Page 7 of The Last Time

I walk back inside and take a seat. Everybody is still laughing and talking while Brielle has now moved to my dad’s lap.

“Who was that?” Ma asks.

“Layla’s friend, Charlotte. I have to head over there tomorrow to take a look at the plumbing. She’s at their old family home, and the water is shot. Any chance I could drop off Brie around one before I go there?”

Ma smiles at me. “Of course. I was going to bake a peach cobbler. I have some lovely Georgia peaches that I picked up from the farm the other day. Speaking of, let me go get the apple crisp.”

I look over at Layla and notice her giving me the death stare.

“What?” I say as I roll my eyes.

“You better be nice to her. She just lost her dad, and she’s been through a lot. I can tell.”

“I don’t think what I say or don’t say to her will make much of a difference. I’m going over there to fix her plumbing.”

“There’s a sexual innuendo in there somewhere. I just can’t think of a good one,” Liam says, clearly not really paying attention to the conversation.

Layla rolls her eyes. “You’re thinking too hard. Don’t hurt yourself.”

“You guys have fun acting like teenagers. I’m going to go put Brie to bed.” I stand up and grab my daughter, who is now rubbing her eyes.

She rests her head on my chest, and I feel my heart turn to mush. I love these moments. They make me feel like there’s still a decent man inside.

Chapter Three

Charlotte

Istaredownatthe contents of items I purchased this morning that are now scattered all over the kitchen island:

cleaning products, tools, gallons of water so I can brush my teeth and stay hydrated until I figure out this plumbing issue. I almost took Layla up on her offer last night to shower at her place, but I didn’t know what time she got off work and didn’t have it in me to bug her the very night we reconnected. It just felt wrong.

As I try to shuffle through all the items that I bought, my thoughts drift back to my conversation with Asher last night. I don’t know what I was expecting the man on the other line to be like, but what I got wasn’t it.

He was kind of short with me and his voice sounded distant and uninterested. I’m shocked he agreed to come take a look today.

I’m probably just being stupid about it. Just because I had a little crush on him ten years ago doesn’t mean we were going to have some profound conversation. He’s probably married and was distracted while talking to me, and here I am, analyzing our conversation.

“Ugh, get a grip, Charlotte,” I scold myself.

I just need to focus on the task at hand, which is power washing the outside of the house. I bought some fancy-looking power washer that should help me remove all the chipped paint off the deck.

I want to sand and stain the deck once I’m finished. It seems like a good task for me to focus on for a little while. How hard can it be?

First things first, I want to deep clean the house. It’s definitely not horrible, but it needs a good scrubbing on every surface to bring it back to present day.

I pour two gallons of water into a bucket and mix it with the cleaner. My goal is to first take the sponges to the baseboards and walls. I grab my portable speaker and blast Taylor Swift as I begin in the kitchen.

After I scrub the baseboards on the first floor, I start to scrub the inside and outside of the kitchen cabinets. Now that I know the appliances work, I want to get some groceries today.

My arm is already protesting my cleaning, but I do my best to ignore it. Good thing I picked up some coffee this morning. I’m going to need it with the work I have cut out for me today.

I climb onto the counters, finish the upper cabinets, and move to the bottom. Thankfully, I can do these while sitting down—I’m not afraid to admit I’m lazy and will take a seat whenever possible. I’m also thankful that the HVAC is still working. I’d be dying in an inferno right now if it wasn’t.

Just as I finish the last cabinet, there’s a knock at the door.

“Shit,” I whisper as I look down at myself.

I don’t know what time it is, but I must’ve missed Asher’s text. Somewhere in the middle of all the scrubbing, I ditched my sweaty t-shirt somewhere.

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