Chapter 17 #2
“Good morning, Charlene! And good morning to your nice gentleman friend!” She waved enthusiastically. “I’m glad to see you came back this morning.”
Charlie tried not to laugh as she waved back. “Yes, he did. Morning, Mrs. Calhoun.”
“Going somewhere exciting?”
“Just a day trip to the mountains,” Charlie called up.
“How lovely! You two have a wonderful time!” Mrs. Calhoun beamed at them, then stage-whispered loud enough to be heard across the parking lot: “He's a keeper, dear!”
Charlie's face went pink as they got in the truck.
Ben was grinning. “She's something.”
“Yeah, she’s something all right. Everyone in the building probably knows about you by now.”
“Is that a problem?”
Charlie looked at him, considering. “No,” she said as she broke into a huge grin. “No, I don't think it is.”
As they drove along through the mountains, Charlie took out her Moleskine notebook and flipped it open.
Her packet of colored pens and pencils came next, and soon she was sketching something.
Ben assumed she was drawing the distant peaks that came into view over the treetops every time they came around a bend.
“We can stop for a few minutes if you’d like. There are several scenic views along here and you could snap a photo for later.”
“No thanks. I can see what I’m drawing just fine from here.” She smiled at him.
He couldn’t wait to get to Loveland Pass, just so he could see what she’d been drawing.
He loved her quick sketches even more than the bigger pieces she worked on at home.
Her sketches held life and movement in their quick pen strokes.
She’d have to draw quickly, since her subject kept appearing and disappearing from view.
Unless she was sketching the road, but even then, it twisted and turned, changing shape like a sidewinder crossing a dusty plain.
She hummed quietly to herself, which meant she was happy with whatever she was capturing on paper.
Her whole demeanor softened the atmosphere in the truck, making him so comfortable, he forgot to be self-conscious.
As much as he wanted to get there and see what she’d drawn, he wanted to keep driving forever, keep the easy, golden, satisfied feeling in his chest, knowing she was happy, in her element, and he could just exist with her in the world.
That was more than he’d ever expected in a relationship.
But roads didn’t always go on forever, and eventually, he saw the sign for the turnoff.
Be grateful for what you have. A perfect two hours with Charlie happy beside you. The memory of this feeling will be with you always. Always.
He eased into a parking spot. Charlie straightened and blinked as she looked out the windshield.
“We’re here?” she asked, sounding surprised as she closed her sketchbook and tucked it into her bag.
“Yes,” Ben answered. “I would have thought you’d seen the signs since you were sketching. You were so engrossed, but I guess you were too busy focusing on the landscape in the distance and not things up close.”
“That’s not what I was looking at or sketching.”
“No? So you were sketching the road itself?”
“No,” she laughed lightly. “You really don’t know, do you?” Her voice had turned soft, threaded with wonder. “Would you like to see?”
“Of course. I’ve been wondering what had your rapt attention for an hour.”
She grinned and reached back into her bag.
She took out the Moleskine and flipped through several pages until she came to the latest sketches.
She gazed at them fondly for a moment before those gorgeous hazel eyes looked back up at him through her lashes.
She flipped the cover closed, her thumb bookmarking the pages, and handed over the book.
Ben slid his thumb between the pages as he took the Moleskine. He flipped it open and stared for a moment at the sketches, dumbfounded.
“These are…these are all of me.”
Ben shook his head, his eyes never leaving the book.
She’d done several of him, some from the side, some in three-quarter view.
Ben staring straight ahead and gripping the wheel.
Ben with his mouth slightly open as he sang along to the radio.
Ben smiling, glancing at her. Snapshots of their drive up, one after the other, after the other.
And they were…flattering. She’d somehow captured the way he’d felt—at peace, happy, content.
“Is this how you see me?” he asked softly.
“Sorry, I’m not good at portraiture…”
“I’m absolutely…you made me look…attractive.”
Charlie widened her eyes for a moment, then laughed. “That’s because you are, Ben. How can you not know that?” Some of the laughter faded from her eyes, replaced by a quizzical look. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“How attractive you are.”
Ben stared at her. No one had ever looked at him the way Charlie was looking at him right now—like he was someone worth keeping.
His chest went tight. Words crowded in his throat, three simple words that wanted out so badly he could barely breathe around them.
“I—” He stopped. Swallowed hard. “I think you're—”
Charlie's expression softened. She reached up and touched his face, her thumb brushing his cheekbone. “I know,” she said quietly. “Me too.”
She understood. She felt it too. And she wasn't running.
Ben let out a shaky breath and pulled her into his arms. Not yet. The words would come when the time was right. But this—holding her, knowing she felt the same—this was enough for now.
