Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“ D id you call the repairman?” Maxine asked as we pulled into my driveway bright and early the next morning.
“No.” A Patterson’s Home Repair van sat in the street, and at the sight of my car, a uniformed man climbed out.
“You Katie Parker?” he asked when I stepped out of the car.
“Who wants to know?” Maxine popped her gum. “What are you, some ambulance chaser of a fix-it guy? You hear talk of my granddaughter flooding her home, and you all come running with your wrenches, water suckers, and thingie-mabobbers?”
“It’s already paid for.” He pushed up the brim of his black company cap, his gray hair springing out the sides. “All I know is I’ve been dispatched to this here house to replace a water heater.”
“Who paid you?”
“That fellow right there.” The man pointed behind us, where Charlie Benson was pulling in.
“He bought you a water heater.” Maxine sigh was a slow drawl. “That is so romantic.” She linked her arm with the repairman’s. “Follow me. I’ll lead you to the culprit. You know, I do so admire a man in uniform.”
She guided the repairman inside, while I stood on the front step watching Charlie slowly walk my way.
He had a way of carrying himself that spoke of confidence and strength.
I could see him one day being president of Thrifty Co.
He would get there sooner than later, and while family connections may have opened that first door, it was his own abilities that would push him to the top.
I wondered how long it would be before he was the one making the decisions to tear down businesses and brush hog the small man.
“Do you know something about this repair guy?”
Charlie pushed his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts, and his black Aviators hid whatever might’ve been brewing in those eyes. “Fred’s one of the best in the county. He’ll get you taken care of.”
“I don’t need you to pay for it.”
“Too late.”
“Insurance would cover it.”
“Yeah, and it would take them days. Did you want cold showers in the meantime?”
I didn’t know what to say. I had zero experience in pricing hot water heaters, but it couldn’t have been cheap.
“You’re kind of dressed down for the day, aren’t you?’ I took in his flip-flops and a t-shirt that advertised some beach town in Florida. “Did the man-eating boss give you the day off?”
Charlie’s full lips curved, and he propped his hand on the porch beam right over my head. “I took the day off so I could help you. Now are you going to invite me in, or do I have to wait for an invitation from my friend Fred.”
“Fred is pretty handsome. You could do worse.”
Charlie’s grin deepened.
I would not smile at him. I wouldn’t. All he had to do was breathe, and charm and charisma surrounded him like the wings of an angel. I had to keep my wits about me. My mother would’ve fallen for those brooding eyes, chiseled jaw, and body of a Hollywood action star, but I wouldn’t.
I couldn’t. But I did have business with the boy. There were words I needed to give him that had sat heavy on my heart all night.
“You gonna let me in, Parker?”
“No. ”
Charlie merely lifted a brow, stared down at me. . .and waited. “Is there a problem?”
“Yes.” My word, he looked incredibly dashing today. And he smelled like that cologne he’d always worn, the one I had gotten him that one memorable Christmas. “I mean, no. I. . .” So hard. The words lodged in my throat like Millie’s bean balls. “I wanted to...apologize.”
One single brow lifted. “Is that so?”
“You came over last night and were an incredible help. I have no idea what I would’ve done if you hadn’t answered your phone.”
He shifted closer. “I will always answer your calls.”
The heat index under this porch had to be climbing.
“And I’m sorry I turned it into an argument.
You didn’t deserve that. I mean, you do deserve what I said, because I was right, and I can’t stand what you’re a part of, and I think you’re making a huge mistake.
” I took a breath. “But last night wasn’t the time. ”
Charlie took off his sunglasses and focused those grays right on me. “I kind of got lost in some of that. Was that an apology?”
“Yes.” I returned his smile. “Somewhere in there, there definitely was one.” I leaned on tip-toe and before reason prevailed, I gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know if I robbed the man speechless, but he didn’t move. Charlie simply stood there, so close I could move right into his arms if I wanted.
And glory, how I did want.
Charlie studied the ground, head bent, as if his thoughts weighed him down. “Katie, nothing in this buyout deal is simple,” he finally said. “It’s more complicated than you could ever imagine.”
His tone sounded defeated and heavy, yet laced with something I couldn’t define. “Enlighten me.”
“I can’t.”
“Because of family obligations or Thrifty Co.?”
“Both,” he said. “But I care about you. I care about this town. And I want to do the right thing by everyone.”
“Including your company.”
“My uncle’s company.” He looked around, like he expected someone to be lurking in the landscaping. “You guys need a new lawyer,” he advised quietly. “The longer you let that go, the worse your case is.”
“James said he’s in contact with someone.” It was killing my dad to be so far away, with such limited communication while the case completely unraveled.
“It can’t wait. And you can’t pick just any attorney. You need someone with experience in this sort of thing.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Nobody likes to see a total shutout. They want a fair fight.”
“You mean it’s bad press for you guys if it’s a total shutout. Thrifty Co. ends up looking like the giant who squashed the little man.”
“Not quite what I meant.”
“This morning three major cable news networks picked up the story. They went live with it on air and their websites”
“I’m aware.”
Of course he was. It was his job. “Sorry if that’s making trouble for your career pursuits.”
“Your first apology was half way believable. That one was just pure sass.”
“Ian always said my acting skills were weak.”
