Chapter Eight
“Hot damn. These all for us?” Cash asked, practically drooling at the stack in the back of Tripp’s truck.
“Yep. You’re welcome.”
Tripp and Cash started offloading the pears, stacking the cases on the pantry floor. Bo was supposed to be home by now, but last Tripp saw, he was getting into what looked to be a heated conversation with Gracie’s troop leader.
Swear to God, if that man drives away another babysitter or teacher…
“So, what are you doing?” Cash asked, grabbing another case from the back of the pickup.
“What do you mean?”
“With the Gram woman,” Cash said.
“Charlotte.”
Cash nodded. “Yeah, Charlotte. The same Charlotte who lives in the city and will go back to that city by the end of summer.”
“I’m aware.”
“So you meant to kiss her in front of God and country tonight? Here I thought you were going to tell me that your face slipped and accidently landed on hers.”
Tripp took a deep breath. Cash was his calm friend. Calculated. Hard worker. They had similarities. The only person he’d ever met who could rival Tripp’s control.
“It was intentional,” Tripp admitted. Maybe it was because he saw how lonely Charlotte looked sitting in that tent all alone while his idiot neighbors passed her by. Or maybe it was because the interactions they’d had so far, both with and without Gracie, led him to only liking her more. “I know what this is. And I know what I’m getting into.”
“Do you?” Cash said. “Because since Shania walked out, you’ve been all Gracie all the time. Now don’t get me wrong, I want you happy and thank God you’re finding that with a woman again. But I just don’t want you to be disappointed when you’ve picked another woman who is going to walk away from you. And from Gracie.”
“I won’t let Gracie get attached. It’ll be fine.” He reasoned that it would be. There were always options. Not that he was thinking of what it’d be like if Charlotte did end up staying around Cheyenne, but it wouldn’t be unheard of. She had kin here.
“I know your ways are set in stone, and I know Gracie will be okay, but what about you? You hang on to things—people—even if they aren’t good for you. You fall fast and hard. God love you for it, but I just don’t want to see you dive into a losing battle with a woman who isn’t from here and won’t ever be.”
Tripp looked at his friend and knew what he was saying, but the words didn’t hit. He enjoyed Charlotte and wanted to spend time with her. And so what if he hoped for maybe the possibility of more? It wasn’t like he wanted her to leave or was dying for her to stay. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if she did stay.
“We all have our reputations,” Cash said, and Tripp knew what he was referring to. They’d been in this town since they were boys, and what they’d become had never been in question, it was so obvious. Bo was the forever bachelor who would never settle down. Cash was a hard-ass. And Tripp? Tripp was controlled and responsible, until that control slipped and he went all in on a losing bet. Like Shania. But that wasn’t a loss. He got Gracie out of it. He was smarter now. A woman wouldn’t be his downfall again.
“I’ll be fine.”
Cash nodded, but he knew his friend well enough to know he wasn’t completely buying it. And Tripp wasn’t sure if he was, either.
…
Grammy had been healing well, and they were both eager to see what her doctor thought at her checkup that afternoon. Once her grandmother was settled in a chair in the waiting room, Charlotte hustled over to the receptionist and checked her in.
“Mrs. Gram is here for her appointment.”
“Mm-hmm, and you are?” the woman asked with an irritated tone.
“I’m her granddaughter, Charlotte Gram.”
“I see,” the woman said, not looking at her and typing slowly on her computer. The woman looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place her. About Charlotte’s age, maybe just a bit order. Pretty. Thin lips…
Oh God. She was one of the women at the nut fry last weekend who glared at her. But maybe Charlotte misread her.
“I think I saw you at the nut fry last weekend. I didn’t get to introduce myself.”
“You just said you’re Charlotte.”
Okay, so the woman was harsh and hadn’t even spared her a glance. Maybe it really was Charlotte. She didn’t know what she could have done to upset this woman. Maybe she just didn’t have a sunny disposition? Was that why companies weren’t hiring her?
“You know Tripp Montgomery?” the other woman asked.
Charlotte frowned. “Kind of. We’re neighbors.”
“So you live here?”
“No, my Gram does. I’m just here helping for the summer.”
“Then you’re gone?” the woman asked, only it didn’t come out like a question. So much for finding a way to feel welcome. She had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with Tripp. And that the kiss he’d laid on her wasn’t helping.
But for some reason, Charlotte kept trying. Like getting this woman to like her—hell, she’d take “not hate her” even—was a big goal. Like it would prove…
What?
That she could maybe entertain the idea of staying here in this town?
“Have you lived here your whole life?” Charlotte asked, going for small talk, but the woman looked at her like she just said the stupidest thing ever.
“Yes. I grew up here. Like most people. Went to school with Tripp and the Drake cousins.”
“Oh, Bo and Cash?”
“So you know them, too. You don’t waste time, do you?” the woman said with a smile, but there was nothing friendly about it.
Charlotte went to say something, but her mouth just hung open, and the woman lifted her chin toward her grandma waiting at the other end of the waiting room.
“I’ll let you know when the doctor is ready for you.”
And like that, she was dismissed.
Charlotte just nodded once. No way in hell was she going to apologize, because she didn’t do anything wrong. But she felt…shame?
But why? For being a woman? A woman Tripp was interested in? It’s not like he was the fricking second coming of Cheyenne.
She sat next to her grandmother, apparently looking as huffy as she felt, because Gram just tsked and said, “Don’t let that Lucy get to you. She’s a hateful woman. Been looking to land Tripp for some time.”
Charlotte took a deep breath and glanced at the ceiling. “I’m not trying to do anything with Tripp. We’re…”
“Friends?” Grammy finished.
“Something like that,” she said. Charlotte couldn’t bring herself to say “friends with benefits” out loud. She also couldn’t say the word “boyfriend.” She and Tripp were somewhere in between, and she had no clue what the term for their status even was.
“Well, whatever you are, it’s nothing bad. And it’s going to stir some feathers in the henhouse because that boy is a coveted cock.”
Charlotte choked on her own tongue.
But when Grammy looked at her with perplexed worry, she realized that she didn’t get the joke.
“Rooster,” Charlotte said. Her grandmother had meant rooster…or cock in the henhouse.
“Yes, Tripp is an eligible bachelor in these parts. All those boys are. But Tripp specifically has given many women the polite ‘no thank you’ to dating…until you. I’ve never seen a display like last night from him, and I don’t think anyone else in town has, either.”
“It was a dance.”
“It was more than that, honey. And I saw that kiss.” Grammy nudged her shoulder. “You looked happy out there.”
She had been, but she couldn’t think about that now. Reality was still ever-present, and the reality was Cheyenne didn’t have much to offer her career path.
She grabbed her cell from her pocket and glanced at it quickly. Still no word from the final company she’d applied to.
“Change is in the air, honey,” Gram said, and patted her knee. “And you’re not the only one noticing.”
The older woman winked, but before Charlotte could ask what she meant, the nurse came out and called her back. Charlotte helped her grandma with her walker and headed back for her checkup, having no idea how to handle the change coming her way.