Page 53 of His Boys to Protect

That made Charlie really happy.

They kept chatting off and on, all through the weekend, sometimes with pictures thrown in. Charlie showed Ward his coffee mug—better than the one he'd used at Dakota's house—as well as the bookshelves in his bedroom. He even sent an old picture of Mouse Mouse, though it made him sad to talk about that.

In return, Ward sent him pictures of wine bottles he'd had a hand in producing, as well as pictures he'd taken of the vineyard where he worked. Then he sent Charlie a picture of an aisle in a department store, the shelves full of bathroom rugs.

Charlie told him which color to get so they'd go with Ward's towels. An hour later, Ward sent a picture of his bathroom with the rugs in place. Charlie grinned at that one.

But then came the text message he'd been dreading, and it came far sooner than he'd expected.

Ward: I made you a promise, so here it is. I just made another appointment to see Sky.

Charlie stared at the words, trying to decide how they made him feel. Upset? Aroused? Jealous? He wasn't really sure. Maybe all of the above.

Me: When?

Ward: Mid February. It was the soonest he had a Saturday night available.

Charlie eyed his calendar. That was almost two whole months away. Two months of counting down the days, waiting for it to come, knowing what was going to happen. It was one thing to know his Sky had clients, but now Charlie could put a face to one of them.

Not for the first time, he pictured Ward and his Sky having sex.

Damn it.

Charlie reached for his zipper.

Chapter 21

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WARD

WARD WOKE up on Monday morning and immediately reached for his phone. Charlie had gotten strangely silent yesterday after Ward told him about the appointment with Skylar. The boy had responded with a simpleokay, followed by nothing.

It was a sudden, jolting stop to the conversations they'd been having since Christmas morning. Was Charlie mad? Jealous? The boy had made Ward promise, though.

Ward checked his phone screen and saw a new message from Charlie. He held his breath as he clicked on the notification.

Charlie: Good morning, Ward.

After that was a picture of Charlie, sitting at his desk in his bedroom, holding up his coffee.

Ward couldn't help grinning. The boy had sent him basically the same picture every morning for the past few days, but Ward could tell Charlie was taking the picture anew each time. In each one, Charlie either wore a different shirt or sat facing in a different direction. Maybe Ward was reading more into it than was there, but it felt like Charlie was silently telling him something. The boy was going to the effort to take a new pictureeach day. Was it just a quirk of Charlie's? Or was Charlie trying to show that he was in the present moment there with him?

Either way, the sight of that new picture filled Ward with joy and relief.

Me: Good morning, Charlie. :)

Charlie: You're awake! Have you gotten your coffee yet?

Me: Just about to.

Ward got out of bed, went to the bathroom to relieve himself, and couldn't help chuckling when he felt the new rugs beneath his feet. He had to admit, it was a nice touch. Safer than a towel on the floor, and definitely more comfortable. After he and Kelly had separated and divided their belongings, Ward hadn't seen the point in things like décor, being thrown back into bachelorhood. Then again, he hadn't seen the point of half the décor Kelly had picked out when they lived together, either. But now? Ward hadn't been able to resist doing something to make Charlie happy, even if the boy might never get to experience it directly.

Just reading Charlie's excitement on his phone screen had made his day. All over a couple of rugs.

Ward washed his hands, grabbed his phone, and headed for the kitchen. He poured himself some coffee, then laughed over the memory of something Skylar had told him.

Text messages with the boy had been sparse over the past few days. Skylar had gone back to work, so he was awake when Ward was asleep, and vice versa. But on Christmas morning, after Ward had been chatting with Charlie, he and Skylar had managed a couple quick messages back and forth before they both got busy with their own holiday celebrations. Ward had asked Skylar if it was okay for someone like Charlie to be drinking coffee.

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