Chasing Love by Melissa West (6)

Charlie shut his truck door and pressed his forehead to the wheel, trying to make sense of things. Why had he said Jade’s name? Why of all slips of the tongue did he have to go there? It was like his walls went down around Lila, and he stopped trying so hard every second of the day. He hadn’t realized before that moment how hard he worked to be normal, how he pushed away the bitterness that clawed at his insides and forced a smile instead. Even around his own family. It was exhausting.

But with Lila, everything was easy, and in turn everything in him became centered.

Up until he thought about how his body kept reacting to her and that summer-and-wildflowers scent of hers. Or what Lucas would say if he knew Charlie’s real thoughts about Lila. And suddenly there was nothing easy about it. But Lucas had been crystal clear—don’t touch his sister—and Charlie respected his friend too much to do anything other than honor his wishes.

His phone vibrated against the cup holder, and he spied Zac’s name before accepting the call. “Almost there.”

“We’ve been waiting for—”

“I know. Problem at Baxter’s.”

“Does that problem go by the name Lila?” Brady called, and Charlie cursed Zac for forever using speaker.

“Can’t you ever just hold the damn phone? Is it really that heavy for you? What lazy-ass uses speaker all the damn time?”

The sound of shuffling filled the void, and then Zac’s voice. “This lazy-ass. Now hurry up.” And then the phone went dead.

Bastard.

Well, he’d done it now. Charlie would take his sweet-ass time, stalling at every stop sign and traffic light. Even if there were only two stop signs and one traffic light, and that one was forever flashing.

The streets were clear for early afternoon, the sky so blue he’d bet half the town was outside tending to their yards while their kids rode their bikes or threw a ball around. Another month and sprinklers would be running, squeals calling as those same kids ran through the water. It was typical spring in Crestler’s Key. Only suddenly all the things Charlie liked to do—camping, hiking, fishing—no longer seemed so fun. They seemed . . . lonely.

Which made him think he should invite someone to go with him, but every time he thought about asking someone, the only name that came to mind was Lila’s. The very person he’d been instructed to stay away from. But then hadn’t Lucas asked Charlie to protect her, to look out for her? Didn’t that mean he needed to spend time with her, check in on her?

Yes, yes it did.

An idea came to him as he parked around back of Southern Dive and threw his keys in the air, catching them easily, excitement building in his chest. Because suddenly Lila wasn’t the forbidden fruit that he craved but wasn’t allowed to sample. Oh no, he was supposed to be around her. And even if they remained purely platonic, it made him feel a contentment inside that he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.

He just had to keep it platonic. Which he could do. Hopefully.

“Dude,” Brady called as soon as Charlie stepped foot inside the shop. “I thought we agreed that you would show us your designs before you posted them on Instagram to your admirers.”

Charlie continued on around the counter and dropped his keys in the small clay bowl Carrie-Anne, Zac’s daughter from his previous marriage, had made him in art class last year. “Spontaneous thing.”

“Nothing you do is spontaneous,” Brady said. “You just like them better than you like us.”

Zac laughed. “Pretty sure he likes anyone better than he likes you.”

Charlie nodded to his brother. “Nice one.”

“I try,” Zac said. “So, on last month’s numbers, I think—”

“How many followers do you have now, anyway?” Brady asked, not giving up yet.

Charlie hadn’t figured out if his brother’s relentless attention to his designs was brotherly support or what, but he was getting tired of answering questions.

Brady huffed, impatient. “Waiting here.”

Again he tried to shake off the conversation. The Instagram thing was another Jade creation in his life, and one that he would have been happy to close down if it weren’t for all his followers and how supportive they had all been when he’d decided to open Southern Dive. Five followers wouldn’t have been a big deal, even a hundred, but his list had become ridiculous even by Instagram standards.

Originally, Jade would post pictures of him doing his thing. Diving. In a wet suit. Anything and everything to capture him shirtless, and because he was a twenty-something dipshit, he let her. It had surprised him at first how quickly his follower count grew, and he feared once the pictures of him doing nothing but standing there with his shirt off were gone, the followers would die off. But then he started posting cool shit. Pictures from especially dangerous dives. Or ghost ships deep down in the ocean, long since forgotten. Fishing trips and large kings. Shark fishing from the shore.

