Chapter 17
Once she’d gotten home, the morning they got caught, Charli had sat Ellie down and told her about how the thing between Kean and her started, and how Charli couldn’t seem to be able stay away from him even if she knew it was temporary. She didn’t share the intimate details of their encounters, of course, but Ellie had always been the one person Charli could speak to without inhibitions, and the feeling was mutual. So, even though Kean was Ellie’s brother-in-law and she probably didn’t need, or want, to be privy to what he was like between the sheets, Charli hadn’t been able to keep the insane attraction and scorching chemistry to herself. She’d needed to let it all out in the open, to hear someone tell her she wasn’t possessed by a pervy ghost who made her want to stay in Kean’s bed for days on end, ignoring responsibilities and forgetting about the rest of the world.
Her friend’s stance had softened a little then, even though the hurt in her eyes for being lied to had lingered for a few more hours. Knowing Ellie like she did, Charli was sure her die-hard romantic friend had completely ignored the temporary nature of Kean and Charli’s agreement and was already envisioning a white wedding for the two of them.
After she’d spilled the beans, she’d made Ellie and Adam promise they would keep her and Kean’s secret, just to make sure they wouldn’t be fodder for the gossip mill, if she and Kean agreed to keep quiet about the pregnancy. Ellie wanted to wait until she was sure everything would be fine and she was no longer at risk of an early miscarriage, and Charli was only too happy to have some kind of bargaining chip she could use to make sure her secret wouldn’t be plastered all over town.
But the more time she spent with Kean, the harder it became to act like her normal self when they were in the same place with people around them. Her fingers itched to touch him, even just to hold his hand or skim his stubbled jaw, her lips craved his, and whenever he winked and grinned mischievously at her when nobody was looking, it was all she could do to not close the distance between them and claim his lips. When she’d spent the day of the festival with the Cavanaghs, it had taken all her willpower, and about every sweet treat she could get her hands on, to keep her mind busy with something other than how much she wanted to have Kean’s strong arms wrapped around her, keeping her against him while they stood on the sidewalk watching the parade. Sophie had been a godsend that day. Her endless supply of energy and excitement had been mostly directed at Charli, before and after the parade, but Charli had never been happier to spend time with the little girl. That, together with every other town resident stopping her to either thank her or commend her on the great job she’d done, had been enough to push the dirty thoughts about the handsome contractor to the back of her mind. At least until she could be with him that night.
But after two weeks of secretly showing up at his place after sunset and sneaking out at the crack of dawn, she was almost relieved when his mother caught them kissing goodbye on his front porch while she was running after one of the puppies. The squeals must have reached the next town over, and Charli had felt a little self-conscious at being caught with her hands tangled in Enya’s son’s hair. But when Enya hugged her and told her what a delightful surprise it was, she hadn’t been able to hold back a smile. Something warm had wrapped around her heart then, although she’d been quick to brush it away.
After that day, she’d no longer been allowed to skip Sunday lunch at the Cavanaghs’ like she’d tried to do a few times in the two and a half months she’d been in town. Small-town hospitality coupled with the Cavanaghs’ motto ‘we’re all one big family even if we’re not related’ had made it hard for her to decline Enya’s invitations before, knowing the woman would be hurt by the rejection. Now that the whole family knew she was dating Kean, she had no excuse to skip the family gathering.
“Oh, look, there’s Uncle Kean!” Sophie squealed as soon as she got out of the car, and took off toward the tall, dark, and incredibly handsome man in jeans and a dark sweatshirt walking out onto the porch. Kean’s face cracked into a bright smile and he opened his arms, lifting his niece off the ground as soon as she was within arm’s reach.
“Uncle Kean, can we go widing? I can wide wif Daddy and you can wide wif Auntie Charli so she don’t fall off.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” His eyes were alight with amusement as they settled on her. “Fancy a ride, Auntie Charli?”
Her face heated at his clear innuendo, supported by the cheeky waggle of his dark brows. Yes, both Adam and Ellie knew she and Kean weren’t exactly playing Monopoly the morning Adam caught her at his brother’s place the day before the festival, but that didn’t mean she wanted the whole family to know she was sleeping with him.
