Chapter Sixteen
An hour had passed since Charlie kissed Lila goodbye, and he still couldn’t stop smiling.
They slept wrapped in each other’s arms all night, and then a call from the farm—that Zac was needed and Charlie would need to come back early to cover the shop—forced them to leave the mountains earlier than planned. Truthfully, he could have stayed there forever, the rest of the world forgotten, just the two of them and nature.
Once back in Crestler’s Key, Lila went on to the farm to check the animals, and Charlie went to Southern Dive, and though he’d seen her an hour before, he already missed her. The thought made his smile widen. It had been a long time since he had cared enough about a woman to miss her.
He had just opened his laptop to check online orders so he could pull, package, and ready them for the afternoon FedEx pickup, when his cell rang. There was no one in the shop yet, most of the rush happening in the early afternoon, so he contemplated letting it go to voicemail so he could get in the orders before the shop became busy. But then he thought of Lila, and his heart did that weird flip thing it’d been doing since their night together, and he grabbed the phone, far too eager, but it wasn’t Lila’s name shining back at him. It was Lucas.
With trepidation, he answered the call, his nerves coiling tight. Lucas rarely called him when he was on deployment, so for him to call now something had to be wrong. “Hey, man. You all right?” he asked.
“Yeah, good. Just checking in.” There was a lot of noise in the background, and Charlie wanted to ask where he was, but he knew Lucas couldn’t say.
“You staying safe?”
“You know nobody out here’s got anything on me.” The men laughed, but there was nothing about it that was funny. Lucas continuously risked his life, but talking about that fact didn’t change it, so it was easier for them both to make light of it.
“Actually, I was going to ask you how you thought Lila was doing? I talked to her a bit ago and she seemed . . . distracted.”
Shit.
Charlie opened his mouth to tell him everything, but closed it back up immediately. He couldn’t tell him when he was out there, always in danger, when this information could cause him stress and in turn put his life at risk. No, they needed to wait until Lucas was back. “I think she’s okay. She told me about what happened to her. It was hard for her to talk about it, but she seemed better after.”
“Damn, I wish I were there.”
“I know you do. But I’ve got her. We’re planning to hit the shooting range later this week, and then she’s staying active with work at the hospital and then at my farm. She’s strong.”
“Yeah, yeah she is,” Lucas said. Then someone said something to him on his end, and he quickly said he had to run and would call back when he could.
“Take care of yourself, all right?” Charlie said.
“You too. And Lila. I appreciate everything you’re doing for her. Not sure what I’d do without you.”
They said good-bye, and Charlie set down his phone, a knot in his stomach that hadn’t been there moments before. This guilt was going to eat him alive, but what could he do?
Nothing. He wouldn’t push Lila away. Not again.
* * *
Lila walked into Crestler’s Key Animal Hospital with pep in her step, her smile stretching from ear to ear, and it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
It was the first time that she had opened up about the accident and felt better after, not worse. Having Charlie there, his arms wrapped around her, made her feel strong. Like maybe she wasn’t just a victim. She was a survivor, strong and able. He’d helped her see that, and then last night had been . . . wow. She was still reeling, her excitement in seeing him later almost too much to stand.
“Hey there, Dr. Jacobs, you look happy,” Tracy said from the front desk. Today she was dressed in a light blue T-shirt with a cartoon dog on it and a skirt, bright red-rimmed glasses completing her look. Tracy had lost her husband a few years ago to a sudden heart attack, and as far as Lila had heard, she hadn’t dated since. But she was adorable and so nice. Maybe Lila should add her to her goals list, along with Annie. And then something occurred to her—she was happy, like her friend in Charlotte, and in turn wanted everyone around her to be happy. The bubbly feeling that took over was happening to her, maybe for the first time in her life.
“I am happy. How about you?” she asked, nearly bouncing, but then the older woman started in on a tirade of her aching back and an ingrown toenail, and suddenly Lila wished she’d kept it to a hello and nothing more. Perhaps Tracy could handle her own love life after all.
“I’m sorry to say, honey, that you might not be happy for long. Baxter asked for you to help in grooming.”
Her eyes went wide. “Grooming?”
“They’re short-handed in there today, and the place is already packed. I can’t leave here, and there’s no one else to help. Well, no one except Baxter, but you know how that goes.” She rolled her eyes just as the phone rang, and she lifted her index finger to signal for Lila to wait while she answered the call.
Lila took the opportunity to peer around the animal hospital. Sure enough it was empty, every seat in the waiting area empty. And then she glanced through the glass door that led to the grooming area, and sure enough, chaos ensued, dogs barking loudly from their crates where they waited, and Jenny, the groomer, was covered in suds. She wiped her sleeve across her forehead, causing more suds to attach to her hair, and Lila’s heart went out to her.
