Page 2 of Somebody's Watching Me
“I’m happy where I am.” He leaned forward to drive his point home. “In this coffee shop. At this moment. With you.”
“With me.” She took her time gauging his words. A survivalist, this woman had tasted trauma somewhere in life and had come out the other side not quite whole. “I see.”
“Is that a problem?”
Her lips twitched, but the happiness building faded before becoming something breathtaking. “Things are…complicated.”
Complicated.
Just like her coffee order.
His smile deepened. “How so?”
“My family is something of a nightmare.”
Relieved, he reclined in the stiff café chair. Another man in her life would have been an issue. One that could be solved easily enough. But a problematic family?
Easy.
“Things in my world are complicated, too.” There was no need to elaborate. The signs of his occupation covered him from head to toe. “Work keeps me busy.”
Staring down at the coffee cradled in her palms, she nodded. “But it won’t last forever?”
“Two more years,” he confirmed. “That’s all I owe them.”
“Then what will you do?”
“I don’t know,” he replied, feeling that tug at his center again. “That’s for you to decide.”
Chapter 1
1986
Charlie Fairweather hated his mother.
Which was unfair since she was probably the sole member of his family who cared whether he lived or died.
“After the wedding, if things aren’t to your liking with Vivian, we’ll handle it,” Helen informed him while they waited together in the foyer of Parkland Grounds. She adjusted his tie, smoothing it down as if suddenly possessed by some sort of maternal instinct. “If she can’t behave, we’ll have Dr. Harrison give her something to keep the brat in line.”
“Jesus.”
Amusement curled at the edges of Helen’s lips, tipping them upward and deepening the lines around her mouth. Charlie was sure she’d have the wayward creases removed before the wedding. His mother’s true age was never permitted to show.
“You think me cruel?”
Of course, he did, but he wasn’t stupid enough to say it out loud. “No, ma’am. I just don’t want a wife who is so drugged up she can’t even carry on aconversation.”
The hint of a smile on Helen’s mouth dimmed as his father stormed through the flurry of household staff preparing for the family’s departure. “You’ll understand soon enough that a lack of communication in a marriage isn’t always bad.” She patted his chest. “To some of us, it’s very liberating.”
“Let’s get going.” Ben followed their father, barely sparing either of them a glance as they headed out the door. “We’re late for our flight.”
“We’re late for our flight,” Charlie mimicked, falling into step behind his younger brother. “You can be such a kiss ass.”
Halting abruptly, Ben snickered when Charlie almost ran into him on the front stoop. “And you can be such a waste of time.”
It grated on Charlie’s nerves that his little brother stood half a foot taller. Both passed the six-foot mark by high school, but Ben continued to grow, if only out of spite.
“What’s your problem?”