She glared at him, lifting her chin. “No, thanks. I’m good.”
“Oh, well. Maybe another time.” The grin he gave her made her insides quiver. It was full of mischief and promises, so sexy it made her want to skip his family’s lunch and drag him to his cabin. She swallowed, and he must have noticed her reaction to his words, because he winked and laughed as he hoisted Sophie over his head and set her on his shoulders.
Charli was pulled in as soon as she stepped through the door, as if she already belonged to the family, when in fact, she was only sleeping with the eldest son with absolutely zero plans for a future together.
Lunch at the Cavanaghs’ reminded her of her own family, with her three rowdy brothers always bickering over food or trivialities, and her mother playing the peacemaker. Technically, the Cavanagh brothers were only two today, but the cousins seemed happy to join in the banter. She sat between Kean and Sophie who, as usual, had all but ordered Charli to sit next to her. Strangely enough, Kean behaved throughout lunch, and spent the time teasing his cousins and making jokes at his brother’s expense. But when dessert was being served, his hand went underneath the tablecloth and his palm rubbed up and down her thigh—up rather than down. She choked on the water she’d been sipping, and he chuckled.
“You, um… have a beautiful house, Enya,” Charli said, needing a distraction when everyone’s eyes settled on her, thanks to Kean.
Enya smiled as she placed a slice of apple pie on Charli’s plate. “It was a run-down ranch when we bought it, but since we were planning to have a big family one day, it was the only big house we could afford at the time.” She looked at her husband Finn with adoration in her eyes. It was kind of cute that after the thirty-something years they’d been married, they still looked at each other with so much love. They reminded Charli of her own parents. “Finn and Eamon did a lot of renovations over the weekends, and year after year we managed to bring it to a livable condition.”
“Although I’m a vet, growing up with a master craftsman forced me to learn the trade,” Finn said, winking as he tilted his head to his right, where his father was seated. “Unfortunately, the gene skipped me and I was never more than a mere apprentice, but I somehow managed to pass it on to my kids.”
“You did a great job, though. The house is truly charming.”
Enya sat back in her chair and let out a sigh. “We’ll have to sell it sometime soon, though. It’s too big for just the three of us now.”
Charli was touched by the sadness in the woman’s tone. It was clear she’d rather cut off her arm than sell the house she’d lived in all of her married life, but she could understand how much work went into keeping such a big house tidy and neat. The inn where her mother used to work was slightly bigger than this, and it took her hours to clean it and make it presentable.
“Did you ever consider turning it into a B&B? I think it has great potential.” The idea hadn’t stopped spinning in Charli’s head ever since she’d set foot on the property the first time.
“It could be a good idea for extra income,” Enya said, cutting a chunk of cake with her fork. “But I would have to leave the bakery and I couldn’t do that, not unless I had four or five grandchildren to take care of.” She threw a glance at Adam first and then at Kean. Adam smiled, while Kean rolled his eyes and looked away.
“Well, you could buy it. You’ve always wanted to run an inn, haven’t you?” Ellie interjected, no doubt to keep her husband from blurting out their little secret. Everyone looked at Charli.
She shrugged. “I used to when I was a child. My mom worked as a maid at an inn, and I spent a lot of time there with her. It was a cute place, so I used to dream that when I grew up, I’d buy a small house and turn it into a cozy inn. But that was just a dream.”
“You have a degree in hospitality. You would know how to turn it into a successful B&B,” Ellie said, bringing her fork to her lips.
Charli shook her head, reaching for her glass. “I’ve never been a small-town girl—I need the hustle and bustle of the city. I couldn’t live here.”
An awkward silence descended upon the room. Had she said something wrong? They all knew she wasn’t exactly fond of small-town life, and that she’d never intended to stay. Maybe now that everyone knew about Kean and her, they thought she’d stay?
Um, yeah. Not going to happen.
