Page 33 of Faking it with my Off Limits Neighbor

“Never mind. Here”—I top off her wine—“have another drink.”

“So, tell me,” Charlie says. “Why now? Why return to Cherryville after all these years?”

I shrug. “Why not? It’s my hometown. It’s where I want to leave my legacy.”

Charlie seems to consider that reply, and as her expression changes with her thoughts, I worry that this conversation is about to go downhill.

“I’m sorry, Charlie,” I say, feeling it’s about time I apologize. “I should never have gone.”

She looks at me carefully, and then says, “Why did you? Why did you leave?”

I can’t tell her the truth. Not now, after she and her dad have patched things up after all these years. Do I want to be the man who creates another chasm between them? Nope. Not at all. And yet, if I tell her the truth, I know it will.

From what I’ve seen in my short time living beside her, Charlie doesn’t have anyone else. Besides, her dad’s pretty sick, from what I hear. She can’t ever know. I don’t want to be that guy who leaves her with such immense resentment toward her dad that it will ruin the one solid family relationship she has.

“I didn’t want to go,” I say. At least that’s the truth. “But I felt there was something out there, calling me. Something I could never find if I stayed in Cherryville.”

She looks a little hurt, but there’s nothing I can do. The pain would be far worse if she knew the truth.

I reach across the table and take her hand. “I shouldn’t have left without saying goodbye, Charlie. It’s the one thing I’ve regretted ever since I did it. I suppose I was scared.”

“What were you scared of?” she says. I can hear the strain in her voice. She’s trying not to show her anger.

“That if I came to tell you I was going, just seeing you would change my mind. But I was young and a fool. I wasn’t thinking straight. Now I see that I could have stayed with you and gone on to search for my dream.”

She thinks about those words for some time, and then she nods. “We were both young,” she says. “Maybe it was for the best. I might have held you back. And after that meal…” She smiles and nods at the empty plate beside her. “I would have been doing the world a disservice.”

I feel the tension breaking and can only hope that she truly feels the words she’s saying.

She pushes herself to sit up straight and then yawns. “Oh, my, I’m so tired.” Glancing at the clock on the wall, she continues. “I suppose I should get going.”

Her words are weak, and I can hear that she doesn’t really want to go. It gives me hope in my heart. “You don’t have to go just yet.”

Charlie nods. “Actually, I do. I have an early start in the morning.” She stands from the table and grabs her purse and her bendy straw. “And I get to go home with my prize.” She grins.

I walk her to the door and open it. She’s about to step out when I take her arm. She turns toward me with a questioning expression.

“Thank you again for today. It meant the world to me. And, you know, my grandmother,” I say quickly.

Charlie smiles widely. “I had a lot of fun.”

I gaze down at her, drinking her in. Her jet-black hair flowing over her shoulders, her soft skin beneath my fingertips, the gentle but arousing scent of her perfume. And then, hardly thinking about it, I bend my head and tenderly kiss her cheek.

She gasps a little but doesn’t pull away.

“Good night, Charlie.”

“Good night, Troy.”

And then Charlie Woods, with her cheeks blossoming pink, walks out of my house and down the driveway.

15

Charlie

It’s been a few days since Mrs. Patterson’s birthday party. After all my worrying, it turned out all right in the end. Well, more than all right. Once the initial nerves died down, I actually had fun. Besides, it was nice to see Mr. and Mrs. Patterson again. It’s been quite a few years.

I now know far more of Troy and Milly’s relatives. None of them are quite as wild as Milly, but a few came fairly close. I even swapped some numbers with a couple of their female cousins. Shauna was genuinely interested in me coming to take a look at her house, so who knows? There might be a contract up ahead.

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