Ben and Charlie got out of the truck. Flo hopped down after them, immediately sniffing the air. Up here at nearly twelve thousand feet, the wind was sharp and cool despite the relentless summer sun. Charlie pulled on a hoodie and grabbed her art supplies.
“This way,” Ben said, leading her to a flat outcropping of rock that overlooked the valley below. The view was spectacular—jagged peaks in every direction, patches of late-summer snow clinging to the shadowed slopes, and far below, the winding ribbon of highway they'd just driven.
Charlie stood at the edge, taking it all in. Ben watched her face light up with that artist's eye, already composing the scene.
“It's even more beautiful than I remembered it,” she said quietly.
“I’m glad you think so.” Ben set out a couple of folding chairs and a collapsible table he'd brought from the truck. “You can work here. I'll keep Flo entertained.”
Charlie settled into one of the chairs and opened her Moleskine.
She untied a waxed canvas roll that held her pencils, pens, and other art supplies and grabbed a drafting pencil.
Within minutes, she’d switched to her colored pencils and was lost in her work, her hand moving across the page in quick, confident strokes.
Ben sat nearby with Flo, throwing a Kong Charlie had brought along. The dog bounded after it, happy to run in the mountain air. But Ben's attention kept drifting back to Charlie.
She was completely focused. Every few minutes she'd look up, study the landscape, then back down to capture what she saw.
Beautiful.
After a while, Ben moved closer. “Can I watch?”
Charlie glanced up, startled out of her concentration. Then she smiled. “Sure.”
Ben took the chair beside her, careful not to block her light. On the page, mountains were taking shape in layers of blue and purple and gray. She'd captured the depth of the valley, the way distance softened edges and lightened colors until they almost faded into the azure sky.
“You're really good at this,” Ben said.
“Thanks.” Charlie added dark blue to a shadow. “Sean used to watch me sketch sometimes.”
Ben's chest tightened at the mention of his friend. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Remember at dinner, when I said the river was what brought me to Lyons? That’s only partly true.”
“What?”
She added some crosshatching to one of the Seven Sisters. “Sean told me I’d love it here, that it was the St. Vrain that made him want to join the Navy. He wanted me to draw it for him.” Charlie kept working, not looking at him. “From a photo of you all as teenagers horsing around in the river.”
“I know the one you’re talking about. We all have a copy of it.” Ben remembered that day. Hot summer, cold river water, the kind of perfect afternoon that only existed when you were young and stupid and invincible.
“I thought about that photo a lot after Sean died. I was suffocating in San Diego. The Navy, the memories, everything. I needed somewhere that felt like hope instead of loss. Shane recommending me to Kyle was a lifeline.”
“So that’s why you came out. For Watchdog.”
“No. The job just made things convenient.” Charlie grinned at him. “I came out because one guy in particular in that photo caught my attention.”
“Elias, right?” Ben said, his mouth quirking.
Charlie laughed. “That pretty boy? Nah.”
“Must have been Bear then.”
“Wrong again. He was quite a bit smaller in that photo than now. I like them bigger. More rugged. The kind who remembers coffee orders and pulls out chairs for a woman.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Charlie leaned over and kissed him.
She pulled back and held his gaze as she stroked his cheek.
“It wasn’t just the photo of you that got my attention.
Sean told me about each of you. Bear was the quiet one.
Elias and Waylon were the troublemakers.
Gabe never met a stranger. Of course I already knew Shane as a smartass. ” Charlie laughed.
Her gaze grew soft and warm. “You were the gentle giant who everyone underestimated.”
“Sean said that?”
“He did.” Charlie said. “He also told me you were the best artist he'd ever seen, even back then. Clay, wood, metal, didn’t matter. You could make anything beautiful with your hands.”
Ben looked away, throat tight. “He was a good friend.”
“The best.” Charlie's voice went soft. “I miss him. Every damn day.”
“Me too.”
They sat in silence for a moment. The wind whistled past the rocks. Flo chased a butterfly.
“Sean would've liked this,” Charlie said. “You and me.”
“I agree, Princess.”
Ben wrapped his arm around her shoulders while she worked. He watched the whole scene before them come alive on the page.
“There,” she said finally, setting down her pencil. “What do you think?”
“I think it's incredible.” Ben kissed her temple. “You captured it perfectly.”
Charlie closed the sketchbook and turned. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
“Thank you for coming with me.”
“I'd go anywhere with you, Ben.” She said it simply, like it was just a fact. “You know that, right?”
Ben's heart pounded in his chest. “Yeah. I know. “Come here.” Ben pulled her onto his lap.
They sat together, wrapped in each other's arms, while Flo dozed in the sun and the wind carried the scent of pine and stone and summer.
Right now, in this moment, Ben had everything he ever wanted.