“I guess I would’ve loved for one of my children, or my nephews or nieces, to buy the house so it would stay in the family. But I understand everyone wants to have a fresh start with their families.” Enya looked pointedly at Adam, and he smiled. “I can’t really ask them to move into this place. There are lots of memories here, most of them are good, but some of them aren’t.” Again, she looked at Adam. This time his expression turned more somber. It was clear she was referring to the years he’d spent in this house when he came home from Seattle after his wife was shot. It mustn’t be easy for Adam, and it wouldn’t be easy for Ellie either. Moving here, with the ghost of a woman who’d been the biggest part of Adam’s life, could potentially destroy their marriage. So she could understand why Adam didn’t want to buy his parents’ house, no matter how much it hurt his mother to leave the house to a stranger.
“You know you don’t have to sell the house, Mom,” Kean said, his tone annoyed. Charli frowned. She’d never heard him use that tone with his mother before. Was there something she didn’t know? Had they had a fight? “You’d only need to let me work on it, and I could take care of the renovations it needs.”
“Not now, Kean. The game’s about to start.” Enya stood up and reached for the empty plates around the table. “Everyone, go into the living room. I’ll bring the coffees in a minute.”
Finn, Eamon, and Kean’s cousins all stood up without arguing. Adam looked at Kean and shook his head, in a silent ‘let her be’ gesture. Okay, she was definitely missing something here, and the fact Kean didn’t want her to be privy to the details hurt a little. But what was she expecting? She wasn’t his girlfriend, after all. He didn’t owe her anything.
And for the first time since she’d started sleeping with him, the thought hurt.
* * *
Kean swallowed the ugly feeling the chat about selling the house had caused and walked into the living room, where the whole family was ready for the baseball game. This would be Kyle’s last season in the Minor League. The Milwaukee Brewers had shown interest in him, and he’d be starting in the Major League next season. Although he no longer needed to prove his worth as a player, the whole family knew he would give his all until the very last game of the season, because that was just how Kyle was—competitive and always wanting to prove that he was good.
They all took their places on the couch and armchairs, while Sophie sat on the floor with Adam and opened the box of a Disney princesses jigsaw puzzle. Kean took the spot next to Charli on the three-seater. It still felt a little funny to not have to hide his feelings in front of everyone, now that they’d come out in the open. He didn’t have to hold back when he wanted to hold her hand or steal a kiss. Still, when he reached for her hand, she stiffened and gave him a funny look. He smiled and squeezed her hand.
“Relax,” he said. She frowned but then, when he smiled again and gave another squeeze, she leaned back against the couch and her shoulders relaxed. She glanced at the other people in the room, as if she wanted to make sure nobody was paying attention to them. When she ascertained that nobody was in fact looking at them, she squeezed his hand. It was stupid and maybe even a bit cheesy, but his heart fluttered at her gesture. Sure, they’d agreed this was temporary, that it was only physical, that they didn’t have a future, but still, with every single day he spent in her company, with her in his arms, or just like today, sitting around his parents’ table like a big, happy family, he couldn’t help wishing she would eventually change her mind, that things would sort themselves out and Spring would be enough—that he would be enough.
Because as much as he liked the physical side of their relationship, he liked their interactions outside the bedroom even more. She was a pain most of the time, but she was funny. She could be cute even when she was infuriating. She made him feel things that he hadn’t felt in a long time, and he wanted to explore these feelings, to see if there could be anything beyond the crazy physical attraction.
Enya walked into the living room just when the game was starting and placed a tray with cookies on the wooden coffee table in front of them. Then she sat next to Charli and patted her leg, smiling at her.
“I might be a little biased here, but my boy is a really good player.”
Kean chuckled. “Yeah, of course he is. He’s your baby boy after all.”
“Will you stop! I love all of my kids.” Enya huffed, and Adam looked up from the jigsaw puzzle with a cheeky grin.
“Yeah, you do. But you love Kyle that little bit more because he’s the baby.”
Everyone laughed and Finn, who had just walked into the room, stood behind his wife and squeezed her shoulders. “Sorry, love, but your sons are right. You always had a soft spot for baby Kyle.”
