20. Another Reason
20
ANOTHER REASON
C harlotte’s body hit the water with a massive splash that probably scared fish away for a half a mile.
“You threw me in,” she said, coming up for air. “I didn’t think you’d do that.”
Foster was roaring with laughter and then jumped off the boat and did a flip in the air to land next to her splashing more water in her face.
He came up and grabbed her before she could clear her eyes. “You said you were sweaty and we needed to cool off. I was only doing what you said.”
“But you didn’t even let me take my dress off,” she said. “Now I’m sinking.”
“Stop,” he said, reaching down and pulling it off of her. “I’ll buy you a new one if it’s ruined.”
“It’s not,” she said. “You still could have given me a warning.”
“What did you think I was going to do when I picked you up?” he asked, grinning and putting a kiss on her lips. He tossed her dress up onto the boat. It’d dry easily enough.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe hug me.”
“A hug is like this,” he said, wrapping her tight. “That was cradling you to toss you over.”
“Now I know,” she said. “Good thing I know how to swim.”
“I asked you first,” he said. “I wouldn’t have done it if you didn’t know how. Or I would have jumped in quick to get you.”
“And scarred me for life in the process,” she said, giggling and pushing him away. She swam to the back of the boat and pulled herself up and he got a good look at her navy bikini.
The simple halter top with white trim wasn’t anything overly sexy, but it looked it on her. Her bottoms had more of the same style of navy and white trim. Almost nautical and he wondered if she did that on purpose.
“You look like a wet dog shaking your head and hopping like that.”
He pulled himself up and barely caught the towel that was thrown at his face.
“I’ve got water in my ear and I’m trying to get it out.” She hopped two more times on one foot. “There.”
“Keep doing it,” he said, his eyes on her breasts jiggling. They weren’t large but the right size in his mind. Enough to give the movement he was enjoying.
“You don’t get to tell me to keep doing that unless we are in bed,” she said, lifting her chin.
“I can bring you back there,” he said. “But I thought we established we don’t only have to be in bed.”
“Are you going to take me right here out in the open?” she asked.
He was tempted. Or she was tempting him, but he wouldn’t do that.
There was a line he’d never cross that would get back to his brother.
Nor would he want anything to happen to Charlotte or have her be embarrassed.
“I don’t think either of us wants to risk that,” he said.
“You’re right. It might be exciting, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it.”
She put the towel down and then sat on the bench. The sun was shining and they’d both be dry soon enough.
“I don’t know why people find so much excitement in it. There are other things to do without the risk.”
“Like throwing me in the water,” she said. “Which is a first for me too.”
He frowned. “No one has ever tossed or pushed you into the water before? Kids do that shit all the time.”
“Nope,” she said. “You didn’t roughhouse around my parents. And no one I’ve dated would do anything like that. They were probably too old to lift me and were afraid of pulling their groin.”
He lifted one eyebrow at her. “You said it, not me.”
“You were thinking it,” she said, giving him a tiny playful poke. “And it’s wrong of me. You saw Landon. He wasn’t some frail guy. I mean he wasn’t elderly.”
“But he wasn’t thirty-two,” he said proudly. He’d said it a few times around her so she remembered he was nothing like any of her exes.
“I know,” she said. “I’m the old one. I’ll be an old maid soon.”
“Hardly that,” he said. He didn’t want to get into a marriage or children conversation. They weren’t there and it was best to guide them away from it.
“Can I ask you something without you thinking I’m fishing?”
Here they went. “Sure,” he said. “Do I have to answer it?”
“I’d like you to, but that doesn’t mean you will.”
He didn’t like the hurt in her voice. “Go on. What?”
“You’re thirty-two and have this really nice house and boat. You’re single. You come from what sounded like a lower income upbringing.”
“And you want to know how I got it?” he asked.
“Just curious. Did you win the lotto? You’ve only said you work in security and technology. I mean, sure there is money there, but unless you own the company. Which maybe you do,” she said, frowning.
“I don’t,” he rushed out to say. He wouldn’t lie. “But I do have a VP in front of my title if that helps any. I’m smart with a good degree. Let’s say I earn everything I’ve got and am wise with my money.”
He wasn’t going to go into his investments and he sure the hell wouldn’t say all the businesses he owned some shares of stock in or the bonuses he might have gotten with each new acquisition that West made.
“That’s fine,” she said. “I think I do well for myself, but it’s only been the past year or so. Before that, I had a decent job but not what I wanted. Now I’m where I want to be and love it. I hope it continues.”
“Is there a reason it wouldn’t?” he asked.
“Not that I know of, but things can happen. I know that. Nothing is guaranteed unless your daddy owns the company you work for like Landon. But even then, that isn’t guaranteed either.”
“Has he bothered you again?” he asked.
“No. I told you he replied that he missed me and I ignored it. This was after I told him I was done and to leave me alone.”
“Do you want me to put some other security on your house?” he asked. He gave her his cell phone number so she could reach him if she needed to.
Maybe he wanted her to have it for another reason altogether, but it worked out well this way too.
“No,” she said. “I’ve spent too much of my life feeling as if I was living in a bubble and don’t want to do it anymore. It’s all good. He’s harmless.”
“Not harmless if he’s still bothering you,” he said.
“I’m not worried. I’m really not,” she said. “And now I know I can call you if I need you. Does that apply if I wake up in the middle of the night from a sexy dream and don’t like that I’m alone?”
“Shit yeah,” he said.
She laughed. “Not sure I’ve got the courage to do that.”
“I want you to have the courage to do that,” he said. “I want you to feel as if you can do anything in the world you want.”
“That’s the sweetest thing ever.”
“Now I sound like a wuss,” he said.
“Don’t feel that way. No one has ever encouraged me like you do. I like it. I really do.”
“My family says it’s my wheelhouse to teach. I don’t have the patience for it.”
“See,” she said. “That’s the funny thing. When you’re showing me things, you do have the patience. Sort of. Not the day you carried my ladder in. You were grouchy then. Oh, and the day my lawn mower almost blew up. Maybe you’re right and you don’t have as much patience as I think.”
“Both those times you almost got hurt,” he admitted. “That is why I was grouchy.”
“Oh, I didn’t think about that. So not only were you saving me and teaching me, but you were protecting me.”
“Something like that,” he said. And wondered how deep of a hole he might have just dug for himself and realized there wasn’t a shovel in sight to get out.