Chapter Twenty
Charlie leaned her back against the door when she closed it and let out a massive breath.
She felt so raw and open. She couldn’t believe how much Harper had shared.
Hell, she couldn’t believe how much she’d just shared, and Harper hadn’t run for the hills.
Not that there were any hills in the Keys, but Harper was always so skittish.
Yet, that rawness and openness didn’t feel bad.
Charlie couldn’t imagine sharing her full story with anyone else, but Harper made her feel safe.
For maybe the first time since childhood.
But trying to get out from under Franky while Harper replaced her with the dog bed? Charlie’s palms were still sweaty but not from the physical effort. Rather with the effort of keeping herself from staring down the gaping front of Harper’s robe.
Her skin had looked so creamy, and Charlie had desperately wanted to touch it. Kiss it.
Five shaky breaths later, she was still leaning against the bathroom door and hadn’t moved a muscle toward getting undressed.
She needed to do something, or she was going to make it weird.
“Hey, I’m going to jump into the shower to warm up,” she called through the closed door.
“After having been in those wet clothes for so long, I feel like my bones are cold.”
“No problem,” Harper’s voices answered from the other side of the door. “Do you want to throw your clothes out here, and while you’re in the shower I’ll go toss them in the laundry?”
“Sounds good,” Charlie said as she turned on the water to get it warming and then opened the door a sliver to toss her clothes out.
She hadn’t realized she was cold until she’d said something.
Her skin had still been hot from the accidental glimpses she’d had down Harper’s robe, but as soon as she mentioned cold, the chill in her bones nearly overtook her.
She heard Harper say, “I’ll be right back,” right before the door to the room closed.
Charlie stepped into the shower and relished the hot water raining on her body, warming her from the outside in.
It washed away all the lingering stress from seeing her parents and having confessed so much to Harper.
Though not everything. There were things she was still too disgusted about to share. Things she hoped she could forget.
She soaped her body, wishing those thoughts would get washed away with the lather. But now that her mind had gone there, the shower wasn’t as relaxing, so she finished up, toweled off, and put on the surprisingly soft, fluffy robe. It was much plusher than the towel had been.
When she opened the door, Harper was sitting at the table shuffling cards.
“You’re lucky you didn’t set off the smoke alarm with all that steam.” Harper laughed.
Charlie looked around her and realized that she’d fogged up the mirror outside the bathroom with the steam cloud that was following her. She shrugged. “Sorry, not sorry. I’m warm now.” Which she was. And seeing Harper sitting at their small table, casually shuffling cards, warmed her even more.
“Good,” Harper said. Watching her fingers as they expertly riffled the deck and put it back together with the bridge was surprisingly sexy.
Or maybe it was more her lazy grin in a robe that was still gaping at the top.
Whatever it was, Charlie’s stomach felt weightless and her legs unsteady as she sat in the chair opposite.
“Did you really wear that robe down to the laundry room?”
“Yeah, what other choice did I have? But with this weather, no one is leaving their rooms.”
Charlie looked around. “This is quite the spread you came back with. Did you get all this at the office before?”
“Yeah, I figured we might have to hunker down all night, and I didn’t want us to starve or ask some poor DoorDash driver to bring us dinner. Now we’ve got little cheese platters.” Charlie chuckled at the generous term for the small, Styrofoam plates of cheese. “And snacks. And beverages.”
Charlie picked up the plastic cup shaped like a goblet with suspicion. “Have you…had this before?”
Harper chuckled. “No, but it was the best option in the smallest hotel sundry shop ever. We also have dessert.” She held up the M&Ms. “And breakfast. Or a snack later.” She pointed at the granola bars.
“So we are set to hunker down for some time. And I got us cards to help pass the time.” She picked them up and started shuffling again.
“Can I interest you in a game? Gin rummy? Crazy Eights? Or perhaps Kings in the Corner?”
“How about gin rummy? We already have enough of a wannabe king in the White House, don’t we?”
Harper belly laughed. “Fair. Though in the game’s defense, the kings go in the corner in a time out. But I love gin rummy. It takes me back to my childhood playing with my grandmother at her kitchen table. Then again, any of these games would.”
When Charlie had her ten cards, she picked them up and started sorting them into sets and runs. She had a pretty good hand so far. Hoping to keep the mood lighter than earlier, she said, “Tell me your favorite memory from growing up.”
But it was like a switch flipped in Harper from playful to business as the game was starting. Her expression serious, she pursed her lips as she ordered and then reordered her cards. She squinted one eye at them, and without looking at Charlie, said, “Are you going to draw?”
She’d been so distracted watching Harper she’d forgotten she went first. “Have you been hiding a competitive streak from me?” Charlie mused aloud.
Harper bit her lip as she flicked her eyes up.
A hint of a smile flickered at the corner of her lips.
“Maybe. Just a little. I’m an attorney by trade.
We don’t like to lose. Sorry. I’ll be better.
And why don’t we open our first round of these?
” Her smile spread across her whole face as she peeled back the foil on the top of the first plastic wine goblet and handed it to Charlie. “What did you ask me again?”
It was odd how she could go from playful to cutthroat card player and back to playful in a matter of seconds, but Charlie wasn’t going to complain.
Even Harper’s competitive streak was pretty cute.
“I asked what your favorite childhood memory was,” Charlie said as she drew, contemplated, and discarded the same card.