Enya hung her head, then tilted it to the side and stared at Charli. “Okay then, maybe I’m just a little bit more biased than I thought, but Kyle really is a good player.”
“Okay, guys, game’s on,” Kean said, and everyone’s attention turned to the TV. A lot of cheering, shouting against the other team’s players, and praise for Kyle’s throws or catches filled the room during the first and second inning—and most of the noise came from Enya.
After the second inning, Kean stood up for a toilet break. He leaned down to ask Charli if she wanted something to drink, but before he could even open his mouth, she pulled back abruptly and shot him one of her infamous death glares. He couldn’t help smiling at her reaction.
“Chill, woman. I wasn’t going to kiss you, if that’s what you thought. I only wanted to know if you need something from the kitchen while I’m up.”
He thought he’d said it low enough for only Charli to hear, but his mother’s giggle proved him wrong. Charli’s cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink that he wasn’t used to seeing.
“Don’t worry, love. We’re not that old-fashioned.” Enya patted Charli’s arm and smiled. “We’ve never had a problem with our sons kissing their girls in front of us. As long as they’d turned twenty-one, of course. We aren’t that modern, after all.” She winked, and Charli’s blush intensified.
“Mom, leave her alone or she’ll run back to the city before you’ve even had the time to blink. And, personally, I’d like her to stay a bit longer.”
Charli huffed and proceeded to show him, with a not-so-gentle swat on his leg, what she thought of his smartass comment.
“Kids, stop bickering,” Ellie said with a smile, from her comfortable position in the recliner. Charli shot her friend The Look, and Kean found himself wondering whether he could somehow convince her to follow him outside so he could kiss the living daylights out of her. Because, man, was she hot when she shot those looks.
“There’s a saying that goes ‘make love, not war’. I think you should follow that advice.” Kean’s grandfather spoke the words over his shoulder in a nonchalant tone as he walked out of the room. There was a moment of stunned silence, which Finn was the first to break with a belly laugh. Everyone joined in—everyone but Charli—and Kean couldn’t resist teasing her just once more before leaving the room. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “We don’t really want to disappoint an old man now, do we?”
Charli gasped and slapped his arm with even more force than before. He laughed as he walked out of the living room, thinking his comment would most likely cause him to have to work hard to change her mind tonight. But he knew trying was going to be the fun part.
* * *
Five minutes later, he came back into the living room carrying a peace offering—one of his mother’s chocolate muffins. When he waved it in front of Charli’s face, she grunted but her lips twitched as she fought to suppress a smile.
“Truce?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes and snatched the muffin out of his hand. “You’re lucky chocolate’s my weakness. But we’ll deal with your smartass behavior later.”
He smirked. “I can’t wait, babe.”
She rolled her eyes again and bit into the muffin, looking away from him, in an attempt to ignore him. The game resumed after the team switch, and everyone went back into cheering mode.
After a long, tough game that tested the players’ resistance, the last inning was close to the end. This last pitch would decide whether Kyle’s team would win or lose. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, staring at the TV with bated breath as the last batter from the opposing team walked up to the plate. The crack of the ball against the wooden bat echoed in the quiet room as everyone held their breaths while the ball sailed across the field toward Kyle. He skipped backward with his gloved hand raised in the air, but the ball flew past him. A chorus of grunts and mumbles filled the room, and Kean smiled when Charli let out a “Shoot” under her breath. He hadn’t pegged her for a baseball fan.
The camera went back to the batter, who’d already reached first base and was running to second. When it moved back to Kyle, he had the ball in his hand and dug his feet on the ground as he prepared for a throw to home.
“A long throw, son! Make a long throw!” Enya shot to her feet, shouting at the TV as the announcer urged Kyle to do the same. He pulled back his left arm and threw the ball. The camera zoomed back to follow the ball’s trajectory as it reached the player standing close to home plate.
A chorus of “Yes!” erupted in the room as the player caught the ball and stopped the opposing team’s players from advancing any further. But the camera moved away from home plate as the announcer’s “Uh, oh. Cavanagh went down in a heap” comment made Kean’s blood freeze.
