Page 3 of Charlie Takes a Chance

“How many Charlies do you know?”

He sighs and shakes his head. “Why are you here so late? I thought you were a squatter breaking in again.”

A squatter? I glance down at my bare legs. “If I were going door to door looking for an empty house, don’t you think I would be better prepared than this?”

He shrugs.

“And who the heck are you?”

“How do I know you’re Charlie? Who are you really?” he shoots back.

“Your worst nightmare.”

He stares at me, making me feel as big as an ant.

“Yeah, you know, if I could retract that statement, I’d really like to. It sounded better in my head, and now that it’s out there, I can definitely see that it was a weird thing to say. What I really should have said was that I’m more of a fairy godmother. Not a nightmare. I’m here to fix all the problems.”

The man shakes his head and simply walks away.

He walks away into the darkness. He disappears behind the house, and just like that, he’s gone. If I didn’t know better, I would think I’d imagined the whole encounter.

Who was he? The groundskeeper? The security guard? What the heck?

“You can’t just leave me standing here after assaulting me!” I scream into the darkness.

I jump when he reappears back around the corner of the house. He storms back toward me, and I force myself to hold my ground because it’s a whole lot of hunk of a man barreling toward me.

I regret calling after him, but it’s too late now, isn’t it? Should have thought about that before I called this grouchy-pants back to me.

“I thought you were breaking into a house in the dark. You didn’t know where the key was, you’re not from ‘round here, and you think I need to apologize?” His nostrils flare as he stares down at me.

“‘Round here?” I mimic the way he’s dropping vowels. It does nothing to endear me to him. I grin up at him. “Turns out I am supposed to be from around here. But who exactly are you?”

He looks startled. He takes a slow step back. “I’m Max St. James.”

“That’s nice. I’m Charlie Baxter. I’d shake your hand, but I’m afraid you might pick me up again.”

He sighs heavily as though he has no patience left. “What exactly are you doing here, Charlie Baxter?”

“Nash and Magnolia hired me to prep the house for the holidays. They said there was some fixing up to do.” My legs are really starting to freeze. It’d be nice if we could take this conversation somewhere warmer. Like by a fire. Or sitting over a heater vent.

Max shakes his head. “I told him the damage was bad. When they said they were sending their friend Charlie, I assumed they were sending a contractor. This isn’t a quick touch-up. Some of the rooms need new drywall. And the roof has a leak. The bathroom… Yeah, they sent you up here to do something that a professional should do.”

There are a lot of things running through my mind at that exact moment. Like,Hey, I’ve been a general contractor for four years now.Or,My dad taught me to build a house at age twelve.

This level of obliviousness makes me want to smack someone. I shove my hands into my coat pockets to keep from doing precisely that.

“How about you don’t worry about me, mmkay?” I reply in an overly sweet voice that gives off the ‘bite me’ vibe.

He shakes his head. “You might as well spend the night tonight and then go home tomorrow.”

Go home? What an entitled jerkface. “You think I’m afraid of a little work?”

“I don’t know you, but I know how much work that place is going to take.” He points at the house behind me. “The best thingyou could do is call Nash and tell him you need a whole crew. He hasn’t been out here to see the damage himself.”

I take a big risk and pull my hands from my pockets and plant them on my hips. I step forward and narrow my eyes at him. “What is it you do around here? Obviously not much, if you let the house fall into disrepair.”

He raises his eyes at that. “I’m the ranch manager.”

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