Page 50 of The Charm of You

“Should we be scared?” I muse and rub her arm.

“They should be scared, my dear Caroline. They should be.” She twists her lips, and although I was kidding before, I might actually fear for those kids now.

“What do you need us to do? Let us help,” I offer.

“Yes. Please let us take some of the load off your shoulders,” Mama adds.

“Keep your phones on loud tomorrow because I may take y’all up on that.” Addie nods, then waves goodbye to us.

As soon as she’s out the door, Mama and Suzanne retreat to the living room, talking in hushed tones about the postgame chili dinner tasks on their to-do list.

“Wow. This is kind of… intense,” I say to Austin.

“I think the word you’re looking for is ridiculous.” He grunts.

“Thank you for agreeing to drive me. I know you’d rather work than do the ridiculous parade, but I appreciate you filling in for Hunter.”

Austin’s expression doesn’t change as he runs one hand down his cheek. His sandy-blond hair is a little tamer than usual tonight. The waves aren’t as wild as they were this morning, right before we kissed. Although I’ve come to like his hair unruly, this isn’t a bad look for him, either.

Our mothers’ laughter drifts over to us, and he hooks a thumb over his shoulder toward the front door. “I need to do my laundry.”

chapter

fifteen

AUSTIN

Two slightly lopsided eyes follow me around the shop like a soulful painting as I attempt to ignore it.

Hard to miss such an ugly thing, though.

I stop to study the beast, tilting my head to the side. A few holes stick out around the mouth, which can easily be touched up by Friday. The red-and-yellow DK initials at the bottom are barely dangling on, which will also need fixing.

Instead of giving me her plan of taking this back immediately, Addie dropped it off on behalf of some gaming team at the school and called goodbye over her shoulder. I would’ve stopped her to ask more questions, but given how twitchy she was last night, I didn’t push her.

Doesn’t mean I’m happy about this outrageous float taking up an entire corner of our garage.

Muttering curse after curse, I lug my toolbox toward the next car, but I barely hoist the hood up when I hear heels across the cement floor.

“What’s with the gorilla?” Caroline’s voice echoes across the space as if it needs extra help being heard.

I lean on the edge of the car, my shoulders hunched forward. “I made the mistake of doing as Addie asked, and I left my phone on loud.”

She saunters toward it, and I make the second mistake of the day by witnessing her bending at the waist to get a better look at Donkey Kong.

She’s in leather fucking pants that are basically painted on her.

With the black heels she sports, her legs appear so incredible, the tension in my shoulders worsens. Not to mention the stupid stir in my pants.

The woman knows exactly what she’s doing, and she’s trying to make me suffer. That has to be true. I’m falling for it too. I’m falling right into her trap like a fly in a spiderweb.

“What’re you doing here?” I ask her.

“My car still needs an oil change.”

“Mighty thoughtful of you to leave the keys for us this time,” I deadpan and check the workload waiting for Bo and me.

Judd should be here too, as soon as he’s finished having lunch with Mary, but he doesn’t work on a lot of cars himself anymore. Not with the tremor in his hands. It flares unexpectedly too often, and I promised Mary I’d keep him out of harm’s way, not that he likes being treated like a man made of glass.

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