When she was getting her undergraduate degree, she’d helped out a groomer, so maybe that was why Baxter thought of her. And not at all because she was a woman and he was a man and clearly it would be her job to do anything that resembled cleaning, including the dogs. Because that was sexist, and surely he wouldn’t pull such an obvious sexist stunt. But then this was Baxter.
Tracy hung up and then walked around to Lila where she still stood, staring at the grooming fiasco.
“Want me to get you an apron?” Tracy cocked her head to the side as an especially large dog jumped away from Jenny and took off around the room. “Or a rain jacket?”
Lila sighed. “Not sure anything will help that craziness, but thanks. I’ll get on in there. Let me know if anyone shows, though, and I’m needed out here. Where is Baxter, anyway?”
“Oh, you know. Golfing. Or about to be. He’s probably still outside.”
“Golfing?”
The office manager’s face switched to anger. “Yep, every Sunday. He plays, we work. That’s a man for you.”
And Lila had heard enough. Not all men were like Baxter, and while she wanted to explain this to Tracy, right now she needed to get outside and give her boss a piece of her mind.
“Be right back,” she said to Tracy. Then she pivoted on her heels and marched out the front door, down the steps of the front porch and marched around to the back of the building, where sure enough, Baxter was placing a large black golf bag into the back of his SUV.
“Dr. Baxter, may I have a word?” Lila asked, fighting to keep her voice even. Her hands were shaking. She rarely got this upset, and every time she did, her hands would shake like a leaf, but enough was enough.
The old man sighed heavily and turned around to look at her. “What is it, Lila?”
“Dr. Jacobs.”
“That’s what I said, dear. Now, I have a tee time to get to.”
Lila gritted her teeth together and flashed a good ole Southern smile, lest she chew his head off. “Actually, you didn’t. You called me Lila and then dear. But I’m a doctor, just like you, and I would appreciate you referring to me as such when I am here. And furthermore, this”—she said, pointing to his golf bag—“is ridiculous. You have assigned me to grooming while you go golfing? I don’t think so. I am a veterinarian, and my job is to provide care to animals. Not clean up their vomit. Not bathe them. I am happy to be a team player, I love being a team player, but I will not be treated like this anymore. So either you give me clients and their animals to care for, or I quit. Effective immediately.”
He stared at her, not blinking, not making a face. Just staring. The sky was astonishingly blue, the sun too bright, and Lila wished she had sunglasses on so she could better read his reaction. As it were, with the sun’s glare blinding her, she could scarcely see a few inches in front of her face.
He huffed. “All right, fine. You don’t have to get so testy. I’ll split the business with you beginning on Monday. Okay? Go on home. It’s a Sunday, and we’ve got nothing going on today. If Tracy needs you, she’ll call you. I’ll let Jenny know to call in her daughters to help with the grooming. They love that.” He smiled, and Lila tried to make sense of what all he’d just said.
It was the nicest thing she’d ever heard him say and the only time she’d ever seen him smile. Probably the only time he ever had in his life. For a second she contemplated telling him he should do it more often, smiling was a good look on him, but then the frown returned.
“Well, what are you staring at? Head on home before I change my mind.”
“Right! I’m gone.” Lila took off for her car, giggling like crazy the moment she stepped inside, and without consciously deciding to do it, she set off for Southern Dive.
The streets were quiet for a Saturday, and whereas normally Lila might struggle to find a spot to park around the dive shop, which was situated nicely at the end of Main Street, today she found one without a problem.
She pulled into an open spot, and immediately checked her face in the mirror for anything crazy, and then realizing what she’d just done, sat back in her seat. “Holy wow. I just checked my makeup. For a guy.”
Lila searched her memory, and she could not remember the last time she’d worried about such a thing. Her focus had been on school, followed by her first job in Charlotte, and so personal care fell to the back of her list of concerns. After all, there was only so much time in the day. And it wasn’t that she never checked her reflection in her car’s mirror. It was more that she’d never done it out of nervousness over what a guy would think. At least not since she was in high school, a freshman, Charlie a senior, and yeah, she’d stared at the mirror for an hour every time Lucas announced he’d be coming over.
Charlie. Oh my God, she was going to see Charlie. Who, by all accounts, likely wanted to see her, too. She could hardly contain her excitement.
She’d just decided to stop being silly and get in there, when a knock on her window had her jerking back.
“Hey!” Audrey called, waving.
Pushing open her car door, Lila stepped out and hugged her friend. “Hey, there. What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know, nothing really. And not at all hoping to run into Brady while doing that nothing.”
