Anna
Charlie didn’t look at her as he continued.
“She died while I was still young. Really young. I was young enough that my day-to-day memories of her started to fade after a few years. I got into high school, got interested in girls, got my first job, and grew up without her. My memories of watching her cook in the kitchen, listening to her sing or tell me stories before bed are so dim I can barely see them anymore. But all my memories of our picnics beneath this tree are bright as day. I can see her face, hear her voice, just like she’s still with me. ”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I get it. You didn’t want a film crew trampling all over your memories. But if you didn’t allow it, you might lose them altogether.”
A half smile crossed his face. “You get it.”
“Of course I do.” She sighed and sat down in the grass, basking in the setting sun and the beauty of the view. “I also get why the thought of tourists might scare you a bit, too.”
“Nothing scares me.” He sat beside her and winked. “I’m never scared.”
She smiled a genuine smile, appreciating his moment of sarcastic self-awareness. It charmed her somehow. It took an awful lot of self-control not to just lean into him right now. He looked cozier than a down comforter for some reason.
“No matter what,” she said in a quiet voice, “it will still be your property. You can keep people off it, charge people to view it, or turn it into a theme park. It’s entirely up to you.
If you want to keep the address off the map, then don’t disclose that the movie was filmed here.
No one will really be able to find it. It’s so far out of the way, and there aren’t any truly distinctive landmarks around.
I’ve been doing this sort of thing most of my adult life, and I’m telling you, unless people really want the public to know, most filming locations are just sort of ignored by the general public.
” She shrugged. “I promise your address won’t appear in the credits. ”
She hoped she’d been successful in easing his mind a little, but it was hard to tell.
He was not typically a man of many words.
At the very least, he tended to think about what he was going to say for a long while before he actually said it.
Sometimes, she wondered whether he was going to say anything at all. This time, he did. “Thanks.”
“Sorry if it doesn’t help much.”
“It does.” He turned to her, and suddenly, her heart was beating like a bird trapped indoors, fluttering against a window to get out.
She waited for him to finish whatever it was he was going to say, but he didn’t say another word.
Instead, he leaned closer to her, and she felt herself being drawn toward him, too, like there was some kind of magnetic force between them.
At some point, she just stopped thinking.
Five seconds later, she realized he was going to kiss her.
One second after that, she realized she was going to kiss him back.
There was something so beautiful about the moment, despite the disappearing light, the sudden heavy feeling in the air, and the distant rolling thunder.
Soon, Charlie was close enough that she could feel the heat of his body through her own skin, but before he even touched her, a torrent found them. That distant thunder hadn’t been so distant after all. It came on all at once with little to no warning. Within seconds, they were both soaked.
Charlie, being a man of action, didn’t say a word before jumping up, taking Anna’s hand, and helping her to her feet as well.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, already leading her away from the tree he adored so much.
Then he did something she hadn’t predicted at all.
Without another word, he took the wide-brim hat from his head and popped it onto hers.
It was such a gentlemanly thing to do, and so unexpected, that Anna nearly stopped running altogether. He gently tugged her along, though, so she continued to put one foot in front of the other the way a normal, less shocked person would.
The thing about a torrential downpour was that once you got to a certain level of wet, there really wasn’t any point in avoiding the water any longer.
Anna could have wrung her clothes out and filled a bucket, she supposed.
All the same, Charlie took her back to his house and pulled her under his front porch while he reached out to open his screened front door.
Once his door was open, he gestured for her to enter first. As she did, he pulled his hat from her head and hung it up on a coat tree near the door. The amount of water that poured from that hat when it was hung sideways was impressive, a little torrent all on its own.
Anna patted her hair to examine it. It was far drier than it should have been, considering. “Good hat,” she finally concluded.
“That’s why I bought it.” Charlie laughed and hung his own coat up next to the hat. “You look like a drowned cat,” he said after taking a good, long look at Anna. “You’ll catch your death.”
Anna shrugged. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
But Charlie wasn’t buying it. “Let me get you something dry to wear, anyway.” He left her alone, standing in the middle of his small living room, for a few long minutes.
When he returned, he was carrying a stack of clothes and a towel.
“For you,” he said, handing them over. “Sorry I didn’t have anything in your size.
Hopefully, these work out okay. The sweats have a drawstring, so… ”
Her smile seemed to silence him. In case he felt uncomfortable, she reassured him. “Thank you, really.”
“Uh… well, the bathroom’s free if you want to change,” he said awkwardly. Why was he acting so strange? He was normally so confident and put-together.
When she finally stood in front of the bathroom mirror, she realized what was happening.
Her shirt was so soaked that it clung to her body, showing every curve perfectly, right down to the divot of her belly button.
She bit her lip and smiled to herself. So, he was attracted to her, at least a little bit.
It felt good to peel out of her clinging, wet clothes and dry off.
His clothes were far too big for her, but just as he predicted, the drawstring on his sweatpants came in handy.
And whoever said no to an oversized T-shirt in the comfort of their own home?
Or someone else’s, for that matter. The shirt smelled like laundry detergent and dryer sheets, the mild perfume of freshly cleaned clothes.
She nuzzled into the scent like a cat in a wool blanket.
Finally, she emerged from the bathroom holding her stack of wet clothing bundled in the towel he had loaned her. “Where do I put all this?”
“I’ll trade you,” Charlie offered, holding out a glass of something amber.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Irish whiskey. Single malt. I heard you order it at the bar. I didn’t know if my father kept any in the house, but it turns out he did.”
“Lucky me.” She laughed and swapped her bundle of wet clothes for the glass of whiskey. It was touching that he remembered her drink at all, but she didn’t tell him that she also remembered his.
“Is there anything here that can’t be dried?” he asked, balancing the bundle of wet clothes in his hands. “I was going to throw mine in the dryer, and I’ll add yours if you like.”
She thought a moment. “Yeah, the bra probably shouldn’t go in the dryer.”
There was a split second of pink in his cheeks, like he hadn’t really expected that answer. Then he pulled himself together and asked, “Should I hang it up, or would you rather do it yourself?”
Anna couldn’t help laughing out loud. He was so perfectly cute when he was shy.
She would never have guessed she’d ever see it for herself, but here she was.
What a lucky rainstorm she’d just had. “You can hang it up for me,” she said when she’d gotten hold of herself.
“We’re both adults, so I don’t mind. I’m sure you’ve seen one before. ”
It took several minutes after he disappeared for her to realize that the reason he was blushing probably had less with the bra itself, and more to do with the sudden realization that she wasn’t in fact wearing one anymore.