Page 32 of The Pucking Fake Marriage

“I know I put you through the paces today,” Tools says, throwing a towel at me. He looks somewhat mulish. “But I’ve got to apologize, really, if I was a little short with that girl.”

“You weren’t.” Thankfully, I’m able to keep the fury out of my tone this time.

Tools nods and heads off to the showers.

I watch him go, my gut tightening. I came for today’s session hoping that working out would do something to the storm of thoughts raging in my head. But now I’ve got tocome to terms with the fact that there’s only one thing that’ll give me the peace I’m searching for.

Confronting the beast directly.

I knowit’s practically unchanged, but Charlie’s restaurant seems even more deserted when I walk through the doors for the second time. There’s an eerie stillness to the place, perhaps because the girl who was taking orders—Haley—isn’t even behind the counter this time. I look around the dim space. Shadows linger in corners, giving the space a gloomy, unwelcoming feel.

I hear a muffled curse coming from beyond the door labeled “Staff Only.”Charlie,I think. My body reacts before my brain can. I stride to the counter. Slipping underneath it, I walk past the half-open door into a quiet commercial kitchen filled with old, worn-out appliances and sparsely stocked pantry shelves. Lots of metal cupboards and tables, very little color anywhere in sight.

Charlie is standing a few feet from me. Her hair is tied back in a tight bun, her head covered with a beanie. She’s dressed in a chef’s jacket that looks a little too big on her. She seems to have just made a burger, the ingredients strewn on the table, and is now trying to cut it in two. She tries twice, but the clearly blunt knife doesn’t so much as make an impression on the topmost patty. On the third try, she curses again, and the knife goes sailing across the room.

“Hi.”

She jumps and looks around. Her face is torn between shock and fear. “Oh my God,” she mutters, taking a step back. “You scared me.” She looks back at the burger, andtwo blotches of color form on her cheeks. “How long have you been here?”

She doesn’t even sound embarrassed. Just resigned.

“Long enough.” I nod at the knife, lodged in one corner of the room. “You might want to invest in sharper knives.”

I expect a quick retort. But Charlie just stares at me for a few seconds. And then a guttural sound spills from her lips. Laughter,I realize a second later. She holds her palm to her stomach, giggling furiously.

It’s the first time I’ve seen her laugh in ten years. But the sound is hollow. It couldn’t be clearer that she’s not amused in the slightest. Her eyes are cold, and the tinge of sadness in them is hard to ignore.

Somehow, that stings. Makes me remember those times I couldmake her belly ache with real laughter.

“You’re right,” she mutters, as her giggles die off. “Ishouldinvest in sharper knives. You’d think someone who wants to run a restaurant would at least get that right. But I can’t even cut a fucking burger. And I thought I was gonna do something about this place.” She raises her arms wide, gesturing at the restaurant.

I stare at her, thrown off balance. This is not the version of Charlie I hoped to confront when I walked in here. Hell, I didn’t even knowthat this version existed. Tired. Exhausted. Angry.

“What’s wrong?” I ask her. I want to take back those words the moment I say them. And not because I deem them woefully inadequate. But because I’m slowly shifting gears. Switching from the man who cares nothing about her life…to the teenage boy who’s ready to do anything to bring her joy.

But that version of me is long dead.

It has to be.

Charlie’s eyes widen with angst. “Everything,” she cries. “My dad is sick, and I’m too useless to help out with bills. My best friend invested her whole life into this restaurant, and I can’t get it running. My life’s a mess.Again.And there’s nothing I can do about it.”

There’s a burning in my chest. At first, I think I’m merely surprised because Charlie’s finally opening up to me after so long. Since we reunited, the most I’ve gotten to see of her is the aloof stranger who wants to fuck me and nothing else. To see her humanity spread out this way is disconcerting, almost refreshing.

A second later, Charlie bursts into tears. Holding her face in her arms, she starts to sob, her shoulders heaving and her entire body trembling. Her breakdown rents the air, filling the kitchen with its haunting quality.

Then I realize what the burning in my chest means.

Pain.

Even with Charlie’s betrayal, I still can’t bring myself to see her hurting and not want to right the world for her.

I cross the room instantly. It’s the most natural thing in the world. Going to her, crushing her in my arms. Holding her to console her. Alsoholding her to stave off the misery threatening to consume me. She buries her face in my chest as my arms wrap around her. She fits against me seamlessly. Like she was made for me.

But she wasn’t.

The hard reality knocks off some of the angst I feel. The woman in my arms has never been mine, truly. She was my brother’s for as long as I can remember. Hell, she’d probably still be with him if he hadn’t broken up with her. They don’t speak anymore, but Kali is always going to hold more of her heart than I ever will. Her newfound sexual attraction toward me doesn’t change that.

All of this is happening because she needs my help. Nothing more.

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