Lila’s eyebrows went up. “Wait a second. Did you two . . . ?”
Audrey bit her lip. “No, well . . . maybe. Do you remember that night we were all at Maguire’s? You left with Charlie early? I offered to drive Brady home since we live in the same area, and this led to that and . . . well, I might have slept at his place that night.” She winked.
“You so did not go home with Brady Littleton!”
She chewed her lip again. “I so did. And now, I’m wondering if he’s thinking about a do-over, because honestly, I can’t stop thinking about him. Which is stupid. But there it is. Anyway, it’s just my luck that I’d run into you here. Now you can be my cover.”
“Your cover?” Lila asked skeptically.
“Just follow my lead.”
They stepped up to the main door, and Audrey opened and held it for Lila.
There were male voices coming from the right, but they went quiet as soon as the women were inside. Lila’s gaze travelled over to where the voices had been and immediately locked on Charlie. He stared back at her, while a slow smile crept across her face. “Hey, you.”
“Hey yourself,” she said.
“No way. You didn’t.” This was from Brady, but Lila couldn’t pull her eyes away from Charlie enough to see what his brother was talking about. “I knew you were going to go there. Zac, you owe me fifty bucks.”
But Zac wasn’t paying attention to Brady. He was staring at Charlie. “Can I talk to you for a second? Alone.”
“No.”
“Dude,” Zac said, his tone harder this time.
“Not now.” Then Charlie walked out from behind the small counter and started for her. Each step sent her heart racing, butterflies dancing through her belly, her insides coming alive.
He stopped a few inches away from her and her body buzzed with the desire to touch him, kiss him. “I thought you were at work.”
“I was. Good ole Bax let me go early.”
He grinned. “So you came here?”
“I came here. I hope that’s okay. I had some stuff to show you, but you look busy so we can go over it later if you’d like.”
Charlie opened his mouth to reply, when Zac called to him again, and Lila wondered what was going on.
“Are we interrupting you?” She glanced from Charlie to Zac and then back.
“No. He’s fine. Let’s go outside.”
Opening the door for her, Charlie waited until Lila was outside and the door was closed to speak again. “Everything okay?” he asked as they started down the sidewalk. Most of the shops sat dark, a typical Sunday in Crestler’s Key.
“Yeah, I just wanted to show you a few things.” She took out her cell, went to her Etsy app, and clicked on a few of the businesses she’d saved there that morning before she went into work. “Look, there’s all kinds of T-shirt businesses that operate fully through Etsy. You could maybe start there to build up the business or even to check how well it’s going to work before fully launching on your site.”
Charlie took her phone and swiped through the T-shirts while Lila watched him. Maybe she’d chosen bad designs, but still, it would give him an idea of the possibilities. Finally, he handed her phone back with a smile. “You researched this for me?”
“I know these aren’t as good as yours. They’re just examples. But I know you can do this. It’s a chance, sure, but I think it could be amazing.”
“I think you’re amazing.” He took her hand and they fell into an easy silence as they walked, when Lila glanced back at Southern Dive, her curiosity taking over.
“What was that about back there?”
“What do you mean?”
“Zac. He seemed . . . I don’t know. Upset, maybe?” Lila thought back to all the times she’d been around Zac and never once had he behaved so strangely toward her.
Charlie blew out a long, slow breath. “He wants me to talk to Lucas about us, and he’s right. I want to talk to Lucas, too. But Lucas called me today, and I thought about telling him, and then I remembered where he is and what he’s doing. This could seriously jack up his focus. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to him.”
“No, you’re right. We shouldn’t say anything to him until he’s back here.”
“Right, so when he goes ballistic at least we’ll know he’s in a safe zone. Me, on the other hand? Yeah, no certainties there.” Charlie laughed, but it didn’t brighten his face like his real laugh would. Clearly, he was worried.
Lila thought about her brother, everything he’d done for her, and guilt hit in her chest. “I didn’t realize he’d get so mad.”
“You’re his little sister.”
“Not so little anymore.”
His eyes sparked. “Noticed that.”
She grinned. “How about dinner tonight? Or the movie, since you owe me a friend date.”
“Dinner sounds great, but my place. I’ll cook for you.”
“You cooked for me last night.”
He took a step closer to her and reached out for her other hand. “I’ll cook for you every night if you’ll let me.”
Their gazes held and he inched in, but then commotion from inside Southern Dive had them glancing up the sidewalk to find Audrey storming out, Brady on her heels.
“Uh-oh,” Charlie said.
“I better go check on her. See you tonight?”
Charlie released her hands and took a step backwards. “I’ll be counting the minutes.”