Page 83 of Stone Rules

“But you could have told me you were looking into it.”

I nod. “Maybe I should have, but I didn’t want to worry you for no reason. Once I had all of the information on him, I was going to come to you and tell you what I found. I promise, I wasn’t trying to keep this from you.”

“If you want me to trust you. I mean, really trust you, Ethan; you can’t keep things like this from me. You have to treat me as an equal, okay?” Her eyes soften a bit and I feel myself take a deep sigh of relief.

“Okay. I will. I swear. But you have to understand something about me, Charlie. I will protect you and this baby at all costs. And I don’t care how mad you get at me over it. There is nothing more important to me. I’ve failed in the past. I’ve failed to protect those I love. It’s not going to happen this time.”

“Oh, Ethan.” She wraps her arms around me. “You didn’t fail anyone. There is nothing you could have done. It’s not your fault.”

I nod into her hair, letting her scent distract me from the past. “I know that,” I tell her. “Deep down, I know there isn’t anything I could have done. But I’m telling you right now, I’m not going to apologize for trying to protect you.” I put my hand on her belly. “Or him.”

“Or her,” she says, making me laugh.

“You’re just going to have to put up with it.”

“It’s okay,” she says. “I understand now. I’m not mad at you. I actually think it’s one of the qualities I love about you. I grew up in a world where men didn’t protect women, they only hurt them. So go ahead, protect me all you want. I’ll take it. I’ll take you.”

I pull her as close to me as her growing belly will allow. “Well, you’ve got me, babe.”

She laughs into my shirt.

“No?” I ask.

“No,” she says, shaking her head and smiling. “Babe just sounds too cheesy.”

“And another one bites the dust.” I take her hand and start walking. “Come on, let’s go feed the two of you.”

Chapter Thirty-nine

“I really don’t mind taking your shifts until Skylar finds someone new,” Piper says to Charlie.

I’m glad Charlie decided to accept my job offer, but I really think it has more to do with her getting off her feet than anything else. I don’t care about the reason, however, I’m just glad I will be able to keep her close. Her not having to flirt with men for tips is just an added bonus.

“I know, but you shouldn’t have to do that,” Charlie says. “You’re volunteering at the theater and you have Hailey. I’m sure it won’t be more than a few weeks until she finds someone as good as us.”

I come up behind Charlie and place a kiss on her head. “She’ll never find someone as good as you. I’m done in the living room. You need any help here?”

We’re packing up Charlie’s apartment. After a week of badgering, I finally talked her into moving in with me. She thought it was too soon. I thought nothing was soon enough. So today, we’re loading up the stuff her friends gave her so we can return everything to its rightful owner.

Charlie is a minimalist. I guess it comes from living abroad all those years. She doesn’t have any personal belongings other than her clothes to move to my apartment. And she doesn’t even have many of those. I cleared out half my closet for her, but I doubt she’ll use even a quarter of that.

“Can you hand me another box, please?” she asks, rolling up glasses in packing paper to return them safely to Jan and Bruce Mitchell.

I reach over to get the box and notice something conspicuously missing from the front of her refrigerator. “Uh, Charlie,” I say, looking on the floor and in the opened boxes. “Did you pack that big fat check or did you rip it into shreds?”

She shrugs. “I deposited it,” she says, not stopping what she’s doing.

“You did?”

She nods.

“That’s fantastic. I’m so glad you took the first step.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” she says, putting down a glass and looking over at me. “I haven’t done anything with it yet, but I figure whatever or whoever I give it to should at least get the benefit of interest.”

I hand her the box. “It’s still fantastic.”

“You can thankmefor that,” Piper says. “I dragged her ass all the way to the bank yesterday. It made me nervous to see that many zeroes just pinned right there on her fridge.” She looks at me and rolls her eyes. “Well, it might not seem like a lot to you, Richie Rich, but to normal people like us, it’s a lot of fucking zeroes.”

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