Chapter 45 – Charlie
CHARLIE
I’m ripped from my sleep, launching myself upright and sputtering from the ice-cold water soaking my clothes, face and hair. “What the fuck?” I shout, glaring up at Mitchell who is smirking down at me.
“Good morning,” he says, like he didn’t just throw a bucket of cold arse water on me, and tosses said bucket on the grass beside him. Wait. Grass?
Looking around, I see we’re outside. What and how the fuck did I get outside?
In the distance, the sun is barely starting to rise, the only sounds I can hear are my own sputtering and coughing and cicadas echoing through the surrounding bush.
“Mitchell? Why are we outside?” I grind out, wiping the water from my eyes and shaking out my hair.
“Jace was right.” He shrugs, hands crossing over his chest, not even bothering to hide his amusement. “You are hard to wake, didn’t even stir when I carried you out here.”
Looking down at my wet clothes, I spot the sparring and boxing pads, gloves and other training gear on the grass beside us. “Nope.” I shake my head.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes. Jace and Rissa are spending the day together. Charlotte has school. That leaves you with me.”
“The sun isn’t even up, the day hasn’t started yet. I am not sparring this early in the morning, soaking wet while everyone else gets to sleep in.” I am well aware I’m whining like a little bitch, but you know what? I am not a morning person, so I don’t give one fuck.
“Jace is awake. We just got back from a run."
“Good for you guys, I’m going back to bed.” They chose to be awake and exercise at this time. I did not.
“Fine by me. You might want to duck though.” I don’t get a chance to fully process his words before I’m moving instinctively thanks to the years’ worth of training my dads had kids doing before school every morning as teenagers.
Rolling out of the way, I sweep my leg out and hook his ankles in a move that catches him off guard because he goes down. Hard.
“What the fuck, Mitchell!” I shout, but my indignation is short-lived when I realise he grabbed a second bucket filled with what I’m assuming is also ice-cold water that tipped all over him when he went down.
Ha, that would be karma. She’s a bitch, but every now and then, I fucking love her.
“Huh, didn’t see that coming. Nice,” he comments, and I give him a sarcastic smile.
“Gee thanks, glad you approve. Can I go back to bed now?” He doesn’t answer my question. Instead he jumps to his feet, and I’m forced to dodge as his arm swings in the air, still holding the bucket.
“Jeez!” What is he trying to do, kill me? I glare at him, but it doesn't seem to bother him. He just tosses the bucket away and comes at me again.
I manage to block the fist coming for my face, and return one of my own that doesn’t connect. We continue like that, going back and forth trying to get a hit on the other until my movements grow slow and he knocks me on my arse.
“Ten minutes.” He looks down at his watch, and at first I think he’s saying we can have a ten-minute break, but after a long second, his meaning dawns on me and I groan, lying back on the grass.
“It’s only been ten minutes?”
“Your stamina sucks.” I’d argue with him if he wasn’t right. To be fair, I just woke up. That’s got to count for something, right?
If my dads saw me right now, I’d be in so much shit for slacking off this bad. I think the last time I sparred was with them, and that was a few years ago.
“Can we take a break?” I ask, resigning myself to our morning workout, but I could really do with a drink and a chance to catch my breath.
“We can take a break when you land a blow.”
“I did the first time! Knocked you on your arse if I recall correctly.”
“That was a lucky shot. One you can’t seem to repeat. Now, let's go again,” he commands.
“At least I landed a shot. You haven’t,” I quip, struggling to my feet only to be knocked on my arse, the breath in my lungs stuck in my throat.
“I wasn’t trying. Get up.”
Nostrils flaring, I get to my feet. “Why are we doing this?”
“I need to know you can take care of yourself. But more importantly, that you can protect the girls if it ever comes to it. You’ve got skill, I’ll give you that. You’re rusty, but your instincts are good. Your dads taught you well. Your only problem though, is-”
“My stamina.” I sigh, jumping out of his range when he goes to strike again.
“Running is good exercise, but it’s not enough, and I haven’t seen you do even that since Jace started running with me.”
“That’s because you want to do it at the bum fuck of dawn,” I complain, gripping my stomach from the blow he just landed while I was distracted.
“Then you can start running with Marissa.”
“Bonnie runs?” I stop moving.
“Normally, yes. She does a few laps of the property every other day, but since you two arrived she’s also slacked off. Something I’ll be nipping in the bud as of tomorrow, and you will be joining her."
I sputter out a breath, landing on my back and staring up at the sky that’s quickly lightening as the sun starts to rise higher. I don’t get up straight away, regretting my remark about him not being able to land a hit of his own. I should have kept my mouth shut.
“This is because of that doctor, isn’t it?” I ask, sitting up. “The one you’re looking into who used to be a coroner? You think he put the IUD in."
