5. Noah
5
A car door slams outside my house and my eyes fly open, expectantly. It takes me a moment to realize it’s morning and I must have fallen asleep on my couch last night.
Sunlight filters through the sheer curtains and from my position, I see the familiar old red sedan in my driveway. She’s had that car for as long as I can remember and I cringe every time I see her still driving it.
That tiny blonde that still manages to make my heart skip a beat, lugs a brown paper grocery bag with both arms. She drops it at the door before going back for the rest. When the fifth loaded bag is dropped, she draws a fisted hand back, ready to break down my door.
Still shirtless, I pull it open before she can.
“Whooah.” Charlie tumbles over the bags and falls into my chest. Despite being caught off guard, I capture her firmly.
Christ. How long has it been since I’d touched her? My whole body reacts with a need. My senses intensify at her sweet scent. Her soft cool hands press against my abs with a groan as she struggles to shimmy off me like she’d just walked into a spider web.
“Oh God. What the—who does that? Who just pulls the door open like that?”
“I saw you coming. What, is it a thing to wait for the knock? Also, not my fault you attempted to break this door with your huffing and puffing.”
“I don’t puff, ” she huffs, looking at my chest. “Put a shirt on, Jesus.”
“It’s my house and it’s not like I invited you in. I plan on seeing myself back to bed once you say what you came here to say.”
“Bullshit. You never sleep past seven.”
I scratch my head—which is still a mess from my restless night thinking about some bucket list. “Did you need something?” I’ve become eerily good at hiding my amusement because this is exactly what I expected her to do.
Her cheeks flush beautifully in the sunlight as she struggles to avoid my bare chest. Her green eyes sparkle with either horror or…appreciation. God, has it been that long that I can’t even tell anymore?
She blinks and closes her mouth, swallowing. “I’ll do it…the wedding. With you. All the things.”
As usual, forming a sentence is not her forte, but I get her. “What changed?”
She tilts her head. “I’m leaving. After the wedding. And… I don’t want to leave holding onto this.” She glances down at the foot of space between us.
I dip my eyes to the bags of groceries at my welcome mat. The items I had delivered to her apartment this morning. I reach in and pull out a bag of organic instant coffee. Charlie’s always running late so I knew traditional brewed coffee wouldn’t get anywhere in her kitchen so instant was the optimal choice.
I step aside to let her in but she doesn’t move. Her petite frame stands stubbornly outside the threshold, her arms folded, her face turned toward the mountains.
“Are you going to come in?”
Charlie shakes her head. “No. I just wanted to return these and let you know that I can be adult about all this.”
I scoff and turn toward the kitchen. “So far so good.”
My house isn’t glamorous in the least. It’s a one-story, two-bedroom A-frame ranch with large windows. The walls are off-white but the rest of my space contains dark, rustic furniture. A black L-shape sofa with white pillows, a matching cowhide rug, and an oak coffee table. That’s it. No useless console tables, end tables, or ottomans. I keep my home free of useless clutter collecting garbage.
I tear open the package of coffee and watch Charlie press the sole of one foot over the threshold like she’s going to set off an infrared laser sensor.
I turn to hide my smirk and pull two glass mugs from the overhead cabinet.
“What else?” I ask, my back turned to her as she steps in.
“How do you know there’s something else?”
I give her a pointed glare. “There’s always something else you hold back on telling me, Charli—Charlotte.”
She winces. “That, for one. You can call me Charlie again if you want. It was a little…childish of me to ask you not to.”
She had taken that privilege away from me last fall after I had her fired from the library. When Pepper’s politician fiancé found out she’d been hiding out in Hideaway Springs, he had her followed. Photographs of her and Charlie at the library were taken and there was a million-dollar reward posted for whoever found his missing bride.
Which meant Charlie was in danger. I knew she’d never stay away from the library willingly, so I made sure she couldn’t go back.
I drop two sugar cubes into her cup. “Thanks, I prefer it,” I say, handing it to her.
She takes it as a peace offering.
“So how do we do this?” I ask with a sigh.
Her eyes widen appreciatively when she takes a sip. A sliver of foam on her lip draws my attention. She takes another one, practically moaning as she does. Christ, is that really necessary? Why can’t people just drink coffee silently?
“Civilly.” She blinks and sets the cup down. “Like, we could plan the bachelorette and bachelor parties together. It should be the same day…and we should decide if it’s an evening-only thing or a full-day event.”
I raise a brow.
“And we should probably take the hint that Pepper doesn’t want a stranger planning her wedding. She needs people who know them to make it special for them.”
“You’ve known Pepper for a little over six months.”
“Wow.” She raises her arms like I’d just offended her. “You really don’t know how female friendships work.”
Clearly, I don’t know anything about females .
“I remember a time you couldn’t stand my brother. Now you want to help plan his wedding?”
“That’s before he introduced me to the only person in town who still likes me.”
“Charlie…”
“It’s okay.” She smiles and I’m surprised to see how genuine it is. “None of that will matter in a few weeks.”
I tear my eyes from her and take a sip, wishing I held the sugar. Needing the bitterness a little too desperately. I clear my throat. “Where you going?”
“Oh, I have a few ideas.”
“You don’t have a plan?”
Charlie looks off to the side and I know she knows exactly what she wants.
She just… can’t afford it.
“I don’t want to focus on it now. I have new things to focus on.”
“Like the wedding,” I say, almost as confirmation. Or hell, maybe a reminder so she doesn’t focus on anything else. Like whatever the hell that third thing on her bucket list is…
“Exactly. The wedding. Well, I should go. I guess I’ll call you. And please stop with the deliveries.” She looks at the package of coffee and grabs it shamelessly on her way out.
“Charlie,” I call.
She turns.
“No.”
“No, what?”
I start to close the distance. Her eyes wary as I move toward her. “If we’re going to do this, it can’t be awkward. We can’t be hostile.”
“I agree.”
“Then you’ll let me bring these bags back to your car. Because we’re friends and…I know it’s hard.”
Misty green eyes look up at me and a desperate familiar urge to wrap her in my arms washes over me. “It’s not hard. I was prepared.”
My hand itches to swipe the hair from the side of her face. “Yeah, we were prepared for my mother too. It doesn’t make it any less painful.”
She smiles sadly. “She’s with my dad now. She’s happy again.”
It’s a goddamn miracle I haven’t touched her in the last sixty seconds. Haven’t given in to the maddening pull between us and just held her for as long as she needs. “I’m putting these back in your car. Or no deal about all the party planning. Chase and Pepper’s wedding will be a tragic disaster and it will all be because of your stubbornness.”
She works her jaw. “Fine. But this better be the last one.”
I take the coffee package from her and toss it into one of the bags, before lifting it off the floor.
She watches me load them all into her small trunk, shielding her face from the sun, her squinting making it seem like she’s smiling.
She looks good standing in front of my door. Her spring sundress swaying in the light breeze.
I bite back the memory of that night at the Inn and step over to her. “Meet me at the Inn Saturday morning. I usually stop in for an espresso before going to the office. We can talk logistics over…” I wave my hand, “Whatever is first on your list.”
Her eyes shift with hesitation and it makes me sigh with irritation. “We called a truce, Charlie. I think that means you can come back to the Inn.”
She bites the corner of her lip and then shakes her head. “The Township Bakery. We’ll make that our meeting place. Weddings’ in four weeks so we can meet once a week, starting this Saturday.”
“Works for me.” That doesn’t work for me at all. If Charlie is leaving after the wedding and planning on hitting everything on this mystery bucket list, I’m going to need a lot more of her than once a week to find out what's on it.