Page 30 of Love in Tandem
“Assuming he can handle being in any sort of relationship with me. The man did run off and hide behind a dumpster after all.”
“Yeah, but that was right after he planted a kiss on you steamy enough to curl even my toes.”
As if Charlotte needed the reminder.
Zach would have been better off staying behind the dumpster all weekend. What had possessed him to kiss Charlotte like that? And what on earth had possessed her to kiss him back?
Because she had. Oh, she had.
And now all he could think about was kissing her again. And again. Something that was probably frowned upon for chaperones of a church’s high school youth group event.
He nudged shut the front door to his mom’s house, careful not to wake her. Though after all the excitement of the wedding and Charlotte, not to mention all of Mom’s dancing to “Electric Slide” and “Shout” afterward, followed by at least a dozen retellings the next morning at church, Zach doubted she’d wake until sometime midweek.
Zach hefted his camping gear into the back of his Jeep. It was still early, and the sky remained cloaked in a blanket of charcoal gray. He’d promised Rick to get to the church before 6 a.m. so they could begin loading supplies into the back of the van and be on the road by 6:30.
He tried rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Had Charlotte tossed and turned over that kiss as much as he had the past two nights? He hoped so. He hated to think he was the only one reliving their kiss over and over.
When Zach pulled into the back corner of First Christian Church’s parking lot, Rick was already shoving a cooler into the van.
“Hey, man.” Rick reached out to shake Zach’s hand and pull him in for a quick bro hug before he headed into the church storage shed. “Thanks for helping out. I can’t believe you were able to convince Charlotte to come along too. Really appreciate that. How was the wedding, by the way?”
Zach rubbed the stubble on his chin as he followed Rick. “Hard to describe.”
“Did you at least make it through the day without punching your brother?”
Zach nodded and grabbed a stack of life jackets. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.” He wagged his head to the side. “But I didn’t quite make it through the day without kissing my brother’s ex-fiancée.”
Rick whipped around, whacking Zach on the shoulder with a pile of canoe paddles. “You kissed Charlotte?”
Oh, he did more than that. “Some might say we’re sort of a couple.”
Rick dropped the paddles. “When I said we could really use a female chaperone, I didn’t mean you had to seduce the poor woman.”
“I didn’t seduce anyone.” Zach threw an armful of life vests into the van. “I just . . . I don’t know. It was a very strange weekend.”
“This is Illinois, not Las Vegas. We don’t have strange weekends like that. How did you sort of become a couple with a woman you hardly know?”
“I wouldn’t say I hardly know her, considering we grew up together, she dated my brother, then nearly became my sister-in-law two years ago.”
“And now she’s your girlfriend?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll explain it all later.”
Rick pursed his lips, probably wondering if having Zach and Charlotte on this trip was such a blessing after all. Vehicles started pulling into the parking lot, tired teenagers climbing out and grunting quiet greetings to one another.
Zach scanned each arrival, eager to catch a glimpse of Charlotte. Part of him wondered if she’d even show.
After their kiss, or rather, after he’d worked up the courage to come out from behind the dumpster after their kiss, everyone was busy sending Ben and Shannon off with bubbles and noisemakers. He only caught a glimpse of Charlotte before she climbed into a vehicle with her sister and left. But he was pretty sure Sophia had mouthed the words “continue on” to him across the parking lot.
Continue on. What did that mean? Continue on with the canoe trip? The fundraisers? The kissing? What?
“Hey.” Charlotte’s quiet voice interrupted his internal turmoil. He slowly turned to face her. A backpack was slung over one shoulder, her braided hair over the other. The sky had lightened enough for him to see her tired eyes, as if maybe she hadn’t slept a whole lot the past couple of nights either. Hooyah.
She fiddled with her backpack as if she was nervous. Or maybe disappointed and full of regret over her life decisions this past week, starting with the one that led her to Cake Lassies Friday evening.
But here she was.
“Hey,” Zach said, taking her bag from her shoulder. “I’ll put this in with my stuff.” He motioned his head toward his Jeep, working hard to keep his tone neutral. “I figured we’d drive separate since we’re planning to stay longer.”
