Page 77 of About Time

Outside, we hear Hattie’s car turn off, followed by a car door opening and closing. I lose my cool at this point and practically sprint for the door.

“Don’t be weird. Wren would like her aunt to stick around this time,” Griffin warns. “If you hit it and quit it with Hattie, I’m going to let my pregnant woman use your balls for target practice.”

“Just marry her already. You know you want to, and honestly, you trying all these nicknames is making me want to barf. I swear to God, if you call her boo or bae or any of that other dumb ass shit I’ve heard Liam and his friends say, I will junk punch you,” I say to change the subject.

While Griffin stands around trying to figure out what to say back to me, I hurry out front. Hattie is exhausted from the trip. I can tell by the way she is moving slowly, getting her bags out of the back of the car.

“Here, let me get those for you,” I offer.

I’m glad that she doesn’t immediately turn down my offer to help. Instead, she steps aside. “What good is there to having a husband if he doesn’t carry heavy things for you.”

It’s surprising that she is making light of our marital status. I guess I expected her to ignore it completely. “So I’m your husband now?” I ask.

Hattie purses her lips. “Well, according to public records, you’ve been my husband for the last twelve years.”

Together, we walk toward the house. I want to be gentlemanly and open the door for her, but I grabbed a few more of her things, trying to impress her, and I don’t have a free hand.

Hattie grabs the door and holds it open for me. “After you,” she says and sweeps her hand out in front of her.

“You know it’s going to be a pain in the ass when I eventually move this stuff to my house,” I say. I know she’d say no if I asked, but I am playing a longer game now than I previously have. Eventually, I’ll wear her down, and she’ll be back in my home and in my bed, where she belongs. For now, I guess I can be helpful and show her the way to the guestroom.

I set her bags down, and she immediately starts to unpack. I grab her hand and pull her out of the room. “There’s plenty of time for you to settle in. Just come outside and socialize with us.”

“I’ll be out in a little bit. I’m going to freshen up first. I wasn’t really expecting a party the moment I got here.”

“It’s hardly a party, Doll. It’s just the four of us,” I point out.

She exhales. “What’s the point of this, Charlie?”

“I want them to get used to the idea of us,” I tell her.

“Like you actually want to tell anyone. Look, Charlie, you don’t have to pretend that someday this is going to be different. I’ve come to terms with it, so you really don’t need to try this hard. What we have is physical, and that’s okay.”

“It’s not okay. I want more,” I tell her.

Hattie goes back to unpacking her bag. “I don’t know if I have more to give you. I won’t let myself be hurt like that again.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Hattie Past- Age 32

It’s beena few months since I stepped foot back in my hometown. I’m still trying to figure out how long Charlie is going to put on a show of wanting to be with me for real before he gets bored and moves on. I will admit that I’m a bit amused watching how far he’s willing to go. He’s pretty convincing, but I’m not the same naive young girl I was twelve years ago. This time, I’m not going to let myself fall for him, or fall harder at least.

Right now, I’m lying on the bed in Griffin’s guestroom, thinking about how everything has gone sideways since I arrived. I found an apartment close to the hospital pretty soon after I moved back, but I learned not to take family for granted. Wren has been more emotional since the baby started kicking. She broke down crying, and at first I thought it was the usual crying over a tissue commercial or something, but it was because she wanted to share this with Elisa, and couldn’t.

I’m still working a bit too much, still trying to hide out from my feelings and from Charlie. Some lessons take a bit longer to learn than they should. At least when it comes to Wren I’m no longer keeping her at arms length. I finally feel like mysister would be proud of me. So from time to time I take up residence in their guestroom. Griffin proposed to Wren recently, surprising no one. Now Wren and I are planning her wedding and the arrival of the baby.

There’s only one downside to hanging out here, Charlie is around a lot. Which means I hide in the guestroom hoping he doesn’t know I’m here. It’s pointless though. I swear the man has a radar for my presence. It doesn’t matter how hard I try to ignore him, he works harder to get me to crack. There’s a large part of me that would love nothing more than to let him in. I can’t do that though, not unless he proves it would be different this time. Not sure how he can do that if I won’t give him a chance, but that is his problem to figure out. I’m protecting my heart this time.

My mind wanders back to the first night I got here. After my chat with Charlie in my room, I was a bit on edge. The way he was acting would expose us to them, and I wasn’t ready to answer their questions. What was going on with us? How long had we been seeing each other? It isn’t the questions that I fear so much, but rather Charlie’s response to them. It was bad enough dealing with a broken heart in private, I don’t want an audience to witness the encore.

Turns out I was seriously overthinking the danger of being exposed. When we rejoined Wren and Griffin outside, it became immediately clear I had nothing to worry about. Honestly, I could have twirled flaming batons naked while riding Charlie on the patio table, and they wouldn’t have noticed a thing. They certainly didn’t notice Charlie fussing over me the whole night.

All of my doubts about Wren being with Griffin disappeared. It is clear that he is desperately in love with her. He didn’t let the opinion of others stop him from being with her openly. I’m glad, because my niece deserves more than to be someone’s dirty little secret, and so do I.

That’s why I thought that Charlie chose to socialize with Griffin and Wren. He knew they were going to be too wrapped up in each other to notice anything going on between us. He had to think it was the perfect way to placate me. It was the best way to keep me secret, but make me feel like he was okay for others to know about us.

Charlie asked me out to dinner, and my curiosity got the better of me, so I went. We went to Pine Bluff to an intimate little Italian bistro. It was the perfect setting for a romantic date. Candlelight cast a soft glow amplifying the color of the red painted walls. Dean Martin’s melodic voice crooned over the hidden sound system.

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