Enya gasped when the camera zoomed in on Kyle curled up in a ball on the ground. His face was wrinkled in pain as he rolled on the grass, holding his left arm to his chest. Two trainers ran to him and partly obscured him from the camera, but even so, everyone in the room could see that he was still on the ground.
Something was wrong, very wrong. Kyle had never been the whiny, crying type, even when he was a kid. If he fell while riding his bike, he’d get back on it and keep going, even as blood trickled down his leg from a skinned knee. If he was reacting like that, he had to be in real pain. Kean wished he could reach into the TV and help him. He hated feeling so helpless when his brother was hurting.
The room was eerily quiet as everyone stared at the screen, listening to the announcer saying that Kyle had crumpled to the ground as soon as he’d thrown the ball. The other announcer chimed in, saying that he must’ve had trouble with his footing which caused him to put too much pressure on the arm.
Kyle’s team gathered around him, while the trainers helped him to sit up. He waited a couple of beats then nodded at something one of the trainers had asked him. With one hand on Kyle’s upper right arm, the trainer helped him to his feet, but he immediately bent at the waist, taking a long breath as he squeezed his eyes shut. A round of applause filled the stadium as Kyle walked out of the field with his head down, holding the glove in his right hand, his left arm hanging loose by his side.
One of the announcers started spouting statistics on the number of arm injuries that had happened in the season so far, just as the game resumed and the cameras forgot about Kyle.
“Oh my God. I have to talk to him. Finn, where’s my phone?” Enya was the first to break the trance everyone had fallen into.
Kean stood up and reached for her. “Mom, calm down. You won’t be able to talk to him now. I’m sure he’ll call you as soon as he can.”
She shook her head and pushed him away when he tried to hug her.
“How can I keep calm when my son is hurt and I don’t know how he’s feeling? Do you think I remained calm when they told me Adam got shot last year? Or when you told me you could end up in jail?”
Kean winced. Damn. He hadn’t had the chance to tell Charli about that yet. He definitely hadn’t planned for her to find out about it this way. He threw a glance at her and her frown told him her mind was conjuring all kinds of scenarios.
“Enya, love, Kean’s right.” His dad came to her side and put an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him. “He won’t have his phone with him now, and they wouldn’t let you speak to him anyway. He’ll call us from the hospital. Or maybe the coach will.”
Enya let out a sob and hugged her husband, crying into his chest. Sophie stood up and stared at her grandmother.
“Why is Gwammy cwying?” Her trembling voice meant she was just about to burst into tears herself.
“Uncle Kyle got hurt and Grammy is worried about him,” Adam said. Sophie’s cherubic face scrunched up a second before she lunged for her father and started wailing.
Adam reassured his daughter that everyone would be okay, as he rubbed her back. Ellie got up from the recliner and went to offer support to her husband, but Sophie just kept sobbing and screaming as if she was the one who’d gotten hurt.
Kean was just about to tell Charli that she was free to leave if she wanted, as he guessed being part of this family drama wasn’t exactly thrilling her, when she moved from the couch to the floor and reached for Sophie.
“Your daddy’s right. Uncle Kyle’s going to be okay,” she said in a soft tone, patting Sophie’s back. “Why don’t you and I go into the kitchen and make a nice drawing, so you can give it to him when he comes home?”
Sophie looked up from her father’s chest to Charli. Her bottom lip was still trembling but at least the wails had stopped.
“Can I…”
Sniff.
“Bwaid…”
Sniff.
“Your hair, too?”
Charli smiled. “Of course you can, sweetie.”
She rocked back on her heels and pushed herself to a standing position. Then she reached out her hand, palm up. Sophie wiped her cheeks with her tiny hands, then sniffled once more before she took Charli’s hand. Adam mouthed his thanks and Charli smiled, before she left the room hand in hand with Sophie. Kean’s heart swelled so much it nearly took up all of the space in his chest. Only two months before she’d dreaded being left alone with Sophie, and now she was the one suggesting spending time with her. Could this small improvement mean she was changing her mind about small-town life too?