Page 15 of Unearthed Dreams
If I glanced around back, I was sure her ass cheeks were peeking out from those damn cutoffs. She didn’t have the flannel tied around her waist today—just a green tank, those beat-up Chucks, and a backpack that looked like it weighed more than she did.
It’d been three days since I’d seen her at the cidery opening, but I couldn’t get her out of my head.
Since Kels had died, women had been the furthest thing from my mind. No need to get involved with someone else when one woman had fucked me up well and truly good. Even now, two years later, I couldn’t decide if I felt more angry at herforwhyshe was on the back of that motorcycle or sad because she was gone.
Charlie’s hurried apology snapped me back to reality. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going. I was just?—”
I dropped my hands. “It’s fine. Where ya headed?”
“Oh, I—um, just looking for somewhere quiet to get some work done.” She hiked her backpack up and nearly toppled from its weight.
I grabbed one strap of her bag and slid it down her arm. Goosebumps broke out across her sun-kissed skin as my knuckles grazed her bicep.
“What are you doing?”
I let my actions speak for me.
I took the backpack from her and slung it across my shoulder, then started walking toward the crosswalk that would take us across the street to the bar.
A warm June breeze rustled through the trees lining Main Street, carrying the scent of fresh-cut grass and late summer flowers. It was a quiet Tuesday morning, a few older folks getting their errands done or grabbing a coffee—not so much hustle and bustle that I was worried about being spotted leading this lamb into the wolf’s den.
Damn, she was barely old enough to drink. Had she ever even been in Callaghan’s before?
“Come on.” When I peered at her over my shoulder, her eyes darted between me and the direction I was heading.
She hesitated before jumping into action to keep up. “Where are we going?”
My jaw clenched. Two years of keeping to myself, and here Iwas, ushering the baby of the Everton family down the street like some kind of knight in tarnished armor. “The bar.”
“It’s not open.” For someone who seemed so quiet and shy, she had a little bit to her. I suspected that growing up with three older brothers meant she had to if she wanted to survive in that kind of chaos.
I would know. Growing up in a house of ten foster kids certainly wasn’t calm, and Kels—living right alongside me—was always at the center of the fray, pulling me along with her, whether I wanted to go or not.
“I know, Charlie.” I smiled—or did my best impression of a smile. “I run the place.”
Her brow relaxed a bit and the frown that marred her pretty face slowly tipped up. The sight gave me this fucking warm and fuzzy feeling that I was highly unaccustomed to. What was it about this girl—this ten-years-younger-than-me girl—that had drawn me in so wholly?
Charlotte Everton was Kelsey’s antithesis in every way.
Where Kelsey’s hair was platinum blonde, Charlie’s was a silky shade of chocolate. Instead of cold, ice-blue eyes, Charlie’s were a comforting shade of stormy blue, like the sky just as the thunderclouds rolled in. While Kelsey had stood a head shorter than my six-foot-four—less, when she was wearing the six-inch heels she loved so much—I had a solid foot on Charlie.
And the comparisons didn’t end there.
Where Kelsey was loud, Charlie was quiet.
Where Kelsey was outgoing, Charlie was introverted.
The list went on and on. It seemed strange that a person so opposite of the one I’d spend the better part of my life attachedat the hip to could have captured my attention so thoroughly in such a short time.
But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.
Kelsey was chaos personified, and that was what life had been like with her. Here, in Sable Point, I’d been enjoying the slow pace, the quiet, the ease of small-town life. And if Kelsey was chaos, Charlie was peace.
“Where are your groceries?” she asked when we paused, waiting by my side at the crosswalk as a car rolled down Main Street. The driver, Mr. Laird, lifted a hand to wave, but his eyes widened when he recognized who I was standing with.
Fuck.
I took a big step to my left, putting some distance between us. Charlie side-eyed me.
