Page 46 of Brace and Chase

“Then what?” I demand, wanting to hear every detail.

“Then I called my mom,” he says simply, and shrugs.

A stab of loss hits me like a freight train. It feels like it fucking stops my heart for two beats. Charlie seems oblivious to my internal hell, and just keeps going.

“She heard me out and then we talked about the whole thing. She asked if I thought Gab’s reasons for wanting you to retire were out of care or carelessness.”

I’m wondering that too.

“I didn’t know.” The tone has me looking up, right at Charlie’s dark, penetrating stare. My eyes lower to his lips but I force them back up after a second.

Can’t think about that now.

Best if I never think about it again, actually.

“I didn’t know her at all... back then.” He lets out a huge sigh, the damp towel he used to clean the island still in his hand. “Since I’ve talked to her, though, I have to say I can’t know for sure what her reasons are, but I do know she cares about you.”

I nod, because I know that’s true.

Since the moment I met her, Gab has been nothing but straightforward and honest, so what’s with all the subterfuge now? Why is this necessary?

She can kick me out of her team any time she damn pleases, but instead of having a conversation with me, she brought in the man I hate most in the world to do it for her...

She couldn’t have known I hate Charlie, though.

One thing I can cross out then. She didn’t bring him here to fuck with me.

“After I got here,” Charlie goes on, his voice bringing me back to the present. “After you gave me that death stare in the locker room,” he mutters with a vicious look my way.

I just stare back. I can’t regret having done that. Other things, yes, I regret them because I lost control of myself, but thatdeath stare, not on the regret pile.

“I went to her office at the Rogues stadium.” I sit up straight. This part I’m very interested in. “I told her I couldn’t think of any scenario where you would ever listen to shit I have to say, especially on a complicated topic like retirement. I offered to leave. To agree to cancel the contract and count our losses. Forget the whole thing.” He makes a slashing motion with one hand and throws the towel in the sink. “She said no way. She said she would figure out what was going on with you, and that she knew I was the only person who could actually put themself in your shoes and understand you.” A long pause where he’s looking down, and then he mutters, “Which I haven’t been able to do.”

I take a couple of minutes to absorb all the new information, and when I think I have a handle on it, I ask.

“Was this whole thing...” I wave a hand around. “The punishment, living together, being tied at the hip... Was all of it a setup?”

“No,” he says adamantly. “No fucking way.” He frowns. “Laney’s reaction to... today,” he settles on after faltering. “And Barlow’s, were completely warranted I think. And so was Gab’s. She never told me I had to getthisfucking close to you.”

I remember the feel of his lips against mine with crystal clarity in that second and suppress a shudder.

Yeah, Gab probably never anticipatedthat, no one could’ve.

Another thought hits me then.

“Does Jules know?” I remember Bear told me that Charlie went to Gab’s house and Jules was there.

Again, Charlie frowns.

“No—well.” He winces, then, “I don’t think so. I haven’t talked to anyone about it. No one but Gab. And she said that only she and I know.”

So I have to take her at her word.

One of the people I trust most in this world—used to trust, we’ll have to see—has been plotting behind my back to make me leave my family, and I have no idea why.

Later that night,after Charlie threw together one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever tasted—something I will never tell him—I lie down and stare at the ceiling for what feels like endless hours.

There’s a lot to unpack here.

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