“Yes. But even if he didn’t, someone did and they’re still out there. Someone who hurt her. Who could still hurt her.”
“When will you hear back about the serial number on the IUD?”
“Should be today or tomorrow,” he answers, and I nod, guzzling down water from one of the two bottles I nabbed while he was distracted answering my questions. Though I suspect he wasn’t as distracted as he pretended to be.
“Okay, let’s go again,” I say determined, rising to my feet and tossing the bottle aside. I’ve barely adjusted my stance before he’s coming at me again, and I’m twisting my body out of his trajectory.
If our sparring match has told me one thing, it’s the extent of which I’ve slacked off. How I’ve disregarded all the lessons my dads taught me the moment I moved out.
I’m determined to change that. To prove myself. Not necessarily to Mitchell - okay a little to Mitchell, but mostly to myself. To show I’m not useless in the unlikely event the girls, Jace, myself or even Mitchell need help.
At some point, Jace and Bonnie come outside, coffees in hand and sit down on the grass nearby to watch us. Do I believe it’s a coincidence that they came out right after Mitchell and I discarded our shirts? With the way they’re all but drooling? Not a chance.
Mitchell and I both push harder, more determined to one up the other and get a hit under their watchful eyes, until we hear the sound of Charlotte’s alarm going off and her bedroom light switches on.
With a pout, Bonnie stands and heads inside, Jace casting a longing glance my way before following her.
We’re still sparring when they make their way back outside some time later, fully dressed and ready for he day. Jace gives me a wink, gripping me by the back of the neck and pulling me in for a quick and dirty kiss then heads for the garage.
I watch him go until he disappears from sight, then I turn in time to see Bonnie walk up to Mitchell and wrap her arms around him. He immediately softens; all the hard energy he’s been fuelling into our sparring evaporates in a second.
He whispers something to hear, and she nods, saying something back before she tilts her head back, silently asking for a kiss that he happily gives her. I watch her body melt in his arms, the tension in his shoulders dissolving before they pull apart.
She looks my way and I open my arms. Bonnie crosses the lawn and immediately sinks into my embrace. Leaning down, I press a kiss to her lips and breathe a sigh of relief.
Mitchell is right, this is what matters. The thought of something happening, of not being able to protect her…
Clearing my throat, I pull back enough to see her face. “You guys heading off?” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Charlotte race out the door, boasting about tying her laces without any help.
Bonnie looks over her shoulder and smiles at her daughter before turning back to me.
“Yeah, we’re gonna head out after dropping Charlotte off.
Then, we might grab something to eat at a nearby café?
I don’t know, is that bad? We didn’t really plan anything properly. We probably should have, shouldn’t we?”
I shake my head, interrupting before she can worry herself too bad. “Nah, some of the best things we do in life are spur of the moment. We wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“Mm,” she hums, rising up on her toes to press her lips to mine again. When Jace backs the car out of the garage and parks beside us, she steps back, a thoughtful look in her eye.
“I want to tell Charlotte tonight.” Mitchell’s head snaps our way, hearing her words and I smile. “I’ve had to hide for so long…I don’t want to hide this. Us. All of us. Including you and Jace, if that’s okay?”
“I-uh-yes. Yes,” I stumble over my words, surprised and ecstatic at the thought.
We’ve been following her lead, not exactly hiding our relationships from Charlotte, but not not hiding it either.
I mean, the four of us are sharing a room and a bed.
Still, we’ve kept any PDA to a minimum, nothing more than hugging and holding one another.
“Good,” she responds, smiling up at me again and I almost miss that she’s not wearing her blue contacts; her mossy green eyes staring up at me. “Mitchell, are you okay with that?”
He doesn’t immediately answer her, closing the distance between us and him. His eyes flick up to mine momentarily before he presses a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m more than okay with that.”
Bonnie’s eyes close as Mitchell tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear and places a kiss to her temple. “You guys should get going, otherwise you’ll be late.”
She nods and Mitchell steps away. Bonnie moves to do the same but before she can, I quickly pull her back into me, whispering in her ear.
“Do you know you’re not wearing your contacts?
” As much as I love seeing her natural green eyes, the last thing I want is for her to be uncomfortable later if she didn’t do it intentionally.
Biting her lip, a gentle blush creeps up her cheeks, and she dips her head. “Yeah, um I-” She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again. “Yes, I know.”
I smile, brushing my nose against hers and step back. “I love it,” I whisper.
“Thank you.”
“Muuuum! We’re going to be late!” Charlotte calls out, her head sticking out of the backseat window. Both Bonnie and I let out soft chuckles, and I kiss her cheek as close to her mouth as I dare with Charlotte watching, then I step back and rejoin Mitchell.
“Again,” I tell him, getting into stance while Jace starts up the car behind us and heads out.