“I guess your ex-boyfriend is good for something—he’s garnered more attention for In Between than your attorney ever did. When did you say your British chap was leaving town?”
“Is Thrifty Co. feeling our choke hold yet? I guess you didn’t expect us to come up swinging. Is our little portion of the street really worth your company’s reputation being dragged through the mud?”
“How much more you got?”
“Remember that time we went four wheeling after the storm on old man Holt’s farm?
” We’d ridden for hours, mud flying, brown from scalp to shoes, laughing ’til I ached.
“That day won’t even compare to what we’re going to bring.
” I was bluffing really. I knew Ian was at the point where he had exhausted all his contacts.
It was simply a waiting game to see if the small media fire he lit would catch and grow into an inferno.
“I remember that day.” The look in Charlie’s eyes told me he recalled more than just the mud slinging.
It had been our senior year. I’d just been put in the friend zone by my boyfriend Tate weeks before, and Charlie and I had gravitated back toward one another like fate had tugged us in with this invisible string.
It was that day that I’d sat behind him on the four wheeler, my hands tight around his waist, and knew I was where I belonged.
“And then college came, and you forgot me,” I said.
“Is that what you think?” Charlie leaned down, his face near enough to tempt. “I seem to recall it was the other way around.”
“And now?” I asked. “You’re leaving me behind again.”
“I’m not.” Charlie’s hands slid up my arms and rested on my shoulders. “This is my job. And I can’t walk away from it. I don’t expect you to understand that, and that might make me the enemy to you. But we both know that’s not what I want you to see when you look at me.”
“I don’t know how I can see anything else. What are you going to do when they bulldoze the Valiant—hold my hand. . . or hand me a check? You work for them, Charlie.”
“If you can’t trust in what I’m doing, then trust in the man you know I am.”
“I can’t do that.” I wished I could. “I’m losing too much.”
“What if we’re more than those buildings?”
“You’re asking me to choose you over the Valiant?”
Before Charlie could answer, the repairman opened the door. “Hey, Mr. Benson, I got something I need you to take a look at.”
Charlie’s eyes never left mine. “I’ll be right there.
” He exhaled slowly and took a step back.
“Katie, you tell me to leave, and I’ll leave.
I’d like to stay and help. But I will not talk business or buyouts with you, and I’m not going to fight.
Maybe I can’t be who you want me to be tomorrow, but today. . .I can at least be who you need.”
I stood there on the front porch, right next to the very door Charlie had come through so many times when we were younger. Dates. Prom. Church.
We certainly weren’t those kids anymore.
“Stay,” I said. “I’d like you to stay.”
We walked in together, and Maxine met us in the soppy living room. Her arms crossed over her chest, she stared Charlie Benson down like a firing squad .
He inclined his head. “Mrs. Dayberry.”
“I hear you worked your tail off last night with this disaster.”
“I helped a bit.”
“Well.” Maxine moved a hand to her hip. “I would’ve answered Katie’s call of distress, but it was my bingo night. I’m a ten card player, and I take no prisoners or outside communication when I’m in the zone, you get me?”
“We wouldn’t want to interrupt your sacred time,” I said.
Maxine straightened the row of gold bangles decorating her wrist. “It’s not like I get crazy like some of those bingo nut jobs.”
“You take a whole bag of troll dolls.”
“Moral support.”
“And don’t forget your statue of the Virgin Mary.”
She turned to Charlie. “I’m very spiritual.”
“We’re not Catholic.”
“At least I don’t blow up water heaters.”
“Nope, just chicken trucks.”
“That was a long time ago and I —”
“Ladies.” Charlie stepped between my grandmother and me, his hand grabbing mine, as if to restrain. “How about we get some work done?”
“Excellent idea,” Maxine said. “Dibs on role of supervisor.”
“Katie and I can handle it. You take it easy, Mrs. Dayberry.”
Oh, he was putty in her manicured hands.
“Thank you, dear boy. I lost to Peg Pickering last night more than once, and I am just not feeling full of vigor. Plus that tramp stole my lucky dauber.”
“What a tough night you had,” I said. “Really puts mine into perspective.”
Maxine’s grin seemed to hold plenty of vigor. With her poison apple red nails, she gripped Charlie’s chin in her hand. “You’re a good boy, Charlie Benson. And if I were thirty years younger and Sam didn’t worship my every breath, I’d snatch you up myself.”
He looked to me for assistance.
But I just smiled.
She roughly patted his cheek. “We’ll take that help. We’ll take any help you got.” Her cobalt eyes narrowed. “You know what I’m saying?”
“I believe I do.” His easy smile dimmed, and the face of the Chicago businessman appeared. “Today I’m just here to clean a house.”
Maxine scrutinized him for a moment. “Good enough. Oh, and keep your paws off my sister here.”
“I’m your granddaughter,” I corrected.
She rolled her eyes and sashayed away. “Details.”
We worked all day, stopping only when a restoration company came and ripped up the hardwood and tile in spots where the damage had been too great.
They set up fans loud enough to be airplane propellers.
Sometimes I would work side by side with Charlie.
Our arms would touch, my leg would brush against his, a hand would be at my back.
Other times he’d be working across the room, and I’d look up to find him watching me, a small smile playing at his lips.
It was nice to drop the battle lines.
He could just be Charlie.
And I could just be me.
But was there any hope for the two of us together?