Page 11 of Charlie Takes a Chance

Jim and Larry jump to the floor, and Charlie slowly stands. “Do you want some bread with your soup?” she asks loudly.

“Did she make you dinner?” Nash asks.

He sounds amused. “I guess so,” I grind out as she smiles at me with that evil smirk.

“Oh, here I was, worrying about nothing. She’s really nice. You’ll get along just fine. I didn’t even realize she cooked. That’s really nice of her.”

“So. Very. Nice,” I say as Charlie places a hand under her chin with a fake smile. She skips into the kitchen—freaking skips—and picks up the spoon to stir the soup with exaggerated flair. She circles her hips in time with the spoon, and I realize I mighthave a whole other kind of trouble besides sharing my space with a stranger. “Any chance you’ll be coming up to help her with this project?”

Because I have some words to say to Nash’s face.

“Not with all the wedding prep.”

“Bull.”

He chuckles. “True. But I would rather not be gone from Magnolia for that long.”

“Wow, you’ve got it bad.” It hits me that I’m actually a little jealous of what they have. I’ve tried to find that happily ever after—and it’s an elusive beast.

“I did ask her to marry me, so that would imply I sort of like her.”

That gets a smile out of me. Nash is a good guy. And I know him sending someone here to fix up the lodge isn’t done out of spite toward me. It’s an unfortunate circumstance.

One where I’m stuck sharing the bunkhouse with a violent, wiry, dog-stealing, beautiful woman.

CHAPTER 5

Charlie

I can’t believeI just had a physical fight with Max. I’m trying to play it cool by dancing around the kitchen to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” while I stir the takeout soup. But deep inside my soul, it feels like my sock is falling off.I am not okay.

I can’t believe he actually tried to drag me out of this house. Or that I bit him. Or how hard his abs are. Or the fact that he made sure I landed on the couch instead of the hard floor when I did my little roll off his shoulder.

And then we sat there and practically snuggled while he talked on the phone, and it felt nice to be held.

And now I don’t even care if Nash told him that I could stay or not. I’m staying. This is an all-out war.

He was going to throw me out in the cold. Actually, worse than that, he was going to make me stay in a freezing-cold, toilet-less house while he sat all cozy by his warm fire, eating my soup.

And now, because of his boss, he’s forced to play nice and let me sleep in his house with him—I mean, sleep under the same roof as him, notwith himwith him. But whatever it is that has made him so angry at me, it’s not my problem. I am nolonger going to apologize for myself. I’m not going to apologize for taking up space. I’m going to take one from Ilona Maher’s playbook. I can be confident in who I am. I’m not going to make myself less for any man anymore. That’s only ended with them leaving me anyway.

Just because I threaten his masculinity doesn’t mean I need to shrink myself.

He’s sitting there in the recliner, his face completely stoic. He’s tapping his fingers on the leather armrest like a grumpy grandpa. “What are you going to fix first on the house?”

“I don’t see how it’s any of your concern.” I pass him a bowl of soup with a spoon in it.

“It is if I want you to fix the pipes first so you can get out of here,” he says. He lifts the bowl a little. “Thanks.”

I smile warmly at him and take my own sweet time walking over to the couch with my bowl of soup. He’s so adorably confused, and that’s the way I intend to keep him. I sink down and stretch my legs out onto the cushions. Jim jumps up right away, and Larry scooches closer to rest his chin on my legs.

“You dogs are such traitors,” Max mutters to them as he stabs his spoon into the soup. He holds a bite in mid-air, studying it as though it might kill him. “Did you make this?”

“‘Make’ is such a loose term. Did I warm it up? Yes. Did I chop the vegetables and chicken? No. The nice people at the Pine Star Cafe made it and sent it in a to-go jar. I thought it was adorable that they sent it in a glass mason jar.” I stare at Jim, whose mouth is an inch away from my bowl. “Get down, you little stinker.”

His face falls as he jumps off my legs to sit next to Larry.

Max takes a bite of the soup as though, now that he knows I didn’t make it, it’s safe.

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