behind me.
I look over my shoulder, finding her dressed and smiling a few feet away from me.
“And why is that?” I ask, turning around to continue wiping down her seat to make sure it’s fully dry before she gets in.
“Because never in my life did I think I’d see you on your knees, cleaning out a car.”
I smile, even though she can’t see it. Technically, I’m only on one knee, and I needed to get lower to make sure I didn’t miss any of the mess.
With a sigh, I rise to my full height and turn around to face her. “Your car should be clean and ready for you.”
“My hero,” Charlotte practically sings. She dramatically bats her eyelashes, completely poking fun at the situation.
I roll my eyes before grabbing onto her door. “Get in and go before you’re late.”
Charlotte’s blue eyes gleam with mischief as she follows my directions. Before she sits down, she leans around her car door and plants a kiss on my cheek.
“Thanks for being my savior,” she mutters before sliding into the driver’s seat.
I smile because I can’t deny how much I love being the one she called when she needed help. “You can call me anytime, Char. Now, go before you’re late.”
“I’m going,” she responds, pretending to be annoyed.
I make sure she’s safely tucked into her car before I close the door for her and watch her pull away.
As soon as she pulls out, I slip my phone out of my pocket and shoot off a text to a friend I’m supposed to be meeting at the club.
JUDE
Going to be late to our tee time. I’ve got to run an errand real fast.