Harper stared at Charlie’s discard but didn’t take it and grabbed from the pile instead. “That’s a good question. My parents were quite a bit older when they had me, but they tried to be fun. I had a good childhood.” She discarded.
Charlie took from the pile again and stared at the card that was no help to her hand and waited for Harper to continue.
“There were so many little fun times, but maybe my favorite is when I went with my grandmother to a theme park. I thought we’d just ride the small, easy rides and spend some time in the arcade, but she was game to try every ride.
Can you imagine sitting in the front row of a roller coaster with your seventy-five year old grandmother, her hands in the air as she yelled the whole way down the first drop on every ride?
I was a little afraid to go on a stand-up coaster, but she said if she wasn’t afraid, I shouldn’t be either.
” The smile on her face was completely unguarded, and the shared memory made Charlie feel closer to her than ever.
“Looking back, I’m not sure if she should’ve been going on those rides at her age. But she was so happy. And so was I.”
“That’s so sweet. I wish I could have met her,” Charlie said, a little surprised that she really meant it.
“Me too. So what’s your favorite childhood memory?”
Charlie knew she should have prepared for this exact question, but she hadn’t.
“Hmm.” She bought time as she drew a card, reordered, and discarded.
“I grew up in Gainesville, which I think you already know, and my parents were both pretty outdoorsy. So one time, we were kayaking on a lake and bird-watching—”
“Wait, you’re a bird-watcher?” Harper stared with wide eyes.
“Was is the operative word. I’m not currently a bird-watcher, nor do I plan to take it back up. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.” She leveled a fake serious expression at her. “Now, can I continue with my story?”
“Of course, sorry.” She held her hands up without giving Charlie a peek at her cards.
“Thank you.” She cleared her throat playfully.
“So there we were, kayaking along the lake, when my dad got Mom’s and my attention and pointed out this gigantic python swimming along the top of the water about twenty feet away.
It had to have been someone’s pet that they released when it got too big or something.
I nearly dropped my paddle in the water.
I hate snakes. Like really, really hate snakes.
But it was cool watching it slither across the surface of the lake like it was solid ground.
When all of the sudden, this alligator vaults up from underwater and grabs the snake right behind its head and drags it down, and we never saw either of them again. ”
Harper’s jaw was hanging. “Okay, so first, this is your favorite childhood memory? It’s a little gory, don’t you think? And terrifying. An alligator eating a snake while you’re a few feet away?”
“It didn’t feel gory. And how many people can say they’ve had the chance to see an alligator hunt in the wild? It was amazing. And pythons weren’t meant to be loose in Florida. So for the ecosystem, as my father was quick to remind me, it was a win.”
“You are a little dark, Ms. Paulson,” Harper said, laughing as she spoke.
“It was a fun afternoon on the water with my parents, and we saw something super cool. It’s not dark at all.” Charlie laughed too, though maybe it was a tiny bit dark. But so cool to have seen. Especially from a kayak.
They continued laughing and chatting for two hands. Harper won the first and Charlie the second.
As Harper was shuffling for a third hand, she said, “We’re all tied up. Want to make it more interesting in a third and decisive hand?”
The heat simmering in her eyes had Charlie’s muscles tightening in the best way. She tried to use her flirtiest tone as she said, “What’d you have in mind?”
“Whoever wins this hand gets to make the other person do whatever they want.” Her tongue flicked out for a brief moment and moistened her lips.
Charlie felt like she’d just taken a shot of tequila with the bouquet of butterflies running rampant in her belly and up into her chest. “So I could ask you to wash my dishes tomorrow when we get home?” She didn’t know why she’d just said that. It was so goofy.
“Uh, yes, if that’s what you want me to do, I’ll wash your dishes tomorrow.” She’d started dealing, but she paused as she made eye contact and said, “But I’d be lying if I said I hope you pick something that tame.”
The air in Charlie’s lungs fled her body in a whoosh. Her reaction had to be at least partially due to them being well into their second wine goblets, but her skin tingled. She clenched her thighs to quell the ache, but it didn’t help. Not even a little.
She couldn’t think clearly and was staring blankly at the cards she’d picked up without ordering them in the slightest.
“Don’t forget, it’s your turn,” Harper said in a husky whisper.
“Oh, right.” Charlie picked up a card, took a quick check to see if it looked like it fit in her hand and discarded it without knowing for certain.
Harper picked it up, found a place for it, and discarded a jack, which Charlie was pretty certain she didn’t need. Shit, what had Harper just picked up? Charlie was going to lose, and it was going to be ugly if she continued with this level of inattention.
She started to organize her cards but was distracted by Harper’s fingers tracing a path along the lapel of her robe, moving it ever so slightly more open.
Charlie squeezed her eyes shut as she closed her cards and tightened her jaw, searching for a little self-restraint.
When she thought she found it, she fanned her cards open again and confirmed she didn’t need the jack, so she drew from the pile and discarded a ten.
From the glint in Harper’s eye, she knew exactly what she was doing. She clearly wanted to win this hand, and damn, Charlie wanted to let her. She didn’t intentionally throw the game, but Harper continued to tease her, distract her more and more as the hand progressed.
When Harper at last drew a card and her mouth curved into a pirate’s smile, Charlie knew she’d lost.
“Gin,” Harper said.
But Charlie didn’t feel like she’d lost at all when Harper stood and said, “Come here.”