Eventually, his “let me show my pecs” Instagram account morphed into “let me show you my latest adventure,” and boy did his follower count soar. It took him a while to realize that they wanted a story. They wanted to come to his page and not just see a cool pic, but read about it, experience it. So he offered as much detail as he could manage.

When he moved back to Crestler’s Key, the followers went with him, interested in this new life of his—running a dive shop, taking people on check-out dives, lessons, and then the farm. Hell if they didn’t love the farm.

So it made sense when he started playing around with the T-shirt designs, he would post them to his followers first. For a crowd of nearly four hundred thousand, they were surprisingly supportive. More so, at times, than his two brothers. Who were both watching him now.

“I don’t know.”

“You do,” Zac said, setting down a box. “And it’s awesome. Keeps the online orders coming each week. So you talk your talk and do your thing. This one’s just jealous he don’t have a tenth of your following.”

Brady scowled, but it was true. He was the social one of the brothers, Zac erring on the quiet-confidence side, and Charlie too laid-back to be overly social. But all that changed on Instagram, and he’d been offered countless ad deals because of it.

For now, the only ads flashing around that had anything at all to do with him were for Southern Dive. Of course, if he actually manned up and started the T-shirt business, he’d have to rethink his less-is-more approach to marketing.

“Seriously though,” Zac said as he unpacked the inventory, “what design?”

Every Monday they met at the shop to talk about sales from the previous week, unpack the deliveries for that day, and often it was the only chance they had to be brothers without the town or family or women around to distract them. Charlie missed his brothers, even though he saw them all the time. Seeing them wasn’t the same as knowing them, and he wasn’t sure he knew them anymore. Really knew them. Not like they used to know each other when they were younger.

Knowing they wouldn’t shut up, he reached into his pocket for his phone, clicked his photos, and tapped the picture he’d taken of his latest design.

He’d been playing around with logos and themes. T-shirts like Salt Life, and Simply Southern for women, were distinctive. If he hoped to be successful, he needed a look all his own.

“The one you saw wasn’t my latest. This is.” He passed the phone over to Zac and tried to ignore his brothers’ reactions, but there was no ignoring their excitement.

“Holy shit,” Brady said, plucking the phone from Zac’s hand. “Where’d you learn to draw like that? From one of those Instagram groupies?”

“Sure as hell not from you,” Charlie said, swiping the phone back and shoving it into his pocket. Not for the first time, he regretted telling his brothers about the Instagram account and his small walk with fame there, but too many people had popped into the store because of it, talking about how they loved his page and couldn’t believe they were meeting him in real life. A few even asked for his autograph, which had taken him the better part of a year to live down.

“Hey, I can draw,” Brady said with mock offense.

“Yeah, your own name maybe,” Charlie fired back, which resulted in Brady tossing a new Salt Life shirt at him and Charlie throwing it back, because clearly they were still idiotic boys instead of men.

Like always, Zac intervened. “Stop that shit. We have twelve boxes to go through, tag, and get on the shelves and racks. No time for you two fighting over nothing. Brady—he can draw and he’s more popular than you. Deal with it. Charlie—Brady is . . . well, we’re still trying to figure it out, but he’s bound to be good at something.”

Brady tossed the shirt at Zac now, who snatched it in the air, and another fight was about to brew when Charlie’s cell rang loudly and he all but fell on the floor trying to wiggle it out of his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Brady asked, clearly disturbed.

“Answering my phone, asshole.”

“Looked to me like you were having a seizure. But by all means, answer the call. Let us hear who you’re hoping is calling. I think I have a guess.” He waggled his eyebrows, and Charlie contemplated ways to singe those things off in his sleep.

Finally, he glanced down at the phone, and sure enough, it was Lila. But how was he going to take the call here, in the quiet store, with his two brothers staring him down, all too ready to rile him the moment he ended the call. Well, they could forget that crap.

The call ended, and immediately a text popped up.

Lila: Hey, off now. You at the shop? What time did you want to meet at the farm?

It took everything in Charlie not to grab his keys, yell a see ya to his brothers, and head to the farm. But despite the fact that he was aching to see Lila again, to feel that contentment she brought him, he had to keep his head on straight about this. Lucas was half a world away, fighting for peace, and risking his neck in the effort. He’d made two requests of Charlie—protect his sister and keep his hands to himself. Surely he could honor those two small things.

“Dude, you’re grinning like an idiot,” Brady said, shaking his head. “It’s disgusting. What does Lila need anyway that could have you grinning that big?”

“You don’t even know that it’s Lila.”

“Um, yeah we do. She’s the only one that gets you all doe-eyed.” Then his own eyes went wide and a stupid smile took over his face. “Please tell me she sexted you. Love when the good girls turn out bad.”

Zac threw a water bottle at him, hitting him in the head, and Brady scowled. “Hey, that hurt.”

“Then stop talking like an ass,” Zac said, then he focused back on Charlie. “Seriously, does she need anything?”

And here it was. Charlie had hoped to have a little more time to prep Zac on him hiring her for the farm job. It wasn’t that Lila wasn’t qualified, it was more than Zac preferred not to hire friends close to the family. It made it awkward when pay raises (or cuts) happened or, worse, when he needed to fire them. Plus, Charlie’s focus was on Southern Dive, Zac’s the farm, so it wasn’t lost on him that he’d stepped on his brother’s toes a little.

“Well, actually, I was meaning to talk to you about that. I kind of... hired her.”

Zac set out a stack of shirts he’d just folded. “For the shop? Is she certified or something?”

And now Charlie really felt bad, but hell, they needed a vet and she was a vet. “No, actually, I hired her for the farm. That part-time vet job?”

Without any other sounds in the shop other than the A/C and Brady’s amused laugh, time seemed to stand still. Zac turned around, like he needed a minute, before facing Charlie again, obvious annoyance on his face, but he could bring it. He might be the eldest, but they were all equal partners in each of the businesses, and he could screw himself. Charlie had every right to hire her, and she was more than qualified. Okay, maybe that had little to do with it, but still. He shouldn’t need to ask Zac. Which was one of the reasons he was contemplating the T-shirt business in the first place: Finally, he’d have something again that was just his, like his diving business in the Keys. Where he didn’t have to answer for his decisions, where everything required a weekly meeting. Jade might have screwed that up for him, but he was happy there for a long time.

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Zac said. “Lila moves back into town, is here a little over a week, and you hire her without talking to us to look after the animals on our farm? The animals that we count on to help keep business up? Did you even talk to Baxter?”

Charlie crossed his arms and kept his attention on his brother. He was a lot of things, but scared wasn’t one of them. Even of his big brother. “No. That old man can barely see anymore, and you want him looking after our farm animals? That makes perfect sense. Why would I hire him, when I could hire Lila, young enough to come out in the middle of the night if we need her, and she has plenty of experience. What’s wrong with hiring her?”

He was offended on her behalf, and it wasn’t lost on him how concerning that was in light of his assurance to himself that he wouldn’t allow himself to have feelings for her. Clearly, he was already emotionally tied to her, but he hoped it was more in a little-sister way. He jerked back at the thought. Okay, maybe forget the little-sister thing. Put that crap out of his mind right now.

“You know we have a policy to not hire friends. There’s a reason that’s in place.”

Charlie stared at his brother. “Yeah, you realize we’re in Crestler’s Key, right? Everybody in this town has known us our entire lives. And there are only two vets, Lila and Baxter, who’s knocking on seventy. You seriously would have preferred I hire the old man?”

“Yes.”

Gritting his teeth, Charlie switched his gaze to Brady. As much as it killed him to do it, Brady was always the deciding vote. “You?”

“That depends. Can I hit on her without risking some harassment lawsuit because I’m technically her boss?”

Rolling his eyes, Charlie turned around and grabbed his keys. “I agreed to show her the farm, so I’m going. For now, she’s our vet. Deal with it. If she screws up, I’ll take the heat, and I’ll be the one to let her go.”

Even the thought made Charlie’s insides sour. But he didn’t need to worry about firing her. Lila was dedicated and driven, and she refused to fail at anything. If she agreed to help around the farm, then she would help and she would do an amazing job at it.

“Fine, but it’s on you,” Zac said.

“It’s on me.”

The brothers nodded to each other in an agreement, and then Charlie set off back to his truck, his insides already lighter, his thoughts becoming clear. He pulled out his cell, hit Lila’s last text and replied with meet you there, and then he started down the road, his speed increasing, a wide smile on his face.