Page 40 of Air Of Mystery
She came back a moment later with two huge boxes and passed them over to him.
“Thank you, Kenna,” Charlie said. “The guys really appreciate this.”
“I’m always happy to help out,” she said.
Charlie nodded. “See you next week.” Then he smiled and left.
See you next week?I thought.Where is he going with those giant boxes of pastries? I doubt it’s for the Marquette Mansion...because he said, ‘the guys appreciate this.’
So, who, I wondered, were ‘the guys’?
CHAPTER SEVEN
I waited a moment, and once Charlie had gone out I moved to follow, very curious as to what he was up to. As soon as I stepped outside, I saw that he was walking down the sidewalk and moving further along the street. Easing the tray of drinks and the food in through the open window of my car, I tried to keep an eye on him to see where he was going. It wasn’t hard; the sheer height and breadth of the man stood out.
I watched as he opened a door and let himself inside a building about six doors down from Kenna’s bakery. When he did, I clearly heard a chorus ofhellosas he stepped inside. Rolling up my car’s window, I locked the food inside and took off on foot to see exactly where he’d gone.
As I walked closer, I understood that a new veteran’s center had been set up in one of the vacant buildings. There was a simple printed sign on the door, and as I walked casually—or at least hoping to appear that way— past the big front window, I was able to look inside.
There I discovered that Charlie was inside, passing out food to the people that sat around at tables. His biceps absolutely rippled as he worked, and I felt myself flush at the sheer attraction I felt for the man. Still. It looked as though a meeting were about to start, and as I watched, he sat down at a table with a man, and they began to talk.
It was Frank, the dishwasher from the restaurant where we’d investigated in old St. Charles. Surprised at the discovery, I watched them for a few moments. Clearly, they knew and respected each other. Then I realized, with a start, how incredibly bad it would look if someone spotted me peering in the windows.
Turning on my heel, I quickly headed back to my car. I needed to get a move on if I wanted to arrive at Larry’s on time for our trip. I tried unsuccessfully to put that image of Charlie at the veteran’s center out of my mind, but unfortunately, it stayed with me for days.
Even as we investigated the old school, wrapped everything up, and traveled back to southern Illinois, he lingered in the back of my mind.
Charlie was a good man, that much was obvious. Active in his community and well-liked by his employers, the Marquettes. In fact, the three Marquette kids were crazy about him...so add ‘good with kids’ to the list, and if that wasn’t enough to have me obsess over him, he was smoking hot to boot.
I already had regrets about how things had—or had not—turned out between us, and now, it only seemed worse.
Once I got home, I casually asked Kenna about it, and she told me that Charlie had a standing order once a week for pastries for the veteran’s center. Kenna explained that he led a discussion group there and also informed me that she had donated cupcakes to the grand opening the month before.
“He’s a great guy,” Kenna pointed out. “Maybe you should try to work things out with him.”
In response I simply nodded. I used my work for a distraction, telling myself not to dwell over what hadn’t been. Throwing myself into editing the footage and evidence we’d collected at that old, abandoned school in Iowa, I kept myself occupied. There was plenty of material to work with, and I was able to make two, hour long episodes out of the best of it all. Since that two-part format had worked out well for me before, I was curious to try it again and see how my viewer numbers were.
The summer rolled on, and I stayed busy with my projects and searching for new places for the team to investigate. I pushedmyself harder and tried to increase my social media presence, landing a radio and a podcast interview, both of which improved my YouTube subscriber numbers substantially.
July turned into August, and Cordelia and Tim closed on a cute stone house in Ames Crossing. The house was catty-corner across the street from Arianna and Rafe Tremaine’s. Brynn, Austin, Kenna, Tyler and I all helped them move in. Which was fun, exciting, and truthfully, bittersweet.
It was different without Cordelia in the house. Even though her apartments had been on the lower level, I missed her being there. I told myself I was being morose, but it was odd not having her around where I could see her every day.
When Brynn married Austin in November, he and his son Robbie planned to move into the manor house. The family home had gone to Brynn as the eldest, and goddess knows there was plenty of room.
At any rate, Robbie was a frequent visitor most days, and the kid was a loud, messy and very welcome distraction. Robbie had lots to occupy him. He could hang out with Brynn while she worked in the gardens, go visit the chickens, pop upstairs and see me, or mooch a snack off of Kenna when she came home from the bakery in the afternoons.
There were plenty of days that I spent keeping Robbie entertained, and I didn’t mind it at all. It wasn’t like I was lonely or anything. After all, I knew that summer vacation could be boring without something different to do. That and he’d be my nephew soon enough.
Before I knew it Robbie was restarting school and Brynn’s bridal shower was right around the corner. I was out running errands in town, picking up the final items for the bridal shower decorations, and decided to stop by Kenna’s bakery on a whim. I’d skipped breakfast again and was starving.
My mind on a dozen things I still needed to do before the shower on Friday, I opened the door to the bakery while continuing to read from my list and bumped solidly into someone.
“Sorry,” I said automatically and glanced up to see Charlie.
“We really have to stop running into each other like this,” he said.
Once again, he held two large bakery boxes. “Headed off to the veteran’